Category: Love

Normal People, Sally Rooney

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Normal People. Are people normal? I don't think so. I think we are weird and strange and contradictory and self-contradictory and life primarily in delusions and bubbles of pretense and make-believe. But maybe that's me! "Normal" seems like a slur... So the point is, I'm not entirely sure what drew me to this book: it… Continue reading Normal People, Sally Rooney

30 Day Book Challenge: Day Six!

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Today's challenge is to identify  A book that broke your heart. There is only one contender in this category and it is Patrick Ness' A Monster Calls. I have read this novel a dozen times: initially as simply a book for myself; later as a class read for work. I have read it in my head… Continue reading 30 Day Book Challenge: Day Six!

The Winter of the Witch, Katherine Arden

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So excited that an ARC of The Winter of the Witch by Katherine Arden has been dispatched today! Book three of the Winternight Trilogy. I love Vasilisa Petrovna - firey, alien and other - the phoenix dominating that cover. I adore Arden's writing, her Russian folklore, the historical authenticity. And Morozko. And Solovey. It is… Continue reading The Winter of the Witch, Katherine Arden

The Mars Room, Rachel Kushner

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I am not a fan of prison drama. Orange Is The New Black? No thank you. Shawshank Redemption? I just don't like the prison setting. It may have something to do with an innate suspicion of large numbers of people being together; it may have something to do with having been a criminal barrister and… Continue reading The Mars Room, Rachel Kushner

The Overstory, Richard Powers

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"Let me sing to you, about how creatures become other things" I was brought up - and still live - very much in the countryside. A safe, British countryside. I know my oak from my elm for my yew. I am currently harvesting apples and blackberries from the garden, looking forward to the walnuts being… Continue reading The Overstory, Richard Powers

Touch, Claire North

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Poor Claire North. She brought out The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August as I read Kate Atkinson's Life After Life; I pick up Touch just after reading A Skinful of Shadows by Frances Hardinge. And both times, she comes a slight second in similar and comparable fantasy scenarios. Imagine being able to switch your… Continue reading Touch, Claire North

The Muse, Jessie Burton

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I adored The Miniaturist! It was one of those books which had stayed with me: the cold of her repressed Amsterdam, the sweetness of marzipan, the claustrophobic house. The hint of the supernatural. The difficult, prickly bond between the women. So it was with pleasure and anticipation that I began The Muse and it took… Continue reading The Muse, Jessie Burton

The Heart’s Invisible Furies, John Boyne

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  Some books you can knock out a review in a moment or two after reading them. Others take time to digest and consider and reflect on. And this beautiful, heart-aching, visceral, funny, tragic novel is one of the latter. But as yesterday was the International Day Against Homophobia Biphobia Intersexism and Transphobia  - should… Continue reading The Heart’s Invisible Furies, John Boyne

Broken Harbour, Tana French

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Recipe for a Tana French Dublin Murder Squad novel: Take an atmospheric and intense setting, such as the last remnant of an ancient forest, a secluded mansion or a half completed housing project abutting the sea; insert a handful of characters with intense and golden relationships; raise the pressure and temperature; remove from the oven when those relationships… Continue reading Broken Harbour, Tana French

Little Fires Everywhere, Celeste Ng

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Sometimes, you read a short story that leaves you wanting more and makes you wish that the writer had extended it to a novel length. With this novel, well written and crafted as it is, I wonder whether it could have been reduced to a short story. Or began life as a short story or… Continue reading Little Fires Everywhere, Celeste Ng

A Man Called Ove, Fredrik Backman

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We all know that old bloke on the corner who glowers at us, the one with a face like a bulldog sucking lemons, the one who barks at us for dropping litter or parking in the wrong place. The one who we suspect goes around the house grumbling about the radiators being on. Hell, I fear… Continue reading A Man Called Ove, Fredrik Backman

The Humans, Matt Haig

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There's nothing new or original in this novel. Touches of Doctor Who, perhaps. Touches of The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Nighttime. Touches, indeed, of Eleanor Oliphant Is Perfectly Fine. An outsider struggles to fit into humam society and ultimately fights to understand what it is to be human. Wrap that up with… Continue reading The Humans, Matt Haig

Catch Up

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For various reasons - Ofsted, toddler, family visits - I've not been able to add reviews recently and am about to try to catch-up. Once again. As an aide memoir to myself, to you - and a short cut to adding photos later, the books I'm yet to review are: Autumn by Ali Smith: gorgeous,… Continue reading Catch Up

The Likeness, Tana French

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I do enjoy Tana French. Her writing style is simultaneously lyrical and languid, full of synaethesia; and, at the same time, credible and realistic. And this, her second novel in the Dublin Murder Squad series, is a delight! I love the way that it follows seamlessly on the heels of In The Woods and Operation Vestal -… Continue reading The Likeness, Tana French

Hag-Seed, Margaret Atwood

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Once again, a deliciously striking cover for Margaret Atwood's most recent novel, and the most recent entry into the Hogarth Shakespeare Project... and the first in the project that I've read. Now, I have a confession to make before going much further: I've never really got Margaret Atwood. I've wanted to; I've tried to. I… Continue reading Hag-Seed, Margaret Atwood

Nutshell, Ian McEwan

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Some books need more of an exercise in imagination than others. A bigger suspension of disbelief. An unborn narrator, for example, is one such. And not just unborn in a metaphorical sense but literally foetal. The narrator of McEwan's most recent book - recently serialised on Radio 4 - is a third-trimester Hamlet, set in modern London, recounting… Continue reading Nutshell, Ian McEwan

The Trees, Ali Shaw

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This book might win the most striking cover award this year: the stunning autumnal russets and reds are gorgeous! But you know what they say about judging books by their covers? As a parent and as a teacher, we trot out that truism time and again but on what else are you going to judge… Continue reading The Trees, Ali Shaw

Grief Is The Thing With Feathers, Max Porter

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Wow! This book is extraordinary. It is strange and bizarre and wild. And has the vividness and opacity of a nightmarish dreamscape. It is literary and visceral, erudite and scatological, mythic and domestic at the same time. Death and grief are such massive topics that you expect a weighty tome to contain them. Yet this… Continue reading Grief Is The Thing With Feathers, Max Porter

H is for Hawk, Helen Macdonald

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I mostly read fiction: an escapist flight from the same rigours of the real world - work, a beautiful but demanding three-year old - that have kept me from keeping up-to-date with my reviews! So this book has languished on my kindle to-be-read pile for a while. A pretty long while. Which just goes to… Continue reading H is for Hawk, Helen Macdonald

The Reader On The 6.27, Jean Paul Didierlaurent

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  How can you review a book like this? I mean, seriously? It was just so incredibly sweet and heart-warming and just delightful and you can't review that, just enjoy it! The book is set in Paris and follows a few weeks in the life of Guylain Vignolles, a lover of books whose job is to… Continue reading The Reader On The 6.27, Jean Paul Didierlaurent

Case Histories, Kate Atkinson

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Another detective fiction novel - and another still to review, albeit with a paranormal twist - and this shares many similarities with The Cuckoo's Calling but is done so much better. Kate Atkinson - whose more explicitly literary offering of Life After Life was divine and possibly one of the best books I have ever read - is… Continue reading Case Histories, Kate Atkinson

The Lie Tree, Francis Hardinge

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I am coming to adore Frances Hardinge! I've only read this and Cuckoo Song to be fair, but there's something about her imagination and her writing which chimes with me: dark, intensely personal, yet somehow mythic at the same time. She captures a sense of wonder,  of terror, of awe which is simultaneously so childlike… Continue reading The Lie Tree, Francis Hardinge

The Rosie Effect, Graeme Simsion

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There are some great books that I've read over the years. Neither this, nor it's predecessor, The Rosie Project, belong in that category. There are, however, other mental categories into which I file books and this did fall into one labelled silly-books-I've-read-extracts-of-to-my-wife and this does fall into that category. It is predictable; it follows an… Continue reading The Rosie Effect, Graeme Simsion

Michael Rosen’s Sad Book

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I'd not normally blog about picture books. I know there are some wonderful ones out there in the world and I love The Gruffalo as much as the next guy! Possibly more. Read it most days to my daughter. And Where The Wild Things Are. And We're Going On A Bear Hunt - also by… Continue reading Michael Rosen’s Sad Book

The Rest Of Us Just Live Here, Patrick Ness

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   Ahhh... a new Patrick Ness publication is like a new China Miéville publication: an event to be savoured.  Chaos Walking. A Monster Calls. More Than This. He writes science fiction, fantasy, dystopian fictions with drama, true emotion, real depth so well!  So it's difficult with this book. It's fabulous. It really is. But it's… Continue reading The Rest Of Us Just Live Here, Patrick Ness