Book news, reviews and recommendations
Natasha Brown’s Assembly weighs in at a mere 112 pages – it would be even fewer if you stripped the white space from its fragmented narrative – but it’s an astonishingly powerful novel that leaves you a little breathless. Not an easy book to write about but I’ll do my best. My style, my mannerisms, …
Assembly by Natasha Brown: ‘To protect myself, I detach’ Read More »
Not as many July paperbacks as I might have hoped, too many for one post but fewer than I’d usually pick for two. Top of my list is Jonathan Coe’s Mr Wilder and Me which I’m hoping will be a return to form after several Coe disappointments. This one takes us back into cinema territory …
Paperbacks to Look Out For in July 2021: Part One Read More »
As regular readers may have noticed, a New York City setting is catnip for me which made Jonathan Lee’s The Great Mistake well nigh irresistible. I also have fond memories of reading his book, Joy, which featured in one of my earliest posts when I wasn’t entirely sure what I wanted this blog to be. …
The Great Mistake by Jonathan Lee: ‘The Man Who Gets Things Done’ Read More »
Families and their dynamics offer such fertile ground for fiction. Most of us have a family in one form or another, and many of us are mystified by the differences between them, not least when we’re introduced to them by our partners. Marie Aubert’s darkly funny Grown Ups explores that most febrile of family dynamics, …
Grown Ups by Marie Aubert (transl. Rosie Hedger): Life begins at forty Read More »
Far fewer titles than usual have caught my eye for July when the holiday reading season is in full swing, not much of which appeals to me. That said, there’s usually at least one novel that falls neatly into that pigeonhole which takes my fancy. This year’s is Miranda Cowley Heller’s The Paper Palace spanning …
Huge amounts of brouhaha surrounding Zakiya Dalila Harris’ debut, stretching back many months as publishers tweeted their joy at getting their hands on a copy of The Other Black Girl. I’ll admit to suffering proof envy with this one, resorting to NetGalley when it turned out there were none left. Set in a prestigious New …
The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris: Stepford publishers Read More »
I’d not come across Jen Silverman’s name before We Play Ourselves arrived. She’s a playwright which left me wondering how much of herself was in this novel about a woman in her thirties, suddenly in the glare of publicity after a decade of putting on plays in obscure New York venues, whose star plummets as …
We Play Ourselves by Jen Silverman: ‘There are so many lives ahead of us all’ Read More »
I was brought up in the countryside but I’m much more comfortable living in an urban environment, a small city rather than a metropolis where cinema, galleries and music venues are all within walking distance, not to mention the odd bookshop or two. I love the beauty of landscape plus the odd glimpse of wildlife …
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 – From The Bass Rock to The Reader on the 6.27 Read More »
Way back in 2012, I read Liz Moore’s second novel, Heft, which I remember enjoying although, so many books having passed under the bridge since then, not much else. When I spotted The Words of Every Song in the schedules I hadn’t realised it was her debut, attracted by its New York music scene setting. …
The Words of Every Song by Liz Moore: Living the dream, or perhaps not Read More »
I ended my review of Vendela Vida’s The Diver’s Clothes Lie Entry back in 2015, pleased to find she had a backlist to explore. Needless to say, too many bright, shiny new books got in the way so I was delighted when We Run the Tides arrived through the letterbox. Set in a wealthy San …
We Run the Tides by Vendela Vida: Beauty and truth, or the lack of it Read More »