Book reviews, recommendations and literary life.
Book reviews, recommendations and literary life.
The Key in the Lock is a simmering Gothic mystery, full of secrets, deception and ghosts from the past. The Key in the Lock by Beth Underdown I still dream, every night, of Polneath on fire. Smoke unfurling out of an upper window and a hectic orange light cascading across the terrace. By day, Ivy …
Five Tuesdays in Winter is an intimate, nuanced and memorable collection of short stories. Five Tuesdays in Winter by Lily King For the first time ever, Lily King collects ten of her finest short stories, opening fresh realms of discovery for avid and new readers alike. Told in the intimate voices of unique and …
To Paradise is a bold, sweeping novel that traverses three centuries and three imagined Americas, held together by the unified themes of love, loss and what it means to find utopia. To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara In an alternate version of 1893 America, New York is part of the Free States, where people may …
Lunar Living is both magical and practical, teaching you how to work with the cycle of the moon to better understand yourself and reclaim ownership of your life. Lunar Living by Kirsty Gallagher Are there certain days when you feel overly emotional for no apparent reason? Do you have days when you feel exhausted, close …
I picked up The Binding on an innocent visit to the local Oxfam bookshop. I wasn’t intending to buy anything of course, but I tripped and fell, which led to me leaving with this and probably some others. But let’s not dwell on that, or why I am buying more books when I already work in …
I was lucky enough to get a proof copy of Cecily before it came out in July. My first thoughts were how beautiful the cover is! It’s extremely striking and is so much more modern than lots of other historical fictions novels. That aside, I was excited to read it. I’d already heard good things …
Two things that won’t shock anyone. 1. I miss travelling and holidays. 2. I think Paris is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. As such, I recently picked up The Most Beautiful Walk in the World: A Pedestrian in Paris which has been on my bookshelf for around a year now. I have …
Luster seemed to be the book on everyone’s lips at the start of this year. My grand plans had been to look away from all the noise of new books and focus on the ones that I have outstanding to read. Within I’ll say a few days of scrolling on Instagram, I’d ordered Luster. Oops. BUY ON …
I was really lucky and received some beautiful books as presents at Christmas time, including Hamnet. If you’re on bookstagram you couldn’t move for seeing this book last year. It seems like Hamnet was universally applauded, which is cemented by the fact that it won the 2020 Women’s Prize for Fiction award. With such strong recommendations …
Hands up who has a pile of reviews to write that’s almost as big as their pile of books waiting to be read? Me too, my friends, me too. No time like the present then! First up is Slack-Tide, a slim but powerful book I read at the tail end of last year. I picked …
