Translated by David Hackston For me, Antti Tuomainen is the new Antoine Laurain! When Gallic Books (now part of Pushkin Press) introduced Laurain via his novel The President’s Hat it was a big word of mouth hit, and most years, they added another of his novels to their lists building up a devoted following. I’ve Read More
Shiny Linkiness
I’m over at Shiny New Books today in a three-hander review along with Liz and Karen of some new titles from Lonely Planet. Lonely Planet Journey – Route 66 My choice was totally new guide Route 66 – which is a traditional Lonely Planet travel guide, but with upped insight content – loads of interesting Read More
My Year in Nonfiction
Nonfiction November runs for 5 weeks from today! As always, week 1 is ‘My Year in NF’, and is hosted by Heather. I’ve participated since 2017! My best ever NF year was 2019 when I read 33 books, making up 25% of my total. This year, I’ve read the fewest non-fiction books for ages, just 9 Read More
King Sorrow by Joe Hill
Even when I knew it would be a doorstop brick of a novel, I gulped and said ‘yes’ when offered a proof of Hill’s sixth novel, having really enjoyed two previously; Heart-Shaped Box and The Fireman. I can say that although the book was heavy going – to hold, needing a rest with its soft Read More
Black as Death by Lilja Sigurðardóttir – blog tour
Translated by Lorenza Garcia Black as Death is the fifth and last novel in the ‘Áróra Investigation’ series, which has a continuing arc. You could join the series here, but you would miss the back story to the characters. So please be aware there may be slight spoilers ahead. The first novel, Cold as Hell, started Read More
The 1925 Club
It’s the latest year reading Club hosted by Kaggsy & Simon. I couldn’t find any 1925 books in my TBR, but I have read and reviewed a couple of the greats published that year and a couple of others too. Links to full reviews are in the titles. Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf The archetype Read More
Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann – book group report
Translated by Anthea Bell This was our book group’s pick for S is for… Sheep in this case as we make our way through the tail end of our Flora & Fauna alphabet theme for picking books. First published back in 2005, in German under the title Glennkill, and translated into English that year by Read More
Rainforest by Michelle Paver – blog tour
I’ve really enjoyed all three of Michelle Paver’s previous supernatural novels for adults; Dark Matter, Thin Air and the Gothic Wakenhyrst, Thin Air – the one I read first being my favourite, so I was really looking forward to reading Rainforest, and it didn’t disappoint with its gorgeous cover, and also fits in with #RIPXX Read More
Snowblind by Ragnar Jónasson – Blog Tour for the 10th anniversary edition
Snowblind, the first book in Jónasson’s ‘Dark Iceland’ series was the first of his Icelandic crime novels to be translated into English and published by Orenda Books in 2015 (translated by Quentin Bates). It’s now ten years old, and to celebrate, Orenda are republishing it in hardback, together with a prequel novella Fadeout which introduces Read More
A Fine Line Between Stupid and Clever: The Story of Spinal Tap
by Rob Reiner with Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer Sadly, I’ll have to wait until January when the sequel to the best mockumentary ever, Spinal Tap: The End Continues, is available for streaming, it was only on locally during one week and then at odd times. But I was able to console myself Read More
November Plans
November is the month of two huge memes – Novellas in November (#NovNov25) hosted by Rebecca and Cathy, and Nonfiction November with five hosts! Add to that German Literature Month XV hosted by Caroline and Tony this year. Naturally, I’m hoping to take part in ALL of them, so I’ve not signed up to any Read More
Shiny Linkiness – Everything Will Swallow You by Tom Cox
Just a brief note to say I’m over at Shiny New Books today with my review of the delightful Everything Will Swallow You by Tom Cox. It’s a lovely and chucklesome ‘Shaggy Dog’ story (with the quote marks, read and you’ll understand why) of male friendship. If you read his previous novel Villager, you’ll know Read More
Six Degrees of Separation: I Want Every Thing
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: I Read More
TonyInterruptor by Nicola Barker
A new novel by Nicola Barker is something I always look forward to. Each one is totally different, yet quintessentially Barker, no-one captures the absurdities of life as she does. TonyInterruptor does this brilliantly. The novel all stems from an event at a jazz gig, where a man stands up and interrupts it with the Read More
Shiny Linkiness – Classic Books into Film
Today I’m over at Shiny New Books with a selection of five classic novels that are being made into films or TV series – some arriving on our screens in time for Christmas… Read my post HERE. They include the upcoming Netflix miniseries of Pride & Prejudice starring Emma Corrin and Jack Lowden, with Olivia Read More
The Winter Warriers by Olivier Norek – blog tour
Translated from the French by Nick Caistor I don’t read much war fiction, and tend to shy away in general from more modern military stuff (unless it’s part of a spy novel etc.). But there was something about Olivier Norek’s new novel that caught my attention. Having read more Nordic fiction including quite a few Read More
A Lethal Legacy by Guðrún Guðlaugsdóttir – blog tour
Translated by Quentin Bates It’s always a delight to read the new titles from Corylus Books, and, using their own tag line ‘to discover new voices’. Icelander, Guðrún Guðlaugsdóttir is not, however, a new author. She’s a journalist with a prodigious output including plenty of interviews and biographies as well as a series of novels Read More
Muckle Flugga by Michael Pedersen
Sometimes a book cover calls to you – as this one did – gorgeous colours with the lighthouse’s blazing beacon, silver foam in the waves crashing against the rocks, with the added temptations of pink sprayed edges, lovely endpapers and signed by the author to boot. Nor did this book disappoint; indeed I’d go so Read More
Review Catch-up – two shorter reviews incl Book Group report
Still trying to reduce my books to be reviewed pile, here are two more shorter reviews for you. All that Remains by Virginie Grimaldi, translated by Hildegarde Serle Knowing that I’ve enjoyed Valérie Perrin’s novels (see here and here), I was delighted to receive a copy of another French bestseller, also translated by Hildegarde Serle, Read More
Review catch-up – capsule reviews of Weston, Wiles and Uketsu!
You know what it’s like. You read some wonderful 10/10 type books, but don’t feel inspired when it comes to writing about them! I have two such in the review queue – but they’re not for today. Instead here are capsule reviews of other good reads that I really enjoyed that are also in that Read More
Six Degrees of Separation: Ghost Cities
Apologies for typing in the wrong date – and posting on Friday instead of the first Saturday of the month. However, 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 Read More
#20BooksofSummer2025 – My Summary
As before, Emma has created a questionnaire for us to help share our experience of this summer challenge. You can find the link HERE. The August linky oost will stay open for another full week so you can add any late reviews. Find that HERE. Now for the questionnaire – here are my answers:
Review catch-up including no. 20 of my #20BooksofSummer2025 & #WITMonth2025: Roig, Vassell & Armitage
Some shorter reviews to help reduce the height of the pile of books I’ve read but haven’t written up yet. First my latest read for WITMonth which is also my 20th of my 20 Books of Summer. Challenge done! The Time of Cherries by Montserrat Roig, translated by Julia Sanches The Time of Cherries was Read More
Critical Reading Class
Something I’ve wanted to do for ages is an evening class in critical reading. The Oxford Uni Lifelong Learning course ‘Contemporary Critish Fiction’ sounds wonderful based on novels by McEwan, Mantel, Ishiguro and Zadie Smith, but at 10 hrs a week study over 10 weeks it’s more time than I can commit to while working Read More
Top Ten Tuesday on a Wednesday – Chunksters!
I’ve never done one of the ‘Top Ten Tuesday’ prompts hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl but having seen some blogger friends joining in this week, couldn’t resist – but I’m a day late. Last year, I had a bit of a rant about the time that chunksters take to read, which means that quantity of Read More
The Ascent of Rum Doodle by W.E.Bowman – #20BooksofSummer2025 no. 19
This novella was sheer joy to read! A rediscovered masterpiece, Rum Doodle is a comic novel satirising men, their work and obsessions on an expedition to the Himalaya, first published in 1956, written by an unassuming structural engineer from Guildford, so Bill Bryson tells us in his intro to this edition. It wasn’t a huge Read More
3 for #WITMonth2025 and #20BooksofSummer2025 nos 16-18
It’s now a tradition to read books by Women in Translation each August (see my earlier post about it here). I’ve read 4 this month already – 1 will be reviewed for Shiny New Books, the other three are reviewed below – 2 hits and 1 meh, in three different languages from three different indie Read More
Making It So by Patrick Stewart – #20BooksofSummer2025 no 15
Stewart’s memoir is my favourite kind of actors’ autobiography, combining lots of Shakespeare, building from one-liner parts to the title character, then film and TV success, with more theatre all the way through. Add to that an interesting working class Yorkshire childhood, and the fact that he’s a humble and lovely bloke, it was perfect. Read More
#20BooksofSummer2025 – Nos 11 & 14 – Newman and Barry
My internet is back, but it’s patchy, so I bought a wireless home hub to fill in the outages! I’ve now read 17/20 books of my 20 Books and have some reviewing catch-up to do. Here’s two more for you… Sandwich by Catherine Newman There was a time when my parents rented the same cottage Read More
20BooksofSummer2025 – July Questionnaire
As she did for our June reading, Emma has created another fun questionnaire. Do join in! Get the link here. Now here are my answers this month:
