"Well, there’s so much to read, and I’m so far behind." Wallace Stegner
2015: They follow the guide, a thin, pale girl. She's wearing a linen sheath dress in moss green, and there's a fine spiky tattoo wound around her right arm that looks like barbed wire. So, now I can see what everyone has been raving about and why. All the good things you've heard about Trespasses … Continue reading Trespasses | Louise Kennedy
One o'clock in the morning. Hotfoot, all three of us. Stepping where we had no business to be. Firstly, I am seriously disappointed that Fire Rush did not win this year's Women's Prize for Fiction. Yes, I know I've only read one of the six shortlisted books, so my ability to compare is limited...but when … Continue reading Fire Rush | Jacqueline Crooks
Once upon a memory, at the far end of the Mediterranean Sea, there lay an island so beautiful and blue that the many travellers, pilgrims, crusaders and merchants who fell in love with it either wanted never to leave or tried to tow it with hemp ropes all the way back to their own countries. … Continue reading The Island of Missing Trees | Elif Shafak
The Edith Readalong has been my priority of late. But before I got started with it, I was determined to finish a few of the half read books by my bed which included a trip to Nigeria, dabbling with some poetry and a peek inside a leper colony. Princeton, in the summer, smelled of nothing, … Continue reading June Mini Reviews
Once the queen's head is severed, he walks away. Didn't Anne die in the previous book? And didn't we deal with the time immediately after her death already? Is this opening line a signal that a big recap is coming? Yes and no. As it turns out The Mirror and the Light is an overlong … Continue reading The Mirror and the Light | Hilary Mantel #Readalong
His children are falling from the sky. Part of my desire in (re)reading Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies was to refresh my memory, so that I could have it all front of mind for my very first reading of The Mirror and the Light. As I started BUTB, I realised that Mantel helps … Continue reading Bring Up the Bodies | Hilary Mantel #Readalong
Right from page one, it is obvious to see (as I (re)read), that Mantel is setting up the story to show Cromwell in a favourable and sympathetic light. The first chapter of Wolf Hall graphically, and unforgettably, describes a young Thomas Cromwell being severely beaten by his father, Walter. This is not a one-off event … Continue reading Wolf Hall | Hilary Mantel
'Tis the season for book award longlists and shortlists! I've decided to use this season to pull together which books I've read from the various lists and which ones I hope to read. However, the main reason for embarking on this list-making is to 'force' me to tidy up the relevant books posts from last … Continue reading Longlists and Shortlists
I suspect, like me, many of you have heard about the basic premise of this story. The book seems to be everywhere (which is partly why it was selected as our October book club book). It features a fictional town inhabited by African Americans who have light skin, 'lightness, like anything inherited at great cost, … Continue reading The Vanishing Half | Brit Bennett #USAfiction
I'm still trying to catch up on posts leftover from my magnificent Christmas reading binge. Girl, Woman, Other: A Novel by Bernardine Evaristo is the final one. It is certainly not the least though. In fact, it very nearly overtook The Yield as my favourite book for 2019. What stopped it from doing so? Mostly … Continue reading Girl, Woman, Other | Bernardine Evaristo #BookerWinner
Ordinary People by Diana Evans found its way onto my TBR pile thanks to its shortlisting in this year's Women's Prize. Evan's is quite magnificent in describing the daily grind of marital malaise for thirty-something's. We see two couples who have settled down with the one they happened to be sleeping with in their late twenties. … Continue reading Ordinary People | Diana Evans
I've had a lovely run of Homeric stories retold from a feminist perspective this year - Madeline Miller's Circe and The Song of Achilles, and now Pat Barker's The Silence of the Girls. After Miller's wonderful, rich storytelling, I was looking forward to seeing what Barker would come up. I was thrilled that her story … Continue reading The Silence of the Girls | Pat Barker
What a hoot! I wasn't expecting a neo-noir comedy from such a grim title, but I had some genuine laugh out loud moments throughout My Sister, the Serial Killer. Oyinkan Braithwaite has written a punchy, sharp, witty story that blew in like a breath of fresh air in this year's Women's Prize shortlist. One of … Continue reading My Sister, the Serial Killer | Oyinkan Braithwaite
I finally got around to reading The Green Road thanks to Cathy's #ReadIreland Month. It has been sitting on my TBR pile since 2016. Over my years of blogging, I've come to realise that writing a rave review about a book I really enjoyed, if not loved and adored, is actually harder to do, than … Continue reading The Green Road | Anne Enright
I have yet to read Turgenev's First Love, so I cannot assess the claim made by Alan Warner on the back cover of my edition of Gwendoline Riley's First Love that they are not too far apart. According to Warner they have 'the same panoptic, all-too-human lurches, afflictions and doubts, gorgeously exposed.' I'm not sure … Continue reading First Love | Gwendoline Riley
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