Book news, reviews and recommendations
I’m starting off the second instalment of February’s potential goodies with one that’s already earned a place on my books of the year list. Set over a single day in 1982, Laird Hunt’s Float Up, Sing Down tells the stories of fourteen inhabitants of the Indiana town where the eponymous star of his brilliant last […]
Books to Look Out For in February 2024: Part Two Read More »
I read Jane Oliver and Ann Stafford’s Business as Usual back in the early days of Covid. Wonderfully diverting, it was just what was needed at such an anxious, difficult time. Drawing on Stafford’s experience as an ambulance driver in London’s blitz, Army Without Banners is very different, spanning fifteen months during which London was
I know less about Libya than I feel I should, but I do remember the dramatic events on April 17, 1984, when WPC Yvonne Fletcher was fatally shot at a demonstration outside the Libyan Embassy in London throwing a long, dark shadow over relations between our two countries. Hisham Matar’s My Friends follows three Libyan
My Friends by Hisham Matar: Libya and the pain of exile Read More »
Lots of us in the Northern hemisphere are burying ourselves in books, escaping the grey gloom outside and looking forward to spring. Fortunately, there’s lots on offer to distract us, certainly enough for two helpings of books to look out for, beginning with one I’ve already read. Spanning a decade in Nigeria from 2006, Chukwuebuka
Books to Look Out For Out for in February 2024: Part One 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 – Tomorrow and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow to The Last Banquet 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. I’ve read several novels by Penelope Lively plus her lovely memoir, Ammonites and Leaping Fish, all of which
Blasts from the Past: The Photograph by Penelope Lively (2003) Read More »
That’s an eye-catching cover, isn’t it? It’s what made me put up my hand for a proof when I spotted it on Twitter (can’t be doing with that X nonsense) and it fits the novel beautifully. I’d registered lots of love for Ainslie Hogarth’s Mothering but hadn’t got around to reading it which also made
Normal Women by Ainslie Hogarth: Losing the plot Read More »
Regular readers will know I have a predilection for novels with an art theme. I’ve already written two posts in this series about that and there’s at least one more in the works. Music, however, is a much rarer theme in my reading. Below are five novels I’ve enjoyed where music is central, all with
Five Novels I’ve Read with a Music Theme Read More »
I ended 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 with this meme having been prompted by a post from at least one blogger, usually Annabel who was quick off the mark again this year. I’ve used last year’s prompts (I suspect I nicked them from Annabel) drawing on the titles of books I’ve read in 2023
My Life in Books (2023 Edition) Read More »
I’m starting this second instalment of January paperbacks with one I’m particularly looking forward to, if only for a vicarious trip to Milan. Tim Parks’ Hotel Milano sees a middle-aged recluse flying to Italy for the funeral of an old friend. Frank is hoping he can enjoy the comfort of his hotel and return to
Paperbacks to Look Out For in January 2024: Part Two Read More »
There are some juicy January paperbacks to banish the winter blues beginning with Charmaine Craig’s My Nemesis which explores ideas about feminism and femininity through two women who apparently hold diametrically opposing views on the subject. Tessa is an academic who conceives a cerebral passion for Charlie, a colleague married to Wah. Tessa’s a feminist
Paperbacks to Look Out For in January 2024: Part One Read More »