Fascinatingly funny and horrific. The characterisation here is wonderful. Nadia, the narrator, gets her dream job: working for the UN in Iraq, deradicalising Isis brides. She chimes with Sara a girl who left London at 15 and ended up being married to three men. The UN staff seem to spend their down time drinking heavily etc. The story is told so well, highly recommended.

I‘ve been listening to Thatcher Stole My Trousers by Alexie Sayle and I‘m absolutely loving it. I like non-fiction that is not text book like. Alexie writes sometimes like he‘s setting up a literary game of Jenga. He builds this tower, with his artistry and excellent descriptive powers and then knocks it down with precise, well observed humour and self-depreciation. It‘s as if he‘s like a supreme comedian who‘s been doing it for decades

A book to start a holiday…

I‘ve started reading this after meeting the author at a book signing, the beginning is promising

An enjoyable book. I do like a book written by the author, about themselves, that isn‘t necessarily an auto biography. I read this really because I‘m seeing the author at the TWells Literary Festival. I remember as well enjoying his selections on Desert Island Discs. This is a gem filled book and is very comforting.

Planet Earth is blue and there‘s nothing I can do. Beautiful book describing 16 orbits of the Earth from the perspective of the International Space Station. Being in the peace and tranquility of floating in space means that you see an awful lot of things you can do nothing about.

There is something seductive about life on a campus, it feels like the world entire, but it isn‘t. Here Richard chances on a group of classics students, a clique that sequesters itself away from the rest of Hampton College. This is a delicious book, I had no sympathy for the protagonists at all, I had no problem in enjoying it all the same. The group plays with Richard, but they love him all the same. This could be my favourite book.

The story of Willow who turns up on a remote island in Ireland and cuts off her hair. She is renting a house with few amenities and is happy that she has no WiFi in the house. She‘s soon befriended by a cat before she gets inveigled in the life of the island and she reveals her secrets and motivation. It‘s a story of how we need to forgive ourselves at times, so that we can be a fully functioning member of society. Beautiful writing and narration.

I enjoyed this tale of Willa Knox in a falling down house in modern day Vineland, New Jersey in and Thatcher Greenwood a high school teacher in a falling down house in 1870s Vineland. I love the juxtaposition of the 19th century of Darwin by the principal of the high school, to the annoyance of Thatcher and the Trumpian views of Willa‘s father in law Nick. It just goes to show that you cannot use logic and reason to undermine good old blind belief

Quite a playful selection of short stories and there‘s nothing wrong with that. The stories are interlinked as well, so you see the breadcrumbs between stories quite often. I was entertained.

Quite a playful selection of short stories and there‘s nothing wrong with that. The stories are interlinked as well, so you see the breadcrumbs between stories quite often. I was entertained.

I love the premise of the world turned upside down and it‘s interesting as to how this pans out. If this is a dystopian novel, are we not living in a dystopia? It did make me feel uncomfortable at times, but there‘s nothing wrong with that. I find masculinity to be an awful toxic thing, on so many occasions. Would women do this? I don‘t know, we‘ve all got opinions have we not?

The fictionalised account of Stuart Murdoch‘s life before he became the musician he is today. The story, about Stephen, takes us through his ME and his nascent songwriting via San Diego and San Francisco. We are in a world with the Nabisco Cats though, what would it be like to live in one with them, I guess we‘ll never know. It‘s a a sensitively told story as you‘d expect and enjoyably accomplished for a first novel.

A book to make you hungry, about a journalist interviewing a gourmet blogger who‘s killed three times.

So Stuart lives with Gillian and he has a best friend Oliver (née Nigel). Stuart is a banker and makes money, Oliver is clever and doesn‘t. Oliver is really not as clever as he thinks he is. Anyway it‘s a story of jealously and betrayal told from their points of view, with a few others thrown in for good measure. I thought when I ‘reread‘ that I knew the story but I was pleasantly surprised by how surprised I was by it.

I‘m reading this, it‘s off kilter short stories with an element of magical realism, it‘s very enjoyable so far.

I found this book hauntingly real. It brought back so many memories of that febrile time in the 80s. When the East Germans came to the west en masse and then the wall fell. What‘s depicted here is the complicated and toxic relationship that came before and after reunification. Anna Funder writes about what was lost in Stasiland. The question to me is ‘we‘ve ended the Cold War, is life better now‘ I highly recommend this book.

I‘m still astonished, here Virginia Woolf talks about the patriarchy in 1929, she talks about men owning women, violence against women and girls and what the situation will be in a hundred years time. This book is hauntingly relevant today.

It‘s difficult to get my thoughts in order about this book. What I take is that there are millions of stories to be told. Art Spiegelman has given us a precious gift of his father‘s recollections of his experience of the attempt by the Nazis to eradicate a race, well to eradicate anyone that didn‘t fit it. It‘s an astonishing piece of work that will haunt me for a very long time.

Isabel Allende says that she was inspired to write this after seeing a play about the Kinder Transport. I find it astonishing that our society can treat children in the ways that are depicted in the book. In that way it reminded me of the Handmaid‘s Tale. Poor Samuel evacuated from Nazi occupied Austria to suffer more trauma in Britain and poor Anita, smuggled out of El Salvador to face an uncertain future in the US.

Completely devastating, exactly what I expected really. This story seems more important at this time

What a belter! Does what it says in the title really. The question of truth pervades the whole story. Is it true that when we talk to each other about events we‘re presenting our own version of the truth? I could philosophise for hours about this. When it‘s six different versions of the truth, then who do you believe? Wonderfully gripping.

So I‘m halfway through this book by Lisa Jewell and I realise that should be a warning about driving while listening to such a gut wrenching story. It‘s so marvellously done.

This is new for me, I don‘t know what to expect at all, it‘s all on a recommendation

I‘ve just started this, I love stories about New York and New Yorkers, this is about to twist as well

Being from a town not far from that river, I know Cricklade, Lechlade, and Oxford. It is a strange place full of strange people. This put me in mind of the Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro, Philip Pullman‘s La Belle Sauvage, Jerusalem by Jez Butterworth, English Settlement by XTC, the books of Angela Carter and the work of PJ Harvey. Tall ish gothic tales told in pubs up and down the Thames, about life and death, animals and the river.

I‘m enjoying this very much, I suppose East Berlin and the 80s are cat nip for me

I‘ve been listening to this on Audible, I‘m completely invested in it. Julia was a great character already of course, but she‘s become so spellbinding in this. Just as Margaret Atwood has showed: us the life of women in totalitarian regimes is precarious at best. The imagination and detail is exemplary, highly recommended.

Great book about the second lockdown in 2020. What to do if your tempted by the forbidden Lake District. I love the stream of consciousness here and the multi narrator approach as well. Really sums up the well the whole malaise of covid, thank god that‘s over.

I‘m enjoying this so much, it‘s beautiful, uplifting and heartbreaking. Wonderful

Delightful book of short stories about life and changes, loss and coming to terms with all of the above. There is a great lightness of touch that makes you invest in these stories. The characters are so honest as well, it‘s easy to sympathise and empathise.

A quietly disturbing book with some unsettling home made witch craft. Merricat and Constance have their own world, full of rules and regulations, that at least make sense them. Constance cooks for safety and to preserve their sensibilities. Merricat protects by leaving totems buried in the ground. Cousin Charles appears and upsets their own world as well as the apple cart, glorious.

Exceptionally honest account of Kerry Hudson‘s awful early life and the escape from it, beautifully written and full of honest emotion

Loving this, glorious and substantial

What a lovely book. I‘ve met Bob Mortimer twice, once in Safeway where I blathered something about Middlesbrough and once in Game where I told him of my enjoyment of House of Fools. He said that he thought it would only appeal to 13 year olds. I gabbled something about how we are still all 13 really. Anyway this is his life, all near death, delicious comedy and being the quiet one, I loved it.

I heard some of this read on Radio 4 and it was fascinating

Love, love, love.
There is so much honesty here, it‘s almost overwhelming at times. Grace Dent talks with candour about how much she has enjoyed her time and what it means to a girl from Carlisle to be the restaurant critic on a national newspaper, even without a Maths GCSE. This book chimes with people who grew up in a house very small, with woodchip on the wall. I can‘t help feeling a little jealous at a vestibule though.

‘The past is another country, they eat chips differently there‘

Well, what a story. All about a group of people reenacting life in an Iron Age settlement. Done for academic purposes along with the family of a over bearing bus driver. The tale is so compelling as Silvie guides us on this voyage around her father while dressed in a scratchy tunic.

I‘m loving this, why be comfortable on holiday, stay in an Iron Age settlement instead!

Really enjoying the oddness of this, it‘s really everything I expected

This dropped through my door yesterday. It‘s a bit of a tonic in these lockdown days.

Back to this then, I‘ve decided to re read the first two before I get onto Middle England.

This is getting to be creepily enjoyable

A good Boxing Day book

Well, I told his partner I‘d read it so here goes. Groucho Marx said ‘I laughed when you gave me your book, one day I intend to read it‘

Well then Lyra goes east, as does Malcolm. We have as well now rose oil which has interesting properties. But the Isis inspired men from the mountains don‘t like it. As for the Magisterium, there‘s more intrigue going on there. We have breadcrumbs for the third part here. Is it any good though? I read it and enjoyed it, but didn‘t devour it. There‘s detail to get through, I maybe need to look at the other books before some things fall into place.

Here we go then book two, trilogy two, Pan‘s been running around Oxford

Delightfully all over the place. I love the way Kate Atkinson plays with the structure of novels and finds intriguing ways to tell stories. See you don‘t just get a story about a quest for identity, you get a Scottish campus novel as well. Reminiscent of A Very Peculiar Practice, but that‘s by the by. Bravo!

I‘ve been enjoying Kate Atkinson of late and this has started well...