Book news, reviews and recommendations
The second instalment of January fiction is all about and written by women beginning with a novel set in a world which tends to be dominated by men. Based on interviews with a female horse trainer, Kathryn Scanlan’s Kick the Latch follows one woman’s career while exploring all aspects of life at the racetrack, from […]
Books to Look Out For in January 2023: Part Two Read More »
I’m sure there’ll be at least one more look back over my shoulder at 2022 but I’m happily setting my sights on next year’s goodies beginning with one that first started popping up on Twitter around August this year. Rather like the appearance of mince pies in the shops, I’m sure pre-publication publicity gets earlier
Books to Look Out For in January 2023: Part One Read More »
We’re on the last lap, you’ll be pleased to hear, with a surprising number of gems in November, an indication of the way the publishing year has shifted since so many sales migrated online. I remember when October was the big publishing month. That month’s only stand out title for me was Elizabeth Strout’s Lucy
Books of the Year 2022: Part Four Read More »
July was spent alternately taking refuge from our builders, lovely as they are, and the heat which seemed to go on forever. Having the sort of skin that needs dousing in factor 50, I spent less time outdoors than I’d planned. You might expect lots of July favourites, then, but just one stood out for
Books of the Year 2022: Part Three Read More »
At the beginning of April, H and I took ourselves off to Manchester, a city I’d not visited since the ‘80s. Unsurprisingly, it’s changed considerably since then. We had a great time exploring and meeting up with two dear friends with not much time for reading. Plenty of that when we got back, beginning with
Books of the Year 2022: Part Two Read More »
This year continued the move back towards normality for me. H and I finally managed to take both the holidays abroad we’d booked for 2020 and there was much more socialising and getting out and about. We’re going to the cinema again (easy to lose touch when you don’t see the trailers) but I’ve realised
Books of the Year 2022: 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 – The Snow Child to Weasels in the Attic Read More »
I wasn’t sure what to expect from Olivia Wenzel’s 1,000 Coils of Fear. Wenzel is a mixed-race German who grew up in the old East, a dramatist, musician and performer who’s turned her hand to fiction. Her debut draws heavily on her own life following an unnamed narrator whose mother was an East German punk
1,000 Coils of Fear by Olivia Wenzel (transl. Priscilla Layne): ‘Where do you belong?’ Read More »
A few years ago, I read Kevin Wilson’s Nothing to See Here despite my reluctance at the prospect of children spontaneously combusting. It ended up on my books of the year list. Last year’s short story collection, Tunneling to the Centre of the Earth, also impressed me so I jumped at the chance to read
Now is Not the Time to Panic by Kevin Wilson: We are all fugitives Read More »
Given how much of my viewing time has been spent there thanks to Walter Presents, you’d think I’d have read more Scandinavian fiction but perhaps it’s because so much of the translated variety is crime related. Below are five striking Swedish novels I’ve read, all with links to my reviews, beginning with an award-winning piece
Five Swedish Novels I’ve Read Read More »
I’ve not had much success with Jonathan Coe’s recent novels. Despite winning the Costa Novel Award, Middle England hit a low point for me but I liked the sound of Bournville which tells the story of Britain from V. E. Day in 1945 to its seventy-fifth anniversary in 2020 through one extended family who begin
Bournville by Jonathan Coe: ‘Everything changes, and everything remains the same’ Read More »