The Book Lovers’ Sanctuary

A highly entertaining and enjoyable read retelling Medusa’s story, told with Haynes’ trademark wit, erudition and caustic humour – although I wonder whether I come away from the book having learned anything new…… Continue reading Book Review: Stone Blind, Natalie Haynes →

As I have said on this blog before, I don’t really do to be read lists. Whilst I may intend to tackle a certain set of books, I am more than happy to pick up this other one that caught my eye in Waterstones or the library, or that one that I began and put down six months ago, or this book that a friend recommneded, or that one which is all over social media, or – let’s face it – sometimes this random one which I opened on my kindle by mistake! But this time of year coincides with the release of the Women’s Prize for Fiction and I do try to read along with that longlist each year – to varying degrees of success – and so this week I offer you that longlist which I hope to have read some or most of before the 14th June when the winner is announced.… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: Books On My Spring 2023 To-Read List →

This is a nice whimsical topic: the bookish people I’d love to meet… but there are so many of them! Authors we could have to a dinner party, or meet at a book festival; characters who might be able to step from the page like Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next series, bloggers and reviewers… Let’s think…… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish People I’d Like To Meet →

This time of year is also the time when I indulge in these genres – just before we start on the tradmill of the Women’s Prize for Fiction and the Booker longlists and the more self-consciously literary offerings. Do I see or recognise the distinction between genre and literary fiction…? I’m not sure that I do at all to be honest. Isn’t it all just a marketing tool? All I recognise really is the ability of books to transport and entertain and challenge me in some way. Anyway, let’s pick… crime as a genre for the purpose of this list after a somewhat lengthy preamble. And I offer to you my ten favourite crime books… prepare for murder, deception and violence.… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: Genre Freebie →

My first Austen for an age – and I’m not sure I ever read this one – has revealed itself to be delightful: genuinely funny and literate with a well fleshed out protagonist and a surprisingly knowing and assured narrative voice – for a novel written when the author was but 28.… Continue reading Book Review: Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen →

This week’s topic asks us to turn a spotlight on our favourite heroines. Whilst casting around for an angle – do I really want to trot out Jane Eyre, Jo Marsh or Lizzie Bennett again? – I was distracted by reading my daughter her bedtime story. And whilst Mesdames Eyre, Marsh and Bennett would all fit the topic – or more kick ass heroines like Lisbeth Salander, Arya Stark or The Priory of the Orange Tree’s Ead or Tané – the power of literature to inspire young minds is so powerful that I thought I would focus on inspiring female heroines in the books she has been reading because there are many.… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: Favourite Heroines →

A fantastic romp through a richly imagined world filled with warrior mages, queens and empresses, dragons and knights, Shannon’s characters are as fleshed out and convincing as the apocalypse that is visited on their world.… Continue reading Book Review: A Day of Fallen Night, Samantha Shannon →

In terms of reading, romance is not my preferred genre – my imagination tends towards the darker areas, gothic and crime and literary fiction… Of Gooderads 100 best Romance novels of the last three years, I have read, well, one! I have read more romance recently than at any other time in my life, and in fairness thoroughly enjoyed them. But it is still with some trepidation that I embark on a list of my favourite romantic pairings from recent reads.… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday:  Love/Valentine’s Day Freebie →

This week’s theme is a look forward to debut authors that have already piqued our interest – which does require a little research… and also a solid publicity campaign behind those authors. So the following list is drawn from various sources, selected by reason of their covers, their blurbs, the endorsements and of course the inherent interest I have in the themes and genres they represent.… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: 2023 Debut Books I’m Excited About →

A kaleidoscopic performance: a colourful, dizzying and disorientating exploration of the turmoil in Sri Lanka in the 1980s and 1990s, and our host for this exploration is the recently deceased Maali Almeida, “Photographer. Gambler. Slut.” … Continue reading Book Review: The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida, Shehan Karunatilaka →

This week is a freebie week and I am in the midst of listening to Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen, her first novel and written around 1798, albeit not published until after her death. It is part of my half-formed intention – a vague idea and inclination perhaps – to try to re-read Austen, returning to an author that I did not gel with as a teenager at university. Certainly, it is much funnier and more wry than I remembered Austen to be. Which bodes well. Anyway, the point of this preamble is that I love the way Catherine Morland becomes obsessed with The Mysteries of Udolpho, by Ann Radcliffe – to the extent that she would prefer to curl up at home with the novel than venture out into Bath’s social scene, has limited conversation save for her love of the novel, and is desperate for her life to emulate the thrills and passions of the novel. So I thought I’d use this as a springboard to explore bookworms in fiction.… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday Freebie: Fictional Readers →

This week is a look back again at 2022 and those authors we met for the first time last year. And isn’t it great to meet new favourite authors year after year. Of course there are the old favourites, the reliable familiar authors who we just know we are going to enjoy, but new authors add some extra spice and variety… and often then become some of our new favourites!… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: New-to-Me Authors I Discovered in 2022 →

A book the teems with potential – an academic setting within a gothic museum, an unreliable narrator, intense relationships within the scholars, murder, tarot – and yet it somehow fell a little flat and slow. … Continue reading Book Review: The Cloisters by Katy Hays →

A gripping and fast-moving young adult alternative-reality fantasy novel with really effective world building, a (somewhat precocious) thoroughly engaging protagonist and a well-crafted plot. Comparisons with the Rivers of London series are both inevitable and, in general terms, justified.… Continue reading Book Review: The Library of the Dead, T. L. Huchu →

After looking forward to future releases in 2023 last week, we are looking at bookish goals for the upcoming year – new year resolutions for the bookish.… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Goals for 2023 →