Book news, reviews and recommendations
The first instalment of April’s preview begins with two I’ve already read. Divided into three parts, Ben Lerner’s Transcription follows an unnamed narrator who knocks his phone into a filled washbasin while preparing to interview his mentor, the father of Max, his best friend. Setting off fretfully to Thomas’s house, he finds him disconcertingly altered. […]
Books to Look Out For in April 2026: Part One Read More »
Back from my Northern jaunt (more of that later in the week) with a second batch of May paperback goodies which begins with one of my 2023 favourites, Jenny Erpenbeck’s International Booker Prize shortlisted Kairos. Erpenbeck explores identity through a love affair beginning in 1985 between Hans, a successful writer born in 1933, and Katharina,
Paperbacks to Look Out For in May 2024: Part Two Read More »
I’m pleased to report May’s bursting at the seams with goodies, a few tried and tested although not the one I’m kicking off with. I was a huge fan of Jen Beagin’s idiosyncratic Pretend I’m Dead and enjoyed the follow up, Vacuum in the Dark. Her third novel, Big Swiss, sees Greta entranced with the
Books to Look Out For in May 2023: 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 Fleishman is in Trouble to Oh Pure and Radiant Heart Read More »
August’s first instalment progressed smartly through the twentieth century while staying in the United States but this second preview lacks any neatly cohesive thread, I’m afraid. You may have noticed that it’s the centenary year of the Bauhaus school of design, the background for Theresia Enzensberger’s Blueprint which opens at the beginning of the 1920s.
Books to Look Out for in August 2019: Part Two Read More »
There’s a fair old mix of attention-snagging titles published in paperback this June. I’ll start with one that was hotly anticipated in hardback: Peter Ho Davies’ The Fortunes, his first novel since the much-lauded The Welsh Girl back in 2007. Spanning 150 years, Davies’ novel explores the Chinese-American experience through the lens of four characters:
Paperbacks to Look Out for in June 2017: Part One Read More »
Hope springs eternal as we edge towards the beginning of spring in the UK. With winter a bit of a non-event for half of the country, I’m wondering if we’ll notice its arrival at all. Plenty to keep you occupied indoors if it turns out to be another washout, though. It’s an all female line-up
Books to Look Out For in March 2016 Read More »