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Annabookbel
20.10.2024
The second in an occasional series that gives me an opportunity to recycle posts on a theme, (the first was geographical – Surrey). This time the five books I’ve chosen all feature a ra…
17.10.2024
It’s time for another reading week hosted by Simon and Kaggsy – this time books published in 1970. Looking at the Wikipedia page for 1970 in Literature I’ve read loads through the…
Guilty by Definition by Susie Dent Popular broadcaster and lexcographer Susie Dent has written her first novel, after writing a handful of books all about words, and jolly good fun it was too. (I w…
11.10.2024
It’s hard to know where to start with this memoir! I’ll be totally up front – I wasn’t sure it was a book for me. The cover suggests a polo-playing toff who pursues a woman …
08.10.2024
Translated by David Hackston I’m delighted to be helping to lead off the blog tour for Antti Tuomainen’s latest novel, a standalone murder mystery set in the world of saunas, all done w…
07.10.2024
I’m a day late to the first Saturday of the month, but there’s still time for the super monthly tag Six Degrees of Separation, which is hosted by Kate at Booksaremyfavouriteandbest, Six…
03.10.2024
This is the first of a new occasional series ‘Five Feat…’ (apologies to those who don’t like the slangy abbreviation of ‘featuring’, but it keeps it neat!). I…
01.10.2024
Volume 1: 1988-1993 – Review with Guest Fun Facts by the author Having been a fan of Red Dwarf since the very beginning, I had to read this book. Of course it brought back all the memories fl…
27.09.2024
I’m over at Shiny today with my review of the rather wonderful Rare Singles – a heartwarming book with a ‘Northern Soul’. Some superb characters, superb descriptions of the …
24.09.2024
Back in February 2020 I hosted a Paul Auster Reading Week. He was my most admired living author then, but sadly he died from cancer last April. Rather than time a second reading week for the annive…
19.09.2024
Imagine the scene: you’re a hitman, hired to take out property developer Jason Florens before he can ruin someone else’s nefarious plans. But you reach the site where he is and someone …
16.09.2024
Here are my final reviews of the extra books from my TBR piles that I managed to squeeze in for 20 Books of Summer in August. As they were extras to the 20, I don’t feel guilty at all for the…
11.09.2024
Bingeworthy TV Slow Horses (AppleTV+) is back for series 4 – what more can I say – it’s the best thing on any TV platform! Initially centring around River’s father played by…
09.09.2024
I’m delighted to be one of those leading off the blogtour for The Torments – Michael J Malone’s sequel to The Murmurs which introduced us to Annie Jackson and her twin brother Lew…
Now the first week of being back at School is over, I shall revert to some shorter reviews for the remaining books I read which, Orwell excepted, were extras to my twenty! So I don’t feel gui…
07.09.2024
First Saturday of the month, time for the super monthly tag Six Degrees of Separation, which is hosted by Kate at Booksaremyfavouriteandbest, Six Degrees of Separation #6degrees picks a s…
06.09.2024
When I was approached by Will from Renard Press to read this book, I found its premise really intriguing and said yes, of course! I found I kept wanting to call it ‘Fledgling’ – b…
01.09.2024
I’ve signed up to Cathy’s annual ’20 Books of Summer’ challenge every year since 2016. Although you can pick your level of 10, 15 or 20 books – I’ve always aimed…
30.08.2024
I’ve had two recent reviews published at Shiny New Books recently, both read as part of my #20booksofsummer24 reading. Kala by Colin Walsh A superb slowburn literary dual time-lined thriller,…
29.08.2024
Two superb thrillers for you today, one from last year and in my #20booksofsummer and one brand new out. Everybody Knows by Jordan Harper I love the tag line of this novel, ‘In Hollywood, nob…
23.08.2024
Historical novels have long taken characters from real life as their inspiration, whether it be for an imagined narrative or a retelling of a life, which can be well-known, or little-known. The Ins…
17.08.2024
From my pile of unread novels by French women authors from Europa Editions for both WIT Month and 20 Books of Summer – two reviews for you. Both contemporary stories with dark themes (you hav…
13.08.2024
A three-fer for you today of my #20booksofsummer24 hosted by Cathy, I’m now up to 17 read, 3 to go. One OK, one great fun and one very very different – in that order. Hex by Rebecca Din…
12.08.2024
This is the first novel I’ve read by New Zealander Symons. It’s the sixth in a series, and whilst I like, where possible, to start a series from the beginning, this sixth volume is like…
09.08.2024
Translated by Lisa Dillman I read this book in July, intending to review it sooner for Stu’s Spanish & Portuguese Reading Month, so I’m a bit late – but had good intentions. B…
07.08.2024
I might make my 20 Books of Summer (hosted by Cathy as always) with days to spare this year – I expect to finish reading my 15th book tomorrow, and then will get into my #WITMonth TBR reads w…
04.08.2024
01.08.2024
At the start of #WITMonth, I usually go back over my reading from the last one to see how many other books by women in translation I’ve read over the past year. Here’s my list from Sept…
30.07.2024
I’m going to start my thoughts with saying, that although the first of Ava Glass’s ‘Alias Emma’ books, The Chase kept me up all night to finish it, the new one – the t…
28.07.2024
Yesterday, it was a year since Sinéad O’Connor was found dead in her South London home. I hadn’t realised that when I picked her memoir out of the TBR piles a couple of weeks ago, but r…
25.07.2024
The moment I read Knox’s first book, Sirens, the first in his excellent Manc-noir Aidan Waits trilogy, I knew I’d want to keep on reading this author. After the three Aidan Waits books,…
24.07.2024
Translated from the German by Jamie Lee Searle I’m delighted to be leading off the blog tour for this novel by Swiss author Schmidt, who has lived in Iceland since 2007. I hadn’t realis…
I’ve had a run of non-fiction reviews posted at Shiny New Books, so for those who’ve not seen them, here’s a capsule paragraph on each with links to my full reviews. The Future of…
22.07.2024
Two reviews for you today from the TBR, continuing my 20 books of summer… The Winter War by Philip Teir Translated from the Swedish by Tiina Nunnally I remember acquiring this novel shortly a…
14.07.2024
Don’t you love checking off your reading against various best of lists. The New York Times has published its list of the best 100 books of the 21st Century so far, having consulted 503 noveli…
12.07.2024
I tend to do most of my reading at the start or end of the day, and when I’m at home during the day there’s nothing better to while away the hours if you don’t want to read than t…
11.07.2024
Translated from the Swedish by Alice Menzies If you’re going to write a novel about a long marriage and its demise specifically, wouldn’t you want to hear both sides of the story? I say…
08.07.2024
03.07.2024
Do you remember the pre-internet days of ‘Book of the Month’ type clubs (including the Folio Society back then) where you signed up to buy so many books a year etc. There was one called…
01.07.2024
Being so busy these last couple of weeks at school, I’ve not been blogging much, being tired in the evenings, not sleeping well due to the heat – but perversely getting lots of reading …