Book news, reviews and recommendations
For some novels, location is immaterial: plot or characterisation is the thing. Others are much more firmly rooted in their setting, a sense of place evoked through vivid word pictures or the mention of well known landmarks. When it comes to cities, I have a number of favourite backdrops – regular readers are probably all …
Sandra Hoffmann’s Paula is one of the launch titles for V&Q Books who specialise in translated German fiction. In her translator’s note Katy Derbyshire explains that so impressed was she with Hoffmann’s book that, unable to find a British publisher for her translation, she decided to approach a German press with a view to setting …
Paula by Sandra Hoffmann (transl. Katy Derbyshire): The power of silence Read More »
Mikael Niemi’s To Cook a Bear was one of those books I dithered about, historical crime fiction not really being my kind of thing, but a combination of the publisher – Maclehose Press whose books are reliably good – and its Swedish setting persuaded me to take the plunge. Set in the far north, Niemi’s …
To Cook a Bear by Mikael Niemi (transl Deborah Bragen-Turner): To the North… Read More »
I promised there’d be something a bit different about the second instalment of October’s paperbacks and I suspect many of you will scarper when I reveal what it is: this one’s all about short stories. Before you disappear over the horizon, please know that I was like you once but I’ve discovered a whole new …
Paperbacks to Look Out for in October 2020: Part Two Read More »
I rarely agree to look at a book in response to a direct request from the author. Given that this blog is about books I’d be happy to recommend to a friend, there’s too much of a risk I won’t enjoy it enough to review it which always feels like a personal rejection and I’m …
Carrying Fire and Water by Deirdre Shanahan: Stories of loss and longing Read More »
I suspect I wouldn’t have read Charlie Gilmour’s memoir had it not been for the persuasive, clearly heartfelt enthusiasm of its editor coupled with a great quote in the letter which accompanied the proof. Gilmour’s name may be familiar to many through his stepfather, Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour, or his brief period of notoriety …
Featherhood by Charlie Gilmour: Of birds and fathers Read More »
Not a huge selection of paperbacks for October but enough to merit two posts I’m pleased to say. I’ve read three of the first batch already including one which at first sight seemed to be a piece of opportunistic publishing. Originally published in the US back in 2011, Tayari Jones’ Silver Sparrow was released here …
Paperbacks to Look Out for in October 2020: Part One Read More »
Earlier in the year I reviewed Business as Usual, published by Handheld Press based just a few miles from where I live. It was a little outside my usual reading territory – Handheld specialise in reissuing largely forgotten books by women – but I loved it: a welcome piece of escapism during the height of …
I’ve long been a fan of Sue Miller’s intelligent, perceptive fiction and was delighted to see a new title from her in the publishing schedules. It seems ages since I reviewed The Arsonist, her last novel. Like all her books, Monogamy inhabits that territory sometimes dubbed ‘women’s fiction’ which seems a shame to me as …
This October’s publishing schedules has fewer attention-grabbing novels than I’d hoped, given all the slipping and sliding earlier in the year but perhaps November’s Christmas sparklers will be brighter. I’ll begin with Bill Clegg’s The End of the Day. I read his first novel, Did You Ever Have a Family, back in 2015 when it …
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 Rodham to Spider Read More »