Louise Knights-McCudden
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louknightsmccudden.bsky.social
Louise Knights-McCudden
@louknightsmccudden.bsky.social
Writer, politics & public policy analysis nerd, reproductive justice advocate, intuitive eater. Sapphic. Wife. She/her. 🌈 UK Head of External Affairs at MSI Reproductive Choices but views my own.
Absolutely LOVING this short story collection by @marniapple.bsky.social.

But oof, 'Under the Circumstances' hit me hard. Devastating. (In a good way.)

#BookSky 📚💙
March 1, 2025 at 9:28 PM
I've read & enjoyed other Kirsty Logan books but NOTHING prepared me for how incredible her new collection 'No & Other Love Stories' would be. Surreal, insightful, inventive with form, darkly funny in places... just so so so good.

(But the first story is quite... wild, so be ready.)

#BookSky 📚💙
February 15, 2025 at 3:48 PM
Imagine having this deeply traumatic childhood moment immortalised in your plant pots 😵
January 22, 2025 at 9:18 PM
I love this Christmas gift from my spouse so much. A vinyl recording of Mozart's 'The Marriage of Figaro'. (They found it from a charity shop.)

I love when someone gives me a gift that just captures how perfectly they know me. To me, that's what makes gifts joyful 👌
December 26, 2024 at 9:45 PM
20. They by Kay Dick

An English countryside dystopia from 1977, about creativity and art. Recently republished with an introduction from the fabulous Carmen Maria Machado.

💙📚 #BookSky #LiteratureSky
December 3, 2024 at 8:20 PM
19. My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier

The only writer to be on this list twice! (Although I suppose I'm counting The Handmaid's Tale + The Testaments as one.)

📚💙 #BookSky #LiteratureSky
December 2, 2024 at 8:26 AM
18. Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

💙📚 #BookSky #LiteratureSky
December 1, 2024 at 4:12 PM
17. Engleby by Sebastian Faulkes

📚💙 #BookSky #LiteratureSky
November 30, 2024 at 12:29 PM
16. The Gap of Time (The Winter's Tale retold) by Jeanette Winterson

The Winter's Tale often seems a bit overlooked for some reason. Dreamlike, pastoral, magical-realism Shakespeare. And I love the idea of a novel as a "cover version," as Winterson describes it.

💙📚 #BookSky #LiteratureSky
November 29, 2024 at 11:22 PM
15. *drumroll please for this one* Fingersmith by Sarah Waters

This sounds daft but reading #Fingersmith was the first time I realised I could just... make my main character a lesbian. I didn't need to make them a man, I didn't need to write around it.

💙📚 #BookSky #LiteratureSky 📚🌈 #lgbtq
November 28, 2024 at 8:29 PM
14. The Mosquito Coast by Paul Theroux

📚💙 #BookSky #LiteratureSky
November 27, 2024 at 8:58 PM
13. The First Bad Man by Miranda July

Miranda July inspires me so much as a writer. The worlds she creates. The dialogue. The characters. The structure. The insight into human nature. The originality. Everything. Is. Perfect.

💙📚 #BookSky #LiteratureSky
November 26, 2024 at 8:17 PM
12. Man or Mango by Lucy Ellmann

Apparently this book has very "mixed" reviews but I think it's a gem.

I can't think of anything else I've read that quite captures a little girl's grief for her mother in a way that I related to this strongly.

📚💙 #BookSky #LiteratureSky
November 25, 2024 at 5:02 PM
11. An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro

💙📚 #BookSky #LiteratureSky
November 24, 2024 at 7:43 PM
10. Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie

This is quite possibly the greatest novel ever written. (In my extremely humble opinion.)

💙📚 #BookSky #LiteratureSky #SalmanRushdie
November 23, 2024 at 6:31 PM
9. Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis Bernieres

💙📚 #BookSky #LiteratureSky
November 22, 2024 at 8:18 PM
8. Small Island by Andrea Levy

Tightly plotted with layered characters and gorgeous prose. The holy trio!

💙📚 #BookSky #LiteratureSky
November 21, 2024 at 6:14 PM
7. Ruby by Cynthia Bond

The poetic language captures the feeling of #PTSD, especially the heightened senses. (Cynthia Bond teaches writing for trauma.)

(NB if you're someone who appreciates a content note, this would have one for basically anything you could think of.)

📚💙 #BookSky #LiteratureSky
November 20, 2024 at 1:33 PM
6. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier.

I can't really express how deeply I love this book. It obsessed me and takes over my whole inner world when I read it. Which is often!

📚💙 #BookSky #LiteratureSky #gothic
November 19, 2024 at 2:43 PM
They're wonderful, all referencing very different types of music.
November 19, 2024 at 9:55 AM
5. Persuasion by Jane Austen

You wouldn't necessarily expect an Austen novel to resonate with your experience as a young queer kid but the way Anne's family talks her out of knowing her own heart... it always gets me right in the gut 📚💙 📚🌈

#BookSky #LiteratureSky #JaneAusten
November 18, 2024 at 9:29 AM
4. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

We were given this to read for A levels in about 2002. I've reread it so, so many times. I wish I could get back the experience of reading it for the first time. No one could get a word out of me until I was finished.

📚💙 #booksky #literaturesky
November 17, 2024 at 9:44 AM
3. The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot

My dad told me this book was his guide in how he raised me and my sister. We seem to have turned out alright (🤞) so it must be good, right?

Also, this book made me cry hard on first read. I mean real tears.

📚💙 #booksky #literaturesky
November 16, 2024 at 10:40 AM
2. Jane Eyre

I feel like this is a very clichéd choice for a book that impacted your life... but that's because it is such a phenomenal piece of literature. I can't think of any other book that shook up my soul in the same way as Jane Eyre.

💙📚 #booksky #Bronte #Gothic
November 15, 2024 at 9:20 AM
1. The Book of Daniel by EL Doctorow. (I am rereading it right now, so it's on my mind. I haven't read this in decades. It is SO good.)

💙📚
November 14, 2024 at 8:10 AM