Micro Review 28 (2025)

 

Barbara Isn't Dying by Alina Bronsky, translated by Tim Mohr (Europa Editions)

I really must start writing down where I see books mentioned that I go on to request from the library - I'd certainly not have discovered this book without seeing it mentioned somewhere but I really can't remember where and so can't thank the person who first brought it to my attention.

Walter Schmidt has lived his whole life within the narrow, “comfortable” confines of traditional gender roles: he has made it to retirement without learning how to fry an egg or use a vacuum cleaner. After all, he could always count on his wife, Barbara. But when one morning she can’t get up from bed anymore, everything changes.

With biting humour and great warmth, Alina Bronsky writes about how Walter, nearing the end of his life, is suddenly forced to reinvent himself as a caregiver and house-husband, and become the caring partner he never was in all his years with Barbara. Little by little, Walter’s rough facade begins to crumble—and with it his old certainties about his life and family.

At the very beginning I really disliked Walter, a man so useless he can't even make a cup of instant coffee, and to be honest he remains a prickly, proud, and annoying character throughout the book. However this is one of the things that really makes this book - Walter's changes are incredibly subtle and he remains uncompromising in so many things. By the end however I was rooting for him completely and became as frustrated by the people around him as he was - no one seemed to meet him half way. And the final things we learn about him are just heart breaking.

In other hands this would have been just another book about a character with a probable autism diagnosis struggling to fit in to the world but ultimately making compromises or having a talent so that everyone suddenly loved him, but Bronsky keeps Walter whole and the book is all the better for that. 

I am struggling to articulate what captivated me so much about this book but I really did love it, but I'm very grateful that Mr Norfolkbookworm is far more capable around the house!

Micro Review 26

 

Space Invaders by Nona Fernandez, translated by Natasha Wimmer (Daunt Books Publishing) 

This was a slim book that caught my eye the last time I was exploring the Travel Writing section of Daunt Books looking for different books for my Read the World project, and I'm so pleased that it did. 

It is deceptively short as the story is really haunting me, far more than many much longer novels do!

The description which caught my attention reads:

Preoccupied by uneasy memories and visions, a group of friends look back on their childhood. Their thoughts and dreams circle one old classmate: Estrella González Jepsen, who one day simply disappeared. Estrella’s father, it transpires, was a ranking government officer implicated in the Pinochet regime. The question of what became of Estrella haunts her former friends. They catch glimpses of her braids, hear echoes of her voice, read old letters. They recall regimented school assemblies, nationalistic class performances and a trip to the beach. Growing up, they were old enough to sense the danger and tension that surrounded them but powerless to resist or confront it. They could control only the stories they told one another and the ghostly green bullets they fired in their favourite video game.

At first I wasn't at all sure what was happening, the chapters are quite short, dream like, and repetitive but I quickly realised that was the point of the book - these were children at the time of the Pinochet regime and they themselves didn't understand what was happening and even as adults their memories are fragmented and unreliable.

There is some violence in the book, but what made it stand out for more was the way the threat and fear of the era wove its way through the book and became far more telling than any political history of Chile could have been.

This is definitely one of my standout reads from the past few months, and a real sign that novellas can be far more powerful than many opuses and that in the English speaking world we should start to embrace the form.

 

Micro Review 25 (2025) / Women in Translation Month

Just a Little Dinner by Cecile Tlili, translated by Katherine Gregor. (Foundry Editions)

I read and loved Foundry Edition's first book - Brandy Sour - last year, and since then I've been looking at their beautiful covers and interesting sounding books regularly. I gave in and subscribed to the publisher's 2025 list at the start of August and from my parcel this book was the one that practically leapt into my hands screaming 'read me next'!

In tired, hot Paris at the end of August, a group of friends, who’d rather still be at the sea, meet for a dinner in one couple’s apartment.

Taking us behind the shutters of the Sixth Arrondissement, with a cast of characters that both delight and repel, fractured relationships, manipulation, bad behaviour and desperation are all laid bare in this very contemporary take on a Parisian huis clos story. 

What starts as just a little dinner ends up having monumental consequences for everyone.

The plot unfurls over just a couple of hours but is an incredibly tense read as the writing (and translation) made me feel I was an invisible person in the flat with the four characters watching the car crash of a dinner party unfold - I could smell the food and feel both the heat and the tension completely!

None of the characters is entirely sympathetic but by the end I certainly knew who I really wanted to slap and who I wanted to hug!

This is a book that will stay with me for a long time and one I really recommend. I can't wait to start more of the books that came in my parcel, that's for sure, and how nice to see the translators name on the front of the book in almost the same size type as the author's!

Micro Review 17 (2025)

 

The Wager and the Bear by John Ironmonger (Fly On the Wall Press)

Greenland has been in the news a lot lately but not because of the polar bears or anything similar - just politics, and thanks to map projections it also features large on my map where I'm marking my reading journey so it was fortuitous that I saw lots of people talking about this book recently.

The Wager and the Bear starts gently with a slightly drunk student confronting his local MP in a Cornish pub regarding climate change. The MP is a real climate sceptic and Tom, the student, is more passionate about the planet especially when confronted with inaccurate statistics from the MP. The pair's conversation is being filmed and live streamed on social media however and what starts as a drunken bet becomes a bête noir for both characters as they spend the next 50 years crossing paths in the UK and Greenland as they try to persuade each other of their view points.

To say more about the book will spoil it for readers but I found it a very clever read, and far more effective at showing that climate change is real than a lot of other cli-fi novels and drier non fiction books. 

I recognise a lot of the arguments used in the book and having a time frame that does encompass a human life span (rather than generation spanning apocalyptic novels) really added an extra dimension to this book. While it starts in the here and then moves forward in time it always felt very real and not too fantastical or presenting of an unreal possible future.

There is a lot of humour in the book, as well as genuine peril and I found it a thoroughly absorbing read that I've already recommended to others.

Micro Review 9 (2025)

 

Just My Type by Simon Garfield (Profile Books)

Last year I read two of Garfield's shorter books about specific fonts and found them fascinating and so I knew that I had to put his longer book about them on my Christmas list - thankfully Father Christmas let my parents know and Just My Type was under the tree for me in December!

This has been a brilliant book to dip in and out of during tea breaks as it is split into lots of short chapters about fonts, design and printing in general with these interspersed with event shorter chapters on specific fonts.

As the daughter of a printer, someone who used to be really into calligraphy, and an avid consumer of the printed word I can't understand why it has taken me over 10 years to discover this book but better late than never! I can also imagine the 'fun' that the typesetter had incorporating all of the different fonts (sometimes in the same sentence) in to the text and still managing to keep the book legible.

As with any book that goes into such detail there are going to be some bits that weren't quite so interesting but these were few and far apart in this one and I am now looking forward to a visit to the St Bride's Print Foundation that a friend and I have booked for late spring.

As an aside the BBC aired a wonderful programme recently all about how the modern printing process works and it made a brilliant companion watch to this book, and this is currently still available to watch on the BBC iPlayer

Micro Review 8 (2025)

 

Poor Girls by Clare Whitfield (Bloomsbury Books)

I had this book marked as a February release and so had been saving it for a New Year read but I think that in fact this was published in 2024 - oops!

It was the premise of this book that drew me in - set just post WW1 and all about how the girls and women who'd had freedom and money during the war thanks to their work settled back in to an ungrateful society.

1922. Twenty-four-year-old Eleanor Mackridge is horrified by the future mapped out for her – to serve the upper classes or find a husband. During the war, she found freedom in joining the workforce at home, but now women are being put back in their place.

Until Eleanor crosses paths with a member of the notorious female-led gang the Forty Elephants: bold women who wear diamonds and fur, drink champagne and gin, who take what they want without asking. Now, she sees a new future for herself: she can serve, marry – or steal. 

I raced through the first part of the book which covered this return to society but then found my reading slowed down as Eleanor leaves home and joins the London gang. In this part I found that there were a few 'information dumps' from Whitfield as she explained how the gang worked and they didn't flow as well for me. Some of the actions and descriptions were also a bit too dark for me - I'm a real coward in my reading and viewing!

Overall I'm glad I read this book, it is always good to try new things and I liked the social history aspects a lot but rather than more crime/thriller books like this one I'd rather read the non-fiction books that formed the research for the novel!

Books of the Year (and related thoughts) for 2024

 

2024 Reading Round Up.

Well another year passes and once more it has been book-filled with a mix of reading for projects and pleasure... while I have read about the same number of books as for the past few years fewer have leapt out at me as potential books of the year.

While I am still enjoying trying all of the Japanese and Korean books in translation that are breaking through to the UK market I might be reaching saturation point when it comes to ones set in cafes or restaurants with cats... I also noticed that lots of books set in the former East Germany (and covering reunification) crossed my reading path in 2024. I would like to read more nature writing/travel books by women so will be actively searching them out in 2025.

Before I share my reads of the year some statistics...

• 65% of books have been by women, or with women listed as the lead author.
• 58% of the books I've read have been fiction 
• 42% non fiction 
• 21% of my reads have been in translation
• 8% of the books were written with a children or YA audience in mind (probably the least I've ever read in this genre)

Narrowing the books down to a top 10 proved impossible and instead I have 24 books for 2024.

Fiction

El Hacho by Luis Carrasco (Epoque Press)

Berlin Duet by S W Perry (Atlantic Books)

The Instrumentalist by Harriet Constable (Bloomsbury)

The Glassmaker by Tracy Chevalier (Harper Collins)

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley (Hodder and Stoughton)

Brandy Sour by Constantia Soteriou, tr. Lina Protopapa (Foundry Press)

The Silence in Between by Josie Ferguson (Transworld Press)

One Grand Summer by Ewald Arenz, tr. Rachel Ward (Orenda Books)

Lula Dean's Little Library of Banned Books by Kirsten Miller (Harper Collins)

Le Fay by Sophie Keetch (Oneworld Publications)

There Are Rivers In The Sky by Elif Shafak (Penguin Books)

Letters from the Ginza Shihodo Stationery Shop by Kenji Ueda, tr. Emily Balistrieri (Bonnier Books)

The Lover of No Fixed Abode by Carlo Fruttero & Franco Lucentini, tr. Gregory Dowling (Bitter Lemon Press)

Non Fiction

High Caucasus by Tom Parfitt (Headline Publishing Group)

The Vanished Collection by Pauline Baer de Perignon, tr Natasha Lehrer (Bloomsbury)

Alice's Book by Karina Urbach, tr. Jamie Bulloch (Quercus Publishing)

Broken Threads by Mishal Husain (Harper Collins)

Cull of the Wild by Hugh Warwick (Bloomsbury)

A Ride Across America by Simon Parker (Duckworth Books)

The Place of Tides by James Rebanks (Penguin Books)

What I Ate In Once Year by Stanley Tucci (Penguin Books)

A Cheesemonger's Tour de France by Ned Palmer (Profile Books)

Sapiens: A Graphic History vol. 1 by Yuval Noah Harari & David Vandermeulen, illus. Daniel Casanave (Vintage)

Slow Trains to Venice by Tom Chesshyre (Octopus Publishing Group)

I am slightly surprised that in the end that slightly more than half of my top reads are by men, when compared to the overall ratio but pleased that a quarter of my best books were in translation. I've also tried to read more from independent publishers this year and I think that this is reflected in my top reads too.

I think that my absolute favourite book of the year is Tracy Chevalier's The Glassmaker although if you ask me tomorrow this could change to The Silence in Between or The Place of Tides!

Timely reading

 

Florence: Ordeal by Water by Kathrine Kressman Taylor (Manderley Press)

Until I read Still Life by Sarah Winman a few years ago I'd not heard of the horrific 1966 flood that devastated Florence. Since reading that I've wanted to know more about the true events that inspired the fiction and have been eagerly awaiting this to be published.

It was fascinating, heart stopping read and then heart warming in how quickly so many people came to the city's rescue.

However the book took on a new poignancy as while I was reading it the dreadful news about the floods in Spain broke. As we learned more about this catastrophe it became clear that nothing seems to have changed in the way of flood warnings - and in fact the floods of 2024 were far more deadly despite all of our modern technology.

It is always hard to recommend a book about a tragedy but this book was fascinating, and in the end hopeful, so if you're interested in Florence, art, disaster recovery or just diaries from the 1960s this book is for you - and perhaps all city/disaster planners who live near rivers...

Time Flies again (micro reviews 1, 2, & 3 for 2024)

 

How can it be February already?

The adage about time speeding up as you get older is definitely true and while January did feel like it had about a 1000 days it also rushed past in a flash and I just haven't had time to blog. 

Its not that I've not been reading, January was quite a productive month book wise but many of the books are very advance copies that I can't talk about yet and to be honest after a crazy busy work month the last thing I wanted to do afterwards was open the laptop and spend more time in front of a screen.

Anyhow here's a quick review of 3 books that have stuck in my mind since reading them...

Christ on a Bike by Orla Owen (Bluemoose Books)

I'd seen lots of chat about this one on social media for a while and was really pleased when my library copy came in the day after publication - the blurb was very intriguing too:

Cerys receives an unexpected inheritance but there are rules attached. Three simple rules that must be followed.

As she settles into her new life, she begins to feel trapped: the past is ever-present. She convinces herself that the villagers are watching her and, desperate to control her own future, she tries to break free...

The tension in this grew and grew with every chapter and I found myself snatching every opportunity to read this book available - I'm loathe to say too much about it as I think the blurb tells you as much as you need to know...

Atalanta by Jennifer Saint (Headline Publishing Group)

I'm very pleased that the trend for retelling myths and legends is continuing, and that they are often putting the women back in to the story front a centre. I'd heard of Atalanta but didn't know much about her story, even after reading Mark Knowle's Argo and Rosie Hewlett's Medea in the past couple of years - both novels which cover some of Atalanta's story.

I am also hopeful (thanks to some of my secret advance reading projects) that this trend for retelling myths will branch out into other cultures beyond the Greek/Roman world.

Clara Reads Proust by Stephanie Carlier/Tr. Polly Mackintosh (Gallic Books) & The Iliad - translated by Emily Wilson (W.W. Norton)

Clara isn't  out for another few weeks and my advance copy was provided by Gallic Books, but while I very much enjoyed the story and the writing/translation what struck me about this book was the timing...

The book is about Clara as she starts reading the novels of Proust for the first time and how while she was aware of them the details were all new. At the start of January I joined an online reading group to read The Iliad and very much like Clara I was familiar with a lot of the story but only the highlights. The synchronicity of the novel and my life definitely added to my appreciation of Clara!  

And now for something completely different

 

The Runaway Heiress by Emma Orchard (Allison & Busby)

I was very lucky to be offered a chance to read this in advance of publication and it arrived at the perfect time. I'm reading (and enjoying) lots of non-fiction books right now but really struggling to find fiction that captivates me.

The Runaway Heiress is so far away from my normal reading choice that I hoped (rightly) that it would break the run of 'did not finish' books.

The blurb for the book reads:

London, 1815. Cassandra Hazeldon is on the run.

Under duress to marry a repellent friend of her uncle, Cassandra has made her escape, but now she is very much alone. With luck and quick thinking, she finds a refuge in a grand mansion in Mayfair, and a protector in Lord Irlam, or Hal to his friends.

Posing as a friend of Hal's sister, Cassandra is swept up into the social whirl of a Brighton summer. But the attraction between her and Hal is starting to scorch, and when jealousy is added to the mix, things are set to reach boiling point.

I don't read a lot of romance and this isn't a period of history I know about,  other cultural touchstones such as Bridgerton and Georgette Heyer have passed me by completely too. 

It was all these novelties that helped me to race through the book, along with the very vivid writing style. I was somewhat taken aback as to just how raunchy the book was in places - and if I am honest  I did prefer the less explicit romance scenes  where the tension was more erotic than the full on scenes - but I did feel like I was an eyewitness to all of the plot and could really 'see' a lot of the characters and settings in colour, so to speak.

I don't think that this period of history is ever going to become a favourite setting of mine but once in a while it will be nice to visit and it has reminded me to read books from genres I don't often touch as they are fun!

Huge thanks to Allison and Busby for the book and for widening my reading as well as my eyes!

Micro review 14

 

Underneath the Archers by Graham Harvey (Unbound)

I think that regular readers of this blog, as well as those who know me on social media/in real life, will not be surprised to hear that my nerdiness stretches into all sorts of areas and that I am quite a fan of the radio soap opera The Archers.

I remember it being on the radio in the afternoons when I was a child, and I am sure that I can remember one specific afternoon sitting under the ironing board while the soap was on the radio - not an ideal place for a pre-schooler to play, sorry mum! Listening to the Sunday omnibus in bed as a student is also a fond memory.

More recently I dip in and out listening, but keep up to date by reading the synopses on the BBC webpage. When doing work experience with the BBC at the Mailbox in Birmingham I got to see the 'set' for the show - including the bar at The Bull. Sound effect props included an ironing board which felt very 'on brand' for me!

Anyhow, back to the book. Graham Harvey was the long time agricultural adviser to the soap, as well as a writer and storyline creator, and his book is an enjoyable mix of titbits from the show, thoughts on farming and its future, some rural history of England, and also some really interesting family history.

It is a niche book but it was a little bit like listening to The Archers - wonderfully comforting and like spending time with a friend you've not seen in a while.

Micro review 13

 

Fair Roasline by Natasha Solomons (Bonnier Books)

Being someone who has studied Shakespeare's plays in quite some detail I wasn't entirely sure about a speculative fiction based on Romeo and Juliet but it has to be said that the tagline:

Was the greatest ever love story a lie?

As someone who has always found Romeo and Juliet to be a bit creepy rather than a romantic tale I was interested enough to request a copy from NetGalley and I am pleased to say that I did enjoy the book.

Many people forget that at the very beginning of the play Romeo is smitten by Rosaline, not Juliet, and it is this romance that Solomons explores as it was just as 'forbidden' as the central one for Rosaline is Juliet's cousin and thus from the 'enemy' Capulet family.

The story stays faithful to the Shakespeare play (which he in turn had borrowed from someone else) for the large part , with the first half being about Rosaline's time with Romeo and then what happens as this relationship wanes and she is replaced by Juliet. The big twist however is that rather than having Romeo roughly the same age as Juliet here he is much older and very much a predator (which fits with my idea of the play's plot being creepy). His romantic words and wooing become incredibly uncomfortable reading as you hear him say them to multiple women/girls.

The parts where the novel  branches furthest away from the play were slightly less credible for me - although perfectly within keeping for the period in which the play is set - but overall I really liked this 'what if' version of the story.

Post holiday reading round up

 

A fortnight doing nothing.

Mr Norfolkbookworm and I have just spent two glorious weeks in Corfu. We did absolutely nothing except a few gentle walks, lie on the beach, swim in the sea and visit lovely restaurants. Oh and I did some reading...in fact I did a lot of reading as I got through 27 books in the fortnight!

A quick list of books and thoughts follow!

An Astronomer in Love - Antoine Laurain (Gallic Books) - a beautiful whimsical tale about love, Paris and the transit of Venus.

Greek Lessons - Han Kan, tr. Deborah Smith & Emily Yae Won (Hamish Hamilton) - an odd little book about a man losing his sight and woman who has become mute, not quite sure I understood all of it.

In Memoriam - Alice Winn (Random House) - a WW1 novel that draws inspiration from public school magazines from the era and also Journey's End. I loved this, a contender for best of the year!

Hitler, Stalin, Mum and Dad: A Family Memoir - Daniel Finkelstein (Harper Collins) - a book that tied in with my reading from just before our holiday as well as covering a far less talked about WW2 experience of being Russian prisoners of war. Incredibly moving.

Madame Pommery: Creator of Brut Champagne - Rebecca Rosenberg (Lion Heart Publishing) - a fun historical fiction novel based around real people. Definitely made me want a glass of bubbles while I was reading it!

The Air Raid Book Club - Annie Lyons (Harper Collins) - an enjoyable WW2 novel set around a bookshop/bookclub.

A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking - T Kingfisher (Argyll Productions) - a fun fantasy novel that owes a lot to Tamora Pierce and Terry Pratchett.

The Half Life of Valery K - Natasha Pulley (Bloomsbury) - Wow! What a book! Not an easy read and one that gave me some pretty vivid dreams but was an edge of your seat read - another contender for book of the year!

Yellowface - Rebecca F Kuang (Harper Collins) - This is one of the most talked about books of the year but for me it was all hype and the book was a disappointment.

Hazardous Spirits - Anbara Salam (Hachette) - for an advance project, can't talk about yet!

The Moon Represents My Heart - Pim Wangtechawat (Simon & Schuster) - another much talked about book that left me cold. All things I like in a book - time travel, mystery and strong family ties but I just didn't see the point of this one.

Last House Before the Mountain - Monika Helfer tr. Gillian Davidson (Bloomsbury) - a multi generational novel from Austria which included a strand about WW1 in Austria which isn't a common setting. For me it felt more style than substance but an interesting read.

The Farmer's Wife - Helen Rebanks (Faber and Faber) - I liked the recipes and insights in to farming but to me the rest of the book just felt a bit weird and more like a conversation she should have been having with her husband or a therapist.

Moderate Becoming Good Later: Sea Kayaking the Shipping Forecast - Katie Carr and Toby Carr (Hachette) - a wonderfully moving travel memoir of Toby's journey around the UK in his kayak.

The Shadow Of Perseus - Claire Heywood (Hodder & Stoughton) - I love the way that Heywood retells the Greek legends but seeing how they might have played out with no divine intervention.

House of Odysseus - Claire North (Little Brown) - A sequel to Ithaca which I read last year. Another retelling of some of the classic stories and I read this while overlooking a rock that is supposed to be Odysseus's ship so very apt!

The Fire - Daniela Krien tr. Jamie Bulloch (Hachette) - This was an interesting look at how the fall of the Berlin Wall has impacted through the generations in the former East Germany and how despite the publicity integration isn't as easy as it is said. I didn't like all the strands of the story but it was a book I could absolutely 'see' as I was reading it.

The Rich - Rachel Lynch (Canelo) - for an advance project so can't talk about yet.

Maame - Jessica George (St Martin's) - I thought that this might be too much of a Sally Rooney-esque 'millennial' novel for me but instead it was incredibly moving and had a lot more depth than I expected, another book of the year contender!

Sweet Bean Paste - Durian Sukegawa tr. Alison Watts (Simon & Schuster) I loved this tale about second chances, unexpected friendships and Japanese food, and also an unexpected link to a favourite Greek set novel.

Morgan is My Name - Sophie Keetch (Simon & Schuster) - I've not read many Arthurian legends and this was a great introduction to the new strand of stories and being a feminist retelling I was instantly hooked and I can't wait for the next book!

A Spell of Good Things - Ayobami Adebayo (Canongate) - I loved Adebayo's first book (Stay With Me) and had really been looking forward to this one. While I loved the setting and found the story interesting, the (over)use of Nigerian phrases and words meant I wanted subtitles as I read the book which kept it at a distance.

Safiyyah's War - Hiba Noor Khan (Andersen Press) - A YA novel about a Muslim family in Paris during WW2 and how the mosque was a centre of resistance and survival. While not a retelling of anyone specific family this is based on research and real life and was a really powerful read.

Days at the Morisaki Bookshop - Satoshi Yagisawa tr. Eric Ozawa (Manilla Press) - billed as being perfect for fans of Before the Coffee Gets Cold and I agree with this and for me the book was just a bit too slight and convenient to become one of my favourite Japan set books.

The Girl with the Red Hair - Buzzy Jackson (Random House) - another Dutch set WW2 book, this time fiction but taking true like happenings as the base. The Girl with the Red Hair was an active member of the resistance and as well as helping Jews to hide from the Nazis she also comminted huge acts of sabotage and violence to help defeat the Germans. Definietly a story that needs to be told, and a Hannie Schaft should be as well known as Anne Frank.

Yours from the Tower - Sally Nicholls (Andersen Press) - a fun epistoloary novel about three 18 year olds in the 1890s, it didn't quite conjure the period for me as it was just a bit modern but I loved spotting the books that had inspired Nicholls' writing!

The Heroines - Laura Shepperson (Little Brown) - My last book that I finished on the plane home and another retelling of a Greek myth. Sadly this wasn't a great novel and it needed a much better editor and fact checker.

Kentish Book Boy returns - part five

 

The Rescue of Ravenwood by Natasha Farrant (Faber and Faber)

Synopsis

To Bea and Raffy, Ravenwood is home. To Noa, it is a welcome refuge. In its own way, the house rescued them, even with a fallen tree taking up most of the kitchen. But now they're about to lose it and there is nothing they can do...or is there?

We all have choices.

Bea can stow away across Europe on a train.

Raffy can keep climbing the tree.

And Noa can find out who started the fire.

My views on the book

I find it a very powerful and symbolic novel. To me, there is a deep family connection.

Recommendation

I would recommend this book to anyone who likes a good, meaningful book.

Once more KBB manages to pique my curiosity with his book choice/review and I'm hoping I can sneak this one of his book case next time I visit!

Micro Review 5 (2023)

 

Black Butterflies by Priscilla Morris (Duckworth Books)

I was quite excited by the Women's Prize longlist this year as several books I'd read and loved were on it, sadly when it came to the shortlist none of these made the cut, and (contrary to every other reader I've met) the one I had read wasn't a hit with me at all.

On reading the blurbs for the others I want to try some of them but it was Black Butterflies that instantly caught my eye - the striking cover also helped with this!

After the fall of the Berlin Wall one of my other big historical memories of the 1990s is the conflict in the Balkans. We had our first family holiday abroad in 1990 and we went to Yugoslavia. We loved the place and planned on going back in 1991 but then Croatia declared independence shortly before our holiday and we ended up in Mallorca (quite a different location!). Following on from this declaration the area descended in to various conflicts, including the siege of Sarajevo, the setting for this novel.

This book details the siege through the eyes of Zora - an artist and teacher in Sarajevo, it starts before things descend in to utter chaos and Zora is able to get her husband and elderly mother out of the city to relatives in England but she remains in the city to tidy up the loose ends. Before she can leave the airport is closed and the city besieged.

The book focuses very much on the daily life of the people trapped in the city, the general violence, the hunger and the fear - it is not particularly about any sectarian divides and definitely not about neighbours turning on neighbours - and I found it utterly compelling and very hard to put down.

Parts of the books are quite gruesome but are definitely not gratuitous, and I also liked that through Zora's eyes you see how you can become desensitised to anything in extreme situations. Not an easy read but a book I'm really pleased to have read. The Balkan conflicts have faded in our memories and this book shows that Sarajevo in the 1990s wasn't that different to the WW2 sieges of Leningrad and Stalingrad and deserve to be remembered.

Quick reads don't mean easy reads

 

Brilliant Books by Barrington Stoke

I've been quite open here on the blog, and in real life, about the struggles I had with reading a few years ago and how much I support initiatives such as the Quick Reads books for adults. Over the past year or so I've been reading more books aimed at children and young adults who also experience difficulties with reading - whether through dyslexia or other reasons.

When I was a bookseller I was aware of Barrington Stoke as a publisher and really admired their work but they did slip completely off of my radar until recently when I rediscovered them thanks to the brilliant WW2 inspired books by Tom Palmer whose books I've blogged about before.

More recently I've been looking at their forthcoming books more closely and discovered that some of my favourite writers have published books with them. 

Ravencave - Marcus Sedgewick

Marcus Sedgewick, who sadly died recently, was the very first author I ran an event with when his novel Floodland was published back in 2000 and I'd only been a bookseller for about 6 months. Well ahead of its time Floodland was the first Cli-Fi book I came across and I loved that it had an East Anglian setting however I digress...one of Sedgewick's last books was Ravencave  and its published by Barrington Stoke.

This is a clever tale that right until 3/4 of the way through made me think it was going to be one type of book when in fact it was quite a different tale altogether. It is also written in clear, simple language with some evocative images to help move the tale along. The publisher rates it as having an interest level of 11+ but a reading age of 8+ and wow - if a book that is written to such incredible margins can surprise me to the extent it did what a powerful piece of writing it is!

Jodie - Hilary McKay

Another author I have loved for years (bust sadly haven't yet been fortunate enough to meet although Kentishbookboy did and got a book signed for me!) and who has written an incredibly good book for Barrington Stoke that is just published.

In this book a class is on a residential trip to a nature reserve and Jodie, who is a new pupil at the school, is out of her depth and unhappy which leads to all sorts of adventures and accidents. Something has happened in Jodie's past but this isn't discussed in the book at all,  as this isn't a book about what has happened or what will happen tomorrow it is all about what is happening right now which makes it a fascinating read and very different from the normal type of book I read.

I can imagine that the immediacy of the narrative, the action and the edge of your seat adventure/ghost story will all help reluctant readers discover a page turner. What is incredible is how McKay has managed to create such a feeling of place (a presumably North Sea) salt marsh within such  a short tale and not got bogged down (pun intended) in description.

I'm in awe of all authors anyhow but the skill needed in creating th

is type of book is incredible and I can't wait to explore more books from Barrington Stoke, whether from writers I already know or ones that are new to me!

Kentish Book Boy returns - part four

 

SkyWake Invasion by Jamie Russell (Walker Books)

Synopsis:

Casey Henderson – aka CASEY_FLOW – is obsessed with online team shooter SkyWake, which has taken the world by storm. The Ghost Reapers are a high-ranking team, and when Casey’s in the zone, anything seems possible.

Then, at a live SkyWake tournament, things start to get weird. The Red Eye alien “cosplayers” seem to have real guns, a massive spaceship looms overhead… and kids are going missing.

My view on the book:

Personally, I find this book very weird. I don't really know how to put my true view into words.

However, I am intrigued as to what the sequel has to offer.

Recommendation:

Honestly, I am giving it a 3.5/5 because it could be better.

Maybe more action/drama is needed; however, mine's just one opinion among many.

I think that this is one of the lowest starred books that KBB has sent over and while not every book can be a hit I admire his perseverance in getting to the end and then in being just curious enough to want to know what happens next. This is very much my reading style so I love that the traits of a bookworm are a family thing!

When he let me know this was the book he'd picked for the month I was really impressed at how far out of his comfort zone he was happy to go. I could see that the sci-fi aspect would appeal I was more surprised at the appeal of the computer game as I didn't know he was into multiplayer games...

I've added this one to my list as again it isn't my normal type of book but I have to confess that I won't be in a huge rush to reserve a copy from the library.

Kentish Book Boy returns - part 2

 

S.T.E.A.L.T.H Access Denied by Jason Rohan (Nosy Crow)

Synopsis:

IT'S JUST ANOTHER ORDINARY DAY, UNTIL IT ISN'T. The kidnap takes place at 7:57. Arun, Donna and Sam are on the run by 11:43. By 17:23 they're operating MANDROID, the most powerful piece of technology the world doesn't know exists and are being shot at by unknown forces. All because one organisation's good idea is another one's weapon. So now someone has to step up.

My View on the Book:

ABSOLUTELY AWESOME! I really enjoyed this book. My favouite part of this was...well actually I don't have a favourite part; it's all really good!

Recommendations:

1,000,000,000,000% recommend this to anyone who likes action

I think that he liked this one, and I'm not so sure I'll get to borrow it!

Micro Review 1 (2023)

 

For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy Upon My Little Pain by Victoria Mackenzie (Bloomsbury Books)

2023 has got off to a strong start and I've had a run of good books which is cheering. I did read this one at the end of 2022 but as it is officially published this week now seems the time to talk about it.

This is a shortish book that I was always going to fall in love with as it is set in Norwich/Norfolk and about strong, literary, women,

The book tells the stories of Margery Kempe, a Norfolk woman who is considered to have written (dictated) the first autobiography in the English language, and Julian of Norwich, a mystic and anchoress whose book the Revelations of Devine Love is the first book in English by a woman.

In this book we learn about both of their lives, and their growing and changing faiths as well as Mackenzie imagining how a meeting between them would have played out.

From past jobs, projects and reading I knew a little about each woman but through this books I know feel I know much more about both them, and Norfolk during the late 1300s/ early 1400s.  I also want to find out more so this has to be a sign of just how good I found the book!

Micro Review 72

 

Resist by Tom Palmer (Barrington Stoke)

Tom Palmer's last two books (After the War & Arctic Star) have appeared on my 'best of the year' lists and this one is heading that way too!

Again Palmer has taken a slightly less know aspect of WW2 history and made it accessible. and interesting, to readers of all abilities.

The book is set around one girl's (Edda) war and is all about how she decided to become a member of the resistance, and how dangerous this was. It is mostly set towards the end of the war, when much of Holland had been liberated but not all, and what life was like under these circumstances. This period is known as the 'Hunger Winter' and is brought into sharp focus with Palmer's skill.

An added bonus to this book is that it is inspired by the real experiences faced by one girl and her family - Audrey Hepburn.

There are a lot of WW2 books set in Holland for all ages, but this one definitely adds to the canon and is worth a read by anyone.

Many thanks to Net Galley and Barrington Stoke for providing an advance copy of this book.