Shiny New Books

What to Read Next and Why

  • About
  • Editorial & Review
  • Privacy
  • Fiction Review Index
  • Non-Fiction Index
    • Architecture, Art & Design, Craft, Home & Garden, Photography
    • Biography, Memoir & Diaries
    • Books about Books, Lit Crit, Publishing, Reading & Writing
    • Ecology & Environment, Natural World
    • Entertainment, Media, Film & Music
    • Mind and Body, Medicine, Psychology

Month: May 2021

May 28, 2021

Double Lives by Helen McCarthy

Reviewed by Harriet In this impressively detailed book, shortlisted for this year’s Wolfson History Prize, Helen McCarthy surveys the lives of women who worked…

May 28, 2021

The Octopus Man by Jasper Gibson

Review by Anne Goodwin Tom doesn’t expect life to be easy; it’s more important to follow a true path. Single, jobless and reliant on…

May 27, 2021

Summertime, All the Cats are Bored by Philippe Georget

Translated by Steven Rendall Review by Terence Jagger He moved cautiously forward through the tall grass, following a trail of broken stems. And it…

May 27, 2021

Mamma by Diana Tutton

Reviewed by Harriet Published in 1956, Mamma was the first novel Tutton wrote, though her second and now better known Guard Your Daughters was…

May 27, 2021

Reviewer’s Choice: Twentieth Century Paris (1900-1950) – A Literary Guide for Travellers by Marie-José Gransard

While Shiny New Books concentrates on the new, occasionally, we give our reviewers room to share previously published – ie: ‘not Shiny New Books’…

May 25, 2021

Field Work: What Land Does to People and What People Do to Land by Bella Bathurst

Review by Liz Dexter “This place, this land, wasn’t a job or a business: it was everything – past and future, identity and rhythm,…

May 25, 2021

Greenwich Park by Katherine Faulkner

Review by Max Dunbar How the Other Half Lie There is a fabulous new genre in commercial fiction. I call it ‘Posh People Getting…

May 21, 2021

Under a White Sky by Elizabeth Kolbert

Review by Peter Reason Elizabeth Kolbert is a celebrated American journalist, staff writer for the New Yorker. Her work focuses unflinchingly on the ecological…

May 21, 2021

Mr Fortune’s Maggot by Sylvia Townsend Warner

Reviewed by Harriet It can only be good news that Penguin have been reissuing Sylvia Townsend Warner’s admirable novels. I only discovered her writing…

May 20, 2021

The Assistant by Kjell Ola Dahl

Translated by Don Bartlett Reviewed by Annabel Kjell Ola Dahl is one of Norway’s foremost crime writers, especially known for his ‘Oslo detectives’ series,…

May 20, 2021

Valentine Ackland: A Transgressive Life by Frances Bingham

Reviewed by Gill Davies This is a remarkable book about a remarkable woman. Valentine Ackland (1906-1969) was “transgressive” in so many ways. She was…

May 18, 2021

Come Join Our Disease by Sam Byers

Reviewed by Dan Lipscombe Sam Byers is a wonderfully talented author. His imagination and wordplay seemingly know no bounds. However, when you want to…

May 18, 2021

King Arthur’s Death by Michael Smith

Reviewed by Rob Spence Last year, I reviewed Michael Smith’s excellent new version of the Middle English Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. He…

May 13, 2021

The Hard Crowd, Essays 2000-2020, by Rachel Kushner

Reviewed by Max Dunbar The Gallery of Souls I’ve Known Many years ago, novelist Rachel Kushner worked in a bar called the Blue Lamp…

May 13, 2021

The Fighter Fell in Love: A Spanish Civil War Memoir by James R. Jump

 Reviewed by Michael Eaude This is the memoir of a volunteer to the International Brigades, formed to fight fascism in the Spanish Civil War…

May 11, 2021

Digging up Britain: A New History in Ten Extraordinary Discoveries by Mike Pitts

Reviewed by Liz Dexter “Who are we? Where do we come from? What is Britain, and what does it mean to be British?” This…

May 11, 2021

Anthony Burgess, Collected Poems, edited by Jonathan Mann

Reviewed by Rob Spence Inevitably, when Anthony Burgess is mentioned, people who have heard of him will associate him with the notorious novel and…

May 6, 2021

Featherweight by Mick Kitson

Reviewed by Lory Widmer Hess “A woman has to fight sometimes. It’s as well ya know how.” Annie Loveridge is a fighting woman, and…

May 6, 2021

In the Garden; Essays on Nature and Growing

Review by Hayley Anderton This is the first of the Daunt Books essay collections that I’ve read and I’m mostly impressed. The quality of…

May 4, 2021

The Craft of Poetry by Lucy Newlyn

Reviewed by Rob Spence Lucy Newlyn is a intriguing literary figure. She had a career as an Oxford don, publishing well-regarded studies of Romantic…

May 4, 2021

Sistersong by Lucy Holland

Reviewed by Annabel Lucy Holland’s impeccably researched novel combines the story of a 19th Century murder ballad, ‘The Two Sisters’ with Dark Ages post-Arthurian…

Categories

Subscribe to receive posts via email

Loading

Top Posts & Pages

  • The Passenger by Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz
  • A Spectre, Haunting: On The Communist Manifesto by China Miéville
  • Are We Having Fun Yet? By Lucy Mangan
  • The Nutmeg’s Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis by Amitav Ghosh
  • The Bright Side of Life by Emile Zola
  • An Interview with Barbara Nadel
  • The Facemaker: One Surgeon’s Battle to Mend the Disfigured Soldiers of World War I, by Lindsey Fitzharris
  • Cold Heaven by Brian Moore
  • George V: Never a Dull Moment, by Jane Ridley
  • Brainspotting: Adventures in Neurology by A. J. Lees

Our Affiliate LInk to Blackwell’s – When you click through and purchase, it earns us a small commission to help pay for this site’s upkeep. Thank you.

www.blackwells.co.uk
My Tweets

Recent Comments

  • Liz Dexter on A Spectre, Haunting: On The Communist Manifesto by China Miéville
  • Six Degrees of Separation: Wintering – Annabookbel on Funny Girl by Nick Hornby
  • State of the TBR – July 2022 | Adventures in reading, running and working from home on Snow Widows: Scott’s Fatal Antarctic Expedition Through the Eyes of the Women They Left Behind by Katherine MacInnes
  • State of the TBR – July 2022 | Adventures in reading, running and working from home on 100 Voices: 100 Women Share their Stories of Achievement, ed. Miranda Roszkowski
  • kaggsysbookishramblings on A Spectre, Haunting: On The Communist Manifesto by China Miéville

Recent Posts

  • A Spectre, Haunting: On The Communist Manifesto by China Miéville
  • The Facemaker: One Surgeon’s Battle to Mend the Disfigured Soldiers of World War I, by Lindsey Fitzharris
  • I Used to Live Here Once by Miranda Seymour
  • One Day I Shall Astonish the World by Nina Stibbe
  • Letters to Gwen John by Celia Paul
Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy

Shiny on Facebook

Shiny on Facebook

Blog Stats

  • 604,247 hits

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

© 2014-2021, Shiny New Books and its Contributors

Archives

  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • October 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • April 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • July 2014
  • April 2014
Copyright Shiny New Books. All rights reserved. | Theme by SuperbThemes