Book news, reviews and recommendations
I was keen to read Stewart O’Nan’s Ocean State having enjoyed his sympathetic, wryly humorous portrait of ageing, Henry, Himself, a few years ago. This new novel sounded entirely different. Opening just before Halloween in 2009, it arrived with a handful of American sweets as part of the marketing package including Tootsie Rolls which frequently […]
Ocean State by Stewart O’Nan: A keeper of secrets Read More »
Following on from her non-fiction handiwork, described as a ‘sister publication’ by the publishers, Sara Baume’s Seven Steeples is the latest in what I hope will be a continuing line of excellent books by Irish women writers this reading year. It spans eight years in the lives of Bell and Sigh who move into an
Seven Steeples by Sara Baume: Leaving the world behind Read More »
The first part of June’s paperbacks started with a novel hyped to the skies ahead of publication as does the second, although this time it’s a debut. Set in a prestigious New York publishing house, Zakiya Dalila Harris’ The Other Black Girl follows Nella, the only Black employee on the editorial staff until Hazel is
Paperbacks to Look Out For in June 2022: Part Two Read More »
Both its blurb and that empty chair on its cover warned me that Sarah Manguso’s Very Cold People was likely to be a bleak read but it was also what attracted me to this brief novella. Set in a small New England town, buttoned up and demarcated between rich and poor, Very Cold People sees
Very Cold People by Sarah Manguso: ‘I felt indistinct, like someone else’s dream’ Read More »
Five years ago, I reviewed Jennifer Egan’s Manhattan Beach, noting that it was seven years since her Pulitzer Prize-winning A Visit from the Goon Squad had been published. I was a little disappointed in it, truth be told, but when I spotted The Candy House in the schedules, I put up my hand, attracted by
The Candy House by Jennifer Egan: Virtual dystopia Read More »
Enough June paperbacks to more than make up for the lack of new titles that caught my eye I’m pleased to say, beginning with a book surrounded by huge amounts of brouhaha last year. Readers would have to have been living on Mars not to know about Sally Rooney’s Beautiful World, Where Are You. She’s
Paperbacks to Look Out For in June 2022: Part One Read More »
We’d rented an apartment in Milan, planning to give our stomachs a rest after a week of delicious but rich food although the excellent bakery just a few metres from our front door put paid to that. Unsurprisingly, the weather in Milan was very different from the Lakes, justifying my-pack-for-every-temperature tendency. We headed off to
Seven days in the Italian Lakes, Four Days in Milan and Four Books: Part Two Read More »
This is a first for me: a two-part what-I-did-on-my holidays piece. Our city and lakeside stays were so different I couldn’t fit them comfortably into one post, at least, that’s my excuse We’d booked a holiday in Italy just a few weeks before Covid knocked the world for six in February 2020, finally making it
Seven days in the Italian Lakes, Four Days in Milan and Four Books: Part One Read More »
I wasn’t at all sure I’d read Michael Arditti’s The Young Pretender but when I tweeted its arrival several people including Linda Grant and Amanda Craig sang its praises to the skies which persuaded me to give it a try and I’m glad they did. Subtitled ‘The Dramatic Return of Master Betty’, Arditti’s novella is
The Young Pretender by Michael Arditti: ‘I shall surely die if I may not be a player’ Read More »
Whereas I’d read all the books in the first part of May’s paperback preview, I’ve only managed two in the second, starting with Joan Silber’s Secrets of Happiness which begins with the sudden revelation of the second family of an apparently happily married man. Ethan and Allyson took their parents’ happiness for granted until the
Paperbacks to Look Out For in May 2022: Part Two Read More »
I’m always pleased when a book’s title and cover suit it as well as Chloë Ashby’s do for Wet Paint. Both were what made me put up my hand for a proof, intrigued by that title, which turns out to be a neat metaphor, and the jacket which suits its narrator perfectly. Ashby’s debut is
Wet Paint by Chloë Ashby: ‘I’m fine’ Read More »