Book news, reviews and recommendations
April marks the real start of spring although I tend to be on the lookout for it from the beginning of March. I certainly felt it had finally arrived sitting in the gardens around Manchester Cathedral when we visited the city for the second time in three years. Just one title stood out for me […]
Books of the Year 2024: Part Two Read More »
I’ve been a fan of Sarah Leipciger’s writing since her debut, nine years ago. The Mountain Can Wait exemplified that carefully pared back prose from which gorgeous descriptions of the natural world shine out which I find particularly pleasing. Her second novel, Coming Up for Air, was also beautifully crafted, weaving three narrative strands across
Moon Road by Sarah Leipciger: Well worth the wait Read More »
I’m beginning May’s first batch of new fiction with a novel I dived into as soon as I spotted it on NetGalley having loved the author’s previous two books. Sarah Leipciger returns to her native Canada for Moon Road, the story of a missing girl and her parents who receive news decades after she disappeared.
Books to Look Out For in May 2024: Part One Read More »
Whatever else 2021 brings us, and we can only hope it’s better than 2020, there are a fair number of paperbacks to keep us distracted, several of which I’ve read beginning with Sarah Leipiciger’s Coming Up for Air which neatly weaves together three apparently unconnected stories. A young woman jumps into the Seine on a
Paperbacks to Look Out for in January 2021: Part One Read More »
Back in 2015 I read a debut so striking it more than lived up to the superlatives liberally scattered in its press release. That was Sarah Leipciger’s The Mountain Can Wait, anchored in its Canadian backwoods setting by its gorgeous descriptive language. As you can imagine, then, my hopes for her second novel were sky-high,
Coming Up for Air by Sarah Leipciger: Everything I’d hoped for… Read More »
This year marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of my favourite UK literary award, The Women’s Prize for Fiction. I still remember being excited at the prospect of this prize when it was first announced and my delight when Helen Dunmore’s A Spell in Winter was the inaugural winner of what was then called the Orange Prize.
My Wishlist for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2020 Read More »
March is full to bursting with potential treats. Hard to know where to start although the title I’ve chosen isn’t one I’m eager to read but I know vast numbers of others are, not that they can have failed to notice its appearance on the publishing horizon. Hilary Mantel’s The Mirror & the Light is
Books to Look Out For in March 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 other books to form a chain. A book doesn’t need to be connected to all the others on the
Six Degrees of Separation – from Vanity Fair to The Mountain Can Wait #6Degrees Read More »
Here we go again and in my middle-aged way I can’t believe it’s that time already. The Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction longlist is due to be announced next Tuesday. Only novels written by women in English published between April 1st 2015 and March 31st 2016 qualify for the award. It’s one of the few
My wish list for the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction 2016 Read More »
Not nearly so many paperbacks to look forward to for me in March as there were in February, and four of them I’ve already read and reviewed. Two of those popped up on my 2015 Books of the Year posts, the first of which tied with four others at the top of the tree. Sarah
Paperbacks to Look Out For in March 2016 Read More »
This second batch of 2015 goodies covers April and May, and is made up entirely of women writers. No plan there – just the way this particular cookie crumbled. I’ll begin with The Shore, Sara Taylor’s beautifully packaged debut which appeared on both the Baileys longlist and the newly resurrected Sunday Times/ Peters Fraser Dunlop
Books of the Year 2015: Part 2 Read More »