Not necessarily about books or coffee.
Thanks, as always, to Net Galley and Viking for setting me up with a copy of The Searcher. Four out of five stars – which is still a high rating and I’d still very much recommend it! Read on for blurb and opinions…
Continue reading “Book review: ‘The Searcher’ by Tana French”
I’ve been sitting on writing this review for a while, struggling to put into words how I feel about a book that I wish, with all my heart, had existed when I was a child. Six stars out of five, frankly. It’s been a while since a book hit me like this.
Continue reading “Book review: ‘October, October’ by Katya Balen, illus. by Angela Harding”
Thanks to HarperCollins and NetGalley for okaying me a review copy of The Nesting! This is a four-and-a-half shiny stars from me… The UK edition is beautiful, and the story is fast-paced, and out NOW.
Thanks to Canongate for letting me have a review copy of Kevin Barry’s newest collection That Old Country Music, via NetGalley. That Old Country Music is due out in October (22nd) and I have given it 5 (five) shiny stars. Read on to find out why…
Continue reading “Book review: That Old Country Music by Kevin Barry”Thanks to Walker Books, who sent me a review copy of Patrick Ness’s new YA book Burn via NetGalley. It is out now (yay!) so if it sounds like something you’d enjoy, order a copy from your nearest indie bookshop. Not from Amazon, please pretty please.
Again – a NetGalley ARC review. I stumbled across Stephen Graham Jones’s short story collection After The People Lights Have Gone Off several years ago in a secondhand bookshop, and ever since then I’ve always kept half an eye out for books by him. So I jumped on the chance to review this, and will be buying a copy. Five stars, of course.*
Continue reading “Book review: The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones”
Another book for review that I received through NetGalley – so sharing here, too. I’ll do a proper update soon. I went freelance just as the CV-19 pandemic was confirmed so… thank goodness for savings, I guess, at this stage?
This was a five-star book for me (duh). Continue reading “Book review: Sisters by Daisy Johnson”
I wrote this review on NetGalley (I was kindly approved to read a digital review copy by 4th Estate), and thought I’d share it here, because why not. I don’t request copies from NetGalley very often, so I try to fulfil the reviewing promise. Happily I also only tend to request books I suspect will be very good, so unsurprisingly, I gave My Dark Vanessa five stars. Continue reading “Book review: My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell”
Oof, after the last slightly bleak Overly Honest entry, I think I owe this site some sort of more cheerful update. Relevant to that entry: I’m on antidepressants now and I’m in a far better headspace than I was. Thank you to everyone IRL who is both giving me room to get back on an even keel, but also checking up on me subtly and sweetly. I do notice and I do appreciate it. Unexpected meds side-effect: I have discovered that I’m of an age where, when I say I’m not drinking at the moment, people give my belly a knowing look and I find myself explaining that I’m not pregnant, actually, that’s just my shape. So that’s fun.
As I start writing this, it’s 12.15am. In about six and a half hours I will be crawling out of bed to make a Pokémon cake for my nephew’s 10th birthday, before he arrives for a day of being spoiled. (‘What flavour?’ ‘Pokémon flavour!’ Vanilla will have to do.)
Anyway, he and his mum and her boyfriend came over earlier this afternoon. He fed the dogs lettuce until they were near ready to mug him for his pasta. He became best friends with Dog 1, who pinned him down with a paw and attempted to clean his head. After that they were inseparable. Dog 2 – less boisterous, likes her space – wagged her tail from a safe distance. Continue reading “Oh monster, my monster”
Bookworms and Coffee Monsters 