The ordeals of Gisèle Pelicot and her family in 2024 can’t have escaped your notice! Having discovered that her husband had been drugging then her raping her while unconscious, and then letting other men rape her and filming it for ages, she bravely stood up in court in public to take him and the other Read More
Month: August 2026
Where are the Kings by Donal Ryan
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 touching coming of age story following twelve-year-old Jack. He lives with his grandparents and their children: Theo and Haulie born Read More
It’s #WITMonth: a survey & Balle II & III reviews
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 August into the rest of the year, so here’s a quick list of what I read from Aug 31 2025 to Aug 1 2026… I read Read More
What I was reading (and doing) 10 years ago: August 2016
This is the fourth post in my occasional series of archive posts in which I look back ten years. (See others here.) Being the school holidays, It was a good month of reading – 18 books finished, 5144 pages, and I posted eleven reviews on the blog, more at Shiny New Books. They included 4 Read More
Catch-up: An Unlasting Home by Mai Al-Nakib
Source: Review copy from Saqi Books – thank you. I can’t believe I read this recently published paperback from Saqi books, specialists in books from the Middle East & Northern Africa, at the end of April. It escaped being reviewed then somehow, but thankfully, it has lingered in my mind. One of my aims this Read More
Five Feat . . . Metafiction: Authors in their own novels!
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 an illustration of a typewriter churning out a New York cityscape, which leads me to my first pick below… The New Read More
20 Books of Summer #20BOS26 – The Road to Tender Hearts by Annie Hartnett
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 beautifully produced hardbacks. The collection comprises ‘Chilling short stories of crime and revenge’ – mini psychological dramas by author known and new with some Read More
Twenty Books of Summer #20BOS26 – Queenhood & The Cryosphere by Simon Armitage
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 limited edition pamphlets by Poet Laureate, Simon Armitage, together as one! Queenhood was written to celebrate Elizabeth Read More
Twenty Books of Summer #20BOS26 No 13 – Reversed Forecast by Nicola Barker
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 re-read for me and all I could remember was that there’s a greyhound in it – but the cover Read More
20 Books of Summer #20BOS26 – No 12 – The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Cartoonist by Adrian Tomine
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 cartooning and more. The very first question is how do pronouce your family name? (He is Japanese-American) – I now know it’s ‘Toh-mee-neh’ if you’re Read More
Holy F*ck by Joseph Incardona
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 whore along with a pair of hitmen brothers set in America’s Deep South. I was therefore really surprised when I read Read More
Six Degrees of Separation: Land by Maggie O’Farrell
It’s 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 book this month is: Land Read More
20 Books of Summer #20BOS26 – August – on the home straight
Dear all, welcome to the home page for August, the last month in the 20 Books of Summer challenge 2026. This page will stay open into the beginning of September to give you a chance to add late links to books read in August. See also the June and the July pages, where you can Read More
Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke – the #20BOS26 buddy read discussion post – warning! – There be* SPOILERS*
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 welcome, so if you haven’t read the book and want to, this isn’t the post for you! If you have read and reviewed it, do leave Read More
