My top six #WomensPrize2024 fiction books (in random order because I have trouble choosing between them). I think maybe The Wren The Wren will get shortlisted, but the question is will we get a triple Irish? I think no, and went with the other two.

#WomensPrize

Surprisingly funny and entertaining for a book that's also pretty sad. Also very life-affirming for a story that deals with suicide, eating disorders, domestic abuse, depression, generational trauma and more in a completely non-moralising way.

#WomensPrize2024 #WomensPrize

This book stressed me out so much I had to take breaks to calm down. I teared up towards the end, and there were times throughout that scared me more than any other book outside the horror/thriller genre. Absolutely superb. Highly recommend.
A book about grief, identity, mental health, addiction, family, motherhood, indigenous heritage, racism, storytelling, choices, and so much more.
#WomensPrize #WomensPrize2024

My nominations for #CampLitsy24

@squirrelbrain @Megabooks @BarbaraBB

Family buddy read. Finally the series is complete. We've waited years!

#24HourReadathon #Deweys #readathon

This must be the weirdest book on the #WomensPrize longlist. It reads like a Kafkaesque fever dream. When you finally understand what's going on it hits hard, but the way there feels really long for such a short (just shy of 200 pages) book. The humour and the side eye given to everything from missionaries to news stories would have carried the book if the journey hadn't been so confusing and exhausting to both the reader and the MC.
#WomensPrize

#Bookhaul
The greyscale miniature edition 😂
I didn't actually realise when I ordered them that White Nights was such a slim volume or that I was colour coordinating my purchases 😆

Gorgeously written.
I was worried about the subject matter of this book, dead child & child killer, but it wasn't at all what I feared. No trauma porn. Quite the opposite.
"Us Vs Them", gossip and finger pointing, unscrupulous tabloid reporters, and a very human family making bad decisions. Definitely shortlist material.
#WomensPrize2024 #womensprize

These holds came in at the same time 😱 I read non-fiction at a snails pace, and now I have to read two(!) in three weeks? 😵 (In addition to 7 more fiction longlist books in two weeks 😅)
Well, I hope these read faster than Doppelganger at least. 😂

Only marginally a standalone. Readers who haven't read the first two books will struggle to orient themselves or feel invested. Lots of characters from previous books, allusions to events and people that are only relevant if you know the backstory. I read these back to back and I still found it messy. Soft pick for me but fully understand if others bail in confusion.
#WomensPrize2024 #WomensPrize

Coming-of-age story in time of political upheaval, centered on the nephew of the MC of The Best of All Worlds. More planets, a wider scope, but once again character focused. Features a competitive team sport that's similar to parkour but with gravity that changes direction and strength. Ends with some loose ends that makes me think that the book longlisted for the #WomensPrize2024 is not really a standalone. Soft pick, hint of middle book syndrome

The 3. book in this series is on the #WomensPrize2024 longlist, and while it is allegedly a standalone I've heard that a lot of the world building takes place in the first 2 books. Book 1 introduces the reader to the different types of humanity in the galaxy through a diplomatic/humanitarian hail mary on a homesteading planet that is a melting pot of cultures. Expect telepaths, empaths, diplomacy bordering on mannerpunk, and a slow burn romance.

This is the only book I've read from the #WomensPrize non-fiction shortlist, but I wouldn't be surprised if it wins. Important book that attempts to explain the right shift/turn to conspiracy theory that has happened in the Western world. Slow going in parts, because there is a lot to take in. Difficult to summarise.

Inspired by a real murder case.
A man who had it coming.
Two female suspects.
A supporting cast of bawds, bigots, and shocked relatives.
I found the first half a bit dull, (because you know what's coming and just get on with it already and what a shame the local Reverend didn't bite the dust too) but it then had twists and turns and a solid, if drawn out, ending.

#WomensPrize24 #EasterCrime #WomensPrize

An only very slightly exaggerated portrayal of life with an infant. (Her husband was almost unbelievably useless, and she was definitely enabling his behaviour in the worst way.) Emotionally intense, funny in places. Entirely accurate about the equal parts love and terror involved in having a child.

#WomensPrize #WomensPrize2024

Starting my Easter crime reading with this book. Join me this Easter, be an honorary Norwegian, do crime (reading)! Tag me in your crime reading and use the #EasterCrime 😄🐣🐇
For info on this Norwegian tradition watch my video here:

https://youtu.be/H8G_88_ufco?si=s-qgCTff9YqjkcyQ

Compelling story in a messy format with a superfluous framing device. In parts horrendously brutal with terrible things done to girls and women in war time, but fortunately the book moves on too quickly to linger on graphic detail. While I'm sure some version of everything in this book happened to people, there's no way they all happened to one person. The MC is one badass survivor though.

#WomensPrize2024 #WomensPrize

I disliked almost everything about this book. I disliked the writing style, the narrative choices, the audio narration, and most especially the main character.
I should have bailed.

#UnpopularOpinion

There are (at least) two sides to every story.
The first narrative in this book was entertaining but felt a bit lightweight. The second narrative elevated the story to a critique of sexism and women's standing in the family and in society in Ghana. This book reads super fast, but be aware that Bad Things happen. However, every female character in this book is a powerhouse (for good and for bad).

#WomensPrize2024 #WomensPrize #longlist

The first unequivocal pick for me from the #WomensPrize2024 #longlist
Read it and weep.
About the Sri Lankan civil war, but with a focus on family and moral dilemmas. The opening draws you in immediately, but then there is a long, slow build-up. It's worth it. The second half I could barely put the book down.
My favourite so far (but plenty to go).
#WomensPrize

Fictionalised account of the life of the author's grandmother. Dolly is an unyielding and not very likeable character, but she was a product of her time and circumstances. Made me very happy I wasn't born a century earlier and in rural Australia. A quick read. Plain story and plain prose, but interesting. Lacked that 'little extra' for me, even though it says something universal about being a woman.

#womensprize #longlist #womensprize2024

Generational trauma, daddy issues, unsafe kink exploration and abuse, poetry, birds, flowers, mother-daughter POVs, gorgeous prose, slow, not the most accessible read. Soft pick.

#womensprize #longlist #womensprize2024

Bali was ahead. Nell would not ring today. She was lying in the future darkness, sleeping through a night that was moving slowly towards Dublin, that was yet to arrive. Nell had been overtaken by the planet's turning, and Carmel wanted to reach through time itself, to pull her daughter home.

The recollections of an older man are different from those of a young man. What seemed vital at forty may lose its significance at seventy. We manufacture stories, after all, from the fleeting sensory material that bombards us at every instant, a fragmented series of pictures, conversations, doors, and the touch of things and people. We delete most of it to live with some semblance of order, and the reshuffling of memory goes on until we die.

This was exactly as good as I thought it would be.
Grief. Guilt. Wasted opportunities. Redemption through personal growth and vengeance. Great one liners.

Ok, it was a bit over the top with the action movie villains, but whatever, I loved it. I even got really emotional at the end.

#weekendreads
The Stand is an on and on-going read. 😅
Razor Blade Tears is due back to the library on Monday ⏳
The ridiculous Ilona Andrews title is a fun sized reprieve from the heaviness of the other two. 😄 🧹

@rachelsbrittain

I'm sure I haven't caught half the name jokes in this book, but that one's kinda on the nose. It seems... a bit weird, for a book where the theme is racial (in)justice. 🤨

Identity, sexuality, family secrets, activism, representation, culture, language. So much is packed into this (mostly) queer coming of age story following 3 gen. of American-Iranian men. We move between LA and Tehran in 1939, 1978, and 2019. I felt like some of the side-characters were a bit 2D stereotypes, but all the MCs are well done and I found all three narratives gripping. Classic YA tropes were deftly turned into something else. Recommended

I absolutely adore Richard Armitage, and I respect his refusal to use a ghost writer, so it is with a heavy heart that I say that maybe he should have taken on a writing partner. This was... not great. I would have bailed but I needed a book set in a landlocked country. Plus RA's voice. Even when he's talking rubbish 😆 It could make an ok-ish mindless entertainment B-movie, I guess, so maybe he should have tried script writing instead.

Getting a late start on my new SK project this year (due to taking January to finish off last year's project). I still hope to average one a month and get through the 24 books on my extended Dark Tower list by the end of 2025. However, this utter brick of a book will take as long as it takes! I'll catch up later.

The short story collection that gave us Brokeback Mountain. And what a bleak bunch it is. Although some of the stories have a bit of humour to them, they're basically showing how many ways you can die by disaster or misadventure in Wyoming. Makes for great reading, but it is definitely not selling Wyoming as a place I'd want to live, or visit, or even pass through 😆

My #ReadYourKindle selection. Looking forward to @CBee drawing the numbers for February. 😁

Started this last night and so far it is more than living up to the hype! Finally. I feel like I've gone in with too high expectations on a lot of books lately.
Plan for the afternoon and evening: Finish the whole book so it will count as my "Best of January".

Found in a charity shop. Weirdly it doesn't have an ISBN-number, just a CN-number. Supposedly used for book club books etc? There's nothing else to indicate it though, just published by QPD (Quality Paperbacks Direct, London) by arrangement with Fourth Estate Limited.

I did a Stephen King per month last year (although I got delayed and finished up in January).
Favourite: The Green Mile. Probably followed by Different Seasons.
Least favourite: If it Bleeds. I didn't dislike it, but it was the weakest and least memorable of the bunch.

I wasn't in a rush to read this because I thought the third book was weak and maybe the series ought to come to an end before it becomes actually bad, you know? Very happy to find that not only is book 4 much better, it might actually be the best one yet. Looking forward to further murders now.

To be published in July. Good to know I can still be surprised, because I did not expect this collaboration ???‍?

"Deftly combining the blockbuster instincts of Keanu Reeves with the cerebral literary style of China Mieville, The Book of Elsewhere tells the compelling story of US special forces operative B through two intertwining plot strands."

There were parts of this book that I really liked, but it didn't seem like Zadie Smith could quite decide which (or whose) story she wanted to tell. Halfway through we get a digression (or is it the main event?) that spans 1/3 of the book. The characters and plot seem less important than the message:
We are all frauds in some sense, whether we are actual imposters or find that we are going against our principles.

This confuses me. I wonder if this was actually in the court documents from the Tichborne case or if Zadie Smith made it up. In Victorian literature wealthy people marry their first cousins ALL THE TIME in order to keep the property in the family, and also because it afforded some safety and familiarity (literally) for the woman. And literature aside, it wasn't uncommon in real life either. It didn't become taboo until after WW1.

I managed to get through it, and was actually a bit fascinated by parts, but I skimmed a lot of it and not just the gross bits. I'm not really sure what this story was trying to do or say. The way to God and immortality is through cannibalism? Seems a strange message. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Anyway. Read, did not like, would not recommend.

Final book in a series. British police procedural. I read the first, for intro to the investigators then skipped to this one for the seasonal theme. The prose isn't going to win any awards, but the plotting was tight in both books. And twisty. The characters are well done; both the cops, the victims, and the suspects. Will probably return to the series the next time I want a serial killer murder mystery.

Package slip from Hive.co.uk 😆

This book is grim! I'm only 40 pages in and so uncomfortable I'm not sure I want to continue 😬 Is it awful all the way through? It gets worse, doesn't it? Maybe I should try it at a different time of year.

I swear, the TV show "Yes Minister" might as well have been a documentary.

I knew that Our Town featured heavily in Tom Lake, so I decided to read it first. I fully recommend this double feature. The play informs the novel, and the novel explores the play. They are both lovely. Quiet and reflective, subtly funny, nothing much happens and still there are surprising twists. I would say Tom Lake is more mysterious and Our Town more impactful. Together they are one of the highlights of my reading year.

You've got to love life to have life, and you've got to have life to love life. . . . It's what they call a vicious circle.

Trying to work out if I actually liked this book 🤔
It was certainly riveting, at times as tense and horrific as any domestic thriller or horror novel. But I came to really dislike most of the characters, and in the end I was just a bit 🤨😯😑 ..really?
Might need to let this one settle a bit and see if it's really 'unforgettable' like it says on the cover.

I'm starting to understand why the country is in the state it is:

"The whips had apparently been told to exclude anyone with an interest in a subject for fear that they would ask awkward questions. They preferred non-specialist MPs, who spent the committees looking at their phones or catching up on correspondence. For the same reason it seemed doctors were not allowed on the health legislation committee."

Next up in #MissionReadAllTheLibraryBooks
All these three are due back shortly and can't be renewed 😬 I also want to read the play Our Town before reading Tom Lake.
I might just return Razor Blade Tears unread for now, as I need a revenge story for next year's #52BooksIn52Weeks challenge.

This book hits hard, even in the section epigraphs.