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
Category: Authors F
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
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
Six Degrees of Separation: Prophet Song
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 Read More
Runaway Horses by Carlo Fruttero & Franco Lucentini – blog tour
Translated by Gregory Dowling The late Italian writing partners, Fruttero and Lucentini, worked together for decades, along the way writing five novels. Last year, Bitter Lemon Press published the first English translation of The Lover of No Fixed Abode. First published in Italy in 1986, it is a mystery and a romance, but it turned Read More
Five Feat . . . Duos
In my irregular themed look at old posts (previous posts here), this time I’ve picked Duos as the link. Like the musical duos Simon & Garfunkel and Althea & Donna, all the titles in this list feature two names in the title. However, they aren’t all couples, there are friends and colleagues too in this Read More
Short reviews catch-up – Susie Dent, Fred Sirieix, Barbara Pym, Michael Findlay
Guilty by Definition by Susie Dent Popular broadcaster and lexcographer Susie Dent has written her first novel, after writing a handful of books all about words, and jolly good fun it was too. (I went to see her talk about it back in August.) And where else would a lexicographer choose to set their murder Read More
My Rude Awakening by E C Featherstone
It’s hard to know where to start with this memoir! I’ll be totally up front – I wasn’t sure it was a book for me. The cover suggests a polo-playing toff who pursues a woman and flies helicopters in the RAF. Now I’m not averse to a bit of Jilly Cooper and well-done smut, nor Read More
Husbands by Mo Fanning, blogtour
I can’t resist a road trip novel, and one taking in Route 66 even more so. But we’re not there yet… In the prologue, a British guy gets married in a Vegas chapel – or is he married? His date, ‘a craggy daddy-bear’ type promises to get it annulled the next day, as our chap Read More
Toxic by Helga Flatland – #blogtour
Translated by from the Norwegian by Matt Bagguley Helga Flatland does complicated relationships as I discovered when I read her novel One Last Time back in 2021, so I was keen to read her newest novel Toxic, this time translated by a new-to-me translator in Matt Bagguley. The novel begins in two parallel timelines. The Read More
Profile K by Helen Fields
I love thrillers that will standalone, and Helen Fields’ latest took me by surprise slightly. I was expecting a sequel to The Institution which introduced us to Connie Woolwine, an American profiler and her British sidekick Brodie Baarda, who went undercover in the world’s most secure prison hospital for the criminally insane. Instead, after a Read More
Six Degrees of Separation: Travel Books
First Saturday of the month and new year too, 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 Read More
Reading Ireland Month – Flattery and Nolan
I finally got my act together for this year’s Reading Ireland Month, hosted by Cathy and read a pair of novels with throwaway titles – Nothing Special, and Ordinary Human Failings. They may have different settings, but both involve a teenager who has grown out of school, and both have broken families. However, I loved Read More
The Lover of No Fixed Abode by Carlo Fruttero and Franco Lucentini
Translated by Gregory Dowling The late Italian writing partners, Fruttero and Lucentini, worked together for decades, along the way writing five novels, four detective ones and this one. First published in Italy in 1986, it is a mystery and a romance, but it turned out to have much more hidden in its pages, taking a Read More
Six Degrees of Separation: Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow
First Saturday of the month and new year too, 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 Read More
Six Degrees of Separation: Wifedom
First Saturday of the month, 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. This month Read More
Reading the Decades #5: The 1950s
I haven’t done one of these posts for a while now. I am more often than not devoted to contemporary fiction, the shiny and the new. But I do read some older books too. The metrics in my annual reading stats include the number of books I’ve read published before I was born in 1960 Read More
The Institution by Helen Fields
Last autumn I read a superb standalone thriller by Helen Fields – The Last Girl to Die – and loved it. Set on the Isle of Mull, it involved a missing girl, and lots of witchy lore and had a real sense of place and atmosphere. Having discovered this author, I couldn’t say no to Read More
Six Degrees of Separation: Trust by Hernan Diaz
After a couple of months where I was so busy to plan ahead, I’m back for the First Saturday of the month, 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 Read More
Our Man in Kuwait by Louise Burfitt-Dons – Blogtour
The town of Ahmadi in Kuwait was only established in 1946 after the discovery of oil there, and the town built up around the operations of the Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) – it remains the KOC’s headquarters today. Many British and American ex-pats settled there and worked for the oil company, and entertainment centred around Read More
The Last Girl to Die by Helen Fields – blog tour
Generally, I’m not good with crime series. I prefer to start at the beginning where I can, to follow the story arcs of the main characters, but… I rarely don’t get beyond the first two or three books in a series. This series fatigue is probably sparked by having too many other books calling at Read More
A Friday Miscellany – Tags, Shiny & a new Readalong
Now School’s out for me, I can breathe and get in some serious staying in bed with a book (and cats) in the mornings (fan on at the moment and through the heatwave), so I hope to ramp up my #20BooksofSummer22 books – I’m up to 10 already (by including recent backlist book group reads), Read More
Six Degrees of Separation: Sorrow and Bliss
First Saturday of the month, and 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. Our Read More
Six Degrees of Separation: True History of the Kelly Gang
First Saturday of the month, and 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. Our Read More
Two short NF reviews
Recovery by Dr Gavin Francis I won this book in a giveaway hosted by Rebecca who reviewed it here – thank you! Published by Profile Books for the Wellcome Trust, this short non fiction book is all about how we recover from illness, and the road back to good health. Francis is a GP, and Read More
Reading the Sunday Times Young Writer Award Shortlist
The Sunday Times Charlotte Aitken Young Writer of the Year Award is the UK and Ireland’s most influential prize for young writers, and the latest winner will be announced on Feb 24th, preceded by an event at Waterstones Piccadilly, chaired by Sebastian Faulks on Feb 23rd (you can buy tickets here). I’d love to go, Read More
Review of the Year #3: 2021, Books of the Year!
I still award a score to the majority of books I read – out of 10, including halfs (so out of 20 really!). Those scores are only snapshots of course, and some books fade from your memory as others, which maybe scored lower initially, stay or grow. I read 150 books this year, of which Read More
Excuse me, but there’s a cockroach crawling up your skirt!
Mrs March by Virginia Feito From the moment I saw the cover, I was always going to read this book. First impression – that ‘Ratched‘ mint green dress, set against a tomato-red background, the woman’s blood-red lipstick and nails, her air of repressed primness. And then there’s the cockroach! Those critters just creep me out! Read More
#NovNov – some classic novellas from my archives
The final week of Novellas in November (hosted by Bookish Beck and Cathy at 746 Books) turns its attention to classics (incl modern classics – pre 1980) and once more I’ve scoured my archives to find a selection to highlight from a few years ago for you. As in previous weeks, I’ve managed to combine with other tags Read More
#NovNov – Short Non-fiction from the archives
I’ve read six novellas to write up for Novellas in November month (hosted by Bookish Beck and Cathy at 746 Books) – must get a move on! Meanwhile in week 2, we turn our attention to Short Non-Fiction, a better term than novella for NF. Once more, here is a section of posts from my archives of Read More
