Book news, reviews and recommendations
So the clocks have changed in looking forward land, but it’s probably raining in April in the UK anyway so no reason to leave that sofa and quite a few reasons to stay on it. Earlier this year (that’s 2013) Sarah Moss took me on one of several visits to Iceland with her lovely memoir […]
Books to Look Out for in April 2014 Read More »
Nearly spring here in looking forward land, and the days are getting longer but there’s still plenty to keep you comfortably curled up on the sofa. Let’s start with a bit of non-fiction which will get you out and about if only in your head. The subtitle of cookery writer Mina Holland’s The Edible Atlas
Books to Look Out for in March 2014 Read More »
February is often such a dull, grey month here in the UK that you might just as well stay in and read as venture outside. Lots of new novels to keep you entertained if that’s your choice. As with yesterday’s post, a click on the title should take you to Waterstones for a more detailed
Reasons to be Cheerful (2): Books to look out for in February 2014 Read More »
I’ve been mulling over a post on books I’m looking forward to in 2014 for a little while, wondering how to organise it. At first it was going to be one post covering the first four months, then two made up of two months each but it seems to be turning into one for each
Books to Look Out for in January 2014 Read More »
The jacket of Merethe Lindstrom’s beautifully written, quietly devastating novel suits it perfectly: the door of an almost empty room opens onto another room, opening onto another, all in varying shades of grey. It’s narrated by Eva and begins with an intruder, a young man who asks to use her phone when she is at
Back in 2009, after a long and illustrious career as a novelist, Margaret Drabble called time on writing fiction, following her announcement with the publication of The Pattern in the Carpet, a kind of memoir through jigsaws that I have yet to read but which I’m told is very good. Surprisingly, then, this year saw
The Pure Gold Baby by Margaret Drabble: A second swansong? Read More »
This is my fourth literary trip to Iceland this year – Hannah Kent’s impressive debut Burial Rites, Sarah Moss’s Names for the Sea and Michel Rostain’s novel/memoir The Son all took me there in one way or another and now Auđur Ava Ólafsdóttir’s quirky novel Butterflies in November. It opens with the killing of a
Set at the end of the nineteenth century, Equilateral opens in the Egyptian desert where nine hundred thousand Arab fellahin labour to create a vast equilateral triangle which will be seen from Mars, so Sanford Thayer, celebrated astronomer and instigator of the project, has calculated. Inspired by Giovanni Schiaparelli’s maps based on his observations of
Equilateral by Ken Kalfus: A tale of folly, madness and Martians Read More »
I have to confess that I hadn’t heard of And Other Stories until a copy of Ivan Vladislavić’s Double Negative dropped through my letterbox. They’re a not-for-profit organisation who publish books funded by subscriptions from the likes of you and me, readers keen to support new writing and happy to pay an annual subscription for
Double Negative by Ivan Vladislavić from And Other Stories: A new approach to publishing Read More »
Given that it’s ‘best this’ and ‘best that’ time of the year I thought I’d list my own top six favourite reads of 2013, particularly as it’s been one of my best reading years in ages. Unsurprisngly, I’ve failed miserably to keep to my limit so here are my top however many in no particular
Six favourites from 2013, and then some Read More »
Corsair is one of my favourite imprints, a member of a select band that always published far too many tempting books to include them all when I was a reviews editor. One I had to drop, reluctantly, a couple of years ago was Cathleen Schine’s The Three Weissmanns of Westport which had kept me entertained
Fin and Lady by Cathleen Schine: Holly Golightly plays guardian Read More »