The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki
Review by Anna Hollingsworth Imagine if a book began to narrate your story to you. What kind of voice would that be? Would it have the kind of softness suited…
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Shiny New Books
Are We Having Fun Yet? By Lucy Mangan
Review by Annabel Those of you who’ve read journalist and author Lucy Mangan’s ‘memoir of childhood reading’, Bookworm, (which Liz reviewed here) will rejoice that she has now written a…
These Precious Days by Ann Patchett
Reviewed by Harriet I’m a great admirer of Ann Patchett’s novels. I read Bel Canto when it first came out and have loved her writing ever since – here’s my…
The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails, edited by David Wondrich with Noah Rothbaum
Review by Hayley Anderton The first book I met when I started working in the wine trade was Jancis Robinson’s The Oxford Companion to Wine. Every shop I worked in…
The Swift and the Harrier by Minette Walters
Reviewed by Julie Barham This is an historical novel with much to recommend it, and as it is created by a world famous crime writer there is also the probability…
‘Passing’ by Nella Larsen, from Novella to Screen
Chicago born author Nella Larsen is the daughter of a Dutch mother and a father of mixed race Afro-Caribbean from Danish West Indies. With that multiplicity in racial background and…
Peaces by Helen Oyeyemi
Review by Simon Thomas As a place to be trapped, a train has a good precedent. Whether Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express, Alfred Hitchcock’s The Lady Vanishes, or…
Elena Knows by Claudia Piñeiro
Translated by Frances Riddle Reviewed by David Hebblethwaite Claudia Piñeiro is an author from Argentina who, so far, has mostly been published in English as a crime writer. As the…
Adam O’Riordan answers questions on The Falling Thread
Interview by Harriet As an already successful poet and short-story writer, what made you turn to the novel? Was it a sudden decision or a long-term ambition? It was a…
The Falling Thread by Adam O’Riordan
Reviewed by Harriet Unlike some of my fellow reviewers, I tend not to seize upon debut novels. Call me a fuddy-duddy, but I usually prefer to read someone who already…
Which Way by Theodora Benson (Blog Tour)
Reviewed by Harriet Published in 1931 and newly reissued in the British Library Women Writers Series, this is a fascinating book in a number of ways. If you’ve read anything…
Allegorizings by Jan Morris
Review by Liz Dexter “If I had any moral principles to declare, I came to realize, they were extremely simplistic. First, there was the supreme importance of kindness as a…
Silverview by John le Carré
Reviewed by Basil Ransome-Davies John le Carré, eh? Can’t do credible working-class dialogue, draws sympathetic female characters but rather abstractly, plots convoluted and full of holes, rather colourless writing style…
Orchard: A Year in England’s Eden by Benedict Macdonald & Nicholas Gates
Reviewed by Rebecca Foster Bristol friends and BBC colleagues Ben Macdonald and Nick Gates set out to chronicle a year in the life of a traditional Herefordshire orchard that has…
Oldladyvoice by Elisa Victoria
Translated by Charlotte Whittle Review by Anna Hollingsworth When I pick up a book with a child narrator, it’s always with trepidation. I won’t name any culprits, but I’ve learned…
George V: Never a Dull Moment, by Jane Ridley
Reviewed by Elaine Simpson-Long A few years ago I read Jane Ridley’s biography of Edward VII, which I found a fascinating, fully rounded portrayal of his life and personality. In…
Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout
Reviewed by Harriet I first encountered Elizabeth Strout back in February 2017 – according to my review at the time [here] I’d spotted My Name is Lucy Barton on the…
The Dawn of Everything: A new history of humanity, by David Graeber and David Wengrow
Review by Peter Reason This book offers a revision of our understanding of human cultural history, and so opens possibilities for different, maybe more creative and liberating, arrangements for contemporary…
The Drowned City by K.J. Maitland
Review by Julie Barham A world turned upside down is the subject of this vivid historical novel set in an English city: politically a new royal house is in power,…
Raising Laughter: How the Sitcom Kept Britain Smiling in the ‘70s by Robert Sellers
Review by Annabel I watched an awful lot of telly in the 1970s, my formative teenage years. It was thus inevitable that between the early evening slots occupied by Top…
Lion City: Singapore and the Invention of Modern Asia by Jeevan Vasagar
Review by Liz Dexter Open to global flows of capital but largely closed to political change, Singapore is a reform-minded dictator’s dream, suggesting that a country can enjoy the prosperity…
The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles
Review by Annabel Amor Towles’s first novel, Rules of Civility, was published in 2011 when he was in his mid-forties. It was such a success he was able to retire…
Trust, by Domenico Starnone
Translated by Jhumpa Lahiri Reviewed by Basil Ransome-Davis My initial recommendation for any readers of this novel would be to turn to Jhumpa Lahiri’s Afterword first. The translator is herself…
Light Rains Sometimes Fall: A British Year Through Japan’s 72 Seasons by Lev Parikian
Review by Liz Dexter “For Japan’s lotus blossom, praying mantis and bear, we have bramble, wood louse and urban fox” Lev Parikian, a writer, birdwatcher and conductor, had already started…