June started the 2025 20 Books campaign off brilliantly with tons of you linking, commenting and tweeting etc giving Emma and I, and you, of course, loads of wonderful reviews to explore. It’s been particularly lovely making so many new blog connections. If you still need to pick up the logos for the different numbers of books, Read More
Lost in the Garden by Adam Leslie – #20BooksofSummer2025 No 9 and a DNF
I’m currently reading my 11th book of my 20, loving Sandwich so far – a brilliant summery read. But I had one DNF too – let me get that out of the way with a few comments. The Appeal by Janice Hallett – DNF, 55/445 pages This novel has been a huge bestseller – I’ve Read More
#20BooksofSummer2025 – Nos 7-8, Herron & Osman
Nine books now read, time for reviews of numbers 7 & 8, which just begged to be paired together, as both involve crime / spies, but both later volumes in series, where I don’t want to say too much – so shorter write-ups are game here. Slough House by Mick Herron, (Slow Horses #7) First Read More
Six Degrees of Separation: Theory & Practice by Michelle de Kretser
First Saturday of the month and time for the super monthly tag Six Degrees of Separation, which is hosted by Kate at Booksaremyfavouriteandbest, Six Degrees of Separation #6degrees picks a starting book for participants to go wherever it takes them in six more steps. Links to my reviews are in the titles of the books chosen. The starter Read More
A Sting in her Tail by Mark Ezra – blog tour
What do old spies do after they’ve retired? If you’re Richard Osman’s Elizabeth, decamped to a retirement village with her husband who has dementia, you keep your hand in, recruiting a band of retirees to form The Thursday Murder Club – looking at cold cases, helping the local constabulary out, making the most of contacts, Read More
Murder Tide by Stella Blómkvist – blog tour
Translated by Quentin Bates This series of crime thrillers by the anonymous author Stella Blómkvist, who shares their pseudonym with the main character has been a big success in Iceland, with over twenty books in the series so far. Thanks for Corylus Books and translator Quentin Bates for bringing them to the English-speaking world, with Read More
#20BooksofSummer2025 – June Recap & Questionnaire
Emma and I hope you had a great month of summer reading. The July post with the linky for your July reviews will be here tomorrow. I’ve had a good start to my 20 books, reading 8 and reviewing 6 – I hope July will be equally productive, although I have managed to sign myself Read More
This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub – Book 5 of my #20BooksofSummer2025
That’s 8 summer books read now, so it’s time for another review, I’m getting behind in them. I’ve been meaning to read more novels by Emma Straub ever since I read her debut, Laura Lamont’s Life in Pictures, which I loved. Despite its central SF conceit of time travel which may put some non-SF readers Read More
Shiny Linkiness – Kidd & Brown
I’ve had two reviews published at Shiny New Books in the past couple of week, so just highlighting them here. Murder at Gull’s Nest by Jess Kidd This is the first in a new series from the acclaimed Irish author. Subtitled Nora Breen investigates, we travel to a 1950s Kentish seaside town out of season Read More
Our Last Wild Days by Anna Bailey (with Ginny) #20BooksofSummer2025 No 6
So that’s 7 books read – I hope to fit in an 8th before the month is out, but have a couple of review copies to cover first. But I’m on track for my 20 books with the holidays and more reading time to come soon. Time for a review, accompanied by a photo from Read More
The Wild Swimmers by William Shaw – Alex Cupidi 5 – #20BooksofSummer2025 – Book No 3
William Shaw is one of my favourite UK crime writers. His DS Alex Cupidi novels, which are set in Kent and around Dungeness in particular, are particularly strong for their sense of place, but also there’s always a social justice theme running through them. It’s probably better to have read some of the others before Read More
Broken by Jón Atli Jónasson – blog tour
Translated by Quentin Bates A first novel in translation by an award-winning Icelandic screenwriter, Broken is a police procedural that’s the beginning of a trilogy – translated by Quentin Bates for Corylus Books: it sounds like a winner… It begins with a teenager going missing on a school trip. There’s no-one else available, so Dóra Read More
Invisible Kitties by Yu Yoyo, #ReadingtheMeow2025 #20BooksofSummer2025
Translated by Jeremy Tiang It’s great to be able to cover two challenges with one book – as well as being one of my 20 Books of Summer, Invisible Kitties is also for Mallika’s Reading the Meow 2025, the third year of her feline reading challenge, and what a super book I picked! I really had my Read More
Six Degrees of Separation: All Fours by Miranda July
First Saturday of the month and time for the super monthly tag Six Degrees of Separation, which is hosted by Kate at Booksaremyfavouriteandbest, Six Degrees of Separation #6degrees picks a starting book for participants to go wherever it takes them in six more steps. Links to my reviews are in the titles of the books chosen. The starter Read More
Oleander, Jacaranda: A Childhood Perceived by Penelope Lively – Book Group report and #20BooksofSummer2025 -No 2
When our Book Group, which is picking flora or fauna related titles at the moment, didn’t pull this one out of the hat for ‘J’, we recycled it for ‘O’! Published in 1994, Lively’s memoir centres on her childhood in Egypt in the 1930s. Her father worked for an Egyptian bank in Cairo; her mother Read More
Dinner Party: A Tragedy by Sarah Gilmartin – #20BooksofSummer2025 no 1
I read Irish author Gilmartin’s second novel, Service, a couple of years ago, which featured a three part #MeToo storyline involving a chef/patron of a top-end Dublin restaurant, his wife and one of the waiting staff, taking narration duties in turn. I enjoyed it a lot, planning to return to her first novel, which I’ve Read More
Red Water by Jurica Pavičić – blog tour
Translated from Croatian by Matt Robinson Earlier this month I read my first novel by a Bulgarian author, now I can add Croatia too to my European lit list with this multi European prize-winning novel. Pavičić’s bio says he is ‘known for hjs unorthodox thrillers and crime novels which mix social analysis with deep insights Read More
#20BooksofSummer2025 – all systems are go!
Thank you, thank you all for your fantastic responses to Emma and I keeping 20 books going. The number of sign-ups and comments on the planning post is just brilliant. If you still need to pick up the logos for the different numbers of books, or the bingo card, do visit the original post HERE. Read More
The Darkest Winter by Carlo Lucarelli – blog tour
Translated by Joseph Farrell Back in 2010 I read and reviewed Almost Blue, one of Carlo Lucarelli’s contemporary Italian police procedurals, which was highly original with a blind witness who ‘sees’ voices in colour. I always meant to read more by this author, who has written loads – and now I finally have. His newly Read More
An evening with Joe Dunthorne at Mostly Books
Joe Dunthorne is probably best known for his debut novel Submarine, published in 2008, which I read -pre-blog, and the 2010 film adapted from it by Richard Ayoade. Two more novels followed, Wild Abandon which won the RSA Encore award for a second novel, followed by the brilliant The Adulterants and then a poetry collection Read More
Heatwave, The Summer of 1976, Britain at Boiling Point by John L Williams – blog tour
The 1970s was the decade during which I was a teenager, from start to finish – encompassing the whole of my time at senior school and my first years at university. Regardless of all the politics and scandals which largely passed me by, my life outside school was coloured by pop music, some classic sitcoms, Read More
Hattie Steals the Show by Patrick Gleeson – blog tour
Last May I had the pleasure of reading Gleeson’s first Theatreland Mystery, Hattie Brings the House Down, It introduced us to Harriet ‘Hattie’ Cocker, a theatre stage manager with decades of experience, who works primarily as a tutor on a stage management course at a minor acting college these days, whilst hoping to find theatre Read More
The Wolves of Staro Selo by Zdravka Evtimova
Translated by Yana Ellis Having read and enjoyed Abandonment by Erminia Dell’Oro earlier this year, I’ve been keen to read more titles from Héloïse Press, an indie based in Canterbury that specialises in female narratives from around the world. This is the first novel by a Bulgarian author that I’ve read, but Evtimova has been Read More
Watchlist: March into May
Titus Andronicus at the RSC Swan, Stratford I went to the theatre last week to see the latest production of Shakespeare’s bloodiest play – and it lived up to its name! Starring Simon Russell Beale in the title role, with Emma Fielding as Marcia, his sister, (gender-swapped from Marcellus). We had seats in the front Read More
Update and Book Group report
Firstly a quick update on the knee situation: I had a guided steroid injection last week, but first the doctor took nearly 100ml of murky liquid out of the joint which relieved all the pressure on the tendons at the back of my knee. Now the steroids are kicking in, my knee is back to Read More
#20BooksofSummer2025 – how I pick my 20 books…
Any challenge requiring reading a particular stack of books is a no-no for me. I have enough reading commitments in review copies and blog tours, without adding more. So I use a different way to pick my 20 books – it’s the ‘Bookcase plus’ scenario. Next to my bed is a small bookcase absolutely crammed Read More
20 Books of Summer is back! With new hosts
When Cathy of 746 books announced last year that she would not host 20 Books of Summer this year after ten successful years, Emma of Words and Peace and I both volunteered to take it on. Summer reading IS the 20, 15 or 10 Books challenge to us! We couldn’t let Cathy’s wonderful challenge fall Read More
Two shorter reviews: Callum McSorley & Hiromi Kawakami
I have two shorter reviews for you today. One short because it is a cracking and direct sequel, so I can’t say a lot about it, and the second because I was disappointed into not having a lot to say. Paperboy by Callum McSorley McSorley’s debut, Squeaky Clean, was an hilarious, yet gritty Glasgow crime Read More
Maigret’s Revolver by Georges Simenon – the #1952Club
Translated by Siân Reynolds My second read for the #1952Club reading week hosted by Kaggsy and Simon – is a Maigret – there’s nearly always a Maigret that can be fitted in! Karen has also reviewed it here reading an older translation, Reynold’s one for the most recent Penguin reissues dates from 2017. An unusually agitated Madame Maigret Read More
Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito – over at Shiny
Feito’s first novel Mrs March was an absolute blast. An exercise in paranoia on the part of an Upper East Side housewife, who thinks people are talking about her as the model for the not-so-complimentary protagonist of her husband’s new novel – and it escalates from there! After such a strong debut, could she surpass Read More
