September 21, 2020 Journey through a Tragicomic Century: The Absurd Life of Hasso Grabner by Francis Nenik Translated by Katy Derbyshire Reviewed by Eleanor Updegraff This September sees the launch of V&Q Books, a brand-new publishing imprint with the mission of…
September 17, 2020 Horse Crazy: The Story of a Woman and a World in Love with an Animal by Sarah Maslin Nir Review by Liz Dexter Sarah Maslin Nir is a staff reporter for the New York Times who, by her own admission, has sought out…
September 17, 2020 People From My Neighbourhood by Hiromi Kawakami Translated by Ted Goossen Review by Anna Hollingsworth With Hiromi Kawakami, you don’t know what to expect other than that her writing will be…
September 15, 2020 The Lies you Told by Harriet Tyce Reviewed by Elaine Simpson-Long Last year I read Blood Orange, which was Harriet Tyce’s debut novel. One of the reasons I read it was…
September 15, 2020 Riders on the Storm: The climate crisis and the survival of being by Alastair McIntosh Review by Peter Reason Alastair McIntosh is a Scottish Quaker, peace, community and environmental writer and campaigner, maybe best described as a spiritual activist….
September 10, 2020 Red Pill by Hari Kunzru Reviewed by Annabel I’ve been a fan of Kunzru’s writing since his first novel was published. He is one of those authors that always…
September 10, 2020 Non-Combatants and Others by Rose Macaulay Reviewed by Karen Langley Rose Macaulay is mainly known for her 1956 novel The Towers of Trebizond; yet she was an astonishingly prolific writer,…
September 8, 2020 The Book of Trespass by Nick Hayes Reviewed by Liz Dexter A book that is in turns entertaining, lyrical and shocking, you won’t think about the countryside – or the rivers…
September 3, 2020 King Kong Theory by Virginie Despentes Translated by Frank Wynne Reviewed by Annabel I write from the realms of the ugly, for the ugly, the old, the bull dykes, the…
September 3, 2020 Entangled Life: How fungi make our worlds, change our minds and shape our futures by Merlin Sheldrake Review by Peter Reason Entangled Lives by Merlin Sheldrake has been greeted with much enthusiasm, not least by Robert Macfarlane in the New Yorker….
September 1, 2020 Potterism by Rose Macaulay Reviewed by Hayley Anderton Handheld Press are fast becoming my favourite independent press. Their book choices are consistently interesting, their editions well produced with particularly…
September 1, 2020 Dangerous Ages by Rose Macaulay Reviewed by Harriet Another very welcome addition to the new British Library Women Writers series, Dangerous Ages was published in 1921. It’s a fascinating…
August 27, 2020 Antlers of Water: Writing on the Nature and Environment of Scotland, edited by Kathleen Jamie Reviewed by Hayley Anderton Ever since I read Findings sometime around a decade ago I’ve viewed anything with Kathleen Jamie’s name attached to it…
August 27, 2020 The Changing Mind by Daniel Levitin Reviewed by Terence Jagger This is a wonderful book, and the real title is the sub-title: A Neuroscientist’s Guide to Ageing Well. It is…
August 25, 2020 A Room Made of Leaves by Kate Grenville Reviewed by Gill Davies Kate Grenville’s latest novel is a wonderful continuation of her investigation of Australian history and the people who made it….
August 25, 2020 My Summer Reading: Broken Harbour by Tana French Reviewed by Harriet I was very late in the day in discovering the novels of Tana French. I’d tried her first novel, In the Woods,…
August 20, 2020 My Summer Reading: The Manual of Darkness by Enrique de Hériz Translated by Frank Wynne Reviewed by Annabel Members of the Shiny reviewing team share previously published books from their shelves that they’re reading this…
August 20, 2020 The Oxford Illustrated History of the Book, ed. James Raven Reviewed by Liz Dexter As you would expect from an Oxford Illustrated History of … this is a sumptuous production, world-wide in scope and…
August 18, 2020 Summer Kitchens by Olia Hercules Reviewed by Hayley Anderton At the risk of speaking to soon lockdown finally seems to be lifting in Leicester just in time to catch…
August 18, 2020 Laura Laura by Richard Francis Reviewed by Harriet This funny, moving, absorbing, thought-provoking novel is about marriage, lust, friendship, ageing, memory, philosophy, and quantum mechanics. The film had been…
August 13, 2020 Tell Me How it Ends by V.B. Grey Reviewed by Gill Davies London in 1963, despite some remaining scars of wartime, is busy re-inventing itself with skyscrapers rising over bomb sites, American…
August 13, 2020 The Day My Grandfather Was a Hero by Paulus Hochgatterer Translated from the German by Jamie Bulloch Reviewed by Eleanor Updegraff By day, Paulus Hochgatterer is a child psychiatrist – something that absolutely shows…
August 11, 2020 The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa Translated by Stephen Snyder Paperback review by Annabel Yoko Ogawa’s latest novel has been shortlisted for the International Booker Prize: the winner to be…
August 11, 2020 Cover by Peter Mendelsund Reviewed by Harriet Ed’s Note: Six years after its publication in hardback, Mendelsund’s Cover gets a paperback release, so we are reposting Harriet’s original…
August 6, 2020 The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again by M. John Harrison Review by Karen Langley M. John Harrison has been described as one of the UK’s best-kept secrets, a hidden jewel in the literary crown…
