Book news, reviews and recommendations
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 How to Do Nothing to Everything Under Read More »
Two things drew me to Jonas Hassen Khemiri’s The Family Clause: I’d enjoyed his previous novel, Everything I Don’t Remember, back in 2016, and the blurb sounded tempting with its promise of chaotic and discordant family life. I’d been expecting a fairly straightforward linear narrative but that’s not Khemiri’s style. This everyday tale of a
The Family Clause by Jonas Hassen Khemiri (transl. Alison Menzies): What Larkin said Read More »
I remember Eley Williams’ collection of short stories, Attrib, being garlanded with praise from all sorts of people whose opinions I trust back in 2017 when it was published. I’ve no idea why I didn’t get around to reading it, being well over my short story aversion by then, particularly as its themes seem to
The Liar’s Dictionary by Eley Williams: ’The action of telling lies in an artful way’ Read More »
I’m beginning this second instalment of August paperbacks with one I’ve already read. Linda Grant’s A Stranger City looks at how we’re all both connected and unconnected, portraying a post-referendum London through a set of disparate characters brought together by their links with a woman whose body has been pulled from the Thames. Each character’s
Paperbacks to Look Out for in August 2020: Part Two Read More »
I’d heard good things about Fishnet, Kirstin Innes’ first novel, but hadn’t yet got around to reading it when Scabby Queen popped up in my Twitter timeline adorned with a puff from Janice Galloway whose The Trick Is to Keep Breathing and Jellyfish I loved. Innes’ second novel is the story of Clio Campbell, political
Scabby Queen by Kirstin Innes: Setting the world on fire Read More »
Another year, another Booker Prize longlist in the offing although this year has been far from normal both in the book world and beyond with titles bouncing around the publishing schedules like tennis balls thanks to the pandemic. I’d half expected a postponement of the longlist announcement but the Booker brigade seem to be sticking
My 2020 Booker Wish List Read More »
I’m beginning the first all-American instalment of August’s two-parter paperback preview with a book that was a standout for me in 2019. Bryan Washington’s Lot comes billed as a collection of short stories – some snapshots, others much longer – but for me it read like a fragmentary novella. Through it runs the story of
Paperbacks to Look Out for in August 2020: Part One Read More »
It was Cathy at 746 Books who first alerted me to Susannah Dickey’s debut. Cathy’s reliably impeccable taste meant Tennis Lessons went straight on my ever lengthening wishlist. Dickey’s also a poet, giving me another reason to read it. Poets so often write good fiction. From the blurb, I thought it would be a straightforward,
Tennis Lessons by Susannah Dickey: Growing pains Read More »
I’m a sucker for covers that fit their books well. When I spotted Anbara Salam’s Belladonna on Twitter, it was that strikingly evocative jacket that snagged my interest although I was concerned it might be a wee bit fluffy. While it’s certainly an easy read, fluffy’s not the word for this coming-of-age novel, set in
Belladonna by Anbara Salam: ‘Sometimes love isn’t enough’ Read More »
The first batch of August’s new titles began with a book by a favourite author of mine as does this second, although I got off to a slow start with his writing. After being a wee bit underwhelmed by Donal Ryan’s The Thing About December, I loved From a Low and Quiet Sea and All
Books to Look Out for in August 2020: Part Two Read More »
I read Mary McCarthy’s The Group many years ago as a teenager when it was already acclaimed as a classic. In it eight women who met as students in the ‘30s form the titular group whose intimate lives and friendship the novel follows. Not my generation at all, but I was spellbound by it and
The Group by Lara Feigel: A twentieth-century classic reprised Read More »