Book news, reviews and recommendations
I enjoyed Livia Franchini’s debut, Shelf Life, enough to put up my hand for High Tide when I spotted it on NetGalley. Franchini’s second novel follows two timelines: one in the 1990s when Mary Godwin is thinking of dropping out of university, and one in the 2020s when the horror writer she’s become finds herself
High Tide by Livia Franchini: ‘Go out with a bang’ Read More »
It was that colourful jacket that first caught my eye on NetGalley, backed up by an inviting blurb. James Yorkston’s Callum, Reine, Sylvie and Sparrow follows the eponymous Callum over two decades beginning in 1998, flitting backwards and forwards with several digressions. I mean it’s still Alan – same thin sharp nose, same gnarly spindly
Callum, Reine, Sylvie and Sparrow by James Yorkston: A fragmentary novel Read More »
I’m using ‘literary thriller’ to suggest page-turning suspense rather than the breathless, action-packed pace often associated with the genre. All five have links to longer reviews on the blog. The glossy vibrant Swinging Sixties was all Carnaby Street, mini-skirts, coffee bars and rock n’ roll, or at least that’s what nostalgic TV documentaries would have
Five More Literary Thrillers I’ve Read Read More »
Six Degrees of Separation is a meme hosted by Kate over at Books Are My Favourite and Best. It works like this: each month a book is chosen as a starting point and linked to six others to form a chain. A book doesn’t need to be connected to all the titles on the list,
Six Degrees of Separation – The Winter Guest to The Emperor of All Maladies Read More »
This is the latest in a series of occasional posts featuring books I read years ago about which I was wildly enthusiastic at the time, wanting to press a copy into as many hands as I could. I’m much more of a contemporary fiction reader but occasionally I read a historical novel that really hits
Blasts from the Past: Sedition by Katharine Grant (2014) Read More »
I was attracted to Angela Flournoy’s The Turner House by its Detroit setting, helped along by puffs from the likes of T C Boyle, Tayari Jones and Elizabeth McCracken. Set over five weeks in the spring of 2008, it follows the eponymous family as they try to decide what to do with the dilapidated house
The Turner House by Angela Flournoy: A Detroit family saga Read More »
It’s the slimmest of paperback pickings for November which includes two reissues, one to coincide with the publication of its long-awaited follow up, but I’m beginning with John Tottenham’s Service which follows John, a Los Angeles bookseller who’s failed at journalism and writing fiction. Now in his late forties, he’s dismayed at working in something
Paperbacks to Look Out For in November 2026 Read More »
This month’s snapshot includes a bike ride through the US during an election year, an Irish linked short story collection and a novel I’ve been anticipating for a decade. The non-fiction book I’m reading is Simon Parker’s A Ride Across America. Beginning in Seattle on the eve of the 2024 election when, inevitably, conversation turns
A Snapshot of My Reading #20 Read More »
We decided to break the first part of this year’s railway jaunt, meeting up with friends in London and arriving in Bonn early the following evening after a long day’s travel, including an hour’s delay, hardly unexpected given Deutsche Bahn’s recent lamentable performance. That and the fog shrouding our top-notch Rhine view meant an uncharacteristic
Twelve Days in Germany, Two Days in Austria, Three Days in Hungary and Two Books Read More »
This second batch of November titles opens with a novel that felt more like summer reading to me. Livia Franchini’s High Tide follows two timelines: one in the 1990s when Mary Godwin is thinking of dropping out of university, and one in the 2020s when the horror writer she’s become finds herself forced to remember
Books to Look Out For in November 2026: Part Two Read More »
Back from my travels (more of which next week) with a set of short stories originally published in 2015. The Fallen Trees Are Also the Forest is the first book by Japanese-Argentine author, Alejandra Kamiya, to be published in English. It comprises twelve brief pieces, several just a few pages in length but they’re not