Book news, reviews and recommendations
I know we’re not done with 2025 but I’ve already got the new publishing year in my sights, starting with a book from a favourite author. Bryan Washington’s Palaver explores what makes a home and family as it follows a mother and her son over the few weeks of her unexpected, unwelcome visit to him […]
Books to Look Out For in January 2026: Part One Read More »
We’re racing towards the end of the year although I spent several weeks of 2025’s last quarter going nowhere very much thanks to plantar fasciitis. Several absorbing novels kept me going, beginning with one which grew out of a social media post during the pandemic. Damian Barr’s The Two Roberts is about Robert MacBryde and
Books of the Year 2025: Part Four Read More »
In contrast to 2024’s damp squib, this year’s summer seemed to stretch from April to October. A great one for reading as well as sun, too, beginning with three very different favourites in quick succession in July. Benjamin Wood’s Seascraper spans a single day which sees Thomas Flett lifted out of his hardscrabble life for
Books of the Year 2025: Part Three Read More »
April marks the real start of spring here in the UK although it appears on my horizon when the herons start doing a bit of DIY on their nests which I always stop to watch on one of my regular walks. This year, I found myself packing for summer for our Ghent break in late
Books of the Year 2025: Part Two Read More »
I’m feeling very pleased with myself having kept my books of the year to twenty for the third time running. A long, dry summer probably helped, offering opportunities for getting out and about. Even at the start of the year, H and I had sunshine for our London break, much of which we spent outside.
Books of the Year 2025: 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 – Seascraper to Shadow Ticket 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 have a rather tattered proof of Dreamland which I’m pretty sure was given to me by a
Blasts from the Past: Dreamland by Kevin Baker (1999) Read More »
December’s snapshot includes a chunkster of a novel set in India written by an Ethiopian American physician, a short story collection by a Swedish writer from a favourite publisher and a doorstopping piece of travel writing that I started last month, making two that more than qualify for Laura’s Doorstoppers in December. The novel I’m
A Snapshot of My Reading #10 Read More »
The Five Summer Books post in this series proved very popular; I suspect this one won’t attract quite so much attention. Most of us prefer basking in a bit of summer sun if we get the chance but the five books below might make you feel glad to be cosy and inside on a bleak
Five Winter Books I’ve Read Read More »
Having enjoyed Voting Day, Clare O’Dea’s debut, I was delighted to be send a copy of Before the Leaves Fall. Both novels are set in Switzerland where she lives and both are published by Fairlight Books, a small indie who also publish one of my favourite writers, Douglas Bruton. As you may have gathered from
Before the Leaves Fall by Clare O’Dea: Choosing when to die Read More »
Given my many visits to the Netherlands, you’d think I might have read lots of Dutch fiction but I haven’t come across much in translation. The little I have read I’ve enjoyed, particularly the five listed below, all with links to reviews on my blog. I’m a sucker for novels about long term relationships, the
Five Dutch Novels I’ve Read Read More »