Book news, reviews and recommendations
Less new fiction than I’d hoped to look out for in April but still enough to fill a two-part preview kicking off with one for which I was champing at the bit once I saw it all over Twitter. Set in early ‘90s Glasgow, Booker Prize-winning Douglas Stuart’s Young Mungo is about the youngest son […]
Books to Look Out For in April 2022: Part One Read More »
The second part of March’s paperback preview begins with two novels on an art theme: one I’ve read and thoroughly enjoyed; the other I haven’t but it comes highly recommended. Maylis de Kerangal’s Painting Time follows one of three students who meet in Brussels while on a trompe l’œil course. Paula shares her small apartment
Paperbacks to Look Out For in March 2022: Part Two Read More »
With spring on the horizon here in the UK, perhaps more in hope than in reality after last week’s storms, I’m starting March’s paperback preview with two books that should raise a smile. Set in a small American town, Katherine Heiny’s Early Morning Riser follows Jane who meets the handsome Duncan when she locks herself
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There was a definite family theme running through much of the first part of March’s fiction preview; this second part is more of a mixed bag although it does start with a novel about a family, and an infamous one at that. As I say all too often on here, then promptly read the exception
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Things are looking up in my part of the world with spring on the, albeit distant, horizon and some great new fiction on offer in March beginning with Charlotte Mendelson’s The Exhibitionist, seven years in the writing according to the letter that accompanied my proof. Artists Ray and Lucia Hanrahan have been together for decades.
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Part two of February’s paperback preview is something of a mixed bag, albeit an interesting one, beginning with. David Annand’s Peterdown which tells the story of a town through two people on opposing sides of a plan to redevelop it. Ellie is an architect determined to save a modernist estate shortlisted as a property to
Paperbacks to Look Out for in February 2022: Part Two Read More »
Fewer paperback goodies than I’d like in February’s schedules, just about enough for a two-part preview beginning with a title that’s been all over my Twitter timeline for well over a year. Caleb Azumah Nelson has had a very good year so far. Not only did Open Water win the 2021 Costa First Novel Award,
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February’s first instalment kicked off with a highly anticipated novel as does this one. Monica Ali’s Love Marriage sees Yasmin engaged to a fellow doctor and looking forward to a bright future. Her family’s reaction to her prospective mother-in-law’s feminism sparks revelations and a reassessment by Yasmin of her family and what her marriage might
Books to Look Out for in February 2022: Part Two Read More »
February’s often the gloomiest month in the UK weather year but at least there are lots of bookish goodies on offer, certainly enough for a two-part preview. I’m kicking off both with long awaited novels. For some reason I’ve never got around to Hannah Kent’s The Good People having very much enjoyed Burial Rites but
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The second batch of January paperbacks starts with two novels that take swipes at social media, both of which I’ve read. Set in 2016 with Trump freshly elected, Lauren Oyler’s Fake Accounts follows an unnamed narrator, shocked to find her apparently liberal boyfriend is running a popular conspiracy theory website, taking herself off to Berlin
Paperbacks to Look Out for in January 2022: Part Two Read More »
Two lengthy paperback previews for January, packed with a plethora of goodies to spend those Christmas book tokens on, many of which I’ve already read including Olivia Sudjic’s Asylum Road which follows Anya who finds herself engaged to Luke during their Provencal holiday rather than dumped as she’d anticipated. Anya feels like the perpetual outsider
Paperbacks to Look Out for in January 2022: Part One Read More »