Hot Desk is billed as a workplace rivals rom-com, for fans of You‘ve Got Mail. The thing is, as I read it, the “romance” is kind of secondary. Hot Desk is actually a mystery for the MeToo era, and it‘s surprisingly intriguing. Full review: https://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/hot-desk-laura-dickerman/

I appreciate Doppelganger as a work of meticulously researched non-fiction, with a fascinating source of inspiration… I just wish it had been a different book. There‘s a super-interesting story to tell there, but Klein chose to take it in another direction. Full review: https://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/doppelganger-naomi-klein-review/

Sulari Gentill remains the reigning queen of the metafictional mystery-thriller. Five Found Dead is sharp, it's funny, and it kept me guessing all the way to the very end. I heartily recommend it to any and all mystery fans. Full review: https://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/five-found-dead-sulari-gentill/

I found Fake Law surprisingly funny, despite the serious subject matter. The Secret Barrister has a wonderful turn of phrase, and doesn‘t hold back in criticising those who deserve it. But even without the laughs, it's a good read, and a crucial lesson in critical thinking and media literacy. Full review: https://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/fake-law-the-secret-barrister/

This is the rare case of a non-fiction writer producing quality fiction that doesn‘t just feel like a roman a clef. A Particularly Nasty Case is rollicking good fun, sharp and funny. Your heart will be in your mouth, and your guts will fall to the floor as the unstable genius desperately tries to convince everyone around him that a wily murderer is on the loose. Full review: https://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/a-particularly-nasty-case-adam-kay/

Even though Hendrix styles The Southern Book Club‘s Guide To Slaying Vampires as a horror-comedy, as he has done with his other novels, it‘s actually a novel of surprising depth and insight. That‘s not to say it‘s not scary or gruesome. So, if you‘re up for a complex, horrifying read with comedic elements, this is the book for you. Full review: https://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/the-southern-book-clubs-guide-to-slaying-va...

Starry Eyed is vastly different to Her Fidelity, so don‘t pick it up hoping for more of the same from Pollock. Addilyn is a rather naive 30-year-old, and her immaturity leads her to make some choices that will have you banging your head against the wall on her behalf. Full review: https://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/starry-eyed-katharine-pollock/

Is Columbine a good book? Yes, undoubtedly. Would I recommend it? It‘s hard to say. It‘s a book that is incredibly well written and beyond reproach in terms of research and attention to detail… but that‘s also its downfall. It‘s scary and depressing and gory, at times. So, I guess, I could only recommend it with an asterisk: read with caution. Full review: https://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/columbine-dave-cullen-review/

Have you ever been mocked or derided for saying the word “like” too much? If you‘re a millennial woman, chances are good that the answer is yes. I know I have! But never fear: someone has finally, finally written a book in defense of our verbal tic. Full review: https://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/like-megan-c-reynolds/

It‘s the conceit that makes this an interesting novel. An otherwise standard tragic love story is given an intriguing twist in its telling, and that‘s the strongest thing to recommend it. Full review: https://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/one-day-david-nicholls/

Bogle and Wilson quote a lot of experts in Conspiracy Nation – which is laudable in terms of verifying what they‘re saying, but sometimes their own message gets buried. I would‘ve liked to see more personal stories, interviews with conspiracy theorists themselves and/or people who loved them. Full review: https://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/conspiracy-nation-ariel-bogle-cam-wilson/

Fourth Wing has an excellent twist presented on the final page. So, even with my qualms about it, I finished it with a smile and a respectful tip of the hat in Yarros‘s direction. Full review: https://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/fourth-wing-rebecca-yarros/

A lot of the chapters of People With No Charisma could stand alone as short stories, which makes it the perfect pick if you need something you can pick up and put down. It is also, of course, very funny and very wry. Full review: https://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/people-with-no-charisma-jente-posthuma/

Did You See Melody? is a pacy and intriguing mystery-thriller. The premise, the setting, and the side characters were enough to counter-balance the let down of the denouement. Full review: https://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/did-you-see-melody-sophie-hannah/

You Went To Emergency For What? crosses the line of dark humour into outright cruelty. Many times, Booth relates a horrific story of systemic failure and community neglect with an eyeroll and a “can you BELIEVE what this idiot called 000 for?”. It‘s not funny. It‘s fucked up. Full review: https://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/you-went-to-emergency-for-what-tim-booth/

Even with the truly bizarre twist, Moriarty makes it work. She truly nails it – and I‘m not just saying that because I don‘t want to be the mean reviewer who meets a sticky end in her next book. (Whichever real-life reviewer inspired Helen Ihnat in Nine Perfect Strangers needs our thoughts and prayers). Full review: https://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/nine-perfect-strangers-liane-moriarty/

I must admit, I was on guard from the very start of The Neighbours, because Babbington makes a point of mentioning in the very first chapter that the family dog, Sophie, is very old. I forged ahead, with reservations, and soon found myself drawn into the story. Full review: https://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/the-neighbours-emma-babbington/

I liked that Thea and Gavin felt like a real couple in the sense that their hang-ups and insecurities and habits all felt realistic and natural. The Bromance Book Club is a book about how they figure out how to communicate and appreciate each other (and themselves) more. The men-reading-romance angle is a great hook, but it‘s not the core of this story. Full review: https://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/the-bromance-book-club-lyssa-kay-adams/

A Most Puzzling Murder is unlike any other book I‘ve read before – and not just for the reasons you‘d expect. I wasn't blown away by it, but it's a fun and innovative read and it's fun to try something new. Full review: https://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/a-most-puzzling-murder-bianca-marais/

I probably would have quite liked it if I hadn‘t already read and loved The Likeness. It‘s impossible not to compare them, and The Likeness comes out streets ahead. So, contrary to popular wisdom of other French fans, I wouldn‘t recommend starting with In The Woods. Full review: https://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/in-the-woods-tana-french/

Are you the kind of reader that rolls your eyes at common tropes of the romance genre? Fake dating, enemies-to-lovers, all of it feels too unrealistic and contrived? Then An Academic Affair is the perfect romance book for your cynical heart. Full review: https://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/an-academic-affair-jodi-mcalister/

Victoria has all the intrigue and political and romantic manoeuvring of the best fictional monarchies (think Game Of Thrones). I think even the most staunch republicans and anti-monarchists would be drawn in by it. Full review: https://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/victoria-julia-baird/

Be A Good Girl, Valerie is an easy read about a confronting subject, one that‘s well-paced and evenly handled. Full review: https://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/be-a-good-girl-valerie-marcia-van-zeller/

I have a lot of thoughts about why You became so popular. I think it might have something to do with the fact that – aside from anything else – it‘s a story about a man who cares very deeply about a woman. Yes, in a very sick and twisted way, but still. Full review: https://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/you-caroline-kepnes/

Maybe I‘m a bit cynical, but I felt like some of the “dark secrets” revealed in The Favourite just really weren‘t all that dark. They seemed like normal family stuff, and the Fishers just an overdramatic lot who made mountains out of the proverbial molehills. Still, it was an interesting read about a family dynamic far removed from my own. Full review: https://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/the-favourite-fran-littlewood/

The Beatles and Philosophy falls at the more academic end of the spectrum, despite its pop culture focus. It‘s written for someone who‘s already across the basics of philosophical thought, and an intimate knowledge of the Beatles catalogue is pretty much essential. Luckily, I came equipped with both. Full review: https://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/the-beatles-and-philosophy-michael-baur-ste...

I'm roughly the same age as Alderton, so a lot of our perspectives and nostalgic memories revolve around the same touchpoints (like MSN Messenger being the epicenter of our social lives in our early teens). That familiarity was a big part of my enjoyment of this memoir, so I‘ll acknowledge that mileage might vary for readers of different age groups. https://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/everything-i-know-about-love-dolly-alderton...

The Ones We Love has deeply ominous vibes, with its Bluebeard-esque forbidden room and a veritable mountain of clues in the first fifty pages, none of which seem to add up. Gradually, Snokestra leads the reader out of the woods, and the story comes together nicely in the end. Full review: https://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/the-ones-we-love-anna-snoekstra/

By The Book is very earnest – as you‘d expect from anything Disney branded – and a very slow burn. Izzy and Beau don‘t even kiss until about two-thirds of the way through. Full review: https://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/by-the-book-jasmine-guillory/

There‘s nothing groundbreaking or particularly surprising in Frog; it‘s not a work of high art, and doesn‘t do anything all that different to other paramedic memoirs. It‘s still fascinating, though, and as long as you‘ve got a strong stomach for confronting content, you‘ll probably enjoy it as I did. Full review: https://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/frog-sally-gould/

Sapiens isn‘t groundbreaking, but it is a decent introduction to the basics of sociology (i.e., thinking critically about social constructs that might appear intrinsic, like human rights), and a crash course in economics (which is particularly resonant in the current capitalist crisis). Full review: https://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/sapiens-yuval-noah-harari-review/

The sexual tension between the characters is great, and the fulfillment of it is pleasantly spicy (but nothing that will blow your socks off). Thomas is a little too perfect, Simone shits on her ex-fiancee a little too much, and my eyes kind of glazed over some of the racing bits... but as far as an introduction to Formula 1 romance goes, Ride With Me does the job. Full review: https://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/ride-with-me-simone-soltani/

I doubt it's destined for the canon, but it‘s good fun and occasionally quite delightful. It‘s definitely not the sign of the end times that a bunch of literary snobs claimed it to be. A level of familiarity with fantasy worlds and paranormal creatures would enhance your reading experience and appreciation of the story. Full review: https://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/that-time-i-got-drunk-and-yeeted-a-love-pot...

Nightingale is a bit discombobulating, with moments of penetrating insight. On every page you‘ll find palpable frustration with the limitations placed on women, and the way that women‘s work, knowledge, and power is overlooked or – worse – actively dismissed. So, even though it might be challenging to follow the narrative itself, you‘ll still catch a very important ‘vibe‘. Full review: https://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/nightingale-laura-elvery/

Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil isn‘t so much about the murder of Danny Hansford as it is where the crime fits into Savannah society and the people impacted by it. It‘s an interesting way of telling a story, even if it means that the story loses some of the tension and propulsion a reader could rightfully expect from classic true crime. Full review: https://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/midnight-in-the-garden-of-good-and-evil-joh...

If you‘re getting big The Seven Husbands Of Evelyn Hugo vibes, you‘re not the only one. It‘s more of a family drama than a romance, in the end, and it‘s a serviceable read – just nothing groundbreaking or mind-blowing. Full review: https://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/great-big-beautiful-life-emily-henry/

Before I Go To Sleep is a well-executed version of what could have been a schlocky psychological thriller, with unexpected depths and surprisingly few foibles. Nuts to everyone who tried to steer me away from it; I thought it was (mostly) great! Full review: https://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/before-i-go-to-sleep-s-j-watson/

I think it would have benefited from a strong single narrative threaded through the chapters, beyond simply “monsters are cool and I travelled around the world looking for them”. It‘s a chimera of history, anthropology, and memoir which will no doubt delight a niche of invested readers but may struggle to connect for a broader audience. Full review: https://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/monsterland-nicholas-jubber-review/

It is a truth universally acknowledged that I love a book that does exactly what it says on the tin. There are a few clunky moments, naturally, but overall the zombies are woven in far more smoothly than you might expect. I particularly enjoyed the expansion of Lady Catherine de Bourgh as a notorious highly-skilled zombie assassin. Full review: https://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/pride-and-prejudice-and-zombies-seth-graham...

I never cease to be amazed by the creative mind of Kevin Wilson. He nailed magical realism in Nothing To See Here, and coming-of-age in Now Is Not The Time To Panic, and now he can add the road trip novel to his trophy shelf. Full review: https://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/run-for-the-hills-kevin-wilson/

Larrimah might not delight the true crime purists who need to see a bad guy locked up for life, but it will enthrall anyone with an interest in the outback, tall tales, and/or the search for answers. Full review: https://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/larrimah-caroline-graham-kylie-stevenson/

When Shadows Fall turned out to be cliched claptrap from start to finish. All the victims – blonde, white women, naturally – are targeted by the murderer because they put their location (where they were going hiking alone in the wilderness) on Facebook. This, in the year of our Lord 2025. And that just scratches the surface of my complaints... Full review: https://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/when-shadows-fall-neil-lancaster/

If nothing else, My Friend Anna is an important reminder to listen to your instincts. I think it‘s incredibly brave of Williams to “out” herself as a mark, and to balance the narrative that has largely held Anna up to be some kind of folk hero, rather than the exploitative charlatan she truly is. Full review: https://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/my-friend-anna-rachel-deloache-williams/

Wild Dark Shore is likely to provoke some climate anxiety in sensitive souls. Even if the climate anxiety doesn‘t get you, the traumas the characters are reckoning with will. This book has A+ nature writing, and a fascinating premise, but it‘s a huge bummer, overall. Full review: https://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/wild-dark-shore-charlotte-mcconaghy/

Perfume is distinctly unsettling in the way that it sets up the story as the hardscrabble life of a gifted kid, worthy of any Dickensian novel, only to have him devolve into a particularly abhorrent villain. As readers, we‘re very familiar with seeing these characters overcome their hard-knock circumstances to “make good” – Jean-Baptiste does not do that. Full review: https://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/perfume-patrick-suskind/

First Name Second Name is an odd book, and I‘m not sure where to place it. It‘s not a straight ghost story, but it‘s not straight historical fiction, either. I think I would have been more engaged by it if it had been structured differently, or leaned more definitively in either direction. Full review: https://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/first-name-second-name-steve-minon/

I would recommend allowing yourself plenty of time to read Blonde – and be prepared for it to weigh on your mind for a long time after. It is both intimate and epic, deeply interior and panoramic simultaneously, and you probably won‘t look at another iconic image of Marilyn Monroe the same way ever again – even though Blonde is, as JCO has emphasised, actually fiction. Full review: https://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/blonde-joyce-carol-oates/

The Bluff is compulsively readable – I ‘just-one-more-chapter‘ed my whole way through. I was impressed with how Jenkins wove in legal issues that impact small town life: inheritance, divorce, development, discrimination. Full review: https://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/the-bluff-joanna-jenkins/

The Seven Husbands Of Evelyn Hugo is thoroughly readable, intriguing and compelling. Not only is its #BookTok popularity warranted, I think that it might actually be a force for good in society at large, as an introductory lesson to thinking critically about celebrity culture, and media literacy. Full review: https://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/the-seven-husbands-of-evelyn-hugo-taylor-je...

I can see why Helter Skelter has enjoyed such enduring popularity. It‘s gripping, it‘s scandalous, it‘s horrifying, and Bugliosi‘s role gives it a ring of authenticity that you don‘t get with an outsider‘s perspective on a crime. I wouldn‘t recommend it blindly, though – you need to have a stomach for graphic detail. Full review: https://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/helter-skelter-vincent-bugliosi/