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 – The Snow Child to Weasels in the Attic Read More »
I’m an enthusiastic fan of Joan Silber’s fiction having loved both Improvement and Secrets of Happiness and was delighted to find that not one but two of her backlisted books were to be published here in the UK. Both come billed as linked short stories, my favourite kind of collection. I’ve plumped to review Fools …
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 – Sorrow and Bliss to That They May Face the Rising Sun Read More »
Whereas I’d read all the books in the first part of May’s paperback preview, I’ve only managed two in the second, starting with Joan Silber’s Secrets of Happiness which begins with the sudden revelation of the second family of an apparently happily married man. Ethan and Allyson took their parents’ happiness for granted until the …
Paperbacks to Look Out For Out for in May 2022: Part Two Read More »
I read Joan Silber’s quietly impressive Improvement back in 2019 ending my review hoping to see more of her novels published here in the UK. I was delighted, then, to spot Secrets of Happiness in the publishing schedules. While Improvement explored the fallout of an accident through all that were affected by it, this new …
Secrets of Happiness by Joan Silber: More please! Read More »
Not unexpectedly in a month when publishers’ sights are firmly set on summer reading, I’ve only come across enough titles for a single preview post although it’s a pleasingly mixed bag, several of which I’ve already read. I’m starting with John Boyne’s The Echo Chamber which I practically inhaled as soon as it arrived. It …
It’s that time again. Books of the year lists are being wheeled out right, left and centre. I’d love to tell you I’d managed to trim mine to a single post of gems but I’m not the decisive type so I’m afraid it will be the usual four, falling roughly into quarters, all with links …
I’m kicking off this second instalment of October paperbacks with the only one I haven’t read. I’d have expected to be hell-bent on getting my hands on it but after the hardback reviews, I’m not so sure. Haruki Murakami’s Killing Commendatore sees a portrait painter discover a strange painting in the attic of a famous …
Paperbacks to Look Out For in October 2019: Part Two Read More »
The longlist for my favourite UK literary award, The Women’s Prize for Fiction, is due to be announced next Monday. Only novels written by women in English published between April 1st 2018 and March 31st 2019 qualify. Over the past few years I’ve failed miserably in predicting what took the judges fancy but truth be …
My Wish List for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2019 Read More »
There’s a quote from the Washington Post on the back of my proof comparing Joan Silber to Alice Munro which both piqued my interest and made me a little wary when approaching Improvement. Munro’s quietly insightful writing, uncluttered with fussy ornament, is right up my literary street but such comparisons so often lead to disappointment. …
Improvement by Joan Silber: If you like Alice Munro… Read More »
February’s surely the dullest month of the year in my part of the world although, thankfully, not in the publishing schedules, as I hope you’ll agree. Lots of promising titles to look forward to beginning with Tessa Hadley’s Late in the Day which is about two couples who meet in their twenties. Thirty years later …
Books to Look Out for in February 2019: Part One Read More »