I really enjoyed reading this book, and pairing it with the corresponding “Swinging Christie’s” @christie_time podcast episode about it made the experience even more interesting, plus I also watched the recent Kenneth…
Seashaken Houses by Tom Nancollas
I bet I’m not alone in my endless fascination for lighthouses… I have this fantasy of staying in one and curling up with a good read while the sea lashes…
Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor trans. Sophie Hughes
This book is so visceral that it almost leaves a taste in your mouth: the metallic taste of blood most likely…. Violent and taut, it’s a book that is nevertheless…
Seascraper by Benjamin Wood
Such a beautiful short book: I am glad I listened to the hype on this one. A book about youthful hopes and dreams, it’s also an elegiac tale about changing…
The Promised Party: Kahlo, Basquiat & Me by Jennifer Clement
This beautiful, articulate, and feverish memoir traces a Mexico City childhood and a New York city youth during an era that was iconic for both cities. Jennifer grows up down…
By the Pricking of My Thumbs by Agatha Christie
This book made for a cozy, seasonal experience: all mystery, atmosphere, and a touch of the uncanny with a soupçon of the ridiculous. I actually think the Tommy and Tuppence…
Surge by Jay Bernard
Surge by Jay Bernard is a haunting yet deeply life-affirming collection of poetry. It responds to the tragic events of the 1981 New Cross Fire in London: a birthday party…
The Blank Wall by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding
This is such an intriguing and quietly powerful mid-century murder novel. Despite having inspired hit film adaptations and earning praise from Raymond Chandler, it still seems to have flown under…
Sceptred Isle: A New History of the Fourteenth Century by Helen Carr
This was my first non-fiction read of November: a delve into the Plantagenets. This “new” narrative of 14th century England and the British Isles very much focuses on Kings and…
The Fishermen by Chigozie Obioma
This was an intense but good read, Shakespearean/ mythical in its portrayal of sibling conflict and prophecy in an Igbo family. We’re in Akure in the 1990s and Ikenna, the…
Julian of Norwich: A Very Brief History by Janina Ramirez
This slim little book was an interesting historical and philosophical look at the Revelations written by a medieval anchorite, Julian of Norwich. Little is definitively known about her, but she…
A Clergyman’s Daughter by George Orwell
This is a more obscure Orwell read, one that he himself and critics found lacking, but I really enjoyed this. Dorothy is daughter of a curmudgeonly Anglican rector, and the…
After Leaving Mr Mackenzie by Jean Rhys
This is a bleak novel about precarious survival in big cities, perfect for this time of year. Despite the bleakness, the beautiful prose of Rhys carries you through this narrative…
Liza of Lambeth by W. Somerset Maugham
Continuing the grand tradition of a Victorian doctor writing books: this book was written by Maugham right after finishing his medical studies. It’s his first book published in 1897. This…
A Separation by Katie Kitamura
Taut and engaging, this reminds me of the sparse and emotionally direct prose of Rachel Cusk and Deborah Levy, with a thriller edge. Really glad I picked this up to…
The Turn of the Screw and Other Stories by Henry James
This collection is a masterclass in psychological ghost stories: elegant, unbeatable in premise, and full of that Jamesian ambiguity. 🔩The Turn of the Screw (1898) A young governess takes a job…
Lois the Witch by Elizabeth Gaskell
This book is a document of mass hysteria and trauma. First published in a collection in 1861, I love this Penguin Archive edition. Set in 17th century Salem, you know…
maybe ill call gillian anderson by Rhian Elizabeth
I love reading poetry collections, but they feel harder to review than novels! This poetry collection was published on 31st May 2025 by Broken Sleep Books: a working class publisher all…
Daisy Miller And Other Stories by Henry James
These stories are the perfect examples of why James is known as the master of the short story. Touching on art, innocence, and creativity, they work well as a collection!…
Crooked Cross by Sally Carson
A forgotten 1934 novel that feels frighteningly relevant today and that I almost couldn’t believe was actually written in 1934 by an Englishwoman. Sally Carson died young in 1941, never…
Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason
This book had some uneven qualities for me, but it turned out to be a surprisingly apt seasonal read, blending humour with a creeping darkness. On one hand, parts of…
Love Child by Jean Bedford
I picked this book up secondhand when I was in Hay-on-Wye, not realising it was actually quite an obscure little gem. It’s hard to describe because it’s so short, yet…
The Last September by Elizabeth Bowen
Felt like an obvious September pick, but this wasn’t the effortless read I expected. I’ve enjoyed Bowen before, yet I found myself wading through a slightly disjointed narrative, with many…
Jane Austen by Carol Shields
This felt like a really amazing book to be reading during a Jane Austen anniversary year in Bath. Plus, what a great #spinsterseptember2025 finale: arguably one of the most famous spinsters! Carol…
Howards End by E.M. Forster
This work cements Forster’s ability to capture emotional truths within their wider social context. Love, jealousy, friendship, and suspicion are never free-floating, but shaped and refracted through history, class, and…
Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner
This was the quintessential autumnal #spinsterseptember read with a supernatural feminist twist: a woman escapes family obligations and relocates to a small village in the Chiltern Hills and becomes a witch! 🧙♀️…
Daphne du Maurier: Gothic Visionary, Shaped by Cornwall
Daphne du Maurier (1907–1989) was a British novelist, playwright, and short story writer whose works continue to fascinate. Some of her works have been made into iconic films and series,…
A Mind To Murder by P.D James
This was a fun #spinsterseptember read where both the victim and some suspects fit the spinster description! Spinsters plus murder make for a fun read. What happens when an unpopular medical…
Heart Lamp by Banu Mushtaq
This International 2025 Booker Prize winner is an interesting milestone: the first ever Kannada-language work to win, it’s also actually the first short story collection to win too….which is amazing,…
A Passage North by Anuk Arudpragasam
This novel was not what I expected: I had imagined something closer to a memoir or a journalistic exploration of post-civil war Sri Lanka. Instead, A Passage North is a…
All That is Left of Life by Roberta Recchia (Review)
Translated superbly by Antonella Lettieri, this 2025 Italian novel by Roberta Recchia is a winner. Tutta la vita che resta came out in 2024, and it’s great to see this…
Beast in View by Margaret Millar
From 1955, this Hollywood psychological thriller won the 1956 Edgar Allan Poe award, and it’s easy to see why. It’s a horror thriller with a creepy and oppressive feel. Helen…
Happening (L’Événement) by Annie Ernaux
Published in 2000, this novella feels like a powerful piece of psychological writing, a confession of sorts, as Ernaux takes us back to her student days in Rouen when she…
Strong Poison by D.L. Sayers
Iconic, sarcastic, totally over the top as only a 1930s aristocratic sleuth can be, this is the novel where Lord Peter Wimsey meets his match, Harriet Vane (though Harriet will…
Meridian by Alice Walker
Beautiful prose, tough subjects, challenging perspectives. This Civil Rights movement and Bildungsroman collide in the figure of determined and independent Meridian. Meridian is drawn to the Civil Rights movement; we…
Eight Ghosts by eight different authors (English Heritage compilation)
I love reading ghost stories and gothic books in the summer, so this purchase at a castle in Cornwall was the perfect sunny day read. Each story is inspired by…
You Exist Too Much by Zaina Arafat
Palestinian-Italian-American Zaina’s memoir about embracing her queer identity, going from US school years to summers in Palestine and Jordan with chaotic checkpoints and feelings of “otherness”, is a touching story…
Books about Women’s Health: Medical Memoirs & History
I’ve got a bit of a thing for books on women’s health: whether that is an empowering memoir of dealing with pain and frustrating diagnoses, or hard-hitting reports on the…
Murder at Mt. Fuji by Shizuko Natsuki
Another great read for Women in Translation Month! This book from 1982 hooked me and I finished it super quickly. I really enjoyed it. It’s a classic murder mystery thriller…
Acts of Infidelity by Lena Andersson (Review)
This was a book that I loved, but the main character is one that will try your patience! I actually didn’t realise it was the second book of a series…
Small Boat by Vincent Delecroix
When people die in a dinghy drowning in the Channel, half-way between France and the UK, scrutiny falls on the people taking the calls of distress that night. Specifically, a…
Mild Vertigo by Mieko Kanai
Formally experimental at times, this book is a beautiful stream of consciousness narrative of a Tokyo housewife. Her “ladies who lunch” group and their rivalries, her neighbours and their dramas,…
Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico
This book calls out our generation hard! Confronting in a good way, it peaks into the world of creatives who move from city to city, digital nomad style, and who…
Tilt by Emma Pattee
I love a debut novel that focuses on one intense day like this. Interspersed with some interesting flashbacks, we are basically in the head of Annie, who is heavily pregnant,…
The Book of Night Women by Marlon James
I feel a sense of inadequacy when it comes to reviewing this as it’s just such an intense, violent, visceral, but also hypnotic and compelling book. Lilith is a slave…
The Secret House of Death by Ruth Rendell
I loved reading this: I feel like well-paced thrillers are my summer jam. Imagine a boring London suburb with boring roadworks. Now, add some curtain twitching, infidelity, divorce, fear, and…
A Body Made of Glass: A History of Hypochondria by Caroline Crampton
Ever heard of the glass delusion – the established fear of being made of glass? Did you know that before glass was commonplace, people used to think they were made…
Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon
This is a recent debut novel from Irish writer, Ferdia Lennon, and it deservedly caused a stir! It’s a punchy, humorous, but also, gruesome and devastating telling of what happened…
Voices in the Evening by Natalia Ginzburg
Natalia Ginzburg (1916-1991): Anti-fascist writer Natalia Ginzburg is everywhere at the minute: it’s great to see her work getting recognition as more of her work is being translated. This slim…
The Hidden Room by Stella Duffy
This one was an easy read, a thriller set in the Fens where a couple running busy lives and three children must confront a dark secret from one of their…