February 27, 2018 Owl Sense by Miriam Darlington Review by Peter Reason Miriam Darlington’s first book, Otter Country, recounted her search and study of otters in Britain. I reviewed this book with…
February 27, 2018 The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gowar Reviewed by Max Dunbar Command the Mermaid Speak Last year a monster emerged from London’s sewers. The ‘fatberg’ – as the city’s waste disposal…
February 22, 2018 From Here to Eternity: Travelling the World to Find the Good Death by Caitlin Doughty Reviewed by Rebecca Foster If you’ve read thirtysomething California funeral director Caitlin Doughty’s previous book, Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, you’ll remember her account…
February 22, 2018 Felix Culpa by Jeremy Gavron Review by Rob Spence The German artist Kurt Schwitters developed a method , which he called “Merz” by which his canvases would be constructed…
February 20, 2018 Savages: The Wedding by Sabri Louatah Translated by Gavin Bowd Reviewed by Annabel This debut novel is the first volume of Louatah’s planned Saint-Étienne quartet named after the French city…
February 20, 2018 Idaho by Emily Ruskovich Reviewed by Susan Osborne Emily Ruskovich’s Idaho is an impressive debut, both in its writing and its treatment of a difficult subject: the murder…
February 15, 2018 Dawn of the New Everything: A Journey Through Virtual Reality by Jaron Lanier Review by Liz Dexter Jaron Lanier has been called the “Father of Virtual Reality” and he’s been involved with many of the main companies…
February 13, 2018 Rainsongs by Sue Hubbard Reviewed by Jean Morris Rainsongs will take you to remote vistas in the west of Ireland. It’s a lovely, vividly transporting novel. “Apart from…
February 13, 2018 The World Broke in Two by Bill Goldstein Reviewed by Harriet This enthralling multiple biography is subtitled ‘Virginia Woolf, T.S. Eliot, D.H. Lawrence, E.M. Forster, and the year that changed literature’. The…
February 8, 2018 The Lion and the Unicorn by George Orwell Review by Karen Langley Although George Orwell’s name resonates most strongly with us nowadays because of his great novels – in particular “Nineteen Eighty…
February 6, 2018 Force of Nature by Jane Harper Reviewed by Gill Davies Following on from her highly-acclaimed first novel, The Dry, Jane Harper has written a second gripping story featuring the harsh…
February 6, 2018 The Last Ballad by Wiley Cash Reviewed by Harriet I have certain reservations about novels in which the central character is someone who really existed. Sometimes it works really well,…
February 1, 2018 Edith and Oliver by Michèle Forbes Reviewed by Annabel I managed to miss Forbes’s debut, Ghost Moth, which received rave reviews – something I should remedy having read her second novel….
February 1, 2018 Interview with Rosamund Bartlett about Dostoyevsky and “The Russian Soul” Interview by Karen Langley Karen: Rosamund, thank you for agreeing to an interview with Shiny New Books! You have a distinguished career as a translator,…
February 1, 2018 The Russian Soul: Selections from A Writer’s Diary by Fyodor Dostoevsky Introduced by Rosamund Bartlett Translated by Kenneth Lantz / Olga Shartse Reviewed by Karen Langley Notting Hill Editions will probably need no introduction to…
