Book news, reviews and recommendations
It was Ann Patchett’s glowing puff that swung it for me with acclaimed short story writer Patrick Ryan’s, Buckeye. I liked the sound of its premise but thought I might find the spiritualism mentioned in the blurb a bit too much to swallow. Ryan’s first novel follows two families, linked by a devastating secret, over […]
Buckeye by Patrick Ryan: If you like Ann Patchett… Read More »
Only a few paperbacks caught my eye for October, probably because it’s prime time horror season which I rarely read. There are a few gems appearing on the horizon, though, including two favourites from last year. I was so impressed by singer-songwriter Malachy Tallack’s That Beautiful Atlantic Waltz, I included it on my Booker wish
Paperbacks to Look Out For in October 2025 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 – Ghost Cities to The Hound of the Baskervilles 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. I’ve had a patchy reading history with Richard Russo but Straight Man is a standout for me, perhaps
Blasts from the Past: Straight Man by Richard Russo (1997) Read More »
I’d taken on too many titles for review when Andrew Porter’s The Imagined Life popped up on NetGalley but I couldn’t resist both its premise and that cover so jumped in. Porter’s novel sees a middle-aged man who’s been carrying the burden of his father’s disappearance since he was twelve years old, determined to get
The Imagined Life by Andrew Porter: ‘In the imagined life, so much is different’ Read More »
Slim pickings for October’s new fiction with a couple outside my usual literary territory including Harriet Lane’s Other People’s Fun which sees Ruth facing an empty nest and the end of her marriage while enduring a humdrum job. Her tedium is brightened by the reappearance of Sookie, confident, vivacious and keen to be Ruth’s pal
Books to Look Out For in October 2025 Read More »
I’ve enjoyed several novels over the past few years about the ownership of stories – Andrew Lipstein’s Last Resort springs to mind as does Hanff Korelitz’s The Plot – which is why I put up my hand for Dominic Amerena’s debut, I Want Everything. When our unnamed narrator is discharged from one of his many
I Want Everything by Dominic Amerena: Who owns the story? Read More »
It’s nine years since I reviewed Nicola Barker’s The Cauliflower® describing it as a Marmite novel – love it or hate it for those not acquainted with the expression. Her new one, TonyInterruptor, is more conventional although not a novel that lends itself to an easy synopsis, tossing around ideas between its small cast of
TonyInterruptor by Nicola Barker: ‘Is this honest? Are we all being honest here?’ Read More »
Old women aren’t a common subject for contemporary fiction, not one that captures agents’ or publishers’ commercial attention, I suspect. Even that description is uncomfortable for many, but old lady somehow feels more so to me, genteel and patronising. Below are five novels whose authors have created strikingly memorable old woman, three with links to
Five Novels About Old Women I’ve Read Read More »
I was in two minds about reading Ruth, Kate Riley’s debut, but that clever cover and a pithy one-line puff from Jenny Offill swung it for me. It’s told from the point of view of the eponymous character, born into an Anabaptist community in 1963, following her through childhood, marriage and motherhood into middle age.
Ruth by Kate Riley: A world apart Read More »
This month’s snapshot includes a much-acclaimed Booker Prize winner, a short story collection by the mother of one of my favourite novelists and an account of a year spent sampling Britain’s subcultures The novel I’m reading is Samantha Harvey’s Orbital which follows six astronauts aboard a space station as they encircle the earth multiple times
A Snapshot of My Reading #7 Read More »