2017-11-12 14:26
Although Vulpes Libris had intended to continue blogging on WordPress until the end of the year, things have changed, and we have decided to accelerate the move to blogging solely … C… Read More
Blog Directory > Arts & Entertainment Blogs > Vulpes Libris | A collective of bibliophiles talking about books. Book Fox (vulpes libris): small bibliovorous mammal of overactive imagination and uncommonly large bookshop expenses. Habitat: anywhere the rustle of pages can be heard. arts-and-entertainment Blog >
Vulpes Libris | A Collective Of Bibliophiles Talking About Books. Book Fox (vulpes Libris): Small Bibliovorous Mammal Of Overactive Imagination And Uncommonly Large Bookshop Expenses. Habitat: Anywhere The Rustle Of Pages Can Be Heard. Blog
vulpeslibris.wordpress.com
A collective of bibliophiles talking about books. Book Fox (vulpes libris): small bibliovorous mammal of overactive imagination and uncommonly large bookshop expenses. Habitat: anywhere the rustle of pages can be heard.
2017-11-10 11:01
This enchanting, immensely readable book can be read in several ways: it is a vastly entertaining thematic collection of folktales and fairy stories, perfect for autumn reading at a time &he&hell…Read More
2017-11-08 11:35
And this gray spirit yearning in desire To follow knowledge like a sinking star, Beyond the utmost bound of human thought. ~o~O~o~ Much of Tennyson’s finest poetry is informed by &hell&hell…Read More
2017-11-06 09:14
Laura Ingalls Wilder’s enduringly beloved “Little House” books (biofiction of the prairie as they might be called in today’s terminology) have spawned an industry&rsq&hell…Read More
2017-11-02 21:48
While visiting my mother during the summer, I picked up a book that had belonged to my father, Poems of Our Time. An Everyman edition published in 1945, it was … Continue reading &rar&hell…Read More
2017-11-01 08:12
The advance publicity for this review of Antonia White’s 1933 novel Frost In May warns that I am enraged. I’d be amazed if anyone reading this novel is not similarly … Con… Read More
2017-10-31 08:00
Preserved in the royal archives in Sweden is a letter addressed to Albrecht, Archbishop of Mainz and dated the 31st of October 1517. It was written by a young priest … Continue readin… Read More
2017-10-27 14:51
Or do I mean What Is The Sicilian Vespers? If not, I might mean What Were The Sicilian Vespers, or What Was Etc. Etc. For the purposes of this piece, … Continue reading → Read More
2017-10-25 11:46
One hundred years ago today, by the old Gregorian calendar that was then still in force, the October Revolution took place. The event is simply too big and complex to … Continue readi… Read More
2017-10-23 05:41
If the author’s name sounds familiar, that’s because he also wrote “A History of the World in 100 Objects”. This book is less overwhelming, not just because there are… Read More
2017-10-19 21:22
The Scottish National Library has begun the process of scanning Scottish exams papers from the 1880s and are now in the first years of the 1960s. This period covers the … Continue rea… Read More
2017-10-18 09:40
Ten Years of the Book Foxes, and where we go next … When, in the late summer/early autumn of 2007, Leena Heino first sent out the round-robin emails to her … Continue reading … Read More
2017-10-16 17:53
When my friend Leena invited me to join a group of book lovers who reviewed what they read, I was thrilled and also a bit intimidated. Leena herself is an … Continue reading → Read More
2017-10-14 23:55
This is a festive week for us, as it contains our website’s 10th Anniversary, something that astonishes quite a few of the Foxes. In honor of the event, we have … Continue readi… Read More
2017-10-13 06:00
This is an exhaustively researched biography of the Durrell family (Gerry, Larry, Margot, Leslie and Mother, for those who know them from Gerald Durrell’s My Family and Other Animals)… Read More
2017-10-11 06:00
There’s a fascinating painting hanging in the Drawing Room at Drumlanrig Castle in south-west Scotland, which most of the summer visitors – distracted by the bigger, shinier and… Read More
2017-10-09 20:05
This is a book which almost defies description. It’s a memoir, yes, but that’s only a part of it.There’s lists, anecdotes, quotes from books and movies(but not the usual on… Read More
2017-10-06 00:59
When I discovered this website early in the summer, I was delighted. It was so offbeat, yet educational, that I was intrigued. And best of all it was about dinosaurs! … Continue readi… Read More
2017-10-03 08:51
What Does Þæt Mean?! Ure æghwylc sceal ende gebidanworolde lifes; wyrce se þe motedomes ær deaþe; þæt bið drihtgumanunlifgendum æfte… Read More
2017-10-01 21:55
There is not a time when I remember being unable to read. Nor do I remember learning to read. My only childhood memory of this process is watching my father … Continue reading → Read More
2017-09-29 08:48
I said earlier in the week that I picked up this book because I was short of sunshine and missing Sicily. I’m not sure now that this was the best … Continue reading → Read More
2017-09-27 06:00
I’d heard good things about this anthology before Vulpes Libris was offered a copy, so I grabbed it. It’s a miscellany from Saqi Books, consisting of dialogues, short stories, ar… Read More
2017-09-25 11:47
A week from today, I’ll be starting a new course: an MPhil in New Testament studies. My dissertation project is about Pontius Pilate, specifically his representation in the accounts of… Read More
2017-09-22 06:00
For most of my life the name Penelope Lively has meant The Whispering Knights, The Wild Hunt of Hagworthy, Astercote and The Ghost of Thomas Kempe, books I reread for … Continue readi… Read More
2017-09-19 20:58
I was going to write two reviews for these books and then decided to write one instead. Both books, I felt, shared a common theme which, despite their settings – … Continue read… Read More
2017-09-18 09:08
It happened a few weeks ago. After a long period submerged in various sorts of book-related tasks (my debut novel, Shadow Man, will be published on 2nd November) I’d met … Conti… Read More
2017-09-15 08:04
This book was brought out for the 20th anniversary of Clueless in 2015. I missed it then, but caught up with it at Jane’s 200th and have just read it … Continue reading → Read More
2017-09-13 21:02
Twenty years ago cinema audiences fell for “Shakespeare in Love”, a film that presented the playwright as all too human, so different from the stuffy fellow many people thought h… Read More
2017-09-11 01:24
A VL Classic, reposted from Autumn 2013 Published in 1880, but set in the late 1730s, Love and Life bears the subtitle ‘An Old Story in Eighteenth-Century Costume’, and that &hel&hell…Read More
2017-09-08 06:00
Tolkien and the Oxford English Dictionary In his magisterial overview of the history of the Oxford English Dictionary Peter Gilliver touched briefly and tantalizingly on the part J R R &hell&hell…Read More
2017-09-06 07:00
It’s astonishing that this book had not been written before. It’s a study of the poisons deployed by Agatha Christie in a selection of her novels, written by a toxicologist &hell&hell…Read More
2017-09-04 15:39
One of the loveliest things I Did On My Holidays was revisit Chawton – the Hampshire village that was home to Jane Austen for the last eight years of her … Continue reading &rar&hell…Read More
2017-09-01 10:34
Being very lucky, I did some of my growing-up in the US. From age 7 to 10 I lived near Washington with my parents and attended an elementary school that … Continue reading → Read More
2017-08-30 05:47
As a person who has had aquariums for over 20 years, I was eager to read this book about a fish that some consider the most expensive in the world. … Continue reading → Read More
2017-08-28 01:35
Though the Foxes were recently on Summer Break, that didn’t mean we took a break from reading. Goodness gracious, no. Some of us did take some fun trips to exotic … Continue rea… Read More
2017-08-25 07:33
In these days of online book-buying, a browse through a favourite bookshop is a treat. It doesn’t matter that I have no books in mind I know I want to … Continue reading → Read More
2017-08-23 02:31
Recently I read two books that were quite different; one was a memoir, the other a travel book and I was struck at how they each were accounts of a … Continue reading → Read More
2017-08-21 07:35
Somewhere in the East Coast of America, in a small town familiar to non-Americans from films such as Hitchcock’s The Trouble with Harry, the survivors of a highly dysfunctional family… Read More
2017-07-16 21:11
That’s it for now. We’re off on our hols for the summer, but will be back in August, refreshed, renewed, and ready to celebrate the tenth anniversary, in October, of … Con… Read More
2017-07-14 06:30
When Bookfox Kate proposed this theme week, I stuck my hand in the air immediately and cried ‘Me me me!’. After all, one of the first pieces I ever wrote … Continue readin… Read More
2017-07-13 06:00
My mother was born in a two-up, two-down, end-of-terrace house in the pretty market town of Ampthill in Bedfordshire. The money for the rent, the gas meter and the milkman … Continue… Read More
2017-07-10 06:00
This is a hefty Mid-West cookbook and instruction manual on how to preserve your fruit and veg in jars. It’s most definitely written for North Americans, by a Master Food … Cont… Read More
2017-07-09 10:51
This morning I was picking black mulberries in my garden. This sounds very English, but it was in Brussels, though the tree was originally English. It was a present from friends &hellip&hell…Read More
2017-07-06 21:31
When I moved to Spain in 2003 I already knew that this was where I wanted to live. I did not want to stay for a couple of years and … Continue reading → Read More
2017-07-02 21:21
The Aspirin Age was published in the U.S.A. in 1949, four years after the Second World War ended. In twenty-two specially commissioned essays it looked backwards over the decades that &helli&hell…Read More
2017-06-30 07:43
Imagine yourself back in 1911. You keep an eye on the goings on of society. And that means that you’ll be transfixed by the tale going around of C.A.E. Moberly and … Contin… Read More
2017-06-28 07:26
I would never have chosen this book to read without prompting. I’ve never ridden a horse (the nearest I’ve been to that is a donkey ride at the seaside when … Continue rea… Read More
2017-06-26 06:00
In a 1937 letter to Stanley Unwin, J R R Tolkien said he felt a certain distaste for Celtic myths ‘largely for their fundamental unreason. They have bright colour, but … Continu… Read More
2017-06-23 10:19
As sometimes happens in the busy lives of the Book Foxes, life and technology have ganged up on Kirsty to scupper her scheduled review of In a Summer Season. Instead, … Continue readi… Read More
2017-06-21 06:00
Some time ago I wrote about Spider-Woman. After a healthy reminder of how good female superheroes can be from Wonder Woman, I went and bought two more Spider-Woman collections, Civil &hellip&hell…Read More
2017-06-19 01:18
Two books on elements of everyday life that I found interesting. Twisted by Bert Ashe This is a memoir about hair. As a person who has had short hair all … Continue reading → Read More
2017-06-16 20:37
At first glance, this looks to be just another coffee table book with pretty pictures. And it is that, but there’s more to it. For one thing, there’s more castles … Contin… Read More
2017-06-14 12:12
To one side of the fireplace in the White Bedroom at Drumlanrig Castle in Dumfries & Galloway, hangs a portrait in an ornate gilded frame. It’s of a simply dressed … Continu… Read More
2017-06-12 01:20
(By guest writer, Stranger) Back in the mid seventies, I was in the midst of an unhappy divorce. My ex husband was in the Air Force and we were stationed … Continue reading → Read More
2017-06-11 10:01
Well, what a week for British politics. But let’s not go down that inviting leafy trail where arguments will soon break out about who gave out the wrong directions and … Continu… Read More
2017-06-09 17:53
Life lesson – never volunteer again to write a post for Vulpes Libris on the day after an election, especially when the broad overall theme is keeping calm in stressful … Contin… Read More
2017-06-09 06:17
….. to a book blog near you: today’s post on Postcards and their calming properties. This week on Vulpes Libris has been about books that keep us calm and reduce … Contin… Read More
2017-06-06 20:53
The Family from One End Street was published in 1937. A quick look at some of the key events of that year reminds us that this lonely and unloved decade … Continue reading → Read More
2017-06-05 16:58
No matter how many times I read this book, it’s always a delightful experience. At it’s core, it’s an explanation of a school of philosophy, Taoism. But the way the &hellip&hell…Read More
2017-06-04 22:01
A few weeks ago, British Fox Kate suggested a week of calm and peaceful posts to counter the strong feelings surrounding the snap election in the UK. We all thought … Continue reading… Read More
2017-06-02 12:08
Alluring, ephemeral and deadly, Morecambe Bay dominates the coastal areas of south Cumbria and north west Lancashire. No-one who has ever travelled by train between Oxenholme and Lancaster c… Read More
2017-05-31 00:27
Upon seeing the title, a prospective reader might imagine a couple of artists having fisticuffs, with paint splattering across the walls.But the sensationalist title belies the meaning the a… Read More
2017-05-29 06:00
I started reading this pair of autobiographies by the Irish short story writer and giant among modern Irish literature, Frank O’Connor, without really knowing much about him. I’d… Read More
2017-05-26 07:42
For any visitor to Paris of a bookish inclination, a visit to Shakespeare And Company to purchase at least one book is an absolute must. My proud possession is my … Continue reading … Read More
2017-05-24 06:46
Back in May 2012, we had a fortnight devoted to ebooks. I thought I’d resurrect Rosy’s post on the gatekeepers (or lack thereof) of ebooks… There have been few subje… Read More
2017-05-22 07:06
I decided that I loved Beverley Nichols before I read a word by him. I think I first came across the name in a small shop in Pershore, Worcestershire (no, … Continue reading → Read More
2017-05-19 10:31
It wasn’t my fault. I was eight years old, a natural mimic and I always did as I was told. The only thing I remember about the whole affair is the … Continue reading → Read More
2017-05-18 06:00
I collect my share of the poetry exam scripts, put them in my bike pannier, and cycle home. I put them on the table, close my laptop to avoid distracting emails, find … Cont… Read More
2017-05-16 20:58
There is no other way of putting it. I was expecting mysticism and intricate illusions to hidden truths in the Everyman anthology of Persian Poems. Instead I found myself in … Continu… Read More
2017-05-15 11:25
A few weeks ago I shared here my discovery that the tiny settlement of Oby in the Norfolk Broads had a dual literary heritage – the setting for Sylvia Townsend … Continue readin… Read More
2017-05-12 12:03
In studying anything to do with ancient history, the first thing you learn is that the preservation of texts is a haphazard affair. Sometimes the only reason the corpus of … Continue… Read More
2017-05-10 06:00
Hidden Figures is a tremendous pun. It means the women who worked for NASA from the 1940s to send people into space and back again. It also means the numbers … Continue reading → Read More
2017-05-08 00:40
Recently, the Foxes were asked a “Let’s Pretend” question; if you were writing a travel book and could go anywhere you liked(money is no object and magically your health wa… Read More
2017-05-05 07:37
I always seem to join in the Vulpes Libris Theme Weeks with the caveat that I don’t usually get on with the theme in question – c.f. our weeks on … Continue reading → Read More
2017-05-04 07:00
How do I love thee, Star Wars? Let me count the ways …. Yoda’s syntax. Han Solo (always). Chewy can put androids back together again with furry paws. Leia takes … Continu… Read More
2017-05-03 09:21
The late 1980s were a dark time for television science fiction: Blake’s 7 was but a dim memory, Dr Who was rapidly self-destructing and Star Trek: The Next Generation wasn’t &hel&hell…Read More
2017-05-01 00:09
Technically, this novel would be in the Fantasy category, which IS a genre of science fiction, but since general sci fi is too much ‘men and machines’ for me and … Continu… Read More
2017-04-30 07:00
This is the week of May the Fourth, so the Foxes are rolling around joyously in the mixed metaphors and timeless plots of science fiction. But what is science fiction? … Continue read… Read More
2017-04-28 08:32
I am very much enjoying exploring a new literary landscape: East Anglia, the land of fens, floods and enormous skies. My exploration started with Sylvia Townsend Warner’s The Corner Th… Read More
2017-04-26 00:07
Since my family was too poor when I was growing up to afford comic books, I never got into them, though I have always read the comic pages in the … Continue reading → Read More
2017-04-23 21:00
From 1883 to 1907, the industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie provided funds to build public libraries in fifty seven Scottish local authorities. Donating sums that ranged fr… Read More
2017-04-09 10:34
The Foxes are unplugging the kettle, farming out the goldfish and shutting down the Den in order to go off and frivol over the Easter Break. Some of us have … Continue reading → Read More
2017-04-07 07:52
Once again, J David Simons has written a novel that takes a wide sweep across the last century and this one, unravelling private secrets from a public life. The protagonists … Continu… Read More
2017-04-05 11:44
I recently went for my first job interview in over a quarter of a century – for a position as tour guide at a local stately heap.* The job advert … Continue reading → Read More
2017-04-03 00:36
One of the reasons I like this poem, which you can read here , is because it’s lighthearted. So much poetry is dark and deep, so it’s a lovely surprise … Continue reading… Read More
2017-03-31 09:28
In an earlier post for VL, I enthused wildly about The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English (see my exhortation here). And now I can wholeheartedly recommend a companion volume, … Con… Read More
2017-03-29 07:00
The Museum of English Rural Life is a fantastic small museum. It’s in Reading in the UK (part of the university), and has just reopened its exhibiting spaces after a … Continue… Read More
2017-03-27 08:23
Sylvia Townsend Warner’s novel The Corner That Held Them (which I love with a passion – though it does divide opinion, as Bookfox Simon will attest) is set in the … Contin… Read More
2017-03-24 02:03
May contain spoilers and irreverence. The ITV series Victoria recently concluded on PBS in the States and it seems like a good time to organize my feelings about it, which … Continue… Read More
2017-03-21 20:58
Paperback covers of the novels from the 1970s and 1980s, when they knew something about illustrations. How do myths get started? What experiences point people towards explanations that… Read More
2017-03-20 20:30
I worked for the Bodleian, in Reader Services, for seven or eight years (part-time), and one thing I noticed was that C. S. Lewis was very popular among visiting American … Continue r… Read More
2017-03-17 11:55
He who proclaims it a religious duty to read the Bible denies me the right of learning to read the name of the God who made me. He who is … Continue reading → Read More
2017-03-15 07:00
This is the second novel in my 2017 challenge to read a work of literary fiction every month by a novelist new to me; this one is a little late, … Continue reading → Read More
2017-03-13 00:18
A VL Classic, originally posted March 2016. The Violinist of Venice by Alyssa Palombo At first this appears to be a routine historical romance, but it soon deepens to something … Cont… Read More
2017-03-10 01:00
Since the U.S. election, I’ve noticed people seem to have been reading certain classic novels, perhaps out of an impulse to connect today’s events with themes in such books as &h&hell…Read More
2017-03-08 00:23
May contain spoilers. There are movies which have a particular look to them, drenched in color, such as the greenish grey of The Libertine or the golden hues of The … Continue reading… Read More
2017-03-06 09:21
Dana is a twenty-six year old black woman living in California in 1976. She is married to Kevin, who is white, and who rejected his racist family to marry Dana. … Continue reading &ra&hell…Read More
2017-03-03 01:35
One of the periods I like to read about most is the Middle Ages. No, not that time in your forties when you’re no longer young, but don’t yet qualify … Continue reading &r&hell…Read More
2017-02-28 06:57
Oh dear. It seems that I always volunteer myself as the contrary voice for Vulpes theme weeks – or, at least, that’s what I did back when I was just a … Continue read… Read More
2017-02-27 07:00
The Historical Fictions Research Network had its second conference this weekend, in the splendid surroundings of the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, home of the Meridian, south-east L… Read More
Share the post
Vulpes Libris | A collective of bibliophiles talking about books. Book Fox (vulpes libris): small bibliovorous mammal of overactive imagination and uncommonly large bookshop expenses. Habitat: anywhere the rustle of pages can be heard.
×
Subscribe to Vulpes Libris | A Collective Of Bibliophiles Talking About Books. Book Fox (vulpes Libris): Small Bibliovorous Mammal Of Overactive Imagination And Uncommonly Large Bookshop Expenses. Habitat: Anywhere The Rustle Of Pages Can Be Heard.
Get updates delivered right to your inbox!