Brick Dust by Craig Jordan-Baker
Review by Rob Spence When I started reading this quirkily entertaining novel, I was reminded of a remarkable Turkish film I saw some years ago. The film, 10 to 11,…
The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Review by David Harris When I was a young woman, there were still witches . . . In The Bewitching, Silvia Moreno-Garcia deftly blends three timelines to produce a clever and suspenseful…
Giaime Alonge, The Feeling of Iron
Translated by Clarissa Botsford Review by Rob Spence The publisher’s blurb for Giaime Alonge’s first novel describes it as “a masterful blend of fact and fiction”, and that’s certainly accurate…
Everything Will Swallow You by Tom Cox
Review by Annabel If you follow the news from the publishing world, even a little, over the past three months, you’ll probably have encountered Tom Cox and his woes as…
The Hallmarked Man by Robert Galbraith
Reviewed by Harriet If you should care to do so, you could do a search on Shiny for reviews of novels by Robert Galbraith (aka J K Rowling). You’ll find four,…
Wild for Austen by Devoney Looser
Reviewed by Harriet ‘A Rebellious, Subversive and Untamed Jane’ promises the subtitle of this new book by Austen scholar Looser. I wonder how many people still think of Austen as…
Folklore: A Journey Through the Past and Present, by Owen Davies and Ceri Houlbrook
Review by Helen Parry Are you looking for a comprehensive introduction to British folklore by any chance? Then I have just the book for you. Folklore: A Journey through the…
Classic Books into Film: Coming to your Screens
Compiled by Annabel Top of my list are not one, but two films starring Jacob Elordi, who hit the big time with Saltburn. I didn’t realise he’s Australian, not that…
Muckle Flugga by Michael Pedersen
Review by Annabel I’ll admit it – I picked up the book because of the cover’s gorgeousness and the pink sprayed edges, then I discovered it was signed by the…
Biography & Memoir, Diaries
Ecology & Environment, Natural World
History & Politics, Feminism, Sociology
Non Fiction
Love, Anger & Betrayal: Just Stop Oil’s young climate campaigners, by Jonathan Porritt
Review by Peter Reason Sir Jonathon Espie Porritt, 2nd Baronet, CBE, Eton and Oxford; one might imagine him as a pillar of the British Establishment. Then you remember he was…
Lowest Common Denominator by Pirkko Saisio
Translated by Mia Spangenberg Review by Karen Langley Until recently, if asked to name a Scandinavian woman author, most readers might have plumped for Finland’s Tove Jansson. However, a spate…
The Stories Old Towns Tell by Marek Kohn
Review by Rob Spence Decades ago, on holiday in the south of France, we came by chance across a beautiful baroque chateau in the countryside. We decided to get a…
Electric Spark: The Enigma of Muriel Spark by Frances Wilson
Reviewed by Harriet It has always been my intention to practice the arts of pretence and counterfeit on the reader. So wrote Muriel Spark in an unpublished Author’s Note to…
Long Island by Colm Tóibín
Reviewed by Harriet Many people will be familiar with Colm Tóibín’s 2009 novel Brooklyn, or at least with the awarding-winning 2015 film adaptation. Set in 1950s Enniscorthy, County Wexford, it…
Kill Your Darlings by Peter Swanson
Review by Max Dunbar A Wrong in Time At a literary festival in 1993 Thom Graves watches an author being interviewed. It’s slow going: Toward the end of the hourlong…
Murder Takes a Vacation by Laura Lippman
Reviewed by Harriet Here on Shiny we love Laura Lippman and have posted reviews of five of her novels. All but one were standalone psychological thrillers, but Hush Hush (2015) features…
Fair: The Life-Art of Translation by Jen Calleja
Review by Liz Dexter When we talk about women’s safety, it’s health and safety; when we talk about activist translation, we’re really talking about good translation. Jen Calleja is a…
Thirst: In search of freshwater – Wellcome Collection 2025, ed. Ellen Johl
Review by Peter Reason This slender collection of writing around the theme of freshwater is published by the Wellcome Collection to accompany its current exhibition of the same name, which…
The Penguin Maigret Capsule Collection – Maigret’s Holiday and Maigret’s Pickpocket – by Georges Simenon
Review by Annabel Starting back in 2013, Penguin began reissuing the novels of Georges Simenon in new or recent translations with distinctive photographic details on the covers. All 75 Maigrets…
Barbara isn’t Dying by Alina Bronsky
Translated by Tim Mohr Review by Annabel The main theme of this novel is not new, but Bronsky has such a refreshing take on it that I couldn’t help but…
Blue Ruin by Hari Kunzru
Reviewed by Harriet Even with the mask on, I recognized her at once. She was standing on the porch of the house at the end of the drive, her weight…
The Place of Tides by James Rebanks
Review by Liz Dexter The last humans will, like many of the first, hold to the coast, scratching a living from the sea and the shore. I imagine the last…
The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
Reviewed by Rebecca Foster Kaliane Bradley has had a big year. The British-Cambodian author’s debut novel, The Ministry of Time, was longlisted for a British Book Award, the Jhalak Prize,…
Universality by Natasha Brown
Review by Annabel It’s been a four-year wait for this, Natasha Brown’s second novel. Her first, Assembly, was stunning, winning many plaudits. It’s a moving and beautifully written novella told…