Book news, reviews and recommendations
After the pyrotechnics of Siri Hustvedt’s new novel last week I felt in need of something a little less taxing, something engaging but not too challenging. Dea Brøvig’s The Last Boat Home looked a likely candidate. It’s a first novel set in a tiny community on the Norwegian coast. Two narrative strands alternate between the […]
The Last Boat Home by Dea Brøvig: Dark secrets in ’70s Norway Read More »
Where to start with Siri Hustvedt’s new novel? Perhaps with a warning that it’s not an easy read. If it’s good old linear narrative you’re after best look elsewhere. The Blazing World is made up of a collection of documents relating to Harriet Burden – interviews; written statements from her friend, her lover and her
The Blazing World by Siri Hustvedt: An astonishing piece of work Read More »
This post was prompted by my finishing Kathleen Jamie’s Findings which seems to me to be a perfect example of what I’ve been calling in my head the ‘new nature writing’. Jamie is an acclaimed poet and it shows in her wonderfully pared back descriptions of tracking the elusive corncrake on the island of Coll,
Findings by Kathleen Jamie: The new nature writing Read More »
Dept. of Speculation is Jenny Offill’s second novel. Her first, Last Things, was published way back in 1999, so long ago that I confess I have no memory of it except that I know that it must have been good as it’s still on my shelves having survived the series of charity shop culls over
Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill: A long time coming but well worth the wait Read More »
This may seem an unusual post from me but I enjoy eating almost as much as I enjoy reading and would do a lot more of it were I not in fear of an exploding waistline. Travel comes a close third which makes Mina Holland’s culinary atlas an attractive prospect, all the more so thanks
The Edible Atlas by Mina Holland: A tasty little post which involves Jaffa cakes Read More »
As promised last Monday, here’s the second post trailing the bumper bundle of novels published in May that have found their way onto my wish list. Tom Rachman’s The Rise and Fall of Great Powers was always going to be there because it’s about a bookseller – not just any old bookseller but one with
Books to Look Out for in May 2014: Part Two Read More »
I read a lot of first novels – there’s always that hope of spotting a shiny new talent. Often, of course, those hopes are dashed but this is not a blog for dashed hopes. You’ll only read about the books I’m happy to recommend here which is why you can trust what may well turn
Shotgun Lovesongs by Nickolas Butler: An American smalltown gem Read More »
Being a bit of an Elizabeth Strout fan, I was delighted to see her latest novel long listed for Baileys Prize last week. The Pulitzer-prize winning Olive Kitteridge was greatly admired in the States but I’m not sure it made much of an impression here in the UK. She writes the sort of quietly understated,
The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout: A Baileys contender Read More »
I wrote four posts like this before Christmas, trailing novels to be published in the first quarter of the year that I was particularly looking forward to. Time’s been marching on – and I enjoyed doing them enormously – so I thought I’d write one about books to be published in May that take my
Books to Look Out for in May 2014: Part One Read More »
You’re either brave or happy to court controversy if you choose to write a book with this kind of title unless you mean it to be taken with a pinch of salt. You lay yourself open to be shot down in flames, ridiculed for your ignorance and put right by every Tom, Dick and Henrietta
Fifty Books that Changed the World by Andrew Taylor: A brave, bold claim Read More »
There’ve been a few exchanges in my booky little Twitter corner recently about commercial and literary fiction, how one is thought to be more worthy of serious attention than the other. I haven’t been joining in partly because I’m not sure what I think about it. I do know that my own reading would be