Amanda and Clay rent an AirBnB in remote farmland as they can‘t quite afford the beach. Then the owners return; is it true something terrible has happened in New York? Or is it a scam? We watch the following days unfold with tantalising teasers, undertones of racism and privilege, and a sense of dread, unease and claustrophobia. This is unusual, clever, entirely absorbing and feels extremely timely.

So good! This story culminates in an impossible love triangle. Before that, it slowly drifts back and forth through Eleanor‘s life; her childhood, her parents, the places. The timeline is disjointed but it works. It shocks and slowly, slowly pulls you in. Gripping, dark and clever, and sometimes very uncomfortable to read, ultimately I loved this story of love, friendship, guilt and families. And the ending!

I absolutely loved this; the sequel to Bodies of Light. Ally is now a doctor, breaking boundaries by tentatively starting to practise in Truro Asylum and also finding her footing as a wife. Heartbreaking and beautifully written; with themes of feminism, suffrage, sanity and Victorian poverty, these two books are the best historical fiction I‘ve read in a long time; feeling modern and very relevant. Beautiful.

• Best Reads of 2021 • These are my best ten reads of the year; the books that have captured, calmed and captivated me and that I couldn‘t put down. Happy New Year Littens, and thank you for the reading inspiration!

Another sweet, gentle and funny Anne Tyler to finish off the reading year 💫

The 14 year old is very pleased with me for finally finishing his favourite ever trilogy. A pleasing conclusion to the Arc of a Scythe series; this is great dystopian fiction and perfectly readable as a young adult, or not so young adult 😆 #raisingreaders

A little companion read to Reservoir 13, one of my best reads of last year. This tells more snippets of the stories of the people living in the village from which Becky Shaw went missing; with her disappearance weaving through each story. Beautifully written.

This book starts with its finale so you know from the start the awful truth of what‘s going to happen. Then it winds back to how the nanny immerses herself in the family‘s lives and the parents‘ delight at handing their children over to such a capable person who reorganises their life. We then start to see snippets of what the nanny might be. This is a short, intense read and I‘m still unsure whether it left too much uncertain and unanswered.

Wanted to love this one, didn‘t quite love it. Not entirely sure why because it‘s well written with intriguing characters. It just felt there was something lurking that never quite happened, that I was missing something. Great cover gets 5 ⭐️ though!

Set in Victorian Manchester, Ally is the elder daughter of a mother who is zealous in her campaign for social reform and the improvement of life for poor women, to the extent that Ally endures a childhood of hardship and little love. Ally forges a path towards becoming one of the first women doctors, at great cost. The writing was almost perfection and I loved the exploration of social reform, feminism, female “hysteria” and suffrage.

Overall I enjoyed this story of a creepy, sinister abandoned country house and it‘s three temporary residents, there to catalogue it‘s contents and architecture. Throughout there were secrets and mysteries just lurking as our three main characters become obsessed with other. It‘s intense and claustrophobic, although some elements didn‘t quite work for me and it didn‘t really all pull together as I wanted. A really atmospheric read though

Seven teenagers attend Spirit-in-the-Woods, a creative summer camp. Friendships are formed. Then they grow up and we read 466 pages of minute detail about their adult selves. This. Felt. Long. But, now I‘ve finished it, in that weird way good books sometimes do without you realising, I‘m living a bit in their lives now. It‘s like they‘re my friends and I want to know where they‘ve suddenly gone to and what they‘re doing! And the ending…

I loved this story of Eustace, an only child struggling at school who falls in love with cello playing, and follows his coming of age through the messy teenage years and increasingly complicated family life. Sad, gentle, hopeful; perfectly written and with a great cast of characters.

When Alice is passed out drunk it is rumoured that two boys sexually assaulted her. The book is split into sections with different narrative styles, some of which worked more for me than others. With touches of Ottessa Moshfegh and Lisa Taddeo‘s writing this was intriguing and definitely not what I thought I was getting. The jury is still out for me as to what happened and my thoughts on this one, the ending in particular, but I *think* I liked it

Gothic, creepy, weird. A feisty heroine. Ghosts. Odd sea creatures and a shouldn‘t-be-believable love story that somehow feels just right. After a slow start I ended up loving this strange story.

Well. Ahem. Think a beach-read version of Daisy Jones & The Six but steamier and with a less cool boy band…Couldn‘t put it down and for all the romance (!) it was also a very smart read in parts, managing to make me feel oddly anxious throughout, and touching on the invisibility of being a woman approaching middle age and the cult of celebrity and fandom. Also just very good fun haha

An epic family saga spanning the Vietnamese land reform and Vietnam-America war, the focus is Huong‘s grandmother telling her life story as Huong comes of age in the aftermath of the war. I think this is the first book I‘ve read which focuses on the Vietnamese people; all I knew of the war was based on an American perspective. An affecting study of everyday life and family relationships, as well as hardships faced. Gripping and beautifully written

I fell out of love with Jodi Piccoult‘s writing style a while ago, but at first I thought this one was going to win me over. In some ways it did; the writing felt different, with less moral-condundrum-cliffhangers. The “sliding doors” style love story was initially quite compelling. But then there were large sections that felt lifted from an Egyptology textbook, and in the final third the story lost me completely. A book of two ways for certain!

Mother/son book group resumes! I loved the author‘s afterword “At it‘s heart, the book is an examination of patriarchy. How does it form? What supports it? How do women survive under it?” All wrapped up in a great, fast-paced story. Whilst this did feel very much a YA book I appreciate I‘m not the target audience, and I still enjoyed it. My 14 year old loved it and if I‘d read it at 14 I have no doubts I‘d have loved it too.

A book about a Ponzi scheme and it‘s eventual financial fallout? Yes, please! (Said no one). But…. Both books I have read by this author - this and the brilliant Station Eleven - have had a blurb that did not entice me in AT ALL. Yet her writing! I fell for both completely. This could be a contender for one of my best reads this year…And the cover 💙

A short, sweet love letter from a granddaughter to her grandmother; for the most part I loved this, it was laugh out loud funny at times, heartbreaking at others. The background family dynamics really bothered me; although I appreciated the author‘s end note in which she reminds us that this is just the story through her eyes and others will have other versions.

Small town America and what lurks beneath all those lives, this was gentle yet not at the same time. I hadn‘t realised the book was more a series of short stories. I enjoyed it but to be honest wanted more Olive.

Unflinching, brutal, at times just awful. This is a very dark story but I couldn‘t look away.

Living in America, Jeehan witnesses the fall of the Twin Towers following which she returns to Morocco. The New York sections were incredibly affecting as Jeehan deals with her horror at what she has witnessed, but also has to cope with the reactions of those around her to her as an Arab Muslim woman. I‘ll admit that the Morocco chapters lost me somewhat and at times were completely odd. An inconsistent read for me, but still powerful and sobering

I sometimes forget how much I enjoy historical fiction. I loved this; pianos and pianists, Edinburgh, Paris, St Petersburg and beyond, a doomed love affair and a hunted man who is our naive, flawed hero - gripped from start to finish!

A fascinating insight into the culture of beauty in South Korea. Following four friends living in the same apartment building, they each struggle in different ways with society‘s expectations of women. A really good companion read to Kim Jiyoung 1982, this reads quickly and lightly but goes much deeper. The exploration of the modern culture and use of plastic surgery left me reeling, as it did after I read Kim Jiyoung‘s portrayal of the workplace.

This reads so effortlessly yet is a complex story of lies, fears, families and loss. I was somewhat ambivalent about The Mothers but this felt on another level. Really good - and that cover!

When a book you‘re slightly scared of grabs you and doesn‘t let you go until the end, 625 pages later, you know it‘s a good one. I loved this so much. There‘s too much to it to try and describe here, but essentially this is the story of trees and the harm done to them, and the stories of those who have loved them or come to love them, those stories slowly, slowly coming together and intermingling 👇

Oh my, what a gem. A family tragedy, a sense of anxiety about what happens next, beautiful writing and well drawn characters; this was almost perfection, loved it. And now I‘ve found a new to me author, love that even more!

Not ready to leave Cornwall or the historical romance/family sagas behind yet. Sorry not sorry that there have been no heavyweight prize winners on my holiday reading list this year 😆. This shows it‘s age somewhat, being written in the 1940s, but allowing for that (and the dodgy cover) it was a lot of fun.

Twelve people are staying in a holiday park on the edge of a Scottish loch. It rains incessantly. Each person narrates a different chapter; some are sad, some frustrated, some despairing. This really affected me. I felt trapped and claustrophobic. The themes are timely yet there‘s some comedic elements too. One I keep thinking about…

Deliciously silly. Loved it.

“Where Daphne du Maurier was a tenant and dreamt of Manderley, we lay homeless and penniless under the stars.” The story of a couple with nowhere else to go who set out to walk all 630 miles of the South West Coast Path. Reading this in Cornwall, walking some of the paths that had to become their home, I became completely in awe of Raynor and Moth and entirely captivated by their story.

“But somehow, at the end of an entire day of doing everything he was supposed to he just runs out of enthusiasm.” I loved this short, sweet story. I fell for main character Micah, and *may* have had a little cry at the end. Anne Tyler writes characters so well, and tells such gentle stories, they get me every time.

This is so good. It‘s so easy to read that at first you float through it, then the reality of what‘s going on starts to hit home. A book where as soon as you finish you want to go find every interview the author has given and just soak up all the nuances you may have missed. I started it thinking it was predictable, but my goodness I was wrong! Another great read.

The book imagines what might have happened if Hillary had not married Bill. The first half had me completely confused; I genuinely kept forgetting I wasn‘t reading Hillary Clinton‘s autobiography. I just felt completely muddled. Then halfway through off it swerved and I loved it. Overall a clever if slightly crazy read although I‘m a bit nervous this narrative might now get muddled up in my mind with what is actually real 😆

An immediately engrossing book about Ana, required by her family to marry at only 15 so that she can move from the Dominican Republic to New York with her new husband, the plan being that they make a better life in the big city and send for the rest of Ana‘s family. Except life in New York is brutal and Ana‘s husband is neglectful and abusive. A really poignant story of Ana‘s coming of age in a new country.

A quiet but captivating story set in the 1950s of Jean, a journalist wanting to prove herself but held back by her demanding mother, and the relationship she forms with the Tilbury family whilst investigating Mrs Tilbury‘s claim of a virgin birth. Jean‘s quiet frustrations and loneliness are so well written and you‘re rooting for her throughout.

So disappointed that I didn‘t enjoy this after having been intrigued by an interview with the author. I found the writing impenetrable and it brought back all my fears of #booksthatwinprizes! That said it was really good to discuss it in our book group; so interesting to get other takes on the same book which really makes me think beyond my initial “I don‘t like it” reaction - half of us enjoyed it, the other half disliked!

Well this was a nice surprise. I didn‘t have high expectations for some reason, but I absolutely loved it! I love it when a book does that. Reading this was like a cosy hug. A well told story, a nice bit of mystery combined with a family saga, a narrator who prefers books to people, and some ghosts and other things sprinkled through. Just a good, old fashioned story that I could not put down all week and was just what I needed.

I didn‘t love this but I still love Anne Tyler. I think this is one of her early books and I didn‘t care for the characters in the way I usually do, but it was still a short, sweet palate cleanser in between heavier reads.

I‘m not quite sure how the author did this; sixteen individual stories spanning eight generations, each character so richly told, all in 300 pages. It is remarkably well written although needed my constant attention; I did at times lose track and had to keep referring back to the family tree. Showing a range of humanity, and the horrors of colonialism and slavery, this is absorbing and necessary reading.

The 13 year old tyrant that is the self-styled leader of our mother/son book group has brow beaten me into reading this, the second book in the Scythe trilogy, far earlier than I‘d planned. Each night when I went to bed he‘d tucked Thunderhead neatly onto my pillow, lying in wait for me. I just couldn‘t take the pressure anymore and so I‘ve read it. Joking aside though, this really is a very good series.

I really enjoyed this short book; Keiko manages her feelings of not fitting in by learning to flow with the rules, routines and rhythms of her job in a Japanese convenience store, despite society‘s view that this is not a “proper job.” In few pages this had a lot to say about the expectations of society and the treatment of those seen as being different, and also about the nature and purpose of work. It also veered into real darkness at times.

I thought I had sorted the whole education/career/motherhood thing, but this book shook me up. This isn‘t just a fictional story of Kim Jiyoung struggling with everyday sexism in Korea, this could be any of us. A short read with clipped writing littered with facts, this packs a punch. Particularly the ending. Highly recommend (and loving the cover).

I‘ve read and loved everything else Maggie O‘Farrell has written. For some reason I‘d been slow to start this, maybe because I was nervous that it sounded different to what she usually writes and that I wouldn‘t like it. And I still carry the fear of books that win prizes! But fear not, I loved it from the very first page.

The author drops you off in the middle of a group of friends and trusts you to sort out what‘s going on and I liked that. Following said group of friends as they navigate Chicago during the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s and alternating with 2015 and a mother desperately searching for her daughter in Paris, slowly I was drawn into these character‘s lives, the fear and sadness they experienced, and didn‘t want to let them go. An excellent read.

New books, some from an actual (pre-loved) bookshop, my first visit in more than a year 💕. The top two are this month‘s book club reads - I‘ve just joined a book club for the very first time; these two books are my first choices for the group and I‘m a bit nervous! Positive reviews welcomed!

Twelve year old Edward is the sole survivor of a plane crash, in which he loses his whole family. Alternating between the plane journey and the aftermath this should be an incredibly sad story, but I didn‘t feel that. Rather it was gentle and kind, and really quite lovely.

The fictional story of Vanessa, groomed by her teacher at 15, and the years-long relationship that follows, this is incredibly disturbing but also gripping. The nuances and complexities of Vanessa‘s story are fascinating. I listened to an interview where the author described how she wanted the reader to experience confusion as to whether Vanessa was ever empowered or in control, which is something you grapple with throughout.