Kim McNeill •📚🌿☕️
@joiedevivre9.bsky.social
avid reader w/focus on womxn writers • virgo sun sagittarius moon • my library is an archive of longings • feminist #NYRBWomen25 #AContinuation25
Pacific Coast • joiedevivre9.com
Pacific Coast • joiedevivre9.com
#NYRBWomen25 Elizabeth-Charlotte (Liselotte) seems quite spirited. “A great blonde Teutonic tomboy…she was fond of animals & had many pets; little dogs & a tame duck; she hoped they had immortal souls, while doubting whether anybody had.” Is said to have written 60k letters throughout her life.
December 4, 2025 at 5:12 PM
#NYRBWomen25 Elizabeth-Charlotte (Liselotte) seems quite spirited. “A great blonde Teutonic tomboy…she was fond of animals & had many pets; little dogs & a tame duck; she hoped they had immortal souls, while doubting whether anybody had.” Is said to have written 60k letters throughout her life.
“[M. de La Quintinie’s] book, ‘Instructions pour les Jardins Fruitiers et Potagers’ must be one of the best gardening books ever written; it makes the reader long for a kitchen garden; the instructions are so precise that a child could follow them” (p23) #NYRBWomen25
December 3, 2025 at 4:26 PM
“[M. de La Quintinie’s] book, ‘Instructions pour les Jardins Fruitiers et Potagers’ must be one of the best gardening books ever written; it makes the reader long for a kitchen garden; the instructions are so precise that a child could follow them” (p23) #NYRBWomen25
#NYRBWomen25 “There were four men without whose collaboration the King could never have built Versailles: Colbert, Le Vau, Le Nôtre and Le Brun.” (p14) I loved this section on the builders.
December 3, 2025 at 4:26 PM
#NYRBWomen25 “There were four men without whose collaboration the King could never have built Versailles: Colbert, Le Vau, Le Nôtre and Le Brun.” (p14) I loved this section on the builders.
Here are the books I finished in November. So many gems. I also still have Proust #AContinuation25 & several short story collections in circulation so here’s to a prolific reading month in December! #NYRBWomen25
December 2, 2025 at 7:33 PM
Here are the books I finished in November. So many gems. I also still have Proust #AContinuation25 & several short story collections in circulation so here’s to a prolific reading month in December! #NYRBWomen25
“Louis XIV fell in love with Versailles and Louise de la Vallière at the same time; Versailles was the love of his life.” (p1) #NYRBWomen25 Here’s our page guide & a photo of Bernini’s sculpture mentioned on page 7.
December 2, 2025 at 3:41 AM
“Louis XIV fell in love with Versailles and Louise de la Vallière at the same time; Versailles was the love of his life.” (p1) #NYRBWomen25 Here’s our page guide & a photo of Bernini’s sculpture mentioned on page 7.
#NYRBWomen25 Because of my travels earlier in the month, we are a book behind, but tomorrow, we start THE SUN KING by Nancy Mitford.
“a dazzling double portrait of Louis XIV & Versailles”
Tomorrow’s pages: Intro & chapter 1. Page guide coming.
“a dazzling double portrait of Louis XIV & Versailles”
Tomorrow’s pages: Intro & chapter 1. Page guide coming.
December 1, 2025 at 2:56 AM
#NYRBWomen25 Because of my travels earlier in the month, we are a book behind, but tomorrow, we start THE SUN KING by Nancy Mitford.
“a dazzling double portrait of Louis XIV & Versailles”
Tomorrow’s pages: Intro & chapter 1. Page guide coming.
“a dazzling double portrait of Louis XIV & Versailles”
Tomorrow’s pages: Intro & chapter 1. Page guide coming.
Books currently in rotation.
November 25, 2025 at 9:04 PM
Books currently in rotation.
All biographies should contain an Astral Chart.
November 23, 2025 at 9:18 PM
All biographies should contain an Astral Chart.
It was such an amazing experience! I could have listened to him talk for hours. Thank you!
November 21, 2025 at 5:24 PM
It was such an amazing experience! I could have listened to him talk for hours. Thank you!
Almost time to see Jafar Panahi!!! @siffnews.bsky.social
November 21, 2025 at 2:03 AM
Almost time to see Jafar Panahi!!! @siffnews.bsky.social
Drew even bought one of these for me for my birthday so I would always have a pencil at hand with the book I’m reading. 😂
November 19, 2025 at 1:32 AM
Drew even bought one of these for me for my birthday so I would always have a pencil at hand with the book I’m reading. 😂
There were a couple by other publishers that came up as readily available when I looked, although the chronicles are pricey & the monkey one isn't coming out until the 25th. It looks like a few others had been translated & released previously, but are out of print now?
November 17, 2025 at 10:27 PM
There were a couple by other publishers that came up as readily available when I looked, although the chronicles are pricey & the monkey one isn't coming out until the 25th. It looks like a few others had been translated & released previously, but are out of print now?
“… a nurse came to the ward four times a day dispensing medications … I got one. It was the sort of thing depicted in a Magritte painting: one side gray, one side red— I was too lazy to imagine that one half was water, the other fire, or that one half was a fish, the other a cigar.“ #NYRBWomen25
November 16, 2025 at 4:48 PM
“… a nurse came to the ward four times a day dispensing medications … I got one. It was the sort of thing depicted in a Magritte painting: one side gray, one side red— I was too lazy to imagine that one half was water, the other fire, or that one half was a fish, the other a cigar.“ #NYRBWomen25
“And so, I started learning the sword, move by move. Tai chi boxing and tai chi sword were originally the twin sisters of Chinese martial arts. If I didn’t perform well, it became a gentle exercise, but done beautifully, it was a dance.” #NYRBWomen25
November 15, 2025 at 4:50 PM
“And so, I started learning the sword, move by move. Tai chi boxing and tai chi sword were originally the twin sisters of Chinese martial arts. If I didn’t perform well, it became a gentle exercise, but done beautifully, it was a dance.” #NYRBWomen25
It’s that time of year! The NYRB sale is on now! For those of you who want to be prepared for #NYRBWomen26, here’s our schedule. (Note: Cagnati, Lemann & Carrington aren’t being released until next year.) www.nyrb.com
November 14, 2025 at 2:08 AM
It’s that time of year! The NYRB sale is on now! For those of you who want to be prepared for #NYRBWomen26, here’s our schedule. (Note: Cagnati, Lemann & Carrington aren’t being released until next year.) www.nyrb.com
“I now wore a strange new type of costume that I never needed to take off. It was in the style of pop art, probably designed by a painter like Dalí, and the tailor was, of course, a surgeon.” (p67) #NYRBWomen25
November 13, 2025 at 5:57 PM
“I now wore a strange new type of costume that I never needed to take off. It was in the style of pop art, probably designed by a painter like Dalí, and the tailor was, of course, a surgeon.” (p67) #NYRBWomen25
I snapped a shot of Drew’s reads for the month of October. He loved them all, but said Schweblin’s story ‘An Eye in the Throat’ is his favorite short all year & “the Shanbhag is a masterpiece.”
November 13, 2025 at 3:49 PM
I snapped a shot of Drew’s reads for the month of October. He loved them all, but said Schweblin’s story ‘An Eye in the Throat’ is his favorite short all year & “the Shanbhag is a masterpiece.”
New addition to my library today.
November 12, 2025 at 8:36 PM
New addition to my library today.
“When [Flannery O’Connor] was five, she raised a “frizzled” chicken (its feathers grew backward), which she taught to walk backward.” — Hilton Als, This Lonesome Place, WHITE GIRLS
November 12, 2025 at 6:19 PM
“When [Flannery O’Connor] was five, she raised a “frizzled” chicken (its feathers grew backward), which she taught to walk backward.” — Hilton Als, This Lonesome Place, WHITE GIRLS
“Only one woman author—not as famous as Capote—equaled the power of his 1947 photograph: Jane Bowles in Karl Bissinger‘s portrait, taken in 1946 to accompany a story of hers that appeared in Harper‘s Bazaar.” — Hilton Als, The Women, WHITE GIRLS (p109) *Loving this book.
November 11, 2025 at 6:47 PM
“Only one woman author—not as famous as Capote—equaled the power of his 1947 photograph: Jane Bowles in Karl Bissinger‘s portrait, taken in 1946 to accompany a story of hers that appeared in Harper‘s Bazaar.” — Hilton Als, The Women, WHITE GIRLS (p109) *Loving this book.
“We were all pregnant—the women in the east wing were carrying little angels, while those of us over here were carrying demons.” (p35) “Everyone Simone de Beauvoir had written about in The Second Sex was gathered here” (p39) #NYRBWomen25
November 11, 2025 at 5:58 PM
“We were all pregnant—the women in the east wing were carrying little angels, while those of us over here were carrying demons.” (p35) “Everyone Simone de Beauvoir had written about in The Second Sex was gathered here” (p39) #NYRBWomen25
#NYRBWomen25 “I’d brought four copies of Flaubert‘s novel to the hospital: the French original, the English translation, and two Chinese translations. […] the most profound function of Flaubert’s‘s use of italics is to stealthily shift the narrator’s role without relying on (1/2)
November 10, 2025 at 5:46 PM
#NYRBWomen25 “I’d brought four copies of Flaubert‘s novel to the hospital: the French original, the English translation, and two Chinese translations. […] the most profound function of Flaubert’s‘s use of italics is to stealthily shift the narrator’s role without relying on (1/2)
#NYRBWomen25 Tomorrow, we start MOURNING A BREAST by Xi Xi (tr. Jennifer Feeley). “…a genre-bending & stream-of-consciousness meditation that is not an act of mourning so much as an expression of curiosity.” Here’s our page guide. clereviewofbooks.com/xi-xi-mourni...
November 9, 2025 at 3:56 AM
#NYRBWomen25 Tomorrow, we start MOURNING A BREAST by Xi Xi (tr. Jennifer Feeley). “…a genre-bending & stream-of-consciousness meditation that is not an act of mourning so much as an expression of curiosity.” Here’s our page guide. clereviewofbooks.com/xi-xi-mourni...
As far as nonfiction, she is probably best known for these two books.
November 8, 2025 at 11:59 PM
As far as nonfiction, she is probably best known for these two books.