For the last two years I’ve been tracking my reading and book buying habits. Why?Well, really in response to a tweet from someone (I forget who) in publishing, an idle enquiry that got me thinking. Could I really justify buying as many books as I did? How did my reading ambitions fit with reality? I… Continue reading The never decreasing TBR pile
Tag: Reading
Review: Expectation by Anna Hope
2019 seems to be the year for novels about modern womanhood. Following Hannah Beckerman’s If Only I Could Tell You and Katy Mahood’s Entanglement comes Expectation from Anna Hope. You may know Hope from her historical novels, The Ballroom and Wake, but this is a departure from those to modern day London. We meet three… Continue reading Review: Expectation by Anna Hope
Review: Somewhere Close to Happy by Lia Louis
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
Woolf Works: my month of reading Virginia Woolf
My reading group’s choice for March was The Waves by Virginia Woolf. I have a lot of Woolf on my shelves but haven’t got round to reading very much so I was glad at the choice. Until I picked it up and tried to read it. It’s well known as her most challenging work and… Continue reading Woolf Works: my month of reading Virginia Woolf
#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
Review: The Lost Letters of William Woolf by Helen Cullen
What a lovely premise this book has. As soon as I heard it, I wanted to read it. William Woolf works for the Royal Mail at the Dead Letters Depot. Woolf is a Letter Detective, sorting through all the letters that never get delivered. He tries to deliver or return them, seeking out the stories… Continue reading Review: The Lost Letters of William Woolf by Helen Cullen
Susan E Barsby 