Max Cairnduff
@maxcairnduff.bsky.social
Repairer of Reputations.
2025 reading 🧵
A charming and influential 1896 American pastoral classic, though not without some bite if you pay attention. Henry James was a fan and I can see why. Lovely little Penguin edition too.
A charming and influential 1896 American pastoral classic, though not without some bite if you pay attention. Henry James was a fan and I can see why. Lovely little Penguin edition too.
November 10, 2025 at 9:20 PM
2025 reading 🧵
A charming and influential 1896 American pastoral classic, though not without some bite if you pay attention. Henry James was a fan and I can see why. Lovely little Penguin edition too.
A charming and influential 1896 American pastoral classic, though not without some bite if you pay attention. Henry James was a fan and I can see why. Lovely little Penguin edition too.
2025 reading 🧵
Ghostworld was a naturalistic slice of life, which is how this opens. This, however, is not Ghostworld. Strange, cosmic, yet ultimately grounded. I’d intended to take this at just a few pages at a time but ended up so keen to see where it was going that I read it in one sitting.
Ghostworld was a naturalistic slice of life, which is how this opens. This, however, is not Ghostworld. Strange, cosmic, yet ultimately grounded. I’d intended to take this at just a few pages at a time but ended up so keen to see where it was going that I read it in one sitting.
November 10, 2025 at 2:27 PM
2025 reading 🧵
Ghostworld was a naturalistic slice of life, which is how this opens. This, however, is not Ghostworld. Strange, cosmic, yet ultimately grounded. I’d intended to take this at just a few pages at a time but ended up so keen to see where it was going that I read it in one sitting.
Ghostworld was a naturalistic slice of life, which is how this opens. This, however, is not Ghostworld. Strange, cosmic, yet ultimately grounded. I’d intended to take this at just a few pages at a time but ended up so keen to see where it was going that I read it in one sitting.
2025 reading 🧵
A strange one this: fittingly it’s compelling but frustrating, fascinating but infuriating, well-crafted but shallow. Paul Morand, that silky old fascist, captures Chanel who doesn’t seem to know the name of a single person who’s not already famous.
A strange one this: fittingly it’s compelling but frustrating, fascinating but infuriating, well-crafted but shallow. Paul Morand, that silky old fascist, captures Chanel who doesn’t seem to know the name of a single person who’s not already famous.
November 9, 2025 at 8:32 AM
2025 reading 🧵
A strange one this: fittingly it’s compelling but frustrating, fascinating but infuriating, well-crafted but shallow. Paul Morand, that silky old fascist, captures Chanel who doesn’t seem to know the name of a single person who’s not already famous.
A strange one this: fittingly it’s compelling but frustrating, fascinating but infuriating, well-crafted but shallow. Paul Morand, that silky old fascist, captures Chanel who doesn’t seem to know the name of a single person who’s not already famous.
2025 reading 🧵
A dark and disturbing romans dur, written in 1939 it portrays rising intolerance against a family of ‘foreigners’. All the better for some in the family having their own issues, their own misdeeds (though nothing so serious as those they become accused of). A compelling read.
A dark and disturbing romans dur, written in 1939 it portrays rising intolerance against a family of ‘foreigners’. All the better for some in the family having their own issues, their own misdeeds (though nothing so serious as those they become accused of). A compelling read.
November 5, 2025 at 9:53 PM
2025 reading 🧵
A dark and disturbing romans dur, written in 1939 it portrays rising intolerance against a family of ‘foreigners’. All the better for some in the family having their own issues, their own misdeeds (though nothing so serious as those they become accused of). A compelling read.
A dark and disturbing romans dur, written in 1939 it portrays rising intolerance against a family of ‘foreigners’. All the better for some in the family having their own issues, their own misdeeds (though nothing so serious as those they become accused of). A compelling read.
2025 reading 🧵
I’ve grown to love the Miss Marple stories but felt this wasn’t the strongest. Good on changes in society and the modernising Britain of the day and the Hollywood angle was fun, Miss Marple herself always a pleasure, but ending is a bit rushed I thought.
I’ve grown to love the Miss Marple stories but felt this wasn’t the strongest. Good on changes in society and the modernising Britain of the day and the Hollywood angle was fun, Miss Marple herself always a pleasure, but ending is a bit rushed I thought.
November 4, 2025 at 12:02 PM
2025 reading 🧵
I’ve grown to love the Miss Marple stories but felt this wasn’t the strongest. Good on changes in society and the modernising Britain of the day and the Hollywood angle was fun, Miss Marple herself always a pleasure, but ending is a bit rushed I thought.
I’ve grown to love the Miss Marple stories but felt this wasn’t the strongest. Good on changes in society and the modernising Britain of the day and the Hollywood angle was fun, Miss Marple herself always a pleasure, but ending is a bit rushed I thought.
2025 reading 🧵
I’m a big Hari Kunzru fan so delighted to read the last of his thematic colour trilogy. The UK YBA art scene of the ‘90s and Covid-era paranoia, choices made and years-later consequences discovered. Great stuff as ever.
I’m a big Hari Kunzru fan so delighted to read the last of his thematic colour trilogy. The UK YBA art scene of the ‘90s and Covid-era paranoia, choices made and years-later consequences discovered. Great stuff as ever.
October 29, 2025 at 6:51 PM
2025 reading 🧵
I’m a big Hari Kunzru fan so delighted to read the last of his thematic colour trilogy. The UK YBA art scene of the ‘90s and Covid-era paranoia, choices made and years-later consequences discovered. Great stuff as ever.
I’m a big Hari Kunzru fan so delighted to read the last of his thematic colour trilogy. The UK YBA art scene of the ‘90s and Covid-era paranoia, choices made and years-later consequences discovered. Great stuff as ever.
2025 reading 🧵
Hugely impressive vintage crime novel with an impressive sense of place (Staffordshire! A pottery factory!) and character. Cleverly structured without being too much so, and an investigator where I cared less if he found whodunnit and more about him as a person. Superb.
Hugely impressive vintage crime novel with an impressive sense of place (Staffordshire! A pottery factory!) and character. Cleverly structured without being too much so, and an investigator where I cared less if he found whodunnit and more about him as a person. Superb.
October 21, 2025 at 8:29 PM
2025 reading 🧵
Hugely impressive vintage crime novel with an impressive sense of place (Staffordshire! A pottery factory!) and character. Cleverly structured without being too much so, and an investigator where I cared less if he found whodunnit and more about him as a person. Superb.
Hugely impressive vintage crime novel with an impressive sense of place (Staffordshire! A pottery factory!) and character. Cleverly structured without being too much so, and an investigator where I cared less if he found whodunnit and more about him as a person. Superb.
2025 reading 🧵
This should have been very me and not quite sure why it wasn’t. A comic crime novel set in 19th century Italy in a baronial castle with a real-life historical food writer as the detective. @jacquiwine.bsky.social liked it. Sadly I didn’t connect with it and it’s a did not finish.
This should have been very me and not quite sure why it wasn’t. A comic crime novel set in 19th century Italy in a baronial castle with a real-life historical food writer as the detective. @jacquiwine.bsky.social liked it. Sadly I didn’t connect with it and it’s a did not finish.
October 15, 2025 at 10:39 AM
2025 reading 🧵
This should have been very me and not quite sure why it wasn’t. A comic crime novel set in 19th century Italy in a baronial castle with a real-life historical food writer as the detective. @jacquiwine.bsky.social liked it. Sadly I didn’t connect with it and it’s a did not finish.
This should have been very me and not quite sure why it wasn’t. A comic crime novel set in 19th century Italy in a baronial castle with a real-life historical food writer as the detective. @jacquiwine.bsky.social liked it. Sadly I didn’t connect with it and it’s a did not finish.
2025 reading 🧵
Fifth in Ali Smith’s wonderful seasonal tetralogy (I know, so does she). Funny and playful and clever and wise. One of my favourite writers now. I’m looking forward to her How to be Both though it’ll probably be next year at this point.
Fifth in Ali Smith’s wonderful seasonal tetralogy (I know, so does she). Funny and playful and clever and wise. One of my favourite writers now. I’m looking forward to her How to be Both though it’ll probably be next year at this point.
October 14, 2025 at 6:41 PM
2025 reading 🧵
Fifth in Ali Smith’s wonderful seasonal tetralogy (I know, so does she). Funny and playful and clever and wise. One of my favourite writers now. I’m looking forward to her How to be Both though it’ll probably be next year at this point.
Fifth in Ali Smith’s wonderful seasonal tetralogy (I know, so does she). Funny and playful and clever and wise. One of my favourite writers now. I’m looking forward to her How to be Both though it’ll probably be next year at this point.
2025 reading 🧵
One of those books so famous it feels like you’ve read it even when you haven’t, and of course when you do you realise quite why it’s so famous. An extraordinary book, originally serialised which you can tell I think, full of life and pointless death. Sobering.
One of those books so famous it feels like you’ve read it even when you haven’t, and of course when you do you realise quite why it’s so famous. An extraordinary book, originally serialised which you can tell I think, full of life and pointless death. Sobering.
October 11, 2025 at 8:58 PM
2025 reading 🧵
One of those books so famous it feels like you’ve read it even when you haven’t, and of course when you do you realise quite why it’s so famous. An extraordinary book, originally serialised which you can tell I think, full of life and pointless death. Sobering.
One of those books so famous it feels like you’ve read it even when you haven’t, and of course when you do you realise quite why it’s so famous. An extraordinary book, originally serialised which you can tell I think, full of life and pointless death. Sobering.
I feel the need to invoke Rebecca again:
October 9, 2025 at 2:01 PM
I feel the need to invoke Rebecca again:
2025 reading 🧵
Loved this coolly professional crime novel about a police consultant who helps find missing people. Focus is firmly on the the investigation process and more widely on the impact of a disappearance on family, witnesses, community. Very tightly controlled novel. First in a new series.
Loved this coolly professional crime novel about a police consultant who helps find missing people. Focus is firmly on the the investigation process and more widely on the impact of a disappearance on family, witnesses, community. Very tightly controlled novel. First in a new series.
October 7, 2025 at 5:03 PM
2025 reading 🧵
Loved this coolly professional crime novel about a police consultant who helps find missing people. Focus is firmly on the the investigation process and more widely on the impact of a disappearance on family, witnesses, community. Very tightly controlled novel. First in a new series.
Loved this coolly professional crime novel about a police consultant who helps find missing people. Focus is firmly on the the investigation process and more widely on the impact of a disappearance on family, witnesses, community. Very tightly controlled novel. First in a new series.
2025 reading 🧵
Simon Armitage’s tremendous translation of this astonishing and alliterative anonymously authored medieval masterpiece. Clearly Iliad- influenced (to my mind) it becomes a tragic tale of heroism and hubris.
Armitage happily is better at alliteration than me…
Simon Armitage’s tremendous translation of this astonishing and alliterative anonymously authored medieval masterpiece. Clearly Iliad- influenced (to my mind) it becomes a tragic tale of heroism and hubris.
Armitage happily is better at alliteration than me…
October 4, 2025 at 5:43 PM
2025 reading 🧵
Simon Armitage’s tremendous translation of this astonishing and alliterative anonymously authored medieval masterpiece. Clearly Iliad- influenced (to my mind) it becomes a tragic tale of heroism and hubris.
Armitage happily is better at alliteration than me…
Simon Armitage’s tremendous translation of this astonishing and alliterative anonymously authored medieval masterpiece. Clearly Iliad- influenced (to my mind) it becomes a tragic tale of heroism and hubris.
Armitage happily is better at alliteration than me…
2025 reading 🧵
Superb collection of four short stories by a Korean author new to me. I need to see if more by her is published in English as these are very good - psychologically astute and showing a good range for such a brief collection. Great release by Penguin.
Superb collection of four short stories by a Korean author new to me. I need to see if more by her is published in English as these are very good - psychologically astute and showing a good range for such a brief collection. Great release by Penguin.
October 3, 2025 at 5:36 PM
2025 reading 🧵
Superb collection of four short stories by a Korean author new to me. I need to see if more by her is published in English as these are very good - psychologically astute and showing a good range for such a brief collection. Great release by Penguin.
Superb collection of four short stories by a Korean author new to me. I need to see if more by her is published in English as these are very good - psychologically astute and showing a good range for such a brief collection. Great release by Penguin.
2025 reading 🧵
Very high concept crime novel about a murder in an isolated post-apocalypse community where things are far from what they seem (and thankfully there isn’t a revelation that there wasn’t really an apocalypse which is a very tired twist). Got it on impulse and it was surprisingly good.
Very high concept crime novel about a murder in an isolated post-apocalypse community where things are far from what they seem (and thankfully there isn’t a revelation that there wasn’t really an apocalypse which is a very tired twist). Got it on impulse and it was surprisingly good.
October 3, 2025 at 2:03 PM
2025 reading 🧵
Very high concept crime novel about a murder in an isolated post-apocalypse community where things are far from what they seem (and thankfully there isn’t a revelation that there wasn’t really an apocalypse which is a very tired twist). Got it on impulse and it was surprisingly good.
Very high concept crime novel about a murder in an isolated post-apocalypse community where things are far from what they seem (and thankfully there isn’t a revelation that there wasn’t really an apocalypse which is a very tired twist). Got it on impulse and it was surprisingly good.
2025 reading 🧵
I was close to abandoning Garnier as I’d read two that I disliked, but this was genuinely good. Very much in the tradition of a Simenon Romans Dur, with a man learning more about himself than it was ever in his interest to know…
I was close to abandoning Garnier as I’d read two that I disliked, but this was genuinely good. Very much in the tradition of a Simenon Romans Dur, with a man learning more about himself than it was ever in his interest to know…
September 28, 2025 at 7:38 PM
2025 reading 🧵
I was close to abandoning Garnier as I’d read two that I disliked, but this was genuinely good. Very much in the tradition of a Simenon Romans Dur, with a man learning more about himself than it was ever in his interest to know…
I was close to abandoning Garnier as I’d read two that I disliked, but this was genuinely good. Very much in the tradition of a Simenon Romans Dur, with a man learning more about himself than it was ever in his interest to know…
2025 reading 🧵
A strange riverine book where things have or may be suffering a sea change. Slippery as only M John Harrison can be. Tremendously well written.
A strange riverine book where things have or may be suffering a sea change. Slippery as only M John Harrison can be. Tremendously well written.
September 25, 2025 at 11:49 AM
2025 reading 🧵
A strange riverine book where things have or may be suffering a sea change. Slippery as only M John Harrison can be. Tremendously well written.
A strange riverine book where things have or may be suffering a sea change. Slippery as only M John Harrison can be. Tremendously well written.
2025 reading 🧵
September has been a very slow reading month, but I’ve enjoyed this recently written return to Alastair Reynolds’ Revelation Space universe. A pleasure for his fans, but while it does work as a standalone I think it’s plainly better in the context of the wider series.
September has been a very slow reading month, but I’ve enjoyed this recently written return to Alastair Reynolds’ Revelation Space universe. A pleasure for his fans, but while it does work as a standalone I think it’s plainly better in the context of the wider series.
September 21, 2025 at 4:11 PM
2025 reading 🧵
September has been a very slow reading month, but I’ve enjoyed this recently written return to Alastair Reynolds’ Revelation Space universe. A pleasure for his fans, but while it does work as a standalone I think it’s plainly better in the context of the wider series.
September has been a very slow reading month, but I’ve enjoyed this recently written return to Alastair Reynolds’ Revelation Space universe. A pleasure for his fans, but while it does work as a standalone I think it’s plainly better in the context of the wider series.
2025 reading 🧵
Superbly well written novel about, well, hard to say save that it’s incredibly accomplished. Post-war Britain, an ordinary seaside town, characters going about their lives. It sounds dull but there’s a quotable line on nearly every page. Tremendous characterisation. Quietly brilliant.
Superbly well written novel about, well, hard to say save that it’s incredibly accomplished. Post-war Britain, an ordinary seaside town, characters going about their lives. It sounds dull but there’s a quotable line on nearly every page. Tremendous characterisation. Quietly brilliant.
September 16, 2025 at 9:53 AM
2025 reading 🧵
Superbly well written novel about, well, hard to say save that it’s incredibly accomplished. Post-war Britain, an ordinary seaside town, characters going about their lives. It sounds dull but there’s a quotable line on nearly every page. Tremendous characterisation. Quietly brilliant.
Superbly well written novel about, well, hard to say save that it’s incredibly accomplished. Post-war Britain, an ordinary seaside town, characters going about their lives. It sounds dull but there’s a quotable line on nearly every page. Tremendous characterisation. Quietly brilliant.
More photos from inside this time. Bought Mary Kelly’s The Spoilt Kill.
September 9, 2025 at 3:48 PM
More photos from inside this time. Bought Mary Kelly’s The Spoilt Kill.
Love the sign in this Cambridge crime bookshop window.
September 9, 2025 at 8:58 AM
Love the sign in this Cambridge crime bookshop window.
2025 reading 🧵 #WiTMonth
A glorious novel about music, classical piano music to be specific. Four people enter a prestigious piano competition, around them judges and supporters. Written like a thriller it carries real tension and a deep love of the music. Not flawless, but enjoyable and unusual.
A glorious novel about music, classical piano music to be specific. Four people enter a prestigious piano competition, around them judges and supporters. Written like a thriller it carries real tension and a deep love of the music. Not flawless, but enjoyable and unusual.
August 29, 2025 at 8:09 AM
2025 reading 🧵 #WiTMonth
A glorious novel about music, classical piano music to be specific. Four people enter a prestigious piano competition, around them judges and supporters. Written like a thriller it carries real tension and a deep love of the music. Not flawless, but enjoyable and unusual.
A glorious novel about music, classical piano music to be specific. Four people enter a prestigious piano competition, around them judges and supporters. Written like a thriller it carries real tension and a deep love of the music. Not flawless, but enjoyable and unusual.
My current mute list:
Challenges I just found there were so many and it was always pics no words which I don’t find interesting.
Otherwise it’s all US politics basically.
Challenges I just found there were so many and it was always pics no words which I don’t find interesting.
Otherwise it’s all US politics basically.
August 29, 2025 at 6:57 AM
My current mute list:
Challenges I just found there were so many and it was always pics no words which I don’t find interesting.
Otherwise it’s all US politics basically.
Challenges I just found there were so many and it was always pics no words which I don’t find interesting.
Otherwise it’s all US politics basically.
2025 reading 🧵 #WiTMonth
A searing novel of class exploitation and simmering resentment, structured like a thriller with a confessional tone from a brilliantly realised main character. A live-in maid tells the story of how the girl of the family she worked for died, but who is at fault?
A searing novel of class exploitation and simmering resentment, structured like a thriller with a confessional tone from a brilliantly realised main character. A live-in maid tells the story of how the girl of the family she worked for died, but who is at fault?
August 25, 2025 at 6:36 PM
2025 reading 🧵 #WiTMonth
A searing novel of class exploitation and simmering resentment, structured like a thriller with a confessional tone from a brilliantly realised main character. A live-in maid tells the story of how the girl of the family she worked for died, but who is at fault?
A searing novel of class exploitation and simmering resentment, structured like a thriller with a confessional tone from a brilliantly realised main character. A live-in maid tells the story of how the girl of the family she worked for died, but who is at fault?
2025 reading 🧵
Le Guin’s fourth Earthsea novel was controversial when it came out - not what fans wanted or expected. Reading it years later I can see it was a foretaste of fan entitlement to come. It’s an adult novel, not young adult, full of people with responsibilities and disappointments (1/2)
Le Guin’s fourth Earthsea novel was controversial when it came out - not what fans wanted or expected. Reading it years later I can see it was a foretaste of fan entitlement to come. It’s an adult novel, not young adult, full of people with responsibilities and disappointments (1/2)
August 23, 2025 at 7:57 AM
2025 reading 🧵
Le Guin’s fourth Earthsea novel was controversial when it came out - not what fans wanted or expected. Reading it years later I can see it was a foretaste of fan entitlement to come. It’s an adult novel, not young adult, full of people with responsibilities and disappointments (1/2)
Le Guin’s fourth Earthsea novel was controversial when it came out - not what fans wanted or expected. Reading it years later I can see it was a foretaste of fan entitlement to come. It’s an adult novel, not young adult, full of people with responsibilities and disappointments (1/2)