Here we follow The Eights as they navigate life as some of the first women at Oxford University in 1920, in an institution not entirely ready to accept them. From the blurb I thought this would be a real firebrand of a novel and there is some of that yet it was also somewhat formulaic post-war historical fiction in some parts and therefore maybe slightly disappointing. That said, it was largely enjoyable and engaging reading.

I love Patrick Gale, I loved this. He can take a terribly sad story, which in his hands is then told very gently and is incredibly readable. The clue here is in the title; each chapter starts with a description of a painting in an exhibition of artist Rachel Kelly‘s work. Slowly going back and forth through time the story untangles and pieces together Rachel‘s life, and that of her four children. Beautiful. Prepare to cry.

Yes, Philip Larkin named a book after me 😆. Why I thought it a good idea to read the story of a teenage boy from the provinces excruciatingly trying to find his way through the incomprehensible nuances of life at Oxford University when I‘m about to send my own teenage boy off to uni I don‘t know. My heart both broke and cringed for poor John Kemp as things unravel. You‘ll also love to hate his privileged (or is he?) roommate from hell.

A group of university friends reunite for seven days in a lakeside cabin in Denmark. I wanted heady and evocative, I got so much introspection, so much pondering about life. so much talking about Virginia Woolf. I struggled with those parts, but it was also not a bail as there were some genuinely interesting elements, particularly surrounding the sometimes surprisingly conventional paths a life might take after the intensity of youth. Interesting.

Oh I loved this. A book you want to gulp down in huge chunks, but also want to slow down and take your time. Spanning Sicily, London and Appalachia, a family‘s story - with a domineering patriarch at the helm - is slowly unravelled with perfect tension. It had a timeless feel that was hard to place, despite being set more or less in the present, and whilst this is not historical fiction it gave me similar feels to The Artist, which I also loved.

A sprawling tale starting in 600BC and then through 1840, 2014 and 2018, on the banks of the rivers Thames and Tigris. This was a very slow burn for me, taking me an age to get into and I did find the interweaving stories differed in strength. That said in the final third all strands pull together in a really beautiful way. Largely a great read, huge amounts to learn and think about, but something held me back from truly loving it.

Be still my cynical middle-aged heart for here is a love story that occurs during a hike, in walking boots and waterproofs, eating pies and drinking pints, and it is almost perfection. Yes it‘s a bit silly at times but in the most lovely way. Sink into it, enjoy the views, and come out smiling.

This was overall an easy, engaging read but ultimately not one I‘m sure I‘ll remember. The story tells of the unravelling of Piglet‘s marriage just days before her wedding, interspersed with Piglet‘s thoughts as to food, cooking, greed. Elements were very good - I loved the opening scenes - but I just didn‘t feel it went deep enough, and many elements went unexplained or were not fully developed, hence not quite working for me overall. Light pick

Helen is working as an art therapist at a psychiatric hospital in 1964, embroiled in an illicit affair with a colleague, when “the hidden man” is discovered in a derelict house and brought in for assessment. The story then dips back and forth between William‘s present - in which Helen tries to figure out how his life came to this - and his backstory. A gently told, unusual and gripping story, excellent.

Almost perfection. I now only want to read love stories if they‘re written by Sally Rooney.

What started feeling like light chic-lit was actually quite a sweet story. I came to love Phoebe, who arrived at the Cornwall Inn suicidal and left a different person. The description of how she contained her whole life by just wanting to be “normal” was very astute and gave this more depth than it initially appears, yet at the same it‘s completely silly - the combination worked for me.

Fairly formulaic, but a good story and easy reading. The story is of a female glassmaker in Murano, a rarity in 1500s Venice. What I found completely odd was a time skipping element that never really took hold - essentially the story spans six centuries but the main characters stay the same, yet never acknowledge this is happening - and I‘m not quite sure what that was adding or was intending to do other than illustrate “time alla Veneziana.”

Our narrator is known to the 40 women she lives with in a gated, guarded bunker as the child. The other women remember their past lives but not how they got there. When I wasn‘t reading this I was thinking about it. I loved the writing; simple, straightforward, matter of fact. The story is told with such unflinching yet gentle respect of the realities our narrator faces. It was a beautiful read that left me feeling, thinking, wanting more.

A story of Rachel and James; friends in their early 20s who meet whilst working in a bookshop, fall in platonic-love and come of age together, with all the struggles that involved in the economic crash in Ireland in 2010. They then become entangled with Rachel‘s English Professor and his publisher wife, which for me was the most interesting layer of the story. Once I could get over the general whiny-ness of the characters I enjoyed it.

Nope, I bailed at the halfway mark. I fell for the slightly provocative but also striking cover and the premise of the appropriation of Greek antiquities but this was so slow. At the halfway mark we‘ve still not got to the appropriation bit and remain stuck with our whiny protagonist, her therapy-filled childhood, prescription drug issues and ever threatened migraines. I thought this would suit heatwave reading in the garden but I was just bored.

Dictionary editor Martha returns to Oxford an after the disappearance of her sister. Cryptic letters start arriving alluding to the mystery. Martha and her colleagues set to figuring out the puzzle, through a maze of words and Shakespearean clues. At times this lost me; I didn‘t have the headspace for the lexicography. The pace soon speeds up however, and the writing has a gentle cleverness that suits the Oxford setting

A book that I didn‘t particularly enjoy whilst reading; I found the prose a tricky style and it took me an age to settle into it and read it with any sort of flow. However once I got past that it was a lovely, moving love story, with some unexpected drama in the final third that really upped the pace. I‘ve realised I don‘t tend to enjoy books with anything mythical or magical, here I didn‘t feel those elements worked yet didn‘t intrude too much.

A reread; I do like to do a reading deep-dive before holidays, so I‘m seeking out the 🇬🇷 stories. The writing was a bit more flowery and overdone than I remembered, but still a solidly good read.

In the world of 1970s ballet, Joan is coming to accept she is only a good dancer, will never be a soloist. She falls hard for Russian star Arslan, to the extent she helps him defect to the US. Joan‘s then must accept her average talent and the story follows the compromises she makes for contentment, prior to her world again being thrown into disarray by her son Harry‘s emerging talent, and collision course towards Arslan. Quietly beautiful

A delightful surprise of a historical fiction novel. We meet 14 year old vagabond Tibb as she finds herself alone in a hostile England in the 1500s. I fully loved the cast of characters - “one patchwork man … one dark and good-to-look-at baker … one handsome vicar, one haystack-wielding Flemish woman, a tall and thin juggler named John and a false angel” - and the story is both incredibly dark, moving and funny all at the same time.

A short, sweet story but one I didn‘t feel fully delivered on the bookshop vibe, and feels ultimately forgettable. It gave me similar vibes to Before the Coffee Gets Cold, which also left me unmoved. Either I‘ve a heart of stone, or the current batch of Japanese fiction in translation isn‘t for me (or certainly not the ones with cats on the cover! 😆)

A thriller where I absolutely didn‘t guess any of the twists and turns, I loved it. It‘s not entirely perfect - the writing leans towards the flowery and I did feel the lull of a long book at times - yet it is so much more than a thriller, it is such a beautifully sad and sweeping story. To me this had echoes of The Goldfinch‘s Theo Decker; that sad boy and his attempts to find his way. Here, Patch had me in his thrall from about page three 🏴‍☠️

Am I going off my trusty genre of the family saga? I fear I might be because this was everything I should love but I just didn‘t. We‘re launched into characters without much introduction then we‘re teased with secrets yet not in a page-turning way, more in a JUST TELL ME way. Then once it moved past those it just became terribly sad. By the end the characters and overarching story fell into place and there were some rewards but overall I‘m 🤷‍♀️

I could NOT put this one down. A “will they/won‘t they” love story spanning the 00s New York and San Francisco college and music scenes, it quickly stole my heart (despite - or because of? - the deep-dive music-nerd parts). Imagine Normal People / One Day / Daisy Jones & The Six with a kind of music-nerd version of Lee from Curtis Sittenfeld‘s Prep as the self-absorbed main character. I loved it deeply.

This is not a pleasant story; rising star criminal defence barrister Tessa is assaulted and has to decide whether to take her turn on the other side of the bar table, as victim and witness. I was completely hooked; if I have any criticism it‘s that the odd element felt overdone or heavy handed; a little formulaic in novel format perhaps. I am a sucker for the apparent glamour of the barrister/courtroom life and this was excellent on that.

Thoughts on the Women‘s Prize longlist, with my fave tagged. See previous post for the shortlist:-

Ministry of Time, Kaliane Bradley ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (I fell hard for this!)
The Artist, Lucy Steeds ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Birding, Rose Ruane ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Dream Hotel, Laila Lalami ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Nesting, Roisin O‘Donnell ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Dream Count, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Crooked Seeds, Karen Jennings ⭐️⭐️

I found the LL stronger than the SL, some great reads.

The Women‘s Prize for Fiction 2025 winner is announced on Thursday; here‘s my thoughts on the short list:-

The Safekeep, Yael Van der Wouden ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
All Fours, Miranda July ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Tell Me Everything, Elizabeth Strout ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Good Girl, Aria Aber ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Fundamentally, Nussaibah Yunis ⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Persians, Sanam Mahloudji ⭐️⭐️

Overall, as I‘ve seen so many others say, I‘m disappointed with the SL. I suspect All Fours will win!

An easy reading historical fiction set in Enlightenment Edinburgh. An odd combination of not being drawn to pick this up, but enjoying it every time I did!

I so wanted to like this, but I kind of didn‘t. The novel follows a quartet of women, all linked, as they ruminate on their loves, their careers, their mothers. Elements I loved and the writing is as good as you‘d expect, but other than Kadiatou‘s story - loosely based on the real case of a New York maid assaulted by a powerful man - the rest left me unmoved and at times, I admit, bored. In fact I skim read the last quarter.

“I have no more questions,” The Defendant concluded with a parasitic smile, looking tremendously self-satisfied for doing f*** all but attach himself to a woman who was good at her job.” A pick based on this sentence alone! Never once is the culprit named; he is The Defendant throughout. The story is not about him; it is about the victims and those who fought for them and I loved this perspective. Tricky to get into but overall a good read.

Weretigers, severed fingers, mysterious dreams. Chinese and Malaysian superstitions and mythology in 1930s Malaya clash against colonialism and the medical world; for the large part I thoroughly enjoyed this (although got tired of all the severed finger talk until the action ramped up!) The romance didn‘t do it for me, but otherwise a compelling story.

I‘m not entirely sure what to make of this. Nadia, a criminology lecturer, lands a job with a new UN agency tasked with rehabilitating ISIS brides, and digs herself in deeper than intended. A really interesting topic, yet it‘s told in a light hearted comedic tone which I just could not get on with.There is, however, a lot to take away from this, although at the same time it wouldn‘t have been a WP short list choice for me. A light pick.

Nearly didn‘t read it, glad I did. This is not *the* mid-life novel; the protagonist‘s life bears no resemblance to mine, nor that of any other woman I know. She is the most self-absorbed, self-indulgent person you‘ll probably ever hear from yet despite that I found this utterly compelling, with a knowingness I suspect you‘ll recognise if you too are mid-40s. I also found the absurdity quite good fun in a way I didn‘t expect.

On paper this was my kind of book; a family saga focused on the matriarch, her daughters and granddaughters, spanning Iran and the US. I really wanted to love it, but just…didn‘t. I found the fast-paced narrative sometimes tricky to keep up with, and actively disliked just about everyone in an irritated rather than amused way. Slightly puzzled by the inclusion of this on the Women‘s Prize short list.

I‘m really torn with this; I can‘t decide whether it is quietly majestic, or just a, sometimes repetitive, back and forth between the residents of a small town. On balance I think, perhaps, that you ignore the power of this gentle story at your peril (and also beware that it contains unexpected darkness). I never once wanted to pick it up, but was hooked every time I did.

Travel writer Gabriel is in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the 60s when he is asked to interview Patrice Lumumba. From there his life takes a turn and he becomes an unlikely Cold War spy, caught up in more than he realises. I loved Gabriel‘s gentle yet sharp character, his attempts to play with those leading him, combined with his sad backstory and the will he/won‘t he romance. Stylish, good fun, yet also thought provoking.

Set in post-reunification Germany, Nila‘s Afghan parents & Nila struggle to find their cultural place in Berlin. Nila is coming of age in techno clubs and a drug-fuelled lifestyle of self-loathing & an obsession with her older American boyfriend. Her struggle to find her place & the cultural expectation that she be a good girl were all excellent. The messy narrative surrounding Nila & Marlowe less so. Overall this is an intriguing, absorbing read

We start this with Lily in New York in the 1990s, then her son Nick in 2021, then jump to her mother May in 2030, who looks back on her youth in the midst of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. They all struggle to find their own identity and this runs as a theme through all three stories. A really absorbing, lovely yet also sad read (there are some science-y bits which didn‘t always work for me, but didn‘t detract from the overall).

The Green family have moved from Ireland to London for reasons unknown, their neighbours are suspicious of them. Then a toddler is found dead, and suspicion falls on the Greens, and specifically 10-year-old Lucy. Enter a tabloid journalist keen to mark his mark. Rather than the expected drama this is a thoughtful and gently done character study of, well, ordinary human failings. Overall I found it hopeful and lovely, despite the subjects tackled.

Oh I loved this as much as I hoped I would. It‘s a time travel story, it‘s a love story, a friendship story. Read it even if you don‘t think you want a time travel story; I defy you not to fall for Commander Graham Gore.

As all good dystopian fiction should be, this is eerily prescient and portrays a future one can almost see, and certain fully imagine. What was lacking for me is a full exploration of tech firm DreamSaver Inc; we get a chapter or two focussed on one of their developers, but nothing more and this felt a missed opportunity to take the story further. It also had echoes of other dystopian fiction I‘ve read, however overall a great read.

“An exhilarating tale of twisted desire, histories and homes.” I started out being clever, thinking I knew what this was about, where it was going. It turns out I really didn‘t, and I LOVED realising I‘d misjudged it entirely. I‘m not saying anything more for fear of spoilers. It‘s not an easy read in terms of the subject, on several levels, but after a slow start I couldn‘t put it down, it delivers a real gut-punch. Loved it (love the cover too)

This is fiction, but is based on/inspired by a true crime which culminated in the penultimate execution of a woman in Britain in the 1950s. It‘s told from the viewpoint of Zina and also her young Greek translator, Eva, and encompasses immigration, cultural translation and the treatment of women, particularly in the legal system, as well as the “whodunnit” element itself. The courtroom scenes are particularly sobering.

I love well done historical fiction; Joseph travels to post-war South of France after receiving an enigmatic invitation from reclusive artist Tartuffe. Once there he is drawn into the life of Tartuffe, his paintings and his niece Ettie. I was so taken with and drawn into the setting, the descriptions of the colours and light, the food, and then the unsettling sense of menace that builds alongside Ettie‘s frustrations and awakening. Excellent.

I love Sarah Winman but this one had passed me by. It‘s a lovely book, I thoroughly enjoyed it, even if the whimsical elements lost me slightly at times. There‘s a little mystery here as I pass a lot of my books onto my mum. I found this on her shelves but it didn‘t come from me and she has no recollection where it did come from. So who else is passing her books of this quality I ask?! I thought I was the one who gave her the best books 😆

Love Kate Atkinson, love the cover, love the title and love Jackson Brodie. This was great fun with a mix of knowing humour, Downton-vibes, and a lost-art murder-mystery crime caper (I can‘t decide if I love or hate the word caper 😆). You‘ll love to hate the Miltons, and I loved the gentleness with which Ben and Simon were treated. And of course, Jackson himself never disappoints.

Lydia has washed up in a forgotten seaside town, reeling from her on-off lover‘s apology for appalling behaviour she‘s not yet recognised as such. Joyce is living a claustrophobic life under the oppressive thumb of her mother. I loved both Joyce and Lydia‘s stories and particularly enjoyed the building tension, the dark humour that almost felt it would merge into horror, and the sense their worlds are about to collide and implode. A great read.

I went in having seen great reviews but was initially a bit disappointed. It is no doubt an important subject (emotional abuse, family homelessness) yet as a novel at first it didn‘t feel like a fresh take sufficient to be nominated for a literary prize. However this poor judgement is all mine as by halfway through I was completely hooked, unable to look away. It is so tense and claustrophobic, so simply told yet heartbreaking.

In parts I actively disliked this; set in post-apartheid South Africa, Deirdre is a mess with no apparent desire to make changes. Her mother, in a care home, is convinced her presumably dead son is visiting her. Deirdre never visits. There‘s a drought, everyone is dirty, drinking too much. This was an unpleasant read, yet at the same time draws you in. I didn‘t love it, I‘m glad it‘s done, yet it‘s niggling at me and I guess that‘s the point 👇

Set in a small town in the Mojave desert, Driss, is found dead at the side of the road. Was it a hate crime? Told from alternating perspectives the story winds back and forth, touching on Driss‘ life, but also his family and neighbours, whilst also trying to discover the cause of his death. For me, this was about grief, combined with small town tensions. The whodunnit element I felt was less successful for me. Overall though, I enjoyed it.