Reading Update: 14th October

Oh the books. The piles of books. The new books coming out. The unread books still waiting.

So, this week I have found myself with four books on the go, simultaneously: waking and alert, I’m continuing Daisy Johnson’s Everything Under and as I drive I’m listening to Esi Edugyan’s Washington Black from the Man Booker Shortlist; and as I get more tired I drift back to Robert Galbraith’s Lethal White – a book startlingly poorly written but so bad it’s compulsive.

And then, the glorious The Winter of the Witch, the third and final part of Katherine Arden’s Winternight Trilogy arrives as an ARC. It is wonderful and sumptuous and compelling – with a couple of proofing errors but then it is a proof copy – and tear jerking (Oh, Solovey….!) But, oh the text is small and faint for my increasingly old eyes.

And what do I do this weekend?

I download the new Tana French novel, The Witch Elm, onto my Kindle.

And fire off emails asking – somewhat optimistically perhaps – for ARCs of Ben Aaronovitch’s Lies Sleeping – the next in his Rivers of London series – and Anthony Horowitz’ The Sentence is Death, the sequel to The Word is Murder.

Let’s take a quick glance back at the Man Booker Shortlist and aim for predictions seeing as the winner is announced on Tuesday. I have loved – or am loving – all four of the shortlisted books that I have read. My prediction is close between Washington Black and The Mars Room.

If I had to pick – which I guess is the sole job of the judges – I’d probably go for The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner.