Book news, reviews and recommendations
In contrast to 2024’s damp squib, this year’s summer seemed to stretch from April to October. A great one for reading as well as sun, too, beginning with three very different favourites in quick succession in July. Benjamin Wood’s Seascraper spans a single day which sees Thomas Flett lifted out of his hardscrabble life for […]
Books of the Year 2025: Part Three Read More »
April marks the real start of spring here in the UK although it appears on my horizon when the herons start doing a bit of DIY on their nests which I always stop to watch on one of my regular walks. This year, I found myself packing for summer for our Ghent break in late
Books of the Year 2025: Part Two Read More »
I’m feeling very pleased with myself having kept my books of the year to twenty for the third time running. A long, dry summer probably helped, offering opportunities for getting out and about. Even at the start of the year, H and I had sunshine for our London break, much of which we spent outside.
Books of the Year 2025: 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 – Seascraper to Shadow Ticket Read More »
This is the latest in a series of occasional posts featuring books I read years ago about which I was wildly enthusiastic at the time, wanting to press a copy in as many hands as I could. I have a rather tattered proof of Dreamland which I’m pretty sure was given to me by a
Blasts from the Past: Dreamland by Kevin Baker (1999) Read More »
December’s snapshot includes a chunkster of a novel set in India written by an Ethiopian American physician, a short story collection by a Swedish writer from a favourite publisher and a doorstopping piece of travel writing that I started last month, making two that more than qualify for Laura’s Doorstoppers in December. The novel I’m
A Snapshot of My Reading #10 Read More »
The Five Summer Books post in this series proved very popular; I suspect this one won’t attract quite so much attention. Most of us prefer basking in a bit of summer sun if we get the chance but the five books below might make you feel glad to be cosy and inside on a bleak
Five Winter Books I’ve Read Read More »
Having enjoyed Voting Day, Clare O’Dea’s debut, I was delighted to be send a copy of Before the Leaves Fall. Both novels are set in Switzerland where she lives and both are published by Fairlight Books, a small indie who also publish one of my favourite writers, Douglas Bruton. As you may have gathered from
Before the Leaves Fall by Clare O’Dea: Choosing when to die Read More »
Given my many visits to the Netherlands, you’d think I might have read lots of Dutch fiction but I haven’t come across much in translation. The little I have read I’ve enjoyed, particularly the five listed below, all with links to reviews on my blog. I’m a sucker for novels about long term relationships, the
Five Dutch Novels I’ve Read Read More »
I wasn’t sure about reading Aja Gabel’s Lightbreakers: the premise was attractive, but the blurb suggested elements of SF/Fantasy that I might have trouble with, more my understanding than anything else. It follows Noah who’s been invited to take part in what is essentially a time travel experiment funded by a billionaire, and his wife,
Lightbreakers by Aja Gabel: ’A story of impossible things made possible’ Read More »
Despite her extensive back catalogue which includes five works of fiction, I’d never read anything by Gish Jen. Her new, difficult-to-categorise book, Bad Bad Girl, is the story of her mother’s life in which Jen imagines conversations, seeking answers to questions her mother would never give. It’s a novelisation, leaning very much towards memoir but,
Bad Bad Girl by Gish Jen: A novel with some truth in it Read More »