Book news, reviews and recommendations
Lean pickings for November’s paperback preview although it begins with a novel heading for my books of 2024 list. Set in early 2020, Sigrid Nunez’s witty, erudite, wonderfully discursive The Vulnerables follows an unnamed writer as she takes up residence in a palatial apartment to care for a parrot whose owner has been stranded during […]
Paperbacks to Look Out For in November 2024 Read More »
This is my second post on small town American novels, a setting I find almost as irresistible as New York, and not one I’m likely to tire of anytime soon. Below are five more favourites, all with links to reviews on this blog. Sue Miller’s The Arsonist is set in the New Hampshire town of
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I tend to bracket Ron Rash’s Appalachian novels alongside Kent Haruf’s Holt series – both explore big themes on a small canvas; both are carefully expressed – which is why I put up my hand for The Caretaker as soon as I spotted it. Set in 1951, during the Korean War, it has at its
The Caretaker by Ron Rash: The unravelling of deceit Read More »
Christmas is well and truly in publishers’ sights come November with lots of big hitting titles taking centre stage. Fewer appealed to me than usual, just enough for one lengthy post rather than the two I was expecting, starting with one from an author who was once a favourite of mine. There was a time
Books to Look Out For in November 2023 Read More »