Book news, reviews and recommendations
December’s always a thin time of the year for new titles – publishers have long since assembled their choicest wares for the Christmas trade – but there’s usually something worth looking out for. This year three very disparate novels have snagged my attention. The first comes from an Australian publisher, Text Publishing, who seem to
Books to Look Out for in December 2016 Read More »
I started Salley Vickers’ Cousins a few days before the American Presidential election. It’s a bit of a doorstep, a literary family saga if you will, and I was in dire need of something to distract me from constantly looking at the polls. I finished it the day after the election but this is a
Cousins by Salley Vickers: A welcome and absorbing distraction Read More »
Back in 2012 Anna Stothard’s The Pink Hotel was longlisted for what was then the Orange Prize. In case you’re wondering Madeline Miller’s The Song of Achilles won it that year. I remember enjoying Stothard’s novel very much. It may have been the jacket with its powder blue, low slung car parked outside a pastel
The Museum of Cathy by Anna Stothard: Tainted love 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. David Malouf is one of those writers who seems to be able to turn his hand to anything:
Blasts from the Past: Remembering Babylon by David Malouf (1993) Read More »
Having got over my lifelong antipathy to short stories I still find myself drawn more to the linked variety rather than collections of standalones. There’s something about spotting a character familiar from a previous story and wondering how they might develop. Anna Noyes’ debut collection seemed like it might fit that category and although it
Goodnight, Beautiful Women by Anna Noyes: The human condition, elegantly sketched Read More »
Linda Grant’s Upstairs at the Party was one of my favourite books of 2014. It was something of a nostalgic read for me, set around the time I was a student with a cast of all too recognisable characters – excruciatingly so in some cases. The Dark Circle is entirely different. Opening in 1949, it
The Dark Circle by Linda Grant: The dawn of a new, healthier age Read More »
When I was a bookseller I loathed gift books, those brightly packaged offerings artfully placed by the till in late October to catch Christmas shoppers’ eyes. Rather like the groaning humour table, these piles were usually made up of what I thought of as non-books, most likely unwrapped and tossed aside never to be looked
Found on the Shelves: The acceptable face of gift books Read More »
There’s been a bit of pre-publication brouhaha for Jade Chang’s debut, much more subdued that the constant shouting which can be so off-putting but just enough to put it on my radar. Set in 2008 with the financial world about to crash with the loudest of bangs, it’s about a family whose cosmetics mogul father
The Wangs vs. the World by Jade Chang: A smart, funny road trip of a novel Read More »
Given that two jaunts that have taken me to Vienna this year, Linda Stift’s The Empress and the Cake seemed an obvious choice. It’s also translated by Jamie Bulloch whose name I’ve come to associate with excellent fiction. Part of Peirene’s Fairy Tale series, Stift’s novella comes beautifully packaged in delicate pink and cream but
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. Anyone who’s had more than a passing conversation with me about books will know that this is one
Blasts from the Past: What I Loved by Siri Hustvedt (2003) Read More »
History, family and otherwise, is woven through the fabric of this accomplished first novel which seems appropriate given that Neil Hegarty’s previous books deal with the subject. Set in Derry against the background of the Troubles, Inch Levels is about a young man with only a few weeks to live, wrestling with a dilemma and
Inch Levels by Neil Hegarty: Pay attention… Read More »