I love a Christmas Christie! This is not a Poirot or a Marple, but it’s a fun detective novel anyways. Published in 1939, this is actually the first edition dust…
Murder is Easy by Agatha Christie
The Third Man and The Fallen Idol by Graham Greene
Firstly, Greene is such an incredible writer and I was again reminded of this fact reading these two stories of his! The premise of this book is to present two…
Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout
Reading the Lucy Barton series has been a lot of fun, and this one was the probably my favourite one yet. In this book we examine Lucy’s relationship with her…
Leaf Storm (La Hojarasca) by Gabriel García Márquez
Oh how I enjoy a Márquez! La próxima vez yo lo leeré en español (quizás). It’s a typical short novella by Márquez, with some echoes of Love in the Time…
Real Estate by Deborah Levy
The final instalment of the Living Autobiography series! These books have been super easy for me to read. Not necessarily always wholly relatable, they are beautiful, satisfying, and full of…
Aftermath: On Marriage and Separation by Rachel Cusk
Now, I love Rachel Cusk and have hoovered up a lot of her work. This one is more of a memoir than some of the other Rachel Cusk stuff I’ve…
Anything is Possible by Elizabeth Strout
I’m on the Lucy Barton bandwagon, better late than never! I’m glad I found this series, and I like how it’s not traditionally chronological. This second book of the Lucy…
Peril at End House by Agatha Christie
Another Hercule Poirot mystery from the Queen of crime! This one wasn’t as good as Sad Cypress that I have just recently read, but it’s still pretty good. The premise…
My Name is Lucy Barton, by Elizabeth Strout
My very bookish friend encouraged me to read Strout, as I hadn’t read any before, and I wasn’t disappointed! I wolfed down this first part of her Lucy Barton book…
Sad Cypress by Agatha Christie
This is a murder mystery and court room drama a la Poirot, but I was also really taken by the romance of this book. The story of Elinor Carlisle, Roddy,…
Things I Don’t Want to Know by Deborah Levy
The first book in her “living autobiography” series, this is a response to George Orwell’s “Why I Write” which I read so long ago that I don’t really know in…
Flowers for Mrs Harris (also Mrs ‘Arris Goes to Paris) by Paul Gallico
Now, first of all, Paul Gallico is a great writer. Go and track him down. Secondly, this was a great read. Like I was very entertained, touched, and had a…
Foster by Claire Keegan
Happy to have finally read this, it’s always a pleasure to sit down with a book like this. For such a short book I feel like it’s a slow burn?!…
The Cost of Living by Deborah Levy
Started with #2 of a trilogy and have no regrets: this is part of her “living memoir” series. There are some lovely vignettes here that explore different aspects of divorce…
Clock Without Hands by Carson McCullers
This was a great book that took you on a journey that felt both profound and deeply connected to the ways in which ignorance, racism, and fear permeate small communities….
The Children of Jocasta by Natalie Haynes
Think you know the story of Oedipus? Think again! Here we have Jocasta’s and her daughter’s point of view of the shocking and gruesome tale. And in fact, this book…
A Life’s Work by Rachel Cusk
Reading this, I’m reminded how much I like Rachel Cusk’s writing. There is something very raw and relatable in all her books. This is a claustrophobic post-partum memoir where Cusk…
A Severed Head by Iris Murdoch
Oh Iris Murdoch. Her novel A Severed Head took me on a journey! What starts off as a rather conventional social novel set in London, where its townhouses act like…