Spring by Ali Smith
It is May, still spring, I‘m sure, and I am ready to discuss the third instalment of Ali Smith’s seasonal quartet. This week, we have...
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- May 11
- 3 min
Pew by Catherine Lacey
“The reason churches have so many doors is that people tend to leave churches in groups, in a hurry. It seems people have a lot of...
- May 2
- 3 min
A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley
Set on a thousand acres of land is the Cook family’s farm, sternly ruled by patriarch Larry who teaches his daughters and their husbands...
- Apr 20
- 3 min
O Caledonia by Elspeth Barker
As a chronic blurb avoider I go into many a book blindly. This is true for Elspeth Barker’s O Caledonia, a 1991 novel I haven’t seen...
- Mar 22
- 4 min
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
"First, I got myself born. A decent crowd was on hand to watch, and they've already given me that much: the worst part of the job was up...
- Mar 6
- 3 min
Winter by Ali Smith
The seasons have changed, from Ali Smith’s Autumn but we are still in contemporary Britain and therefore still in political turmoil. Four...
- Feb 23
- 3 min
Ruth & Pen by Emilie Pine
Dublin, October 7, 2019. Two women wake up to a new day in the old city. Ruth and Pen do not know each other, they are at vastly...
- Feb 17
- 8 min
A Month of Crime Reading
I spent this November deep in the world of crime novels. I read cosy crime mysteries, expansive thrillers, there was even some...
- Feb 7
- 2 min
Really Good, Actually by Monica Heisey
Maggie is 29 years old, working on a PhD she is not actually all that interested in, and now about to be divorced – after only 608 days...
- Dec 20, 2022
- 2 min
The Inseparables by Simone de Beauvoir
At nine years old, Sylvie meets her one great love at school in Paris: her best friend Andrée. The two girls could hardly be more...
- Nov 24, 2022
- 2 min
Vita Nostra by Marina & Sergey Dyachenko
Prepare for the vaguest of reviews - but the secrets of this book cannot be given away. It’s been a few weeks since I have finished...
- Nov 22, 2022
- 3 min
Stoner by John Williams
There are some books that just seem to split humanity into two camps – and Stoner by John Williams is certainly one of them. Reading this...
- Nov 15, 2022
- 2 min
Foster by Claire Keegan
Perhaps my favourite author discovery of the year is Claire Keegan. I read her Booker Prize shortlisted novel Small Things Like These in...
- Nov 8, 2022
- 2 min
Autumn by Ali Smith
‘It was the worst of times, it was the worst of times.’ I love a good opening line. And how true, describing 2016, the year of chaos and...
- Nov 7, 2022
- 1 min
The Booker Prize 2022 #11: Glory by NoViolet Bulawayo
Unrest is spreading over Jidada. The Old Horse has fallen, the revolutionary government is replaced by a new self-proclaimed liberation...
- Nov 6, 2022
- 2 min
The Booker Prize 2022 #12: Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley
Kiara is seventeen and desperately trying to pay the rent that has been increased yet again. After her father’s death and with her mother...
- Nov 1, 2022
- 2 min
The Booker Prize 2022 # 10: Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies by Maddie Mortimer
Lia’s carefully calibrated life is about to be turned upside down yet again. The cancer she battled years ago is back. And spreading....
- Oct 12, 2022
- 2 min
The Booker Prize 2022 #9: After Sappho by Selby Wynn Schwartz
At the beginning was Sappho, who spoke of her lovers and for sapphic women centuries on. Women – artists, writers, dancers, actresses –...
- Oct 11, 2022
- 2 min
The Booker Prize 2022 #8: Treacle Walker by Alan Garner
Joe is watching time pass by, measuring his days by Noony, the train that comes past his window once a day. He is all alone in his house,...
- Oct 7, 2022
- 2 min
The Booker Prize 2022 #7: The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka
Maali Almeida is dead and has just woken up in the afterlife, though he does not know yet. For how he still believes he is having a weird...
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