Book news, reviews and recommendations
The second batch of March’s paperbacks kicks off with one that demands a bit of concentration. Jennifer Egan’s The Candy House explores the fallout from a technology that captures our very consciousness through a series of narratives connected by characters all linked to Bix Boulton, the software’s creator. No brief synopsis comes close to encapsulating …
Paperbacks to Look Out For in March 2023: Part Two Read More »
Things are looking up in my part of the world with spring on the, albeit distant, horizon and some great new fiction on offer in March beginning with Charlotte Mendelson’s The Exhibitionist, seven years in the writing according to the letter that accompanied my proof. Artists Ray and Lucia Hanrahan have been together for decades. …
Part two of April’s paperback preview is a little less starry than the first instalment with its two prize winners but still full of goodies, a few of which I’ve already read beginning with Polly Samson’s A Theatre for Dreamers. Set in 1960, it’s the story of a group of artists, writers and hedonists drawn …
Paperbacks to Look Out For in April 2021: Part Two 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 Redhead by the Side of the Road to Wide Sargasso Sea Read More »
I’m beginning to sound like a broken record, although in a good way, introducing yet another preview as full to bursting with potential goodies beginning with Anne Tyler’s Redhead By the Side of the Road billed as ‘an offbeat love story’. Micah sounds a bit of an eccentric. Odd yet fondly regarded by family and …
You may already know that Bill Clegg’s debut has been longlisted for this year’s Man Booker prize. It’s only the second novel from the list I’ve read – the other’s A Spool of Blue Thread. I know that many readers are in the grip of A Little Life mania but Did You Ever Have a …
Did You Ever Have a Family by Bill Clegg: Hope springs eternal Read More »
There are some particularly tasty paperback treats to look forward to this September. I’ll start with the ones I’ve reviewed, my favourite of which is Helen Oyeyemi’s fabulous tale of race and identity Boy, Snow, Bird. Where to start with this complex, dazzling book? There are elements of fairy tale – a wicked stepmother, a …
Just before last year’s Man Booker prize winner announcement I wrote a rather disenchanted post about it so you might think that I’ve cast off my world weariness, given the title above. Not entirely, I’m afraid, but I did have to think about it when the lovely people over at Shiny New Books asked if …
It’s that time of year again. The Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction judges are putting the finishing touches to their longlist, due to be announced shortly. Only novels written by women in English published between April 1st 2014 and March 31st 2015 qualify for the award. It’s the one prize I pay attention to these …
My wish list for the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction 2015 Read More »
When I think of Baltimore two things come to mind: Anne Tyler and The Wire, polar opposites in terms of subject matter but both supreme exemplars of their particular form of entertainment. The Wire tackles the gritty problems dogging Baltimore city – drugs, racial inequality, corruption – while Tyler specialises in nuanced portraits of family …
A Spool of Blue Thread: Anne Tyler’s twentieth novel, and counting… Read More »
February is my least favourite month: dank, drizzly weather here in the UK; little or no colour in the garden; countryside bedraggled and grubby looking – ugh, I hate it. It’s not always a sparkling month in the publishing schedules, either, although given all the above there’s plenty of encouragement to stay indoors reading. This …