Book news, reviews and recommendations
This time four years ago I posted a review of Elizabeth Baines’ short story collection, Used to Be, which I thoroughly enjoyed making me keen to read her new book, Astral Travel. Framed as a novel within a novel, this immersive story follows an author as she attempts to understand her complicated father by writing […]
Astral Travel by Elizabeth Baines: ‘Your Daddy loves you really’ Read More »
February’s always been the gloomiest month in my seasonal calendar, not much colour around often coupled with grey skies and rain. A hard one to get through and this one is likely to be harder than usual. As ever, the prospect of potential bookish treats keeps me going beginning with one whose blurb comes with
Books to Look Out for in February 2021: 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 – From Hamnet to The Story of a Happy Marriage Read More »
You might be forgiven for thinking that’s a self-referential subtitle but the life it refers to is Michiko Kakutani’s, the New York Times’ book critic from 1983 to her retirement in 2017, renowned for her incisive criticism and knowledge. The beautifully presented Ex-Libris is a testament to her consuming passion for literature, listing over one
Ex-Libris by Michiko Kakutani (illustrated by Dana Tanamachi): A life in books Read More »
I’m taking one more look over my shoulder at the end of this strangest of years with a meme that lots of blogger friends posted around mid-December. Like Annabel over at Annabookbel, I’m sticking to books I’ve read in 2020, most with links to reviews on this blog and I’ve also nicked her Covid question.
My Life in Books (2020 Edition) 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 don’t remember seeing much coverage of Christodora when it was published here in the UK. A shame.
Blasts from the Past: Christodora by Tim Murphy (2016) Read More »
All but the first of the six books in January’s second batch of paperbacks are new to me although most are by authors whose previous books I’ve enjoyed which can also be said of Timur Vermes whose sharp, very funny satire, Look Who’s Back nailed the internet’s potential for political manipulation with admirable, if unsettling,
Paperbacks to Look Out for in January 2021: Part Two Read More »
Whatever else 2021 brings us, and we can only hope it’s better than 2020, there are a fair number of paperbacks to keep us distracted, several of which I’ve read beginning with Sarah Leipiciger’s Coming Up for Air which neatly weaves together three apparently unconnected stories. A young woman jumps into the Seine on a
Paperbacks to Look Out for in January 2021: Part One Read More »
I’m kicking off this second instalment of January’s potential goodies with one I can confidently recommend having already read it. Bryan Washington’s Lot, was a favourite from 2019 for me, and I’m pleased to say Memorial is even better. Mike is about to fly to Japan to track down his estranged father when his mother
Books to Look Out for in January 2021: Part Two Read More »
Time to turn my sights away from 2020, at least my anticipatory reading ones, and explore what’s on offer in 2021. If the January publishing schedules are anything to go by, it will at least offer some distractions if we need them beginning with Raven Leilani’s Luster which has been popping up in my Twitter
Books to Look Out For in January 2021: Part One Read More »
The last quarter of the year brought both increasing hopes of a vaccine to liberate us all from Covid’s grip plus the somewhat nervous excitement of an American presidential election together with six more bookish delights for me. September proved to be my best reading month with three treats all from authors whose previous novels
Books of the Year 2020: Part Four Read More »