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CILIP Carnegie Medal 2017
It being March, the CILIP Carnegie Medal Shortlist has been announced and I’m embarking on the ritual of trying to read them. This year, the list is: Filed under: 2017, Blogging, Books, Carnegie, CILIP...
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The Plague Charmer, Karen Maitland
As the image above shows, this book is another historical fiction novel by the author of Company of Liars, which I read and enjoyed a while ago. It wasn’t a great book but it was an enjoyable enough...
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Railhead, Philip Reeve
This is a delightfully fun and engaging tale with all the confidence you’d expect of Phillip Reeve, returning to the steampunk genre, if in a very different world, of Mortal Engines. Here, rather...
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Eleanor Oliphant Is Perfectly Fine, Gail Honeyman
Mental health is a difficult topic to write about. A dangerous topic. It would be very easy for it to trivialise – or even worse, to glamourise – mental illness or trauma. And there were times here...
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Origin, Dan Brown
Oh dear. Oh, poor Dan Brown. Poor, incredibly rich and famous Dan Brown. It seems that you have become a parody of yourself. But, as an aspiring writer, I thank you. I can look at my writing and yours...
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A Man Called Ove, Fredrik Backman
We all know that old bloke on the corner who glowers at us, the one with a face like a bulldog sucking lemons, the one who barks at us for dropping litter or parking in the wrong place. The one who we...
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The Shadows In The Street, Susan Hill
Okay. Please put Lafferton and Bevham in the list of places I don’t want to visit because of their high body count. Midsomer, Stockholm, Lafferton. Poor Lafferton. I think this, the fifth book in...
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Broken Harbour, Tana French
Recipe for a Tana French Dublin Murder Squad novel: Take an atmospheric and intense setting, such as the last remnant of an ancient forest, a secluded mansion or a half completed housing project...
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Little Fires Everywhere, Celeste Ng
Sometimes, you read a short story that leaves you wanting more and makes you wish that the writer had extended it to a novel length. With this novel, well written and crafted as it is, I wonder...
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Reservoir 13, Jon McGregor
This is one of the most unusual and beautiful books I’ve read for a while. Hard to define. Difficult to keep track of people. But beautiful and lyrical. Radio 4 do a slot of “slow radio” sometimes and...
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