Book news, reviews and recommendations
It’s become something of a tradition for Barack Obama to issue his summer reading list. It seems to have been extended to an end of year favourites now, too. I bet publishers’ hearts sing with joy if one of their titles appears on either, the next best thing to an Oprah recommendation. I won’t lie, […]
Our June holiday in The Hague started well but became a bit of a nightmare when H and I both went down with a nasty bout of covid, overshadowing much of the summer. We decided a short, easy break in Lyme Regis would finish off our recuperation. Things didn’t get off to a brilliant start
Three days in and Around Lyme Regis and Just One Book Read More »
Back from a short break in Lyme Regis (more of which later in the week) with a second batch of October fiction which begins with a novel that didn’t quite fulfil my hopes. Set in the rain-soaked coastal community of Faha in December 1962, Time of the Child is a sequel of sorts to This
Books to Look Out For in October 2024: Part Two Read More »
Six Degrees of Separation is a meme hosted by Kate over at Books Are My Favourite and Best. It works like this: each month a book is chosen as a starting point and linked to six others to form a chain. A book doesn’t need to be connected to all the titles on the list,
Six Degrees of Separation – After Story to The Lie of the Land Read More »
The one thing I’m sure about with my first October title is that it will be all over what used to be called the broadsheet review pages. I was not nearly as fond of Alan Hollinghurst’s Man Booker Prize-winning The Line of Beauty as many hence my doubts about Our Evenings which follows two men,
Books to Look Out For in October 2024: Part One 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. Iain Banks was one of those writers talented enough to excel in at least two genres. Not being
Blasts from the Past: The Crow Road by Iain Banks (1992) Read More »
Jackson Brodie’s last outing came after a gap of nine long years so I was delighted when Death at the Sign of the Rook popped up on Netgalley a mere three years after Big Sky was published. For those who’ve yet to read Atkinson’s crime series or watch Jason Isacc’s brilliant portrayal of Jackson in
Despite a preference for spare, concise fiction, I do enjoy a good chunkster. Done well, they can be the perfect escape when all you want is lose yourself in a good old-fashioned piece of storytelling. Below are five doorstoppers, each with a link to a review on my blog. Set in an Irish seaside town,
Five More Doorstopping Novels I’ve Read Read More »
I jumped at the chance to read Sarah Manguso’s new novel when it was pitched to me. Very Cold People was one of my books of 2022. Written in spare, crisp prose, it’s a bleak novella about an abusive childhood, extraordinarily powerful. Liars is the equally bleak story of a dysfunctional marriage told from the
Liars by Sarah Manguso: ‘I was in charge of everything and in control of nothing.’ Read More »
I was delighted when I spotted a new Evie Wyld on NetGalley but less so when I read the blurb which mentioned a ghost watching his girlfriend grieving his death, the kind of device which sets off alarm bells for me. Set across several timelines and two continents, The Echoes unfolds Hannah’s story, revealing what
The Echoes by Evie Wyld: ‘Distance. The great reliever and creator of pain.’ Read More »
Another disappointingly thin paperback month although it kicks off with a gem, recently longlisted for the Booker Prize, one of two wishes fulfilled for me. Fugitive Pieces author Anne Michaels’ Held is her third novel making three in almost three decades, an indication of the care and thought with which she approaches her craft. It
Paperbacks to Look Out For in September 2024 Read More »