Book news, reviews and recommendations
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 – Hydra to Vacuum in the Dark Read More »
I’ve read all but one of the first instalment of April paperback goodies, several of which turned up on my books of 2022 list beginning with acclaimed short story writer Louise Kennedy’s first novel, Trespasses, which sees a Catholic teacher falling in love with an older man, a prominent barrister, married and a Protestant. Michael’s
Paperbacks to Look Out For in April 2023: Part One Read More »
Not my favourite prize – sadly one of those bit the dust earlier this year when Costa withdrew their sponsorship – but I can’t resist posting some wishes for the Booker longlist, keen to give some more neglected titles an airing even though they’re unlikely to make the judges’ grade. To be eligible for the
My 2022 Booker Wish List Read More »
It’s unlikely that readers won’t already know about Booker Prize-winning Douglas Stuart’s new novel. Young Mungo has been all over my Twitter timeline for months. Despite the usual reservations about second novels, I was champing at the bit for a copy then circled around it in the same way I did with Shuggie Bain, suspecting
Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart: ‘He had so little to fear now’ Read More »
Less new fiction than I’d hoped to look out for in April but still enough to fill a two-part preview kicking off with one for which I was champing at the bit once I saw it all over Twitter. Set in early ‘90s Glasgow, Booker Prize-winning Douglas Stuart’s Young Mungo is about the youngest son
Books to Look Out For in April 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 – From Shuggie Bain to 1984 Read More »
Another great month for paperbacks should you need to top up that TBR pile after reading your way through a long pandemic winter. This first installment includes two from my 2020 books of the year list, beginning with Douglas Stuart’s Booker Prize-winning Shuggie Bain. Stuart’s novel follows the eponymous Shuggie over a decade from the
Paperbacks to Look Out For in April 2021: Part One Read More »
Summer saw a return to more serious reading after spring’s escapism, perhaps because we were experiencing a little respite from the pandemic in the UK. Coincidentally, both June choices overlapped in terms of their unusual theme, exploring the repercussions of nuclear fission. The first was Stuart Evers’ The Blind Light, a little daunting in its
Books of the Year 2020: Part Three Read More »
I’m not sure how much of Douglas Stuart’s debut is autobiographical but the first paragraph of his acknowledgements page suggests more than a smidgeon. Given that’s the page I often visit before reading a novel, Shuggie Bain was even more poignant for me than it would otherwise have been. Set in ’80s Glasgow, Stuart’s book
Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart: ‘I’d do anything for you’ Read More »
Another year, another Booker Prize longlist in the offing although this year has been far from normal both in the book world and beyond with titles bouncing around the publishing schedules like tennis balls thanks to the pandemic. I’d half expected a postponement of the longlist announcement but the Booker brigade seem to be sticking
My 2020 Booker Wish List Read More »
The first batch of August’s new titles began with a book by a favourite author of mine as does this second, although I got off to a slow start with his writing. After being a wee bit underwhelmed by Donal Ryan’s The Thing About December, I loved From a Low and Quiet Sea and All
Books to Look Out for in August 2020: Part Two Read More »