iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 07/06/2025

Book 71/? - Fair Play by Louise Hegarty I don’t know if I entirely enjoyed it but I couldn’t stop reading. It’s undoubtedly very clever, weaving together a pastiche of/ homage to golden age murder mystery with a modern telling of the mundane horror of grief. Impressive (if a tiny bit disjointed?)💙📚

A screenshot of this book cover. It is neon green, with a blue, pink and green picture of the back of a person who looks like the king in a pack of playing cards. They have their fingers crossed behind their back.

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 07/06/2025

Book 70/? - The Coin by Yasmin Zaher I listened to this on audiobook and was transfixed. It was funny but also so very sad. It left me feeling a bit raw. Loneliness, displacement, class, beauty, nature… it is disgusting at times and moving too 💙📚

A screenshot of this book cover - a gold yellow with a contorted body on the front, wearing pressed, crisp cream clothes and an elegant snakeskin high heel. The person is on one leg and the other is raised high above them to the front, like they’re dancing.

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 07/06/2025

Book 69/? - Consider Yourself Kissed by Jessica Stanley I succumbed to the endless promotion of this (despite the grating name) It was genuinely funny - and pretty devastating on the furious resentment that can brew between couples when it comes to making space for parenthood 💙📚

A screenshot of this book cover -
bold yellow with the title in red. The cover has a pigeon carrying some red cherries at the bottom

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 07/06/2025

Book 68/? - The Unicorn Woman by Gayl Jones The story-telling is irresistible - it meanders and flows, sometimes almost dreamlike, always interesting I hadn’t read Gayl Jones before - glad to have realised my mistake 💙📚

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 07/06/2025

Book 67/? - Gunk by Saba Sams So good - this had me racing to download the author’s first book (Send Nudes). It’s somehow both tender and acerbic - and funny too. Highly recommend 💙📚

A copy of this book sitting on the stones on Brighton beach. The cover is royal blue with the title in large neon green writing, below a fried egg. This photo came from the Amazon page for this book but you should buy it from anywhere else ideally 😆

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 07/06/2025

Book 66/? - The Homemade God by Rachel Joyce I loved this. On siblings, on family, on those tiny resentments and assumptions that might suddenly collapse under their own weight The indie hardback is a feast for the eyes too - hunt it down if you can! 💙📚

Copy of this hardback book - the cover is cream with a picture of an apple and its leaves. The title is a bold orange. The edges of the book are the same gorgeous orange with white apples and leaves.

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 25/05/2025

Book 65/? - The Salt Path by Raynor Winn I enjoyed the nature writing and it’s set in a favourite part of the world. But I don’t think it goes much further than memoir - eg I found it quite shallow on its broader themes of homelessness (& don’t get me started on her take on refugees 😳) 💙📚

A copy of the book cover, which is a lovely pencil drawing of a cliff bath and sea, with scrolling waves, a diving dolphin, swooping sea birds and two shadowy people on the path.

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 25/05/2025

Book 64/? - Water by John Boyne This popped up on my Audible, one of Boyne’s ‘elemental’ series I loved the writing as it dealt with nature; I was left a bit cold by the characterisation… Not sure I’ll read the others but I did like the setting of an isolated and unyielding Irish island 💙📚

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 25/05/2025

Book 63/? - The Names by Florence Knapp I succumbed to the unrelenting coverage of this, which made me - wrongly - think this was going to be light and fun. It’s not! It’s much more interesting, and harrowing, than I expected - and better for it 💙📚

A lovely cover - there are two pinky/peach triangles mirrored top to bottom and meeting in the middle (looking like a sky and a path) and dark teal green triangles mirrored left to right and meeting in the middle. There is a man with his back to the viewer in the middle, with a white shirt and shorts, casting three shadows. The title is embossed gold and the author’s name is white along the bottom

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 25/05/2025

Book 62/? - On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong I’ve been meaning to read this for a while, prompted by his new book arriving. It’s poetry masquerading as a novel, and it’s both agonising and beautiful. I loved it 📚💙

A copy of the book cover - a dark blue sky with a smattering of white stars, which is the background to a branch of orange leaves, given the impression you are staring up at them from the ground. The author’s name and title are in white text

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 25/05/2025

Book 61/? - Days of Light by Megan Hunter I listened to this on audiobook - beautifully written, lyrical & evocative. I found myself a bit frustrated by the passivity of the main character - & the religious underpinnings didn’t really chime from my atheist perspective. But I enjoyed it anyway! 📚💙

A screenshot of this book cover, which is a beautifully painted window with warm light streaming in and casting shadows of the window frame. The book name is written across the painting in a white serif font; the author’s name in caps along the bottom

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 09/05/2025

Book 60/? - Flesh by David Szalay I read a review that advised not to “pigeonhole Flesh as a novel about masculinity…” - but I’m not sure I found much universality in the experience of the unemotional, unflinching, strangely passive protagonist Excellent, but not a pleasure 💙📚

A copy of the hard back cover of this book. It is white, with the title in huge caps, as if cut out from a photo of a snowy landscape with small red houses and fields. The author’s name is above in black.

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 03/05/2025

Book 59/? - Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner Another audiobook, which I thought was excellent, if pretty tough to listen to (I hadn’t quite realised I was embarking on a story about motherhood and death - I’d have done so *much* less casually had I known) Beautiful though 💙📚

Screenshot of the Audible book cover. It’s bright yellow with the name in white and the author’s name above in black. There is a person drawn in pale yellow against the yellow background - only her face, hair and arms are filled in. Her hair is black and her skin pale. She may be half-Korean, assuming she is the author/ narrator. She is looking down, sadly, and clutching armfuls of groceries.

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 03/05/2025

Book 58/? - Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters A bit trite to say perhaps but this book made me both laugh and cry. It’s brutal at times; I realised I kept on taking breaks when reading to catch my breath Has anyone read Torrey Peters’ new book, Stag Dance? It’s gone straight on my list! 💙📚

Copy of the paperback of this book against a grey marbled background

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 03/05/2025

Book 57/? - My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout Working my way through Elizabeth Strout’s works to get to her most recent on the Women’s Prize shortlist! I listened to this on audiobook and really enjoyed it. I love the simplicity of her storytelling - it’s so humane and compassionate 💙📚

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 03/05/2025

Book 56/? - Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico No need to add to The Discourse on this. It’s a short read, sharp and unrelenting in its skewering of a gentrifying, hipster generation. Deadpan and ultimately quite depressing, I’m not sure I quite enjoyed it as much as admired it… 📚💙

Gorgeous Fitzcarraldo Edition of this book. It’s a glorious peacock blue, with very simple white text with simply the title, the author and ‘Fitzcarraldo Editions’ at the foot

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 25/04/2025

🧵Black children are significantly over-represented in youth custody - especially those on remand (i.e. awaiting conviction or sentencing)

Graph showing disproportionally high numbers of Black children in custody

Figure 7.6 https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/youth-justice-statistics-2022-to-2023/youth-justice-statistics-2022-to-2023-accessible-version#children-in-youth-custody

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 25/04/2025

🧵 Govt’s own evaluation on the use of force - published yesterday - states “prisoner behaviour does not fully account for the levels of PAVA or Baton use experienced by black men in prison”

Paragraph from this evaluation https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/68093394e4d2b76ccfb527a0/Use_of_Force_Evaluation_Report.pdf

Which states “Responses to assaults and/or fighting may need particular attention, given that it is these incidents which tend to lead to more force on black or mixed ethnicity men. Our research indicates that officers are more likely to use high-impact techniques when responding to these incidents, and that more black and mixed men are experiencing more high-impact techniques. Research may be needed to better understand, even in situations where it is deemed necessary for some level of force to be initiated, why the type of techniques used appears to differ depending on the ethnicity of the prisoner. Indeed, this research signals that prisoner behaviour does not fully account for the levels of PAVA or Baton use experienced by black men in prison.”

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 25/04/2025

🧵 When Govt researchers spoke to people in prison about the use of force by officers, some identified “disgusting” targeting towards those from racialised minorities “They’ll go for the Black guy first”

Except from use of force evaluation that says “Prisoners from four sites,
including white prisoners, spoke of targeted force towards ethnic-minority individuals describing it as 'disgusting.' At least one prison had held forums with prisoners to further explore the issue.
They'll go for the black guy first. (Prisoner)”

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 25/04/2025

🧵 Govt’s own data also shows that you are MUCH more likely to have PAVA spray (and batons) used against you in prison if you are young

Stats showing disproportionate use of PAVA spray and batons against young people in prison - figures 9 and 10 of the attached https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/68093394e4d2b76ccfb527a0/Use_of_Force_Evaluation_Report.pdf

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 25/04/2025

🧵Racial disproportionality in the use of PAVA spray in prisons is profound - you are MUCH more likely to be pepper sprayed if you are Black than white (A reminder - these stats are from the MoJ’s use of force evaluation published yesterday)

Figure 7 from this document showing you are disproportionately likely to have PAVA used against you if you are Black https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/68093394e4d2b76ccfb527a0/Use_of_Force_Evaluation_Report.pdf

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 25/04/2025

🧵 Yesterday Govt published an evaluation of the use of force - including PAVA spray - in adult prisons from 2018 to 2023 It shows - starkly - the fact that you are significantly more likely to have force used against you in prison if you are Black than white

Figure 4 from this document showing disproportionate use of force of all kinds against Black people in prison https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/68093394e4d2b76ccfb527a0/Use_of_Force_Evaluation_Report.pdf

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 18/04/2025

Book 55/? - Confessions by Catherine Airey I listened to this on audiobook and really enjoyed it. Sometimes I find it jarring to move between narrators but I liked (most of) the voices and how revelations were unfurled gradually and from different perspectives 💙📚

A copy of the hardback, sitting on a maple wood table. The book is black - on the left hand side the title runs down the page, in alternating green, pink and red colours. The rest of the book cover is a black and white photo of a young woman with cropped hair and big eyes, standing on a busy urban street at night, holding a kitten with a soft bag thrown over one shoulder.

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 18/04/2025

Book 54/? - Universality by Natasha Brown This is smart and thoughtful but I was glad it was so short, when everyone was so utterly unbearable 😆 💙📚

Photo of the hardback of this book, resting on a white marbled surface. The book is a matte black, with a giant shiny cold bar across it. The title is in gold on the bar. The author’s name is in shiny embossed gold below.

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 18/04/2025

Book 53/? - Greta and Valdin by Rachel R Reilly I absolutely loved this. It’s funny, smart, moving and interesting. It’s mostly about relationships - with family, partners, places, self. Highly, highly recommended 💙📚

A photo of this book resting on a pink surface against a dark teal wall. The book is pink, with a large mesh shopping bag - full of limes and starting to tear - dominating the page. The title is in bold letters above and below the lines. The author’s name is in red bold font below.

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 18/04/2025

Book 52/? - Piglet by Lottie Hazell I found this suffocating- 266 pages of anxiety-inducing panic. Mostly unbearable characters. I wanted to finish it, for Piglet to find some peace, but I can’t say I enjoyed it! 💙📚

A screenshot of the book cover. It is a photo of a towering pile of five sugary doughnuts with icing, resting on top of one another on a small purple plate. The background surface and wall are sugary pink. The title is above the doughtnuts in black serif writing. The author’s name below in black bold caps. The caption reads “Her life is so full, why is she so hungry?”

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 18/04/2025

Book 51/? - Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout I’m reading Elizabeth Strout’s back catalogue so I can finish the #WomensPrize long list! I don’t know why I hadn’t read Olive Kitteridge - late to the party so you probably already know how beautiful and tender and aching it is. I loved it 💙📚

A photo of the paperback, resting on a pale green surface against a pale green wall. The cover is cream, with a bold red stripe down the left hand side. The author’s name is in a simple serif font in black and below is the title in red. There is a simply line drawing of a lighthouse in black and some red lines for the sea. There are two endorsements:

- 'An extraordinarily rich and detailed portrait of both a marriage and a community'
David Nicholls
- 'Strout animates the ordinary with astonishing force'
The New Yorker

Along the top it says in red caps “Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction”

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 07/04/2025

Book 50/? - Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie I read this as part of my plan to read the #WomensPrize long list. Maybe I wasn’t feeling willing to separate the art from the artist here, but I didn’t enjoy this. She writes beautifully but this felt disjointed and, at times, quite superficial

Cover of the book. It is a creamy white, with a large flame - inside the flame is blue, then pale/ peachy orange, then a bright red-orange, then a paler yellow-orange on the outside.

The author’s name is in black text at the top, with the subtitle ‘bestselling author of Americanah’. The title js on top of the flame in black.

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 04/04/2025

Book 49/? - Blob by Maggie Su Listened to this on audiobook and couldn’t stop. It is weird as hell, absolutely hilarious and, despite both of these things, beautifully moving too. I LOVED it 💙📚

Screenshot of this book cover. It is a bright yellow and the title is along the top and the author’s name is along the bottom, in bulging pink caps (they look like blobs, aptly). Under the title is a subtitle in pink - “A Love Story”. Above the author’s name is a caption “A rollicking fun, funny, poignant coming-of-age story” Aimee Bender, author of The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 02/04/2025

Book 48/? - Somewhere Else by Jenny Daiches Simple and at the same time vast, an intergenerational story of women and family, Judaism and Scotland, home and displacement Beautiful 💙📚

A screenshot of this book cover. It is black and white - the white sweeps across the book in diagonal stripes, almost like tape. The image at the top is a tall-ish angular building with many windows and billowing chimneys. Below there are many, many people in a crowd, looking forward. They are distinguishable in you zoom in but they look almost faceless given how many there are. There is also a masked person riding a horse, wearing what could be a soldier’s uniform. The title and author’s name are in blue caps across the white stripes.

There is a blurb that says “I wept and laughed and wished I had written it” - Miriam Margolyes.

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 01/04/2025

Book 47/? - The Artist by Lucy Steeds Enjoyed listening to this on audiobook. It’s beautifully paced, languorous at times but always with enough intrigue/ detail to move things on Maybe a bit too ‘neat’ in the plot but I enjoyed it. Another #WomensPrize treat 💙📚

A copy of this nook cover. It is a painted white, with a brushstroke of red, orange and black in the middle showing a young woman’s face looking out as if through a curtain. The book title and author’s name are in black against the white.

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 31/03/2025

Book 46/? - Crooked Seeds by Karen Jennings Another #WomensPrize long lister and I’m so glad to have embarked on reading them all, as I’m not sure I’d have found this on my own It’s brutal, to be honest, but I gulped it down. Confronting, moving and (darkly) humorous - highly recommended 💙📚

A photo of the book cover. It is a murky, textured green, with a blurry pastel rainbow growing from a darker brown patch at the bottom of the page. The author’s name is in yellow and the title in pale blue below. The lime green “Women’s Prize long list 2025” sticker is on the bottom right.

There is a quote in white along the top that says “This is an extraordinary novel. It is shattering, almost unbearable, yet - so good, so clear - it is unputdownable."
- Roddy Doyle’

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 28/03/2025

Book 45/? - The Persians by Sanam Mahloudji A host of terrible people, for whom you somehow find yourself rooting I hated this for the first third or so, then realised I was racing through it, willing them all to find their peace/ redemption Not my favourite for #WomensPrize but I enjoyed it 💙📚

A screenshot of the book cover

It is a warm yellow. A woman stands in the middle of the page, wearing blue cat’s eye sunglasses and a draped robe in a pale grey silk. She looks naked underneath - the robe is draped off one shoulder and open almost to her waits. She has red nails and is smoking a cigarette in a black holder. Her lips are red and her hair a reddish brown, styled in a wave. She looks cool.

Behind her are depictions of soldiers fighting on horseback with shields and swords and bows and arrows. The contrast between historical depictions and her modern style are stark.

The author’s name and the book title are in a bold white serif font.

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 26/03/2025

Book 44/? - Good Girl by Aria Aber Listened to this on audiobook & it was a slog. I found the endless descriptions of smashing through mountains of drugs tedious & most of the characters pretty unlikeable. Maybe I’m too old for this 😆 My least favourite of the #WomensPrize long list so far 📚💙

A screenshot of this book cover. The top half is cream, with the title in vivid green caps. There are three reviews:

- "Rarely has the wildness and bewilderment of youth been conveyed with such richly textured heat' GARTH GREENWELL
- ‘Full of style and soul’ - RAVEN LEILANI
- ‘a no bullshit must-read debut’ - KAVEH AKBAR

The bottom half is the same vivid green, with a pink photo of a young woman in silhouette - she is leaning back and her hand is covering her face. The author’s name is in white caps across the picture.

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 23/03/2025

Book 43/? - The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami The Government buying your data - including from dreams - to feed into an algorithm to assess your risk of committing a future crime, so it can preemptively detain those too ‘risky’? A dystopian nightmare that felt perfectly, alarmingly realistic 😬📚💙

A screenshot of the cover of this book. The background is a warm orange that merges into pink down the page. In the centre is a large circle with a blue sky background and bars across it. There are white clouds against the sky. The title is in large white caps above and below the circle. The author’s name is pale blue below. There are two reviews that says:
- “Extraordinary” - Rumaan Alam
- Gripping, Kafkaesque” - Jennifer Egan
There is a lime green circle saying ‘Women’s Prize Long list Fiction 2025’.

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 15/03/2025

Book 42/? - A Little Trickerie by Rosanna Pike A great story, with an original, sparky voice. There’s something a bit Dickensian in the unrelenting ill-fortune, & I found the constant sexual threat/ violence honest, but miserable. Somehow still full of hope - deserved Women’s Prize longlisting 💙📚

A screenshot of this book cover. It is a royal blue, with a golden sun radiating golden rays, with the sun filled with angels with golden halos. All the angels are dark blue but one is conspicuously pale and bling. The title is in pink against the blue, below the sun, and the author’s name in pale blue below.

The reviews state:

‘Crisp, transportive, uplifting. The fresh, irreverent voice of Tibb Ingleby is sheer brilliance. I loved it!' Bonnie Garmus, author of Lessons in Chemistry

'The most lovable little protagonist I've come across in years' Sandra Newman, author of Julia

There is a green sticker on the book to denote the longlisting for the Women’s Prize 2025

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 14/03/2025

Book 41/? - Amma by Saraid de Silva Extraordinary. It weaves together the experiences of three generations of one family, across time and place, fractured and bound by history and trauma, dealing with sexual and racial violence. Lyrical and evocative, hopeful as well as heartbreaking 💙📚

Screenshot of this book cover. It is an ombré rainbow from pink to blue to yellow to green in ice-cream shades. On the front is a beautiful tree in black, with branches and leaves spreading symmetrically across the page. Out of the bottom of the trunk is the title. The author’s name is below, against the green.

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

Book 40/? - Clear by Carys Davies Beautiful, tender, this short novel aches with compassion and loneliness and hope. 150 pages of perfection As well as its humanity, it did more for my interest in Scottish history and language than a school-career of lessons. Put this on the curriculum! 💙📚

A copy of this paperback resting on a grey tartan rug (with an orange stripe). The cover is largely of a grey, tumultuous sky, which gives way to a foggy sea and up close, a dark rowing boat and a person in shadow leaning against it, their arms crossed.

The book title is in bold blue letters across the middle; the author’s name on the bottom right hand side in a brighter blue. There are multiple reviews across the page:

- “Riveting” Sarah Jessica Parker
- “a tender, humane book” Sunday Times
- “A masterful, discreetly sublime book” Hernan Diaz
- “A writer of immense talent” Guardian
- “not to be missed” Annie Proulx

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 09/03/2025

Book 39/? - Nesting by Roisín O’Donnell Another from the Women’s Prize long list I’ve been struggling with this on audiobook for the last week and finally gave up to read instead. Much, much better. I was gripped and moved, by the end. #WomensPrize 💙📚

A screenshot of this book cover. There is a strip of shocking pink across the top and bottom. In between is a black and white photo, almost sepia toned, of rocks, a great sea and a clear sky with a few wispy clouds. There is a woman hugging two small children, just in shot on the right-hand side. The book title is large and pink across the middle, with the author’s name in black above. There is a green circle in the bottom left that says “Women’s Prize Longlisted Fiction 2025”. Along the top, it says “the Sunday Times bestseller” in white. Along the bottom it says “completely relatable - Sunday Times” and “Riveting and deeply humane - Observer”.

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 08/03/2025

Book 38/? - Black Butterflies by Priscilla Morris I chose this from the Women’s Prize long list and found it extraordinary Set amongst the horrors of the siege of Sarajevo, it is brutal and beautiful Deeply moving - I can’t get it out of my head 💙📚

A screenshot of the cover of this book. It is a beautiful, colourful scene that could be flowers but when you focus you realise they are flames and explosions - a riot of yellow, orange, red, pink, green, purple and black. The title and author’s name are in a simple white font in the middle.

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

Book 37/? - Three Days in June by Anne Tyler Work isn’t allowing for much reading so far this month but I squeezed in this audiobook last weekend. Quintessential Anne Tyler. If you like her, you’ll enjoy it. If you don’t, this isn’t going to change your mind! I’m in the first camp 📚💙

A screenshot of the cover of this book on Audible. The left hand two-thirds are a deep blue, with the author’s name in yellow and the book title in white below. The final third on the right is a sketch - blue ink on white with a few pinks and yellows of a table at a wedding, with a couple of champagne flutes, a plate with wedding cake, a place name saying Gail and some pink flowers in a vase (they look like poppies).

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 03/03/2025

Book 36/? - Gabriel’s Moon by William Boyd I always enjoy WB and this was entertaining, but I’m left with an uneasy feeling that the main character wasn’t deliberately awful (not sure he met a female character he didn’t want to shag) I await the (conspicuously teed-up) sequel nonetheless! 💙📚

A photo of this book on a grey granite surface. The book is a lovely hard back, with triangles of red, orange, burgundy, navy and pink across the cover like broken glass. There is a circle in the middle in which a small figure stands, with their shadow in front of them (it looks like a spotlight on them). The book title is above and the author’s name large below.

Above the title it states “'Engaging, intelligent and deeply satisfying. I rate him as one of our greatest living novelists” PETER JAMES

Below the author’s name it says “from the acclaimed author of Restless and Any Human Heart”

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 01/03/2025

Book 35/? - Show Don’t Tell by Curtis Sittenfeld I always find Sittenfeld captures the inner workings of slightly broken people (that’ll be all of us) beautifully. I don’t read many short stories - these are packed with nostalgia and disappointing relationships I’ll read again, I think 💙📚

Screenshot of this cover. Three quarters of it is an image of a white person sitting on the floor of a room, leaning against the wall, reading. You can only see their upper body and legs, no head or feet. They’re wearing what looks like a black dress, stopping a few inches above the person’s knees. The book looks like an old cloth bound one. Everything is tinged orange - the wall is tangerine coloured, the carpet an orange-y weave. The book title is in bold white caps against the black dress.

There are two reviews in white:
- “no one nails human behaviour with understated humour like she does” Stylist

- “a rare, magical combination of accessibility, wit and serious thinking” Sunday Times

Below this is a cream section, with the author’s name in bold peachy writing. Above her name it says “Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling author” and just below this it says “one of my favourite author’s” Kate Atkinson.

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 01/03/2025

Book 34/? - The Boy From The Sea by Garrett Carr This book is utterly gorgeous and very funny. I lost count of the number of times I laughed out loud It was another glorious audiobook listen - there’s no way my inner voice could have matched the droll Irish accents in this recording. LOVELY 📚💙

A screenshot of the cover of this book. The cover is framed by a large stone wall, along the left vertical and bottom of the page, with a young white child in a red and white stripy t shirt and small black shorts standing on the wall and leaning against the upright. Behind the wall is a calm blue sea, with many seagulls on the water and in the pale blue sky, a huge one flying towards the boy. There is a small red boat on the horizon. The picture is slightly sepia toned - it looks like a scene from the 70s.

The book name is in white caps and the author’s name in black. There is a review that says “Compassionate, lyrical and full of devilment” Louise Kennedy, author of Trespasses

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 28/02/2025

Book 33/? - Fundamentally by Nussaibah Younis This is consistently hilarious, slightly shocking, and absolutely fascinating I gobbled it down in two bites It deftly blends profundity with a lightness and humour that belies the subject matter If you read it, would love to hear what you think! 💙📚

A copy of the book cover. It is a dark purple, with two large eyes on it. One is looking sideways, set against a pink oval, that could be the skin and eye showing of a woman wearing a niqab. The other eye is framed by a black glasses lens. The book name is written in white across the page with one eye above and one below. The author’s name is in a pale purple above this. There are two reviews that say:
- 'Funny, gripping and compassionate'
Dolly Alderton
- 'A fantastic writer: caustic, pitiless, unafraid... essential reading'
Jonathan Coe

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 23/02/2025

Book 32/? - Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar I enjoyed this - it’s beautifully written, a bit maudlin, the main character awful - redeemably - at times. I slightly resented the neatness with which strings were tied up, but you could see it coming at least 💙📚

A photo of the cover of this book. It is fluorescent green and pink, with a black and white photo of an androgynous young person, with thick short hair, dark brows and long eyelashes. The font is bold and black. It says “Martyr!” across a green background at the top and the author’s name along the bottom. There is a bright pink triangle across the middle (cutting across the photo) with three reviews:

“Elegant, dizzying, playful” - LAUREN GROFF
“Brilliant and blisteringly alive... I kept forgetting to breathe” JOHN GREEN
'Smart, dazzling, different... It's like watching the novel itself be reinvented' ANN PATCHETT

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 22/02/2025

Book 31/? - The Late Americans by Brandon Taylor I found this bleak; the characters’ despondency somewhat contagious. I wasn’t enjoying it and then suddenly I was, but I nonetheless felt fairly glad to turn the final page Has anyone read Real Life or Filthy Animals? Adding to my (long) list…

A paperback of this book resting on a green wool blanket. The title is in bold text at the top of the book - black against creamy white. There is a photo of young adults resting on a wooden dock on clear, calm water. Trees and clouds are reflected in the water. The only person you can see in detail is a young black man sitting up, propped on his hands behind him. He’s wearing a long sleeved green top, a small black hat and sunglasses. A white woman with red hair is resting her head on his lap.

Below the author’s name is in white caps against a blue background. Below it says “the Booker shortlisted author of Real Life”

There are several reviews on the book:
- “a panorama of youth” Guardian
- Dazzling” Harper’s Bazaar
- “Funny, merciless, brilliant” Curtis Sittingfeld

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 22/02/2025

Book 30/? - Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon This is the PERFECT audiobook - read by the author with so much life and humour. It’s so clever, educational even, and so bloody funny One of those ones where you find you miss the characters when you’re finished - highly recommended #BookSky

A copy of this book in hardback, resting on a yellow chevron-striped wool blanket. The book is bright yellow, with a large black jug on the front. There are two naked men in black - one on the left of the jug is touching the side of it. The other, with a beard, rests against the right of the jug, looking spent.

The title is in large, white, embossed letters in the middle of the jug. The author’s name is written in script below the title.

There are three reviews on the jug:
- “Bold and totally unexpected. I was hooked from the first page” Douglas Stuart
- “Madly ambitious. Shockingly funny. Just glorious” Emma Donoghue
- “Very special, very clever, very entertaining” Roddy Doyle

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 22/02/2025

Book 29/? - Birding by Rose Ruane As someone who was a teenager in the 90s, the descriptions/ ramifications of ‘lad culture’ were all too resonant. But generally I found this heavy-handed. Not for me. #BookSky

A screenshot of this book cover on kindle. It is a white rectangle, with the title in alternating black and then pastel ice-cream shades along the top, and the author’s name similar below. The picture is of a white hand with a pale pink manicure, holding a pistachio green ice cream. The person is wearing a pistachio green, vertically striped and long sleeved top, tucked into an elasticated waist in a similar green. The person’s breasts sit low, just above the waist.

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Gemma Abbott @gemabbott.bsky.social · 22/02/2025

Book 28/? - The Boyhood of Cain by Michael Amherst I listened to this across one long, jet-lagged day. It was everything the reviews acclaim - evocative, beautiful, searing. I found the protagonist frustrating, ridiculous, sometimes unbearably sweet Highly recommended #BookSky #TheBoyhoodOfCain

Screenshot of the audiobook cover. It is a cream square, with a small photo in the centre - the photo is of a small child in shadow, wearing a backpack, looking across a misty meadow at a building. The sun is low and golden, the sky changes from pale yellow to anaemic blue.

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