Book news, reviews and recommendations
I wrote four posts like this before Christmas, trailing novels to be published in the first quarter of the year that I was particularly looking forward to. Time’s been marching on – and I enjoyed doing them enormously – so I thought I’d write one about books to be published in May that take my […]
Books to Look Out for in May 2014: Part One Read More »
You’re either brave or happy to court controversy if you choose to write a book with this kind of title unless you mean it to be taken with a pinch of salt. You lay yourself open to be shot down in flames, ridiculed for your ignorance and put right by every Tom, Dick and Henrietta
Fifty Books that Changed the World by Andrew Taylor: A brave, bold claim Read More »
There’ve been a few exchanges in my booky little Twitter corner recently about commercial and literary fiction, how one is thought to be more worthy of serious attention than the other. I haven’t been joining in partly because I’m not sure what I think about it. I do know that my own reading would be
Last week was the first birthday of Tinder Press, an imprint of Headline publishers. I remember being excited by the first clutch of titles they published and thought them very canny in transferring Maggie O’Farrell from the Headline Review imprint to Tinder for their launch title, Instructions for a Heatwave. I think they’ve every reason
The Snapper by Brian Kimberling and The Lemon Grove by Helen Walsh Read More »
Before I write anything else I should apologise to Jackie at Farm Lane Books for stealing her idea. It was so strikingly simple that I wanted to do the same. I hope she won’t mind. The long list for one of my favourite awards, the Baileys (née Orange) Women’s Prize for Fiction, will be announced
My wish list for the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction 2014 Read More »
When Helen Oyeyemi was supposed to be studying for her A-levels she was actually busy writing her first novel, published in 2005. I was the reviews editor for Waterstone’s Books Quarterly at the time and a quick skim of The Icarus Girl was enough for me to make it a lead review. I commissioned Lesley
Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi: A fabulous tale of race and identity Read More »
It’s just an organ – vital, of course – but it simply pumps blood around our circulatory systems in order that we can continue to live. If it weakens, we eventually die. Yet it’s become very much more than that in our lexicon of symbols – we speak from the heart, it’s recognised as the
The Tell-tale Heart by Jill Dawson: What happens when your heart is not your own Read More »
This is one of those novels about which there was a good deal of excited chatter in my neck of the Twitter woods so I approached it with a degree of caution. A few chapters in and any concerns that it might have been overhyped were quashed. It opens in 1943. John Easley finds himself
The Wind is Not a River by Bryan Payton: A love that knows no bounds Read More »
The People in the Photo seemed an entirely appropriate novel to read after finishing Ben Watt’s reconstruction of his parents’ story. It begins with a description of a photograph from a local Swiss newspaper: three young people – two men and a woman – are bathed in sunlight against an Alpine backdrop, wearing white and
Readers in their 40s or 50s are likely to find themselves smiling, or perhaps grimacing, wryly in recognition within the first few paragraphs of Ben Watt’s poignant memoir of his parents. There’s a point at which roles are reversed and you find yourself worrying about your parents, whether they’re eating enough, drinking too much, living
Romany and Tom by Ben Watt: Comes to Us All Read More »
I’m pleased to report that my reading mojo is well and truly back: first, Never Mind Miss Fox then The Following Girls dipping into Amber Dermont’s The Starboard Sea in between. Indeed, Louise Levene’s new novel was such an unadulterated treat that it’s hard not to gush about it. Set in the ‘70s it’s a
The Following Girls by Louise Levene: A pitch perfect ’70s satire Read More »