I have always had a soft spot for novels that use a variety of formats to tell their story. When You Read This by Mary Adkins, is one such novel, with the narrative divided between emails and blog posts. I read this novel just before the COVID-19 outbreak, back in the days when life was […]
I just can’t seem to help myself, but I always end up coming back to Lisa Jewell. She’s the Cadbury Dairy Milk of authors in my mind. Reliably delicious stories that never disappoint, always hit the mark, leaving you satisfied and yes, wanting more. Chances are that if I don’t know what to read, perhaps […]
I felt brave buying this book, fearing that it might be ‘worthy’ on the grounds of it having won the Booker Prize. That said, isn’t ‘worthy’ exactly what you should buy when your friend, who is also a reader, gifts you a $30 gift certificate for your favorite bookshop? Something that sits outside your norm, […]
There was no way on God’s green earth that, having finished Mr Flood’s Last Resort, I wasn’t going to read another Jess Kidd novel. Her writing is too weird and wonderful to be missed and so, I bought myself a copy of Himself. Oh my goodness, it was even better that the previous read! More […]
Those of you who read my blog regularly will know that I’m a total fan of Matt Haig, whether it be fiction or nonfiction. How to Stop Time remains one of my favorite ever novels, so it’s always with great joy that I discover an unread book by this author (although I have to admit […]
Every now and then you read a book that you just love so much, that you wish you could move inside it, inhabiting the very world in which it is set. This is how I felt as I read The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E Harrow. I actually don’t really know how […]
There are some books that are just written to become movies and I have to say that, with the right casting, The French Girl by Lexie Elliott could be one of them! I chanced across this book whilst having a wander through Bookshop Santa Cruz, and yet again it was another simple case of liking […]
If you want a great recommendation for the perfect holiday read, then I think that Auntie Poldi and the Sicilian Lions might be it. Mario Giordano’s light hearted tale, tells of Auntie Poldi who has recently moved from Bavaria to Sicily, to enjoy the warmth and food at the latter end of her life. When […]
There’s a certain currency to a life in London, just as surely as there’s a certain currency to being in your twenties and that’s exactly what Candice Carty-Williams’ novel Queenie so perfectly embodies. It’s also the reason why so many critics are likening this novel to Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones’s Diary, which so symbolized my […]
My twelve year old son loves a good conspiracy theory and, whilst I like to listen to him share whatever ‘story’ he has found online or heard at school, I suppose that I have always been pretty dismissive of such things and the adults who propound them. The events of 9/11 are never far from […]
Nutshell Book Reviews 