There is wisdom and beauty in this book: an appreciation of life in the darkest of tales.

Last night was wonderful. In previous years, the Southbank Centre has hosted readings from the authors before the result. Listening to this year's winner, Shehan Karunatilaka, and last year's winner, Damon Galgut was both thought provoking and entertaining (they both have great wit). Sara Collins was a brilliant host and her knowledge and understanding of the books meant great questioning.

"Evil is not what we should fear. Creatures with power acting in their own interest: that is what should make us shudder." Apt for UK politics at present.

Wow! I am not a sport fan but this had me absolutely gripped. Jenkins Reid once again creates a crediable, female voice. It takes an accomplished author to write well in the first person and for it not to grate especially when the protagonist is deliberately drawn to be abrasive.

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to read this title in advance.

The second book I have read from the Booker 2022 longlist and the second novella. I am unsure whether this or Treacle Walker will make it to the shortlist due to their page.

Great characteristation of the main protagonist Furlough and writing and plot that creeps up on you to an effective finish. I believe I will keep thinking about this book.

Our protagonist, Jo, is a bisexual in her late twenties living in contemporary America. However, in this world, women can and still are accused of being witches and the treatment of those suspected or found guilty does not differ from those women of the 17th century.

Women are under constant suspicion & Jo's situation is further compounded by the fact that she's black and her mother went missing when she was younger in mysterious circumstances.

A collection of 12 very surreal and unsettlingly stories. Murata definitely has an imagination. She seemingly takes taboo ideas around relationships, sexuality, food and the human body and spins her tales around these.
A collection of 12 very surreal and unsettlingly stories. Murata definitely has an imagination. She seemingly takes taboo ideas around relationships, sexuality, food and the human body and spins her tales around these.

Read for Women in Translation month. Wow. So much is achieved in this short novel. Wonderfully crafted and rich in it's messaging and thought provoking observation. I certainly want to read more of Pineiro's work and from Charco Press if this is the caliber of work produced.

This is a short novella but I found it a bit of a slog. Garner has apparently used lots of influences from folklore and this permeates the language which can be challenging. I don't particularly want to sit and Google words and phrases (I didn't) but learnt that I should perhaps have done with words I had assumed were the author's invention.

I believed a historical novel about the Jonestown Massacre would be completely my type of book. I anticipated an unnerving and claustrophobic read. I expected substantial interactions with the infamous Jim Jones and thought likely he would be drawn in a way that was equally charasmatic and repulsive.

Unfortunately, this novel has a lot of things happen but lacks the characterisation necessary to carry the fictionalised events.

Frieda does some really, awfully stupid things in this, but by book five you are strapped in for the ride and just enjoy it.

This is more the story of the mother Agnes than the titular Shuggie, but it is Shuggie that brings hope to the novel. Stuart is a brilliant writer expertly painting time, characters and place.

This book is powerful in its exposure of the conflict between the Greeks and the Turkish in Cyprus. There is ingenuity with a central voice being given to a fig tree whom is able to observe human folly whilst themselves being uprooted and scarred by the machinations of men. The wider ecological disaster that looms for all of humanity casts a onimious shadow over the Cypriot conflict and it fallout on the lives of the central characters.

This novella made me consider a side to social media that I had not given much thought to previously: the psychological effects on the content moderators that are employed by these organisations.

Protagonist Kayleigh is vulnerable to the manipulations of others in her personal life. Through her eyes, we witness the insipid effects of the content and judgements that she and her workmates engage in daily.

Thank you Netgallery for the opportunity

My eldest got to meet his favourite author today. Derek Landy really took the time to talk to his fans.

Well this has been on my TBR pile since publication, I have Young Mungo awaiting collection at Waterstones and Shuggie Bain has been listed on the Platinum Jubilee Reading List. I am hoping after just finishing The House in the Cerulean Sea that I have enough warm feels to face this.

A heartwarming cuddle of a book. Klune skillfully and seamlessly transports you to a somewhat dystopian and magical realm.

Picked this up at a charity shop for £1. An enjoyable cosy read although I am not sure what I thought about the ending.

The House of Spirits is generationally epic. Allende weaves a story riding on the backbone of a protagonist you should hate but can't (the way you would a troublesome grandfather). She tells rich stories of minor characters in paragraphs and sets the whole thing against an impressioniat painting of real world events and political upheaval. A masterpiece.

This was highly recommended on the second series of The Graham Norton Book Club. 156 pages in and loving it.

Third in the Freida Klein series. I listened to Tuesday's Gone on audio and forgot to post about it.

It's rare to get a story told in the second person because it is so hard to pull off. Caleb Azumah Nelson displays his dazzelling talent in doing so. His writing is deeply poetic; it has rhythm. He deftly paints the streets of South London and the experience, hopes and fears of its young black protagonist through vivid vignettes resulting in a novella that will leave you as full as much longer novel.

Started this today, recommended by a Waterstones bookseller. It's written in the second person, a rare approach, and the writing is beautiful.

I love Jen Campbell's booktube and she has spoken really highly of husband and wife team Nicci French. Jen recommended reading 'The Red Room' as it would be a great litmus test to see if you would like them. Well I did, and I have just finished Blue Monday which is the first in their Freida Klein series. There's great writing, plot, and characterisation. French satisfies with twists but also gives the reader enough to solve parts of the crime.

If it wasn't for Graham Norton's Book Club, I know this would not have been on my radar. I don't know how I have somehow never come across Allende, but after hearing such rave reviews I can't wait to begin.

Lockwood is a poet. If you don't want lyrical, abstract, snapshot imagery and thought this won't be the book for you. The first half where our narrator is very much in the portal does make you feel sick and disoriented like too much screen time. And then in the second half things get real, in the way they only can if someone has experienced what actually occurs to the family in these pages.

What did we have a right to expect from this life? What were the terms of the contract?

After reading the almost chunkster, Fingersmith, it's time for a slenderer read.

The novella could be seen to take place on just one day: Mothering Sunday 1924 but although the central narrative is the dominant majority, we get glimpses into the entirety of the life of Jane Fairchildes, orphan, lover and more than maid. Post War, death is a secondary character stalking the pages of Jane and those around her.

Excuse the pun but Spark certainly takes the reader for an anxiety inducing ride as we follow the increasingly erratic Lise in an unnamed Mediterranean city in her search for a boyfriend who may or may not exist.

Listened to the audio: obviously laugh out loud funny, but open, honest and philosophical.

A cracking little set of short stories. Davies crafts puzzles with gradual and some jaw dropping reveals. There is an impressive selection of settings and the writing skillfully transports you to these locations and time periods with a sparsity of words.

I have had this on my shelf for 10 years and recently it has been mentioned on the Graham Norton book club, by Savage Reads and Jen Campbell so I think the universe is saying get on and read it.

Gripping and heartbreaking. About the good in people and the light that can be found in times of darkness.

Well this has been on my TBR pile for far too long.

My book haul from the Waterstones half price hardback sale.

Should be required reading in schools. I came to this thinking it would be about his art work but it is a manifesto for man. Loved it.

Right. Now to tackle this brick which has been on my TBR shelf since 2003!

Now all signed. Such a great evening.

At the Booker Readings 2021. Very excited.

Flowers for Algeron is explicitly referred throughout and the comparison is clear. As in The Overstory, Powers uses fiction to explore the very real ecological destruction being wreaked on the planet. Told from the point of view of Theo, astrobiologist widowed father of 9 year old Robin whose autism acts as the catalyst for the plot, the scientific terms and world creation passages sometimes distracted otherwise vivid writing. ⭐⭐⭐⭐