Beth's Books (and other bits and bobs)
Feel free to judge this book by its cover, it does what it says on the tin
Bookended by two New Year’s Eve parties Ordinary People explores the coming and going and nature of love in a small, apparently unshakeable family. Melissa and Michael move into their new house with their new baby and young daughter. During the course of the year they each struggle to come to terms with the shape …
In a final attempt to cure her mother of her apparent, undiagnosed illness, Sophia moves to Almeria to enlist the help of Doctor Gomez. Once there she learns as much about her mother as about herself. An anthropology student, Sophia turns the small cast of characters into a study. The novel is plagued with searing …
Roy and Celestial are happily(ish) married for a year and a half. Suddenly everything falls apart, how they handle the fallout will come to define who they are as individuals and as a couple. Author: Tayari Jones Title: An American Marriage Press: One World Rating: 8 This was truly beautiful. It’s part prose part epistolary …
Four siblings in New York visit a gypsy woman in her filthy apartment and learn the dates of their deaths. What they hear will change the courses of each of their lives whether they think they believe or not. None of them were prepared for the information they receive. Title: The Immortalists Author: Chloe Benjamin …
Jasper understands the world around him by colours and sounds, he cannot recognise faces and he is doesn’t understand why people talk in confusing double meanings and jokes. When Bee Larkham moves in across the street he LOVES her colour. But, no one else seems to agree. When she disappears no one will listen to …
Continue reading "Sarah J Harris: The Colour of Bee Larkham’s Murder"
Author: Maggie O’Farrell Title: The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox Date of Publication: 2006 Press: Headline (Hachette) RRP: £7.99 Price of Purchase: (Library of Mum) Reading time: 4 days Rating: 7 This started well, hit a road bump and then recovered itself (although the pseudo incestuous relationship felt completely unnecessary to me I know it …
Continue reading "Maggie O’Farrell: The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox"
This list is inspired in part by my current reading of The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox and partly by a course I undertook in the third year of my undergraduate degree (which I finally feel ready to start reflecting back on). Oh and also it’s Burns Nights so this is my contribution to being patriotic… Complicity: …
Author: Stuart Turton Title: The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle Press: Raven Books (Bloomsbury) Date of Publication: 2018 Prizes: Winner of the Costa First Novel Award 2018 Date of Purchase: December 2018 RRP: £8.99 Price of Purchase: £2.50 Reading Time: 8 days Rating: 9 I needed to get my grubby mitts on this after all …
Continue reading "Stuart Turton: The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle"
Author: Anna Burns Title: Milkman Press: Faber and Faber Date of Publication: 2018 Prizes: Winner of the Man Booker Prize 2018 Date of Purchase: December 2018 RRP: £8.99 Price of Purchase: Reading Time: 10 days Rating: 8 So I’ve been dying to read this since it was longlisted for the Booker way back in July …
Well, it’s been a whirlwind year for me and until I settled down in September I really didn’t manage to put aside much time for reading. This, as well as my ridiculously short memory, means that this list might feel a little autumn heavy. [Also go follow my instagram for fewer words and prettier pictures …
Beth's Books (and other bits and bobs) 