literary hoohah
I discovered this book through the wonder that is GoodReads recommendations, which are surprisingly good at times. I have found a number of unknown-to-me books this way that I ended up loving. I've been on a non-fiction kick recently, and have always loved reading unusual or off-beat memoirs, especially by women. The Bridesmaid's Daughter has [...]
As soon as I heard about this book I wanted to read it. It was published in February 2018, and just two months later its subject, the Golden State Killer, was finally captured. His first recorded attack was in 1974, and he had finally been identified and caught. It was a big moment for all [...]
I bought this novel on a whim in the supermarket (something I hardly ever do) because I was just in the mood to buy a book. It happens. Almost all of the novels on sale were sensational crime, romances, or what was once called 'chick lit' and this was the only one that appealed to [...]
As some regular readers may know, I absolutely love Hans Fallada's novel Alone in Berlin, and re-read it in 2017 (post here). For some reason this remained the only book of his I had read for some time. I bought a copy of Little Man, What Now? a while ago, I actually can't remember when, [...]
I adored Rodoreda's novel A Broken Mirror (my review here) and so when I saw that Penguin had brought out a new edition of her novel Death in Spring, I had to get myself a copy. And what a beautiful cover! Ostensibly the novel tells the coming-of-age story of a teenage boy in a small [...]
I bought this book about three years ago in the lovely Persephone bookshop in London, and for some reason have only now got around to reading it. As a rule I love Persephone books and am keen to read more of them. I hadn't heard anything about Amy Levy, or Reuben Sachs, when I found [...]
A disclaimer: I did not manage to finish this book, even though it's not very long. I love Joan Didion's journalistic writing, as well as the two other memoirs of hers that I have read (The Year of Magical Thinking and Blue Nights), but I just could not get on with Where I Was From. [...]
I first read Jean Rhys at university when her novel Good Morning, Midnight was on the reading list for a course about the 20th century novel. Since then she has been on my radar and I have kept most of her books on my long term TBR. I read Wide Sargasso Sea a few years [...]
It's a funny thing, how I came to read this book. I don't have a 'public' account, so you may not all know this, but I love Instagram - it is my FAVE. I follow people I know, bloggers, and a handful of celebrities (ok, quite a lot). One of these is the actor Busy [...]
This gorgeous little book appeared somewhere on Twitter (or Instagram?) recently, and the yellow cover caught my eye. It intrigued me. The cover, the title, the fact that it was a debut novel - all things that interested me. I was in Blackwell's in the Oxford the other day (the new branch!) buying Mother's Day [...]
