Book news, reviews and recommendations
I’m not entirely sure I would have read Jean-Baptiste Andrea’s novella with its rather wordy title had it not been for the enthusiasm of the small indie publisher who approached me to review it which would have been a shame. A Hundred Million Years and a Day was a huge literary hit in France last […]
I spent some time circling Elizabeth Wetmore’s debut. I suspected from its synopsis that it might be a tough read and wasn’t sure I was entirely up to doing it justice, distracted by the pandemic and politics, but with other titles slipping down the publishing schedules while Valentine stayed in place there seemed little choice
Valentine by Elizabeth Wetmore: A fine debut Read More »
Unlike the first, this second instalment of July’s preview begins with a book by a lesser known author, Robbie Arnott’s The Rain Heron, which I’ve already read. Set some time after a military coup against the backdrop of a world beset by weather extremes, Arnott’s beautifully expressed novel explores themes of love, redemption and hope
Books to Look Out For in July 2020: Part Two Read More »
Many years ago, I was commissioned to write a reading guide for Joanna Briscoe’s Sleep with Me. Its perceptive exploration of desire and manipulation in a three-cornered relationship read like a modern take on Simone de Beauvoir’s She Came to Stay but with the page-turning pace of a thriller. I loved it. Hopes were high
The Seduction by Joanna Briscoe: Manipulation, obsession and dark secrets Read More »
Regular visitors may have noticed that I’m much more of a novella than a chunkster kind of reader, favouring concision over what so often turns into waffle, but I was attracted to Stuart Evers’ The Blind Light by its premise despite its 540+ pages. Spanning six decades, Evers’ novel tells the story of post-war Britain
The Blind Light by Stuart Evers: A tale of two families and a country Read More »
Several titles are having their second outing here thanks to pandemic-related postponements, but not the book I’m most eagerly anticipating which was originally to be published in May. I remember rattling through Curtis Sittenfeld’s riveting fictionalised biography of Laura Bush, American Wife, one holiday in North Norfolk over a decade ago. I was delighted, then,
Books to Look Out For in July 2020: 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 Normal People to Meet Me at the Museum Read More »
Everything about Nick Bradley’s The Cat and the City appealed to me: its jacket, structure, setting and, yes, that cat. Set in Tokyo, Bradley’s episodic novel follows a set of characters through their teeming city as it prepares to play host to the Olympics, each of whose lives are touched by a very particular cat:
The Cat and the City by Nick Bradley: A most unusual feline Read More »
This is the second collection I’ve read recently which explores the theme of immigration although my reading experience for each of them was very different. I read a print edition of How to Pronounce Knife whereas Dima Alzayat’s Alligator and Other Stories was my first toe in the Netgalley water, although far from my first
Alligator and Other Stories by Dima Alzayat: Immigration reprised Read More »
I seem to have read quite a few novels that either revolve around the art world or have art as a significant theme. Perhaps there’s been a trend over the past few years or perhaps it’s because art interests me so much, regularly flexing my National Art Pass at exhibitions back before the pandemic. Whichever,
Five Novels I’ve Read About Art 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. It’s not that I don’t read any non-fiction but I review very little of it. This is only
Blasts from the Past: Skating to Antarctica by Jenny Diski (1997) Read More »