Rolling Fields by David Trueba
Translated from Spanish by Rahul Bery Reviewed by Michael Eaude Too often, reviews are distorted because they are written by someone who knows and likes the author’s work. One of…
Grayson Perry by Jacky Klein & Grayson Perry
Reviewed by Liz Dexter This sumptuous book, that has a lot of content, in terms of both text and image, is a real treat – the only book so far…
Notes From An Apocalypse by Mark O’Connell
Review by Annabel O’Connell is an Irish journalist who won the Wellcome Book Prize for his previous title, To Be a Machine (which I reviewed for Shiny here). His exploration…
Three Wainwright Prize Nominees: Books by Patrick Barkham, Patrick Laurie & Jini Reddy
Reviewed by Rebecca Foster The Wainwright Prize longlists for writing on UK nature and global conservation themes were announced in early June and will be whittled down to shortlists on…
Jane Austen: Writing, Society, Politics by Tom Keymer
Reviewed by Harriet Today, Jane Austen is regarded as one of the most important writers in the English language, often spoken of in the same sentence as Shakespeare. It wasn’t…
All Adults Here by Emma Straub
Reviewed by Ann For the second time in a matter of weeks I’ve read a book that I wouldn’t normally have picked up simply because it was well recommended by…
My Summer Reading: Gawain and The Green Knight – Michael Smith
Members of the Shiny reviewing team share previously published books from their shelves that they’re reading now… Review by Rob Spence Readers of Shiny New Books will be aware of…
Summer’s Lease by Thom Eagle
Review by Hayley Anderton I’ve heard universally good things about Thom Eagle’s first book, First, Catch and it has a clutch of awards to back up the word of mouth….
Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
Reviewed by Harriet Grief fills the room up of my absent child,Lies in his bed, walks up and down with me, Puts on his pretty looks, repeats his words,Remembers me of…
Root Stem Leaf Flower by Gill Meller
Reviewed by Hayley Anderton Whilst writing this I’m still officially in full lockdown in Leicester. I don’t know what it’s like on the outside, but the pattern of my days…
The King of Elfland’s Daughter by Lord Dunsany
Review by Helen Parry I first read The King of Elfland’s Daughter five years ago, but this ‘fine, strange, almost forgotten novel’, as Neil Gaiman puts it in his introduction,…
Expectation by Anna Hope
Review by Max Dunbar Looking back at her hard living past, singer Florence Welch writes in Vogue: I wonder if my young self would be horrified at my Friday nights now:…
Into the Tangled Bank by Lev Parikian
Review by Liz Dexter Lev Parikian is a conductor and, more recently, a birdwatcher, and you might have seen or read his book on birds, Why do Birds Suddenly Disappear?…
The Coral Merchant: Essential Stories by Joseph Roth
Review by Eleanor Updegraff Translated by Ruth Martin Austrian author Joseph Roth is best known – if indeed he is known at all – for his sometimes relatively lengthy novels…
Biography & Memoir, Diaries
Ecology & Environment, Natural World
Mind and Body, Medicine, Psychology
Non Fiction
Diary of a Young Naturalist by Dara McAnulty
Reviewed by Rebecca Foster When the Wainwright Prize longlists (for writing on UK nature and global conservation themes) were announced in early June, Dara McAnulty broke two records as the…
Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams
Paperback Review by Liz Dexter This Sunday Times bestseller, which was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award and Longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, has been touted as…