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”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”
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”
Note: this really is not a review. My about-a-book entries are never reviews, just me gushing about books I’ve absolutely loved and have time to write about. Take it for granted that if this was a review it would be a five-star thing, though, because I’m coming out of the tail-end of a migraine right now and shouldn’t be looking at a screen, but am compelled to write this. Continue reading “Not a review: ‘Bookworm’ by Lucy Mangan”
At the beginning of the year I signed up to the Goodreads reading challenge – basically aiming to read a certain number of books throughout 2015. I signed up less for the challenge and more to get an idea of how many books I actually do get through each year now. I figured ‘at least one a week, easy’, and I was sort of right, but only when the freelancing isn’t kicked into high gear, and when I’m between writings. At the moment the freelancing is in high gear and I’m not between writings and I’m actually feeling guilty for writing this instead of working on something else. When I do settle down to relax of an evening, I gawp at the TV. Goodreads tells me that I’m behind on my challenge and I really don’t like it.
On the upside, though, this sort of not-really-enforced reading break means that I’ve had plenty of time to let the last book I finished percolate for a while, instead of me rushing headlong into the next tale. And that’s been nice, because Mickey – the young protagonist in Paul McVeigh’s fantastic first novel The Good Son – is the kind of character you want to keep around for a while.
Bookworms and Coffee Monsters 