The Expectation Effect by David Robson
Review by Terence Jagger We are all aware of placebos and their effects – the idea that a totally inactive substance can have a similar effect to, for example, a…
The Sound of Being Human: How Music Shapes our Lives by Jude Rogers
Review by Liz Dexter What role does music really, deeply play in our lives, from our first days to our last? Jude Rogers in her clever, educational and moving book…
Elektra by Jennifer Saint
Review by Annabel The current vogue for feminist retellings of stories from Greek and Roman myths and legends is showing no signs of slowing down and long may it continue….
Tell Me an Ending by Jo Harkin
Reviewed by Harriet ‘What if you didn’t have to live with your worst memories?’, asks the cover of this debut novel. Anyone who’s seen the film Eternal Sunshine of the…
The Palace Papers by Tina Brown
Review by Elaine Simpson-Long I recently reviewed a biography of the Queen by Robert Hardman (reviewed here) which I described as an “admirable book” in its lack of hyperbole and…
Dear Little Corpses by Nicola Upson
Reviewed by Harriet It’s the first of September 1939. Hitler has invaded Poland, and though Britain is not yet at war with Germany, there is widespread fear of potential bombing…
America Over the Water by Shirley Collins
Review by Annabel Shirley Collins is widely regarded as one of the most influential British folk singers of our times. Often singing alongside her sister and composer Dolly, she was…
Traitor in the Ice by K.J. Maitland
Review by Julie Barham This book is a powerful, sometimes brutal historical novel set in the winter of 1607, when life seemed frozen by a cold that exploded trees and…
Lean Fall Stand by Jon McGregor
Review by David Hebblethwaite If Jon McGregor’s name is on the front of a book, I want to read it – it’s as simple as that. There are certain things…
Maternal Mental Health Awareness Month: Birth Notes by Jessica Cornwell & After the Storm by Emma Jane Unsworth
Reviewed by Rebecca Foster May is Maternal Mental Health Awareness Month and so the perfect time to consider two memoirs of postnatal depression, one that was just published this month…
Garden Physic by Sylvia Legris
Review by Anna Hollingsworth Imagine all the life crawling in the undergrowth of a garden. In Garden Physic, Sylvia Legris digs it all up and exposes sediments of emotion, science…
Homelands: The History of a Friendship by Chitra Ramaswamy
Review by David Hebblethwaite In 2011, journalist Chitra Ramaswamy was sent to interview Henry and Ingrid Wuga, a Jewish couple who had fled Nazi Germany and, by then in their…
Even the Darkest Night, by Javier Cercas
Translated by Anne Mclean Review by Michael Eaude Javier Cercas rose to literary fame two decades ago with Soldiers of Salamis (2001), a novel structured as an investigation into an…
Ephemeron by Fiona Benson
Review by Anna Hollingsworth On the cover of Fiona Benson’s Ephemeron, there is a butterfly trapped in a spider’s web. It’s a melancholy image, where beauty and death come together…
These Days by Lucy Caldwell
Reviewed by Harriet ‘two sisters, four nights, one city’ is the subtitle of this riveting new novel by Lucy Caldwell. I don’t think I’ve ever used the term riveting in…
Mischief Acts by Zoe Gilbert
Review by Annabel At this early stage of the year, it may be a bit forward of me to suggest that I may have found my book of the year,…
In the Margins by Elena Ferrante
Translated by Ann Goldstein Review by Anna Hollingsworth There’s something fascinating about writers writing about, well, writing and reading. I care more about writers’ preferred pens and books on their…
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
Review by Annabel Sometimes the hype is true, and a publisher’s lead-title for the season really is worth the advance praise heaped on it. This is the case with Lessons…
Strange Journey by Maud Cairnes
Reviewed by Harriet This is a body-swap novel – one of the first ever to be published. It’s very entertaining but also quite thought provoking. The swappers here are Polly…
This Woman’s Work: Essays on Music, edited by Sinéad Gleeson and Kim Gordon
Review by Liz Dexter This is a collection of writing by women about music, mainly about women in music, put together by visual artist, musician and writer Kim Gordon and…
Queen of Our Times: The Life of Elizabeth II, by Robert Hardman
Review by Elaine Simpson-Long There have been so many books written about ‘Her Maj’ and, I daresay, there will be more in the future, and striking the right note is…
The Poisonous Solicitor, by Stephen Bates
Review by Basil Ransome-Davies Back when I aspired to write crime fiction but realised I was a lousy plotter, I used to buy used true-crime magazines on Preston market to…
The Rabbit Factor by Antti Tuomainen
Translated from the Finnish by David Hackston Review by Annabel I’m always interested in adding new Nordic authors to my reading list, which is increasingly expanding beyond the traditional home…
The Lives of the Saints by Sebastian Barry
Reviewed by Harriet Anyone who knows me or reads my reviews will know that I’m a great admirer of Sebastian Barry. I’ve reviewed three of his novels on Shiny (here,…