Lately, we’ve not followed any themes for picking our books, instead each of the group pitches one title of something they’d like to read or have read, then we pick one at random. Our O…

It’s been a busy week, and I’m behind on my reviewing, however, I’m relieved that both of these titles made the shortlist for this year’s Booker Prize, as I’d hoped th…

Here are two more pocket paperbacks of short stories from the 1995 Penguin 60s collection for you for #ShortStorySeptember, hosted by Rebecca. Both also fit the RIP XXI challenge with their dark th…

This year is the first in a few years that I’ve got any excitement up about the Booker Prize, and I’ve now read four titles with a fifth just published (Switzy by Emma Cline) arriving i…

I didn’t remember until late last night, but yesterday on September 15th, my blog reached 18 years old! Gosh, I never thought when I dipped my blogging toe into the water back on Blogspot in …

Source: Review copy from Corylus Books – thank you ! Translated by Peter Bush I loved the first of Catatan author Teresa Solana’s Barcelona Nights series of novels from Corylus Books, B…

Source: Proof copy from Bonnier/Eriu books for the Random Things blogtour – thank you. Hourican’s novel is based on real events. In January 1965, Princess Margaret and her husband Tony,…

Little tales of Misogyny by Patricia Highsmith My reading for both challenges got off to a good start with this book of short stories which also fits in with the RIP xxi challenge. It was first pub…

This was my third Barker Books read of the summer. Originally, I’d planned to read Darkmans, but that is a doorstopper and time was running away so I picked H(A)PPY instead – I might as…

To nearly close out my reviews for Twenty Books of Summer (one more left after these), here are shorter write-ups… Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent ‘Put me out with the bins,’ …

I have two reviews of novels in Spanish for you today, one from Spain, the other Argentina. Both for Women in Translation month, the Pineiro is also book 19 of my Twenty Books of Summer. July and A…

It’s not often that I do arrivals posts these days, but I had to highlight these lovely books that popped through the letter box. They are the first three in a new series from World Editions,…

Source: Review copy from Doubleday – thank you – for the Random Tours blog tour A new novel from Donal Ryan is always a treat, and Where are the Kings (no question mark), delivers a tou…

For #WITMonth, Women in Translation month, hosted by Meytal at Biblibio, it’s traditional to look back at one’s reading over the past year, to see if #WITMonth carries over from Au…

4 novels for #WITMonth 2016: from Korean, Vietnamese-Canadian, Belgian & Japanese women authors. This is the fourth post in my occasional series of archive posts in which I look back ten years.…

In my irregular themed look at old posts (previous posts here), this time I’ve picked novels where the author becomes part of the story – true metafiction – and I got AI to do me a…

Firstly though, I’ve also been at Shiny New Books last week with my review of Flame Tree Publishing’s short story anthology Best Served Cold from their Beyond & Within series of bea…

Does a pamphlet count as a book? Well, given that I’ve read 17 of my 20 books and I’m well on course to finish the 20 and more, why not! However, I will bracket these two Faber signed l…

I’ve now read 17/20 and am rather behind on my reviews, but here’s the next one for you… The second of my Barker Books reads this summer is her debut novel from 1994. This was a r…

Review by Annabel Flame Tree Publishing's anthology series, 'Beyond & Within' has a broad remit to collect short stories from a variety of genres. Their latest crime collection, Guilty Sec

I’m currently dipping into Tomine’s 2024 book, Q&A, in which he answers questions posed to him sent to his publishers about his life, his career, his techniques, the business of car…

Hello, lovely summer readers. If you’ve read Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke – it’s time to open up the discussion on this summer’s most talked about book. Spoilers are welc…

Translated from the French by Sam Taylor With its tagline ‘Salvation comes with a body count’, I was never going to say no to this thriller involving the Vatican, a priest and an honest…

Reviewed by Harriet Maggie O’Farrell’s new book has had quite a mixed reception - some high praise and some rather damning criticism. Having read it myself, which took a long time because

Reviewed by Harriet Maggie O’Farrell’s new book has had quite a mixed reception - some high praise and some rather damning criticism. Having read it myself, which took a long time because

Review by Karen Langley The Crime Writers’ Association was formed in 1953 by author John Creasey, with a stated aim to promote, support and celebrate crime writing, and writers of all crime

I do love a listy post. I was contemplating doing one of my archive ‘Five Feat’ posts about Brooklyn, one of NYC’s five boroughs, but when I started looking for posts, I found the…

A little late, but the last week and a half was hectic! I’ve finally put the summer edition of our school magazine to bed. I had to use Canva for it for the first time, having always used Ado…

Today I have short reviews of two novellas set in unspecified French locations by Parisian authors, and one set partly in Paris by a Danish author for Paris in July, hosted by Emma at Words and Pea…

A while ago, I was contacted by Jacqui Kibby, founder and publisher of UK indie Scorpius Books based in Colchester. Scorpius was the first UK publisher to create dyslexic friendly editions especial…

Review by Liz Dexter “Having been lost in the Great Fire and again to the Blitz, Christ Church has now arguably been lost again, figuratively, to London’s neoliberal appetites.”(p. 35)