How exciting to review a book by someone I know. (To clarify, I do not actually know Lia but we chat on Twitter – she posts about food, parenting, exhaustion and Bon Jovi, and who am I to diss any of that?) Somewhere Close to Happy is Lia’s debut novel and has the loveliest cover… Continue reading Review: Somewhere Close to Happy by Lia Louis
Tag: books
Review: The Beekeeper of Aleppo
Oh, this is a simple and lovely book. And a timely book, also. It is told by Nuri Ibrahim, the titular beekeeper of Aleppo who has had to flee Syria with his wife Afra. Nuri and Afra are in a bed and breakfast in Brighton with several other refugees, all waiting to see if their… Continue reading Review: The Beekeeper of Aleppo
Review of 2018
Woah! I read a LOT in 2018. 91 books so far and a week still to go. I’m not quite sure how I fitted all of this in, except that I’ve stopped cycling to work and now have tram time. To be fair, two were novellas in flash, one was a short story in a… Continue reading Review of 2018
#BookReviewGift The Goldblum Variations
Jeff Goldblum rocks. You know it. Helen McClory thinks so. So she wrote a bonkers pamphlet containing poems, flash fiction and bingo all about Jeff and alternate versions of him in other universes. You can buy it now with a yellow cover but mine is colour your own, adding more fun to the mix. It’s… Continue reading #BookReviewGift The Goldblum Variations
Review: Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield
In a yoga class once (stay with me) the instructor talked of yogis who sat on the banks of the Ganges and allowed their thoughts, worries, stories to drift away on the water. If there was ever a book that described this, Diane Setterfield’s Once Upon a River is it. It’s a book about water,… Continue reading Review: Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield
#BookReviewGift: Three Sisters of Stone by Stephanie Hutton
Before this year I’d not heard of the concept of novella in flash so this was the first one I’d read. I know Stephanie via Twitter where she often links to her other excellent flash fiction pieces and shares her time and comments generously on other people’s writing. For the uninitiated, a novella in flash… Continue reading #BookReviewGift: Three Sisters of Stone by Stephanie Hutton
A childhood in books
As promised, I wanted to write about a childhood in books with a few featured. I have also decided to commit to blogging and reviewing every day in December and tagging authors to give them a boost about how much we appreciate them. (You can find out more about this here on Twitter – do… Continue reading A childhood in books
Booky spaces, growing a reader and more…
So two things have happened recently. The first is that I started to read E (6) The Railway Children as her bedtime story. The second is that I have been reading Lucy Mangan’s Bookworm: A Memoir of Childhood Reading. These are clearly related. For those of you unfamiliar with the Mangan, it’s her childhood told… Continue reading Booky spaces, growing a reader and more…
Review: How We Remember by JM Monaco
Today I’m hosting the blog tour for JM Monaco’s how We Remember, a debut novel of dark family secrets and their after effects. Jo O’Brien, Irish-American professor of Art History living and working in London, returns home after her mother’s death and, in the process of clearing out her mother’s diary and papers, is reminded… Continue reading Review: How We Remember by JM Monaco
Review: Take Nothing With You by Patrick Gale
A new Patrick Gale is always something to celebrate but in recent years his books seem to have taken on an extra quality. I do feel he’s one of the country’s best writers – portraying empathy, love and the human experience with deftness, wit and a sure touch. We must celebrate him more. Perhaps a… Continue reading Review: Take Nothing With You by Patrick Gale
Susan E Barsby 