Book news, reviews and recommendations
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. Susan Minot’s prose is characterised by the kind of quietly restrained precision which has long been my favourite […]
Blasts from the Past: Evening by Susan Minot (1999) Read More »
I went back and forth on whether to read Madeline Cash’s Lost Lambs, partly the cover, partly the emphasis on humour, but I read a few reviews one of which emphatically told ditherers like me to get on with it. Cash’s novel follows the supremely dysfunctional Flynn family shortly after Catherine, frustrated with her life
Lost Lambs by Madeline Cash: An enjoyable romp Read More »
We’re on the home strait, heading towards spring here in the UK with some interesting fiction to ease us along although I wasn’t entirely sold on March’s first title. Quite a lot of pre-publication brouhaha around Eliana Ramage’s ambitious debut, To the Moon and Back, which follows Steph who arrives with her sister in Oklahoma
Books to Look Out For in March 2026: Part One Read More »
I was looking for something reasonably untaxing when Erin Somers’s novel popped up on NetGalley. Set in gentrified smalltown America, The Ten Year Affair follows Cora, Sam and their families through a decade after they meet and instantly click at a baby group. She thought Eliot and Sam would get along. She could picture their
The Ten Year Affair by Erin Somers: Will they won’t they? Read More »
I remember lots of brouhaha around Australian writer Madeleine Gray’s debut, Green Dot, but its premise didn’t appeal to me. Chosen Family looked much more interesting. It follows two friends, misfits at their all-girls school, who become platonic, cooperative parents of a daughter, determined to be better at the job than their own parents despite
Chosen Family by Madeleine Gray: You always hurt the one you love Read More »
The second part of February’s paperback preview kicks off with an unusual choice for me. Jon Hickey’s debut, Big Chief, is set on the fictional Passage Rouge Indian Reservation in northern Wisconsin in the run up to a crucial election for Mitch Caddo and his best friend Tribal President Mack Beck who run the Reservation’s
Paperbacks to Look Out For in February 2026: Part Two Read More »
That lovely cover caught my eye on NetGalley before I realised that Patrick Charnley is the son of the much-missed Helen Dunmore, one of my favourite authors. This, My Second Life is Charnley’s debut which starts with a sobering author’s note telling his readers that while this is a novel, the narrator’s cardiac arrest and
This, My Second Life by Patrick Charnley: A doubly poignant debut Read More »
The first snapshot of my reading year includes a novel published by Salt, a small indie that manages to survive despite the odds, a slightly disappointing short story collection and a piece of consoling non-fiction. The novel I’m reading is Xan Brooks’s The Catchers set in the 1920s American South. I’m not very far in
A Snapshot of My Reading #11 Read More »
The first instalment of February’s paperback preview begins with one that slipped through my net when it was first published. Rupert Dastur’s debut, Cloudless, is set in rural Wales where in 2004 Catrin and John wait for their older son to return from Iraq, horrified at his decision to enlist. The appearance of an old
Paperbacks to Look Out For in February 2026: Part One Read More »
This is the fourth review of a Bryan Washington book I’ve posted here, beginning with Lot, his collection of short stories back in 2019. Palaver follows an unnamed mother and son over the few weeks she pays him an unexpected and unwelcome visit in Tokyo where he’s been living for over a decade. I think,
Palaver by Bryan Washington: Home is where the heart is Read More »
Our London break got off to a slightly sticky start thanks to train problems which meant we arrived later than expected. We dropped our initial plans in favour of wandering over to Waterstones Piccadilly for a browse then H suggested a visit to the National Gallery to look at the floor. You might think that
Three Days in London and Half a Book Read More »