Book news, reviews and recommendations
This month I’m reading a short story collection by a novelist I’ve had a slightly patchy experience with, a memoir combining travel and food – two of my favourite things besides reading – and a prize-winning novel I’d hoped to enjoy more than I am. The short story collection I’m reading is Tessa Hadley’s After […]
A Snapshot of My Reading #17 Read More »
June’s snapshot includes a short story collection which may turn out to be patchy, a biography for book nerds and a novel about art, writing, race and academia. The short story collection I’m reading is Irish writer Rebecca Ivory’s Free Therapy. I’ve read two stories, the best of which was the first about a two
A Snapshot of My Reading #16 Read More »
This month’s snapshot includes one for ardent David Bowie fans, a pandemic novel but don’t let that put you off, and a collection of short stories which begins with a brief novella set in Manhattan. The short story collection I’m reading is Lore Segal’s Ladies’ Lunch and Other Stories of which I’ve only read the titular
A Snapshot of My Reading #15 Read More »
April’s snapshot includes an exposé of jaw-dropping fraud in the art world, a short story collection from a writer whose novels I love and a novel set during the pandemic in a once grand Egyptian hotel about a mischievous octogenarian who meets her match in an eight-year-old boy. The non-fiction book I’m reading is Orlando
A Snapshot of My Reading #14 Read More »
March’s snapshot includes a Swedish short story collection from a writer whose novels I’ve enjoyed, a piece of non-fiction in which the author is absent, and a novel largely set in 1990s New York. The short story collection I’m reading is Sara Stridberg’s beautifully expressed Hunter in Huskvarna. Her writing is often lyrical, vividly summoning
A Snapshot of My Reading #13 Read More »
February’s snapshot includes a novel I’m crossing my fingers for, a short story collection from a favourite author and a well-known critic’s very personal piece art history. The novel I’m reading is Rupert Thomson’s How to Make a Bomb which begins with an academic returning from a conference, experiencing what may be a breakdown. I’ve
A Snapshot of My Reading #12 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 »
December’s snapshot includes a chunkster of a novel set in India written by an Ethiopian American physician, a short story collection by a Swedish writer from a favourite publisher and a doorstopping piece of travel writing that I started last month, making two that more than qualify for Laura’s Doorstoppers in December. The novel I’m
A Snapshot of My Reading #10 Read More »
This month’s snapshot includes a novel by a Korean American author, a short story collection from a promising young Irish writer and a doorstopping travelogue. The novel I’m reading is Paul Yoon’s Run Me to Earth, chosen because I so enjoyed his short story collection. It follows three young Laotians, recruited to help at a
A Snapshot of My Reading #9 Read More »
This month’s snapshot includes the follow-up to a novel I read well over twenty years ago, a short story collection popular with bloggers a while back and an account of a garden restoration which draws on art, literature and history. The novel I’m reading is Michael Bracewell’s Unfinished Business, a sequel of sorts to The
A Snapshot of My Reading #8 Read More »
This month’s snapshot includes a much-acclaimed Booker Prize winner, a short story collection by the mother of one of my favourite novelists and an account of a year spent sampling Britain’s subcultures The novel I’m reading is Samantha Harvey’s Orbital which follows six astronauts aboard a space station as they encircle the earth multiple times
A Snapshot of My Reading #7 Read More »