August 16, 2016 Penguin Modern Poets – The Relaunch By Karen Langley If you’re a reader of a certain age who went through the British school system, you most likely encountered the Penguin…
August 16, 2016 Penguin Modern Poets – Books 1 and 2 Reviewed by Karen Langley As you might well have gathered from my piece in the Bookbuzz section, Penguin has relaunched their iconic Modern Poets series;…
August 16, 2016 Evelyn Waugh: A Life Revisited by Philip Eade Reviewed by Liz Dexter When approaching a biography of Evelyn Waugh, one can’t help but assume it’s going to be a portrait of quite…
August 16, 2016 Charmed Life: The Phenomenal World of Philip Sassoon by Damian Collins Reviewed by Liz Dexter First of all, because this is the question everyone will ask: yes, Philip Sassoon was a distant cousin of the…
August 16, 2016 The Eds Discuss – European Culture Post-referendum, the Shiny Eds (all Remainers) are still reeling at the Brexit vote! We thought it timely to explore our experience of European culture…
August 16, 2016 The Middlepause; On Turning Fifty by Marina Benjamin Reviewed by Victoria When you think of all the great defining events of an ordinary life and how often they feature as the focus…
August 16, 2016 Brexit Reading Written by Victoria In the aftermath of the historic referendum vote on 23rd June, and before we really learn what it means for all…
August 16, 2016 How to Find Love in a Bookshop by Veronica Henry Reviewed by Elaine Simpson-Long We have had a few weeks of scorching weather as I write this, though it is now raining, and, of…
August 13, 2016 Passage of Arms by Eric Ambler Reviewed by Harriet This is the third of Eric Ambler’s newly reissued novels I have read in the past few months, the other two…
August 11, 2016 Negroland by Margo Jefferson Reviewed by Victoria ‘I think it’s too easy to recount unhappy memories when you write about race,’ writes Margot Jefferson, as a refrain repeated…
August 11, 2016 Metamorphosis; How and Why We Change by Polly Morland Reviewed by Victoria ‘Our culture is one in which,’ Polly Morland writes, ‘more than ever before, we feel entitled to change our experiences and…
August 11, 2016 The Girl with a Clock for a Heart by Peter Swanson Reviewed by Harriet Liana was not simply an ex-girlfriend who had once upon a time broken George’s heart; she was also, as far as…
August 11, 2016 This Must Be the Place by Maggie O’Farrell Reviewed by Harriet World is crazier and more of it than we think / Incorrigibly plural. The epigraph to this novel is by Louis…
August 11, 2016 The Crime Writer by Jill Dawson Reviewed by Gill Davies Jill Dawson is a poet and novelist who has made her reputation with carefully researched and vividly recreated historical…
August 10, 2016 Madonna in a Fur Coat by Sabahattin Ali Translated by Maureen Freely and Alexander Dawe Reviewed by Simon Madonna in a Fur Coat, was first published in Turkish in 1943. This translation…
August 10, 2016 The Secrets of Wishtide by Kate Saunders Reviewed by Victoria I do love a good cozy crime mystery and so I had high hopes for the new series by Kate Saunders,…
August 9, 2016 A Novel Calling: Karen Langley’s Books That Were Written Just For Me Written by Karen Langley If you’re reading Shiny New Books, there’s a good chance that you’re a person who loves books and regards them…
August 9, 2016 An Ancient Permanence? Guest post by Rosy Thornton My Aunt Sybil (sadly not the figure in black bombazine and lorgnette her name might suggest – think Gore Tex® and stout hiking shoes)…
August 9, 2016 Sandlands by Rosy Thornton Reviewed by Adèle Geras Full disclosure: there’s a quotation from me on the back of Rosy Thornton’s new book and I make no excuses…
August 9, 2016 For All the Gold in the World by Massimo Carlotto Translated by Antony Shugaar Reviewed by Terence Jagger This is ‘an Alligator mystery’, latest in a series featuring an independent and unlicensed private investigator, Marco…
August 8, 2016 The Wonderful Adventure of Nils Holgersson by Selma Lagerlöf Translated by Paul Norlén Reviewed by Annabel We don’t feature many children’s books here at Shiny, but occasionally new editions of much-loved childhood favourites…
August 4, 2016 The Sacred Combe by Thomas Maloney Reviewed by Victoria This is the story of a regeneration, though one of the strangest and yet most serene that I have ever read….
August 4, 2016 The Queue by Basma Abdel Aziz Translated from Arabic by Elisabeth Jaquette Reviewed by David Hebblethwaite Basma Abdel Aziz is a writer, artist and psychiatrist from Egypt, noted as a…
August 4, 2016 The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry Reviewed by Helen Parry It’s seldom that I buy new books, being a skinflint with a very large existent TBR, and even rarer for…
August 4, 2016 To the Bright Edge of the World by Eowyn Ivey Reviewed by Annabel Eowyn Ivey’s debut novel, The Snow Child, was my favourite book of 2012; I awaited her second with great anticipation. To the…