Come and escape from the world in some great books!
Whilst this is still, certainly, a masterclass in world building and an intriguing narrative and a great read. However, am I still convinced that this is, as Amazon declares a "lyrical fantasy masterpiece" on a re-read?
This is in some ways the second part - the companion piece - to last week's list. Having shared the books I already have that I am intending to read in the coming weeks and months, these are the upcoming releases that I am excited about and which are likely to add to that over flowing TBR pile! I love the chance to geekily nose around and research these upcoming releases - to find out unexpectedly that our favourite authors are releasing a new book, or that something completely unknown is coming out that grips you by its cover, its premise or its blurb...
This week's Top Ten theme is a look forward to the books on our TBRs for the summer - those books that will fill up the long six weeks of the summer vacation, books that will be taken to the beach with us, to the parks, to gardens. For me, books that will come with me and my family to Rome on our first 'proper' foreign holiday ... ever. Unless you count EuroDisney which I don't: EuroDisney was great but so unreal that it really didn't feel like visiting France in any way! With next week's theme looking at books to be released in the second half of the year - and I love the chance to research upcoming books - I'm going to limit my list this week to the ten books that I currently own but have not yet read.
do try to follow a number of book prizes over the year - The Booker Prize, the Women's Prize, the YOTO Carnegie Medal, the Hugo Award ... I find it's a great way to stumble across new authors and it is through these awards that I have found so many of my now-favourite authors: Maggie O'Farrell, Meg Mason, Bernardino Evaristo, Elif Shafak, Becky Chambers, Arkady Martine. And this year I am in the unusual position that I have read - or at least begun - all of the shortlisted novels and some of the longlisted novels. I'm not sure how it happened: possibly I had coincidentally read some before either list was announced - certainly I read some via Netgalley; possibly a number of those I chose to read from the longlist were later included in the shortlist... perhaps I neglected my work in order to read more... But I am in a position to make comment on some of the issues and perhaps rank the novels.
This is Jana's twice-yearly invitation to us to share our Amazon wishlists and show the books that we would love to own - with the opportunity to jump around each others' links to make one or two people's wishes come true. I shall just post my list here and edge away slowly!
An incredible depiction of the sectarian violence and divisions in Belfast during the heights of the Troubles in the 1970s, and the ways in which people found the chance to connect despite that context...
A dazzling recreation of Renaissance Italy, described in O'Farrell's gorgeous prose, this novel again takes a lesser known character from history - Lucrezia di Cosimo di Medici - and breathes life and vibrancy and urgency into their tragic story: just like Hamnet, we know from the opening pages that Lucrezia is destined to die.
Can I believe that it is already the summer? After the most incredibly wonderful week of half term in terms of weather - glorious blue skies, warm and long balmy days - and mowing, paddling in the river with the little one, the sound of church bells... The hay fever, sneezing, itchy eyes... And this week's topic is a celebration of all things summery in our reading. Perhaps names or covers that remind us of summer, perhaps a setting in summer. Perhaps just books that feel summery.
This week's topic is an interesting counterpart to last week's list of things that automatically make me want to read a book... It would be tempting simply to invert those notions - what would turn me off a book? Unconvincing characters, inauthentic relationships etc... and yes that would be true. But a little bit of a cheat perhaps! That said, my wife came home from work yesterday with conjunctivitis which she has merrily shared, so my vision is a little blurred right now... tonight, I am not averse to the concept of a short cut! My other issue is that I do read widely and whilst I will offer some of the themes and tropes that may discourage me from reading a book, none of these will necessarily stop me from reading it. They may, however, make it an uphill job for the author to grab my attention. I wonder what examples of these I can come up with that I did read...
This is an interesting topic: I read so widely and eclectically (I think) that sometimes its hard to discern a pattern in my reading habits. And sometimes when I feel that there is a pattern, I consciously choose to read outside the pattern... But there are certainly some authors who draw me. So lets start there.
According to Jana, this week's theme has been lovingly stolen from A Cocoon of Books during freebie week and invites us all to share those things that get in the way of our reading. I mean we would all love to read a little more, wouldn't we, but that thing called life does just have the habit of getting in the way!
Whilst this is a shoe-in for all the literary prizes of the year - there is no doubting its profundity and energy, its anger and its literary mastery - I found it an incredibly challenging read, piling unrelenting misery upon misery on young Demon's shoulders, robbing him of every joy or success or moment of peace, with only the incredible power of the narrative voice to stave off the bleakness.
I'm not the sort of person to recommend books to other people. Of course not. *Ahem! Ok, of course I do. It is part of my DNA! I have been known, when browsing Waterstones and overhearing shop assistants offering up a book recommendation, to feel obliged to butt in and offer a different one. My blog is broadly speaking just a list of book recommendations. I have had long conversations with colleagues that never go far beyond "Have you read...? And you haven't read...? You should read..." It is, to be fair, pretty much part and parcel of my job as an English teacher, though - and that's my excuse!
I am going to rely on the computer to select the ten books for this list, taking out all the physical and human limitations on randomness - the fact that I would be least likely to pick books from low shelves because my knees ache.... I did show my class the other week my Calibre library of ebooks and they estimated how many I had. "Twenty, sir?" "Thirty-five sir?" They seemed flabbergasted - as if they could not believe so many books could exist - when I scrolled to the bottom to show the 3,006th book! Not all read, obviously. A lot of classics. A vast and overwhelming TBR in digital form! Let's see what I thought of this random selection, and whether I remember why I bought it... And why is this strangely nerve wracking?
A genuinely fun set of science fiction reads, featuring convincing world building and very capable plotting is elevated by a unique and compelling narrative voice in our favourite SecUnit: dangerous, compassionate, distant, a little obsessive and more than a touch neurodivergent.
I do love a good audiobook! Half an hour commuting to work each way five days a week; half an hour running three times a week; one or two longer runs at the weekend; whilst cooking, along in the kitchen... I will often be found listening to an audiobook. Quite often, more of my reading is audiobook than traditional print or e-book... Anyway, let's turn to my favourite narrators. There are some who inhabit the characters and narratives so well that, even when I return to the print version, I am still hearing it in their voice inside my head!
This week’s topic delves out of the bookish realm and is described by Jana as a chance to Take this time to let your readers get to know you a little! But the thing is, when you know what a person reads and enjoys, the sort of worlds and characters that inhabit their imagination and give them solace, when you know when a person seeks comfort in their reading and when they seek to be challenged, you already know so much about that other person! Yes, I am the sort of person who, when invited into someone’s house, is instantly glancing around for bookshelves; I am the sort of person who on a crowded train chooses who I sit next by their reading matter…!
This is an extraordinary and very strange and elegiacal novel, a nightmarish phantasm of a read: it celebrates classic cinema and its creativity and originality; it lambasts the homogenised sanitised experience of modern cinema; it is cruelly loving of its characters and almost lyrical in its palpable sense of decay. This was unlike anything that I have read in a while...
This week's theme comes courtesy of Rachel @ Sunny Side who is obviously a girl after my daughter's heart who loves animals! In fact, my daughter has an avowed ambition to live in the wild in order to look after the wild animals - taking inspiration from Katya Balen's wonderful October October, perhaps. But only if there is wifi. In the wild.
A startling time loop novel: beneath the horror of Spence reliving the same day over and over, a day clouded in layers of pain and tragedy, is a surprisingly powerful message about toxic masculinity and banter. A fantastic inclusion for the YOTO Carnegie Medal.
A thoroughly entertaining and engaging tale of friendship which, whilst I enjoyed the reading experience, does not quite justify the social media hype that it has received.
Another wonderful gripping novel from Eleanor Catton. Populated with intriguing characters, powerful ideas and incredibly long sentences, this novel is a little like a tapestry: it draws threads from Shakespeare, thrillers, climate change, politics and weaves them together to make something new and unsettling.
This week's themes comes courtesy of submitted by Nicole @ BookWyrm Knits and is a celebration of those pioneers of literature, the self-published and independently published authors. In the world we live in, the access to blogs and to self-publishing opportunities and small independent houses means that the range of books and publishing has blossomed without the influence of the Big Five publishers. Without self-publishing, we might have never had the whimsy of Beatrix Potter or of Dickens' A Christmas Carol.
This week's theme poses its own challenge. I love the idea of recommending books similar to a favourite author, but which author to focus on? Do I pick an author I find comforting and warm, or an author I find challenging? Do I find an adult author or young adult? Do I focus on classics or on modern writers? I want to pick my favourite author and rave about them... but again I have so many favourites...
Another thoroughly enjoyable criminal romp for Anthony Horowitz and the enigmatic Daniel Hawthorne, uncovering the murderer of a vicious theatre critic before Horowitz is re-arrested for the crime.
The Book Lovers' Sanctuary 
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