London Falling has many of the elements that wouldn't look out of place in a thriller. Russian oligarchs, vicious hit men, shady "businessmen"' and a body tumbling over a balcony within sight of the UK's national security agency. Except Keefe's book isn't fiction. This is a detailed work of journalistic investigation centred on the death of 19-year-old Londoner Zac Brettler in November 2019.

Best sellers often fail to live up to the hype but in this case, the reputation of Ferrante's novel is well deserved. On the surface, it's a novel about the friendship between two girls — Elena Greco and Raffaella “Lila” Cerullo — who grow up together in a Naples suburb in the 1950s. But it gradually becomes much more than that.

It was touch and go whether I'd manage to complete #10booksofsummer this year. I got bogged down by two of my choices — The Palm House by Gwendoline Riley and Antonio by Beatriz Bacher. Though they were shortish novels, they took me an age to read. Luckily my final book (My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante) was a breeze in comparison .

The Café with No Name is a wonderfully modest novel, very much in the vein of Robert Seethaler's earlier book A Whole Life. Set in Vienna in 1966, the novel follows Robert Simon, a 31-year-old who decides to leave his jack-of-all- trades job at the market and take over a dingy café at the Karmelitermarkt. Robert has never worked in a cafe let alone run one.

Whenever I travelled overseas for work, I loved to ask my colleagues for recommendations of authors from their country. This was how I discovered authors like Yukio Mishima (Japan), Amilie Nothomb (Belgium) and Joachim Maria Machado de Assis (Brazil). Brazilian colleagues also recommended Beatriz Bacher who was a screenwriter and literary editor as well as the author of three novels and two short story collections.

Last month's choice from my monthly dip into the TBR Book Jar proved fortuitous. I hadn't planned on taking part in Women in Translation month but then my book jar lucky dip gave me Antonio by the Brazilian author Beatriz Bacher. The stars were clearly in alignment. What will this month bring me? As always I've used a random number generator to pick three titles from my TBR spreadsheet.

The Palm House is the first book I've read from this year's Booker Prize longlist. Sadly it didn't have the emotional heft or intellectual I expect to find in a Booker contender. It offers some sharply observed dialogue and a strong evocation of the atmosphere of London in the late 2010s. But overall it left me underwhelmed. but left me with that…

Some people go to extraordinary lengths to acquire/sustain the "body beautiful." Botox injections, dermal fillers, buttock lifts are de rigeur among influencers, celebs and wannabes. Even they would likely baulk at the procedure undertaken (willingly) by the protagonist of Hanif Kreishi's The Body. The premise of the story is that medical science has discovered a way to transplant the human brain into younger, fitter, disease-free bodies.

The Classics Club Spin landed on number 18 , the spot in my list reserved for the Norwegian classic The Birds by Tarjei Vesaas. Now if I were an organised reader I would have made a note of how I came to discover this book. I might have found it as the result of a general search for classics from parts of the world other than the UK and the USA.

it's time for another round of the classic club spin. Will the roulette wheel bring me Malcolm Lowry or John Steinbeck??.

Books I Was Reading On This Day Over the Last Ten Years — the Top Ten Tuesday topic this week — would be nigh on impossible without the aid of Goodreads. I can barely remember what I read a month ago let alone ten years past. For my list I went with books I was reading as close to today's date as possible.

In an alternate universe, this update would bring you news that I was not only well on track to complete my #10booksofsummer, but would likely read many more than ten. As it is, I'll be lucky to reach ten by the end of August. The problem is all of my own making — instead of focussing on books I already have at home, I keep ordering books from the library.

It's the start of a new month so time to delve into my TBR Book Jar once more. As always I've used a random number generator to pick three titles from my TBR spreadsheet. From those I'll pick one to read in the next two months. This month's selection have a very pleasing international flavour. Antonio by Beatriz Bracher My first pick is a novel by award-winning Brazilian author, Beatriz Bracher.

After reading Émile Zola's experiment with fairy-tale romance in The Dream (Le Rêve)), it was a relief to turn to get back to what he does best: gritty social commentary. The Conquest of Plassans delivers this in abundance with a story line of greed, political opportunism and the thirst for power among the inhabitants of a sleepy provincial town.

After the intensity of my last #20booksofsummer book — Quartet by Jean Rhys — I badly needed something that was less demanding. Magpie Murders fitted the bill nicely. It's a murder mystery with echoes of those classic Poirot tales set in a small English village. Actually it's two murder mysteries created using the nested narrative device. The premise is that author Alan Conway is found dead just days after handing in the latest title in his best selling crime series.

In ancient Sicily two jobless young potters embark on an audacious scheme to stage a production of Greek tragedies in a quarry. The pair have oodles of passion and enthusiasm but little common sense. They don't have two drachmas to rub together. And they completely lack experience of the theatrical world. What could possibly go wrong? Rather a lot as it turns out because they completely misjudge how the authorities and citizens of Syracuse will react to their scheme.

I've neglected Spell the Month in Books in the last few months. It was only when I saw a few posts in my blog feed that I remembered all about this meme. It's perfect timing actually because ithe current heatwave in the UK has frazzled my brain so much I don't think I have the energy to write a book review.

Painters and writers. Smoke-filled cafes. Rain-slicked streets, Grubby, cheap hotels. This is life in 1920s bohemian Paris as seen in Jean Rhys's first novel. Quartet. Exciting, liberated, vibrant on the outside but with a dark underbelly, particularly for those without money like the young Englishwoman Marya Zelli, She finds herself stranded and penniless in the city when her Polish husband is arrested and imprisoned for trafficking in stolen art works.

Does anyone else find it difficult to decide what books to take on holiday? In the days before I set off, I keep changing my mind about which books to pack. What if I finish all of them before the holiday is over? What if I don't care for the ones I've chosen? Not a problem if you're visiting an English-speaking country where there's a good chance of finding a book-shop in a decent size town.

Winter People was the perfect reading companion for my recent tour of Ireland's wild Atlantic coastline. Gráinne Murphy doesn't give any place names but i suspect we're in Western Cork since that's where she lives. It just so happened that's exactly where I was when I started reading the book. Winter People is a tale of three broken and damaged individuals who live on the edge of a small town near the sea.

I've read scores of novels dealing with the damage caused by colonial ambitions in India and south east Asia, but until recently, little that related to Africa. Though I know Germany had a significant presence in South Africa and Namibia, I hadn't appreciated they were so active in East Africa (the region that is now Tanzania) nor the level of brutality they exacted on the local population.

I cancelled my Audible subscription some months back when I discovered that my subscription plan wouldn't allow me to download files and listen off line. So for entertainment/distraction while in the gym I've had to rely on the audiobook options available via my local library service. They'e not wonderful — the selection is very heavily weighted towards thrillers, crime and popular authors like Lucinda Riley.

Ever felt you have far too much stuff in your home? Cait Flanders set out to tackle the problem with a year-long shopping ban. The Year of Less documents that experiment

One of my favourite episodes in Alan Bennett's Talking Heads series of dramatic monologues concerns a voracious letter-writer. The main character in A Lady of Letters, Irene Ruddock , hides her loneliness behind a stream of letters to newspapers, grieving relatives of a woman she barely knew, The Queen, crematorium officials and the police. Sybil Van Antwerp, the central figure in Virginia Evans's…

May was the month in which I decided to part company with Angela Thirkell and her Barsetshire Chronicles series. I know she's much loved by readers for her humorous depiction of English village life between the wars. But they're not to my taste. There are thirty books in this series.I read the first one — High Rising — ten years ago and thought then, that would be my first and last.

Pulse is another lean, intense work of fiction by Welsh author Cynan Jones. This is a collection of short stories deeply rooted in the rural life Jones knows so well — he was born in a traditional farming community in West Wales and worked on the land before becoming a writer. The world of Pulse is very similar to that depicted in his short novels, …

Summer is fast approaching which means it's time once more for the #20BooksofSummer #20BOS26 reading challenge. I've joined in every year for the past ten years but have never once got close to reading twenty books.  So I'm being realistic this year and shooting for the #10booksofsummer option while hoping to do do a little better than that. That's what I love about this "challenge" — it's so flexible.

Every book by Colm Tóbin I've read to date has had a female central character. The novella A Long Winter demonstrates without question that he can write from a male perspective just as powerfully. This is a story about loss and survival told from the perspective of Miquel, a young man in his early twenties. One morning in the depths of winter, his mother goes missing from their home high in the Pyrenees.

The Classics Club Spin landed on number 7 thus delivering me a novel I have been intending to read for several years. Quartet ,published in 1929, was the first novel written by Jean Rhys, one of four books thought to be highly autobiographical.  It's set in Paris where Mayra and her husband Stephan live a hand-to-mouth existence supported by occasional sales of artworks.

it's time for another round of the classic club spin and this time I'm hoping to get Zola.

I'm playing catch up with reviews. These two novels are both by Welsh authors but I couldn't fit them into ReadingWales'26. Falling by Emma Kavanagh Emma Kavanagh's draws on her experience as a psychologist with the police service for her debut novel Falling . It begins with a plane crash in the Black Mountains in mid Wales shortly after take off in heavy snow.

My TBR Book Jar has enjoyed an extended holiday over the past few months while I concentrated on books I already knew I was going to read. Now that Reading Wales, Reading Ireland and the 1961 club are behind me, I finally have an opportunity to use the jar to elp guide my decision on what to read next. For the benefit of anyone new to this blog, the idea of my TBR book jar is to select three titles on the first of each month and committ to reading one of those titles within two months.

I ended my last "My Reading Life" update with this statement: I'm hoping to get back to my Classic Club list and pick up another couple of African authors. That's the idea - whether April will turn out that way is an entirely different matter. That turned out to be wishful thinking on my part. I didn't read any books from my Classics Club books nor did I read a single African author.

I missed the book club meeting which discussed Tom Hindle's murder mystery debut. I've heard since that the general consensus was that it was an entertaining read though overly long; an assessment which matches my own thoughts. A Fatal Crossing pays homage to the traditions of the Golden Age of crime mysteries, particularly those using the locked-room device. It's set in 1924 on a transatlantic steamship…

For years I thought that Winifred Holtby had written only one novel — South Riding. That turned out to be far from the truth. She actually wrote six novels plus two collections of short stories and two non fiction books plus hundreds of magazine and newspaper articles. Anderby Wold was her debut novel, written in 1922 when she was just 24 years old.

Caryl Lewis's self-confessed obsession with bees lies behind the second novel she's written in the English language. Bitter Honey is a tale of grief, friendship and new beginnings set at Berllan Deg, an orchard farm in the Welsh countryside. The farm and its cottage become a refuge for three women at different stages of their lives, helping them to make sense of their pasts and the possibilities for new futures.

Australian author Jane Harper’s third novel, The Lost Man is a twisty murder mystery that's as rich in atmosphere as her previous novels. It opens with a horrific image of a man alone in the scorching heat of the Australian outback. Hours from the nearest habitation and out of water, he crawls in the sand trying to stay in a narrow band of shade from a gravestone.

When I decided to take on the role of hosting a month-long reading event I didn't anticipate that I wouldn't have much breathing space for reading anything unconnected to that event. I'm not complaining — I enjoyed every minute in my second year of hosting Reading Wales. I'm just explaining why there's a heavy weighting towards Welsh authors in this monthly re-cap.

Rhidian Brook’s debut novel The Testimony of Taliesin Jones, is a coming-of-age story about a lad searching for answers in a world of uncertainty. Eleven-year-old Taliesin (aka “Tal”) Jones has known…

Rhidian Brook’s debut novel The Testimony of Taliesin Jones, is a coming-of-age story about a lad searching for answers in a world of uncertainty. Eleven-year-old Taliesin (aka “Tal”) Jones has known only peace and stability in his life. Until just his birthday his mother ups and leaves home to live with Toni, her hairdresser. At first, Taliesin, his older brother Jonathan and his dad behave as if she's just popped out to the shops and she'll back soon.

Sugar and Slate is a memoir that uses a mix of poetry and prose to explore the complexities of identity. Williams grew up in the coastal town of Llandudno in North Wales, the daughter of a white, Welsh-speaking mother and a Black Guyanese father. She returns again and again to the feeling that to be half-Welsh and half Afro-Caribbean was to be half of something but never quite anything whole.

Only a few days to go before the official end of Reading Wales Month '26. I can't believe I'm saying that — it feels such a short time since I posted the start of this event. Kath, my co-host at Nut Press, and I have been thrilled to see all your contributions so far and the eclectic range of books you've discovered.

The Queen of Dirt Island  follows four generations of the Aylward women as they negotiate grief and conflict. On the surface it's a family saga set in one small corner of Ireland but underneath is a tale that speaks to the universal themes of love and friendship. Donal Ryan's seventh novel begins with tragedy and loss. On the day Eileen Aylward gives birth to her first child Saoirse , her husband is killed in a road accident.

My co-host for Reading Wales Month, Kath, is holding a giveaway over on her blog. Kath describes Where the Seals Sing by Susan Richardson as "a stirring story about one woman’s love of the Atlantic grey seal and its natural habitats, together with a moving and compassionate story about a father and daughter’s love for each other. Richardson is a nature writer and a poet who lives on the coast of Pembrokeshire in West Wales.

I must have been living under a rock because I only heard about Folding Rock a fortnight ago. It's a magazine showcasing new writing from Wales and beyond, has been going for a year and recently publi...

I have been very slowly making my way through this delightful BBC radio collection featuring the works of Dylan Thomas. Some of the recordings feature Thomas himself, but many have been turned into…

This month Karen of Booker Talk and Kathryn of Nut Press are hosting Reading Wales, celebrating the work of Welsh authors. I have chosen a book by Carys Davies, an author born in Llangollen, North …

I chose Belinda Bauer’s The Impossible Thing to read for ReadingWales’26 March event by  BookerTalk . To take part in this event, we need t...

Spell the Month in Books host Jana of Reviews from the Stacks has offered us a choice of three prompts for this month. I'm totally out of inspiration for two of these — Pi Day and March Madness — so have had to settle for the third option: Green Covers. Some of these titles are Virago Modern Classics editions which I make a point of buying if I ever spot one in a second hand book shop or charity shop.

nthony Shapland's debut novel is a quietly powerful tale of two men trying to keep their love secret amid a growing AIDS crisis and an intolerant community whose relationship is whose existence The risk of exposure is a constant threat. love must remain a secret. homophobic, close-knit community. It's the late 1980s when M and B first notice each other in a pub.