Book news, reviews and recommendations
Everything about Nick Bradley’s The Cat and the City appealed to me: its jacket, structure, setting and, yes, that cat. Set in Tokyo, Bradley’s episodic novel follows a set of characters through their teeming city as it prepares to play host to the Olympics, each of whose lives are touched by a very particular cat: […]
The Cat and the City by Nick Bradley: A most unusual feline Read More »
This is the second collection I’ve read recently which explores the theme of immigration although my reading experience for each of them was very different. I read a print edition of How to Pronounce Knife whereas Dima Alzayat’s Alligator and Other Stories was my first toe in the Netgalley water, although far from my first
Alligator and Other Stories by Dima Alzayat: Immigration reprised Read More »
I seem to have read quite a few novels that either revolve around the art world or have art as a significant theme. Perhaps there’s been a trend over the past few years or perhaps it’s because art interests me so much, regularly flexing my National Art Pass at exhibitions back before the pandemic. Whichever,
Five Novels I’ve Read About Art 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. It’s not that I don’t read any non-fiction but I review very little of it. This is only
Blasts from the Past: Skating to Antarctica by Jenny Diski (1997) Read More »
I remember enjoying Lily King’s Father of the Rain very much but the bestselling Euphoria, based on a brief episode in the life of Margaret Mead, didn’t appeal. King’s name stayed with me as one to look out for and when I saw Writers & Lovers described as ‘gorgeous’ by the splendid Elizabeth Strout I
Writers & Lovers by Lilly King: A novel to slip into and forget the world Read More »
Walking is the thing that’s helped keep me sane – so far – throughout the pandemic. That and blogging with its virtual community, still there when I can’t see my other friends. I’ve resisted using the term ‘lockdown’ because, for me, that would have meant the end of the permitted daily exercise outside the house
June’s paperback publishing schedules are in a rather sorry state, thanks to the cuts and postponements brought about by Covid-19. I’m left with just four in my sights, the first of which I’ve already read. Emma Forrest’s Royals is about a working-class Jewish boy drawn into the orbit of a poor little rich girl, set
Paperbacks to Look Out For in June 2020 Read More »
Rónán Hession’s Leonard and Hungry Paul had been sitting on my TBR shelves for far too long. Janet at From First Page to Last sent it to me and I’d meant to get to it before but somehow never did. Now seemed the perfect time given that I’ve edged closer to the cheery end of
Leonard and Hungry Paul by Rónán Hession: Another perfect comfort read Read More »
This blog tends to be all about the shiny and new but several titles reviewed on Ali’s HeavenAli blog from Handheld Press caught my eye, including Business as Usual first published in 1933. Then Covid-19 struck and the world turned upside down. Small presses seemed likely to be the hardest hit so I posted two
Business as Usual by Jane Oliver & Ann Stafford: A perfect comfort read 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 into as many hands as I could. I read U.S.A. not just years but decades ago. Both huge and experimental, it took me months to
Blasts from the Past: U. S. A. by John Dos Passos (1930-36) Read More »
Historical novelist Daniel Mason’s name will be well known to many readers, I’m sure. I remember The Piano Tuner causing quite a stir when it was published back in 2002 but it didn’t appeal to me. You might wonder, then, why I picked up A Registry of My Passage Upon the Earth but its multitude