Book news, reviews and recommendations
March means spring’s on the horizon in my part of the world with the worst over for another year. Lots to look forward to in the book world, too, beginning with Rebecca Wait’s debut I’m Sorry You Feel That Way which has kept its cover sporting last year’s favourite image of a woman face down […]
Paperbacks to Look Out For in March 2023: Part One Read More »
I was intrigued by the blurb for Douglas Bruton’s brief novella, With or Without Angels, which described the book as ‘a response through fiction’ to ‘The New World’ an artwork by the late artist Alan Smith, itself a response to the eighteenth-century artist Giandomenico Tiepolo’s ‘Il Mondo Nuovo’. In his acknowledgements, Bruton explains that after
With or Without Angels by Dennis Bruton: A beautiful and original response to art Read More »
I’d not long read Dani Shapiro’s memoir of discovering that her beloved father was not her biological parent, when I spotted her new novel on NetGalley. Identity and family are the overriding themes running through Inheritance and the latter is to the fore in Signal Fires which follows the Shenkmans and the Wilfs who live
Signal Fires by Dani Shapiro: Secrets, lies and the damage done Read More »
I started the first batch of March titles by mentioning two big books to look out for. The first was Eleanor Catton’s Birnam Wood about which I have my doubts, the second is Sebastian Barry’s Old God’s Time which blew my socks off. Set in mid-90s Ireland, it follows a recently retired, widowed police officer
Books to Look Out For in March 2023: Part Two Read More »
I’m not entirely sure what made me choose Laurent Petitmangin’s What You Need from the Night. Perhaps it was because it’s been quite some time since I’ve read a French novel, or maybe the cover persuaded me with its laughing little boy on his father’s shoulders although the blurb made it clear it wouldn’t be
I’d love to show off my jazz erudition and tell you that I knew the title of Laura Warrell’s debut was a Jelly Roll Morton quote but that’s not the case. Truth be told, I know little or nothing about the genre but I did like the idea of a novel that told the story
Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm by Laura Warrell: Men behaving badly Read More »
Two big names leapt out of the March schedules for me although I’m not at all sure about the first. The second I’ve already read but I’m saving that for the next instalment. You’ll probably already know about Eleanor Catton’s Birnam Wood which has been all over social media. It follows the eponymous guerrilla gardening
Books to Look Out For in March 2023: 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 – Trust to Bird Cottage 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 into as many hands as I could. Hard to imagine a time when Kate Atkinson wasn’t a literary household name, albeit one seemingly doomed not
Blasts from the Past: Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson (1995) Read More »
For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy on My Little Pain is one of those books I suspect I’d not have read if I hadn’t been sent it. Proof that stepping outside your comfort zone often reaps rewards. Victoria MacKenzie’s ambitious debut reimagines the lives of Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe, both of whose books
I’ve read just one from February’s second batch of paperbacks, attracted by its Berlin setting and its structure. Telling a city’s story through a single building and its inhabitants is such an appealing device. Żanna Słoniowska did it memorably with Lviv in The House with the Stained-glass Window. Emma Harding’s The Berliners – originally published under
Paperbacks to Look Out For in February 2023: Part Two Read More »