Book news, reviews and recommendations
Elizabeth Arnott’s The Secret Lives of Murderers’ Wives caught my eye on NetGalley with its arresting cover, but it was its 1960s California setting that swung it for me together with a mention of Mad Men in the blurb. It has an interesting premise, too: three women, all once married to convicted serial killers, are […]
Lots of goodies to look out for in June beginning with one from a favourite author of mine. In Ann Patchett’s Whistler, Daphne and her husband are visiting a museum before Jonathan sets off for Wisconsin to help his sister clear their late mother’s house. The dapper elderly man so interested in Daphne turns out
Books to Look Out For in June 2026: Part One 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 – Wild Dark Shore to This is Happiness 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 in as many hands as I could. Ghostwritten was published in my last year as a bookseller when I’d become a little jaded with sales
Blasts from the Past: Ghostwritten by David Mitchell (1999) Read More »
H had been wanting to go back to Paris for some time but I wasn’t so keen; then a friend raved about an art deco exhibition she’d seen there. That, and her reassurance that queues to see the newly restored Notre Dame weren’t nearly so horrendous as I assumed, convinced me to go. Walking down
Four Days in Paris and Two Books Read More »
Back from my travels (more of which later in the week) with the second instalment of May’s paperback preview which kicks off with a book from one of the most inventive British authors I know although I’m pretty sure Helen Oyeyemi’ A New New Me will be a Marmite novel, rather like Parasol Against the
Paperbacks to Look Out For in May 2026: Part Two Read More »
Lots of paperbacks to look forward to as we head towards what publishers see as the holiday reading season. My first choice might well fall into that category. Emily Adrian’s Seduction Theory sees an apparently perfect marriage between two academics begin to crumble through the long summer vacation. Simone’s made her mark as the star
Paperbacks to Look Out For in May 2026: Part One Read More »
An international bestseller, Ia Genberg’s The Details was one of 2023’s standout reads for me. Published for the first time in English, this year’s International Booker Prize longlisted Small Comfort is an earlier novel, also translated by Kira Joseffson. It has a similar structure, following five characters although this time the link is money rather
Small Comfort by Ia Genberg (Tr. Kira Josefsson): Money, money, money Read More »
April’s snapshot includes an exposé of jaw-dropping fraud in the art world, a short story collection from a writer whose novels I love and a novel set during the pandemic in a once grand Egyptian hotel about a mischievous octogenarian who meets her match in an eight-year-old boy. The non-fiction book I’m reading is Orlando
A Snapshot of My Reading #14 Read More »
May’s second preview begins with the first standalone novel in some time from an author whose series are beloved by many. Spanning several years either side of the 2024 presidential election, Elizabeth Strout’s The Things We Never Say follows a high school history teacher, a favourite of both students and staff. Apparently happily married to
Books to Look Out For in May 2026: Part Two Read More »
I reviewed Ben Lerner’s novella 10:04 here over a decade ago, commenting on its many-layered interconnections, impossible to encapsulate in a short post. Since then, I’ve read Leaving the Atocha Station which brought him a great deal of acclaim although, for me, it didn’t match 10.04. Divided into three parts, Transcription is another brief novel
Transcription by Ben Lerner: A characteristically discursive novella Read More »