December 30, 2015 · 2:34 pm
In no particular order, here are some of my favourite books from those I’ve read in 2015:
Favourite fiction published in 2015
I loved Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith which is the third book in the Cormoran Strike series and I was lucky enough to attend a special launch event in October in which my team came first in a live escape game. Winning a signed copy was a particular highlight.
The relaunch of the Sunday Times / PFD Young Writer of the Year Award introduced me to some fantastic new authors including The Year of the Runaways by Sunjeev Sahota which is my personal favourite from a very strong shortlist.
I really enjoyed seeing Hanya Yanagihara talk about her second novel A Little Life at Foyles last summer. Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, it’s been one of the most talked-about and controversial books of the year and, in my view, one of the most astonishingly original. Continue reading →
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Tagged as 2015, Blog, Blogging, Blogs, Book, Book Blogs, Events, Fiction, Literature, News, Non fiction, Publishing, Reading, Translated Fiction
December 28, 2015 · 6:22 pm
After reading The Shore by Sara Taylor and The Spring of Kasper Meier by Ben Fergusson earlier this month, I’ve been reading the other two books shortlisted for this year’s Sunday Times / PFD Young Writer of the Year Award. They are ‘The Year of the Runaways’ by Sunjeev Sahota and this year’s winner ‘Loop of Jade’ by Sarah Howe.
Continue reading →
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Tagged as Book, Book Review, Book Reviews, China, Fiction, Immigration, India, Poetry, Reading, Reviews, Sarah Howe, Sunjeev Sahota, Young Writer Award, Young Writer of the Year 2015
December 22, 2015 · 2:20 pm
A couple of years ago, I really enjoyed reading Tracey Thorn’s memoir Bedsit Disco Queen: How I Grew Up and Became a Popstar about her career as a solo singer and one half of Everything But The Girl. Earlier this year, I went to see her in conversation with Xan Brooks about her latest book ‘Naked At the Albert Hall: The Inside Story of Singing’ at the Hay Festival. Rather than a second instalment of her memoir, it is a collection of Thorn’s more general thoughts and observations about singing which didn’t fit into the narrative of ‘Bedsit Disco Queen’.
Continue reading →
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Tagged as Book, Book Review, Book Reviews, Everything But The Girl, Live Music, Music, Naked at the Albert Hall, Non fiction, Performing, Pop Music, Reading, Singing, Tracey Thorn
December 19, 2015 · 5:58 pm
I don’t have time to write full-length reviews of everything I read but here are some thoughts on other books I’ve read and (mostly) enjoyed over the last few months of 2015.
Whatever You Love by Louise Doughty
While I enjoyed reading Apple Tree Yard by Louise Doughty last year, I’m less sure of how I feel about ‘Whatever You Love’. Shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award in 2010, it tells the story of Laura whose nine-year-old daughter Willow is killed in a hit-and-run accident on her way to an after-school club. The majority of the novel is a relatively straightforward account of the acrimonious breakdown of Laura’s marriage to her husband David and the aftermath of Willow’s death but it has the kind of shocking and rather implausible ending which changed my whole perception of the book. The last book I read which made me feel like this was Disclaimer by Renee Knight but probably more so with this one. While ‘Apple Tree Yard’ has a similarly unsettling conclusion, I felt it was executed much more successfully compared to ‘Whatever You Love’. Doughty’s latest novel ‘Black Water’ is out next year.
Continue reading →
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Tagged as 2015, Barbara Vine, Book, Book Review, Book Reviews, Fiction, Gillian Flynn, Joanna Walsh, Louise Doughty, Non fiction, Novels, Reading, Reviews, Sarah Moss
December 13, 2015 · 7:14 pm
It was announced on Thursday that Sarah Howe has won this year’s Sunday Times / PFD Young Writer of the Year Award for her first collection of poetry ‘Loop of Jade’ which explores her dual British-Chinese heritage.
The prize recognises the best literary work of fiction, non-fiction or poetry by a British or Irish writer aged 35 and under, with £5,000 awarded to the winner for outstanding literary merit and I was lucky enough to attend the award ceremony at the London Library on Thursday. It was a great opportunity to visit one of the capital’s most iconic libraries, especially given that life membership costs in the region of £20,000 if you’re under 30 which is, unfortunately, slightly out of my price range.
Continue reading →
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Tagged as Ben Fergusson, Book, Book Review, Book Reviews, Fiction, London, Poetry, Reading, Sara Taylor, Sarah Howe, Sunjeev Sahota, Young Writer Award, Young Writer of the Year 2015
December 6, 2015 · 5:18 pm
Last week, I attended another bloggers event at the Groucho Club in London to celebrate the work of classic crime writers Margery Allingham and Eric Ambler with short talks delivered by Barry Pike, a founder and Chairman of the Margery Allingham Society, and Simon Brett, a crime writer and Ambler expert. I developed an interest in classic crime fiction after reading Martin Edwards’ compendium of the genre The Golden Age of Murder last summer which outlined the lives and works of key members of the Detection Club in the early 20th century including Dorothy L. Sayers, Agatha Christie, Anthony Berkeley among others. I was therefore very keen to learn more about two other crime writers whose names were familiar to me but whose novels I had never read before.
Continue reading →
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Tagged as Book, Crime, Crime Fiction, Eric Ambler, Events, Fiction, Literature, London, Margery Allingham, Mystery, Novels, Reading, Thriller
December 5, 2015 · 2:00 pm
‘Dead Babies and Seaside Towns’ is Alice Jolly’s memoir about her attempts to have a second child. When her first son Thomas is two years old, Jolly falls pregnant again but a scan reveals that the placenta has become partly detached. Her daughter, Laura, was stillborn in 2005, twenty-four weeks into the pregnancy. After several miscarriages, rounds of IVF treatment and failed attempts to adopt, Jolly had a daughter named Hope born in 2011 to a surrogate mother in Minnesota using a donor egg. Continue reading →
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Tagged as Alice Jolly, Autobiography, Book, Book Review, Book Reviews, Children, Dead Babies and Seaside Towns, Memoir, Memoirs, Non fiction, Pregnancy, Reading, Reviews, Surrogacy
November 29, 2015 · 7:35 pm
Translated from the Italian by Ann Goldstein, ‘Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay’ is the third volume of Elena Ferrante’s series of Neapolitan Novels following My Brilliant Friend and The Story of a New Name. The book opens with Elena and Lila aged in their sixties coming across the body of their childhood friend Gigliola in a church flower bed. Lila doesn’t want Elena to write an autobiographical novel about their friendship causing Elena to reflect on their early adulthood towards the end of the 1960s. Elena is engaged to be married to Pietro, a professor she met at university, and has recently published her first novel which has caused something of a stir amongst critics. Meanwhile, having left Nino, Lila is living with Enzo and working in Bruno Soccava’s sausage factory whilst bringing up her son Gennaro. Nevertheless, they remain bound to each other through their friendship and rivalry. Continue reading →
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Tagged as Book, Book Review, Book Reviews, Elena Ferrante, Fiction, Italian Literature, Italy, Literature, Naples, Novels, Reading, Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay, Translated Fiction, Translation
November 22, 2015 · 6:25 pm
Longlisted for this year’s Man Booker Prize, ‘Did You Ever Have a Family’ by Bill Clegg opens with an explosion caused by a gas leak at June Reid’s house on the morning of her daughter’s wedding. The resulting fire destroys the whole house and kills June’s boyfriend Luke, ex-husband Adam, daughter Lolly, and Lolly’s fiancé William. June is the sole survivor and in the wake of the tragedy, she drives across the country to Washington. During her journey, details about the lives of the characters involved and the cause of the fire begin to emerge. Continue reading →
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Tagged as Bill Clegg, Book, Book Review, Book Reviews, Booker Prize, Connecticut, Did You Ever Have a Family, Fiction, Literature, Man Booker Prize, Man Booker Prize 2015, Novels, Reading, Reviews
November 15, 2015 · 7:33 pm
Yesterday, I went to a special bloggers reception for the Young Writer of the Year Award at the Groucho Club in London. Sponsored by the Sunday Times and literary agency Peters Fraser & Dunlop, the prize recognises the best literary work of fiction, non-fiction or poetry by a British or Irish writer aged 35 and under, with £5,000 awarded to the winner for outstanding literary merit.
Continue reading →
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Tagged as Ben Fergusson, Book, Book Awards, Fiction, Literature, Poetry, Reading, Sara Taylor, Sarah Howe, Sunjeev Sahota, Young Writer Award, Young Writer of the Year 2015
November 8, 2015 · 5:56 pm
Translated from the French by Frank Wynne, ‘The Great Swindle’ is something of a departure for Pierre Lemaitre from his crime fiction series of novels featuring detective Camille Verhoeven. Originally titled ‘Au-revoir là-haut’, it won the Prix Goncourt in 2013 which is one of the most prestigious literary prizes in France. In the final days of the First World War, Lieutenant Henri d’Aulnay-Pradelle secretly shoots two of his own men in the back to make other troops believe they were killed by the enemy and provoke a final attack on the Germans, thus establishing his reputation as a war hero. However, Albert Maillard and Édouard Péricourt have witnessed his crime and are gravely injured when Aulnay-Pradelle attempts to kill them too. After the armistice, Édouard assumes the identity of another dead soldier and embarks on an elaborate money-making scheme with Albert. Continue reading →
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Tagged as Book, Book Review, Book Reviews, Fiction, First World War, France, French Literature, Paris, Pierre Lemaitre, Reading, The Great Swindle, Translated Fiction, Translation, World War One
November 3, 2015 · 4:54 pm
‘In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl’s Journey to Freedom’ is Yeonmi Park’s account of how she escaped from North Korea when she was thirteen years old. Born in 1993, Park left Hyesan with her mother in an attempt to track down her older sister Eunmi who had already defected. However, they were sold to traffickers in China where they both experienced horrific abuse. Two years later, they fled across the Gobi desert to Mongolia before arriving in South Korea where Park has since become a leading human rights activist. Continue reading →
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Tagged as Autobiography, Book, Book Review, Book Reviews, In Order to Live, Memoir, Memoirs, Memory, Non fiction, North Korea, Reading, Reviews, Yeonmi Park
October 29, 2015 · 4:09 pm
I originally intended to write a blog post about ‘One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest’ by Ken Kesey during Banned Books Week (27th September – 3rd October). However, I fell a bit behind with my reviewing around that time and while it’s important to have these events to spread awareness, reading banned books needn’t be restricted to just one week of the year. First published in 1962 followed by an equally famous film adaptation in 1975 starring Jack Nicholson, the story is set in a psychiatric hospital in Oregon and follows the lives of the patients who live under the controlled regime of Nurse Ratched. However, the arrival of a new patient, Randle McMurphy, who faked insanity to serve his prison sentence in what he believed would be more comfortable surroundings, soon changes everything.
Continue reading →
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Tagged as Banned Books, Banned Books Week, Book, Book Review, Book Reviews, Classic Literature, Fiction, Ken Kesey, Literature, Mental Health, Novels, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Reading, Reviews
October 23, 2015 · 2:29 pm
This week, I was lucky enough to get a place at a special launch event for ‘Career of Evil’, the third book in the crime fiction series by J. K. Rowling written under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. I really enjoyed The Cuckoo’s Calling and The Silkworm and was very keen to read the latest instalment of Cormoran Strike’s adventures.
To celebrate the launch, the publishers of ‘Career of Evil’ teamed up with Time Run to organise a special crime thriller version of a live gaming experience where teams need to solve clues and puzzles to “escape” the room as quickly as possible. Based in Hackney, it’s been described by the Metro as “immersive theatre meets Crystal Maze but better”. This definitely wasn’t going to be a typical book launch… Continue reading →
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Tagged as Book, Career of Evil, Cormoran Strike, Crime, Crime Fiction, Events, Fiction, J. K. Rowling, London, Reading, Robert Galbraith, Time Run
October 14, 2015 · 11:52 am
While the Man Booker Prize is one of the most high-profile literary awards in the world (and congratulations to Marlon James for last night’s win by the way), the alternative Not the Booker prize run by the Guardian’s books website has also been growing in popularity over the past few years. ‘Things We Have in Common’ by Tasha Kavanagh was featured on this year’s Not the Booker shortlist and was narrowly pipped to the post by Kirstin Innes’ novel ‘Fishnet’ which won the overall prize on Monday. ‘Things We Have in Common’ is narrated by Yasmin Laksaris, an overweight half-Turkish teenager who becomes obsessed with Alice Taylor, one of the most popular girls at school. Yasmin spots a man watching Alice outside school and when she goes missing, Yasmin is convinced she already knows who has taken her. Continue reading →
October 11, 2015 · 5:50 pm
I’ve been reading more non-fiction and more translated fiction this year but not very much translated non-fiction. After reading Flemish author Erwin’ Mortier’s ‘While the Gods Were Sleeping‘ earlier this year which was shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, I got hold of a copy of ‘Stammered Songbook: A Mother’s Book of Hours’ which is Mortier’s personal memoir documenting his mother’s diagnosis, decline and death from Alzheimer’s disease at the age of 65. Originally published in 2011, it has recently been translated from Dutch into English for the first time by Paul Vincent and has been longlisted for the Green Carnation Prize this week which celebrates LGBT writing.
Continue reading →
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Tagged as Autobiography, Book, Book Review, Book Reviews, Dementia, Erwin Mortier, Memoir, Memoirs, Non fiction, Reading, Reviews, Stammered Songbook, Translation
October 4, 2015 · 7:41 pm
Having read some slightly silly thrillers recently in the form of I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes, I thought it was time to read one of the very first “sensation” books of the mystery genre. Originally published in serial form between 1859 and 1860, ‘The Woman in White’ is Wilkie Collins’ most famous novel and also happens to be a book which has been on my reading list for a very long time. It opens with Walter Hartwright encountering a mysterious woman dressed all in white near Hampstead Heath. He is later hired to tutor Laura Fairlie and her half-sister Marian Halcombe in watercolour painting at Limmeridge House in Cumberland. Walter falls in love with Laura but she is engaged to Sir Percival Glyde. Although Walter learns that the woman in white is Anne Catherick, a local woman who has escaped from an asylum, he notices that Laura bears a striking resemblance to her. After their marriage, Sir Percival and Laura return to live in Blackwater accompanied by Glyde’s friend Count Fosco, one of the most formidable villains in literature who concocts a cunning plan to help Sir Percival get his hands on Laura’s money. Continue reading →
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Tagged as Book, Book Review, Book Reviews, Classic Literature, Fiction, Literature, Novels, Reading, Reviews, The Woman in White, Victorian, Wilkie Collins
September 22, 2015 · 1:52 pm
The longlist for this year’s Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction was announced today. The twelve books are:
Ted Hughes: The Unauthorised Life by Jonathan Bate
Fighters in the Shadows: A New History of the French Resistance by Robert Gildea
Landmarks by Robert Macfarlane
The Planet Remade: How Geoengineering Could Change the World by Oliver Morton
Guantanamo Diary by Mohamedou Ould Slahi
Nothing is True and Everything is Possible: Adventures in Modern Russia by Peter Pomerantsev
They All Love Jack: Busting the Ripper by Bruce Robinson
The Four-Dimensional Human: Ways of Being in the Digital World by Laurence Scott
Neurotribes: The Legacy of Autism and How to Think Smarter About People Who Think Differently by Steve Silberman
The Unravelling: High Hopes and Missed Opportunities in Iraq by Emma Sky
Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning by Tim Snyder
This Divided Island: Stories from the Sri Lankan War by Samanth Subramanian
Continue reading →
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Tagged as Autobiography, Biography, Book, Book Awards, History, Literary Awards, News, Non fiction, Publishing, Reading, Samuel Johnson Prize
September 20, 2015 · 6:33 pm
‘I Am Pilgrim’ by Terry Hayes opens with an elite intelligence agent codenamed Pilgrim being brought out of retirement to investigate the brutal murder of a woman in the rundown Eastside Inn in New York whose identifying features have all been dissolved with acid. Meanwhile, Pilgrim is also attempting to track down a Saudi Arabian doctor known as the Saracen who was radicalised after his father was publicly beheaded and is seeking revenge by unleashing a deadlier version of smallpox on the United States. It later transpires that the two investigations are closely linked. Continue reading →
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Tagged as Book, Book Review, Book Reviews, Crime, Fiction, I Am Pilgrim, Novels, Reading, Reviews, Spies, Terry Hayes, Thriller
September 15, 2015 · 3:21 pm
‘The Hare with Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance’ is Edmund de Waal’s highly acclaimed memoir tracing his family history through a collection of objects. In the early 1990s, De Waal studied ceramics in Tokyo as part of a two-year scholarship where he met his great-uncle Ignace (Iggie). Following Iggie’s partner’s death, de Waal inherited 264 Japanese miniature wood and ivory carvings known as netsuke often representing animals, people or mythical creatures. Traditionally used as toggles to attach carrying pouches to Japanese robes, netsuke were originally designed to be useful everyday objects rather than purely decorative ones. De Waal became intrigued by the story behind the collection and how it came to be passed down through the generations of his family across the world. Continue reading →
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Tagged as Art, Book, Book Review, Book Reviews, Ceramics, Edmund de Waal, Europe, Japan, Non fiction, Paris, Reading, Reviews, The Hare with Amber Eyes, Vienna
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