Autumn – Ali Smith
“All across the country, people felt it was the wrong thing. All across the country, people felt it was the right thing. All across the country, people felt they’d really … Continue reading
My Brilliant Friend – Elena Ferrante (translated by Ann Goldstein)
I have finally got around to reading My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante. Unless you have been living under the proverbial rock, you will already know that this is the first of … Continue reading
Hot Milk by Deborah Levy
“My love for my mother is like an axe. It cuts very deep.” Set on the Andalusian coast, where 25-year-old Sofia has accompanied her mother in an attempt to get … Continue reading
The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson
I have spent many hours walking in the last few months. My son, now seven months old, had a fairly long phase of only reliably napping in his pram and … Continue reading
The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry
Late Victorian London is a place in flux. It’s been two or three decades since the publication of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, and the world of scientific investigation, … Continue reading
The Portable Veblen by Elizabeth McKenzie
First, allow me a small amount of gloating. I am usually hopeless at reading the latest releases at the time they are actually released. I’m very good at reading things … Continue reading
The Bees by Laline Paull
I’ll be honest, I had no idea how this book was going to work. It’s a novel about a bee. Set in a beehive. All the characters are bees (plus … Continue reading
The Loney by Andrew Michael Hurley
We’re in the 1970s, and a 15 year old boy nicknamed Tonto has been taken on an Easter pilgrimage to the Loney by his devoutly Catholic parents, their new priest, … Continue reading
Satin Island by Tom McCarthy
A catastrophic oil spill. A dead parachutist whose rig has been sabotaged. Rollerbladers in Paris. The hypnotic buffering symbol, whirring round and round endlessly on a screen. What do these … Continue reading
Stone Mattress: Nine Wicked Tales by Margaret Atwood
Margaret Atwood is pretty much my favourite author. She has been since I was recommended The Handmaid’s Tale by my English teacher when I was 16. Since then I’ve read … Continue reading
Hand Me Down World by Lloyd Jones
Along with millions of others, I have been reading about the current refugee crisis with a mixture of sadness and deep frustration that these people are having to suffer as … Continue reading
Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill
My plan was never to get married. I was going to be an art monster instead. Women almost never become art monsters because art monsters only concern themselves with art, … Continue reading
Someone Else’s Skin by Sarah Hilary
DI Marnie Rose has seen horror, both on the job and off it. When she was 28 (five years prior to the action of this novel), her parents were brutally … Continue reading
Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
My name is Ruth. I grew up with my younger sister, Lucille, under the care of my grandmother, Mrs. Sylvia Foster, and when she died, of her sisters-in-law, Misses Lily … Continue reading
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