Book news, reviews and recommendations
I’m not much of a horror fan but I do enjoy the occasional slice of gothic, preferably something with a slightly surreal edge to it, and a sample short story on Reflex Press’ website suggested Welsh author Anna Vaught’s Ravished fit that bill. Comprising nineteen stories, some so short you might call them flash fiction,
Ravished by Anna Vaught: A nice slice of Gothic spiced with black humour Read More »
I’d already spotted Sam Kenyon’s I Am Not Raymond Wallace in the schedules when it was pitched to me for review, struck by its blurb. Opening in 1963, it follows a Cambridge undergraduate, fresh out of college, who’s won a three-month bursary at The New York Times and meets the love of his life. Some
I Am Not Raymond Wallace by Sam Kenyon: Things do get better Read More »
I’m kicking off this second instalment of November titles with a novel which suits the season well. Set in snowy upstate New York, Lynn Steger Strong’s Flight follows three siblings and their families facing their first Christmas without their beloved mother. Tess and Martin are late setting off from their smart, new city apartment. Kate and
Books to Look Out For in November 2022: Part Two Read More »
I was stunned to find two decades had passed since I’d read Personal Velocity, Rebecca Miller’s first collection. Time does funny things as you get older. Perhaps better known as a filmmaker, Miller adapted both her short stories and her equally enjoyable novel, The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, for the screen. Comprising seven stories,
Total by Rebecca Miller: Written with a filmmaker’s eye Read More »
It feels like a very long time since Kamila Shamsie’s Home Fire dropped through my letter box and indeed it is five years but given all that’s happened in the world, it seems much longer. I’ve read all her novels and, despite enjoying each of them, Burnt Shadows remained my favourite but with its exploration
Best of Friends by Kamila Shamsie: The personal and the political Read More »
Enough juicy novels due in November to more than make up for a thin October beginning with Jonathan Coe’s new one which sees him back on home ground giving me hope for a return to form after the major disappointment of the Costa-winning Middle England, at least for me. Bournville follows a family living in
Books to Look Out For in November 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 – Notes on a Scandal to The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie 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. The Orchard on Fire was the first novel I read by Shena Mackay and I loved it. Childhood
Blasts from the Past: The Orchard on Fire by Shena Mackay (1995) Read More »
I’m always delighted to see a new Kate Atkinson in the publishing schedules, a treat to look forward to. Loosely based on the life of Kate Meyrick, Shrines of Gaiety takes us back to Soho in 1926, long before gentrification, when it was home to nightclubs offering a whole host of delights, not all of
Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson: ‘Decadence piled upon decadence’ Read More »
Both eye-catching new fiction and paperbacks are a bit thin on the ground for me this October although there are some gems to be found not least Sarah Moss’ The Fell which takes place over a single night during 2020’s November lockdown. Desperate to escape her constant money worries and the rehearsals of her many
Paperbacks to Look Out For in October 2022 Read More »
I have no idea how I’ve managed not to come across Yiyun Li’s writing before. She has quite a substantial backlist which somehow passed me by. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it was that arresting cover that caught my eye on Twitter but it was the blurb that made me want to read it. Li’s novel is the
The Book of Goose by Yiyun Li: ‘I was a whetstone to Fabienne’s blade’ Read More »