Colouring In by Angela Huth
Reviewed by Adèle Geras First, full disclosure. Susan Hill, whose Long Barn Books has published this novel, sent me a copy as a gift. She had no idea that I was…
The Last Pilot by Benjamin Johncock
Review by Annabel Anyone who has ever been enthralled by reading or seeing the film of The Right Stuff, Tom Wolfe’s seminal story of the USA’s quest to break the…
Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli (YA)
Reviewed by Bookgazing For a while now, there’s been some online discussion about whether “the coming out novel” has had its day, and whether modern readers need stories where characters…
Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee
Reviewed by Harriet Rarely can the publication of a novel have been surrounded by such an uproar and so many misconceptions. Let’s put one of them straight right away —…
The Notting Hill Editions Essay Prize
Raymond Tallis Talks to Ingrid Wassenaar Those lovely people at Notting Hill Editions, home of the best in non-fiction essay writing, are in the midst of their search for the winner…
Enchanted August by Brenda Bowen
Reviewed by Victoria When I first heard that an author had produced a rewrite of Elizabeth von Arnim’s The Enchanted April, I was extremely eager to read it. I love von…
Think Like an Artist by Will Gompertz
Reviewed by Annabel Many of you will recognise Gompertz in his current role as the BBC’s Arts Editor, a role he fulfills with as much quirky charm as his subjects….
Jeremy Hutchinson’s Case Histories by Thomas Grant
Reviewed by Harriet No one becomes a criminal barrister to make large sums of money. A criminal practice has always been the least well paid and of the lowest status…
60 Degrees North by Malachy Tallack
Reviewed by Hayley Anderton When I first read about 60 Degrees North in Polygon’s book list back in the spring I was intrigued. I recognised Malachy Tallack’s name from various sources but…
A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler
Paperback review by Susan Osborne When I think of Baltimore two things come to mind: Anne Tyler and The Wire, polar opposites in terms of subject matter but both supreme exemplars…
Rupert Wallis – My First Year as a Published Author
As his second YA novel All Sorts of Possible is published (reviewed here), author Rupert Wallis stops off at Shiny New Books on his blog tour to tell us about his experience including…
All Sorts of Possible by Rupert Wallis (YA)
Reviewed by Annabel I saw a repeat of a Horizon TV programme all about sinkholes the other month. Geology professor Ian Stewart was in Florida, which is the sinkhole capital of the…
Game by Tim Maddams
Reviewed by Hayley Anderton I love the River Cottage handbooks, really truly deeply love them. Individually they are all excellent stand alone cookbooks and field guides put together they open…
Mermaids by Sophia Kingshill
Reviewed by Harriet once I sat upon a promontoryAnd heard a mermaid on a dolphin’s backUttering such dulcet and harmonious breath,That the rude sea grew civil at her song;And certain…
Uprooted by Naomi Novik
Reviewed by Sakura Gooneratne Our Dragon doesn’t eat the girls he takes, no matter what stories they tell outside our valley. He doesn’t devour them really; it only feels that…
Remix by Non Pratt (YA)
Reviewed by Jodie When I reviewed The Girl at Midnight I mentioned how great it was to read a story with a female friendship at its heart. Lo and behold, Remix by Non Pratt –…
Things in my book I don’t want others to know, by Katarina Bivald
“Don’t write about what you know, write about what you don’t want others to know.” I don’t know who originally said it, but it is one of the best bits…
London War Notes by Mollie Panter-Downes
Reviewed by Simon There are plenty of books about World War Two. There are even plenty of diaries, and some – like Nella Last’s or Mathilde Wolff-Mönckeberg’s – are exceptionally good. But these sorts…
The Moor by William Atkins
Reviewed by Christine Harding The moors of his childhood gave William Atkins a lifelong passion for moorlands, and in this book he travels through some of England’s most inhospitable and…
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Paperback review by Harriet Marie-Laure sits on her bed with the window open and travels her hands over her father’s model of the city. Her fingers pass the ship-builders’ sheds…
The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald
Translated by Alice Menzies Reviewed by Danielle Katarina Bivald’s The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend is a ‘long cool sip of lemonade while lying in a hammock on a sunny day’ sort…
The Honours by Tim Clare
Reviewed by Eleanor Franzén It’s rare for any book, let alone a book marketed as literary fiction for adults, to open with a thirteen-year-old girl lying flat on her stomach…
10:04 by Ben Lerner
Paperback review by Susan Osborne Ben Lerner’s first novel, Leaving the Atocha Station, was much talked about on publication – 10:04 is his second and it’s narrated by a writer whose first novel was…
Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami
Translated by Philip Gabriel Reviewed by Tony Malone Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage is the story of thirty-six-year-old train station designer Tsukuru Tazaki, a native of Nagoya…