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 …
NW leads the reader into the personal history of NW London through the lives of a colourful cast of characters. Their lives cross as neighbours, friends, lovers and enemies. Author: Zadie Smith Title: NW Press: Penguin Date of Publication: Date of Purchase: March 2019 RRP: £8.99 Price of Purchase: Thank you library card Reading Time: …
Small gloating moment, allow me it. I got to hear Anna Burns read extracts from her Booker Prize winning novel Milkman on Thursday evening. She was brilliant. The passages aloud came alive with her control of the cadence and tempo of the language. Although familiar to me in writing they took on a whole new …
Peter Grant is disappointed when assigned a desk job after completing his police training. However, a strange encounter with a ghost while out on patrol opens him up to a world of magic and mystery beyond anything he could have imagined. His first case relates to a rampaging spirit which he must overcome while brokering …
Author: Maggie O’Farrell Title: I am I am I am: Seventeen Brushes with Death Press: Tinder Press (Headline) Date of Publication: 2017 Date of Purchase: December 2018 RRP: £8.99 Price of Purchase: I don’t remember but I did it through the evil empire (sorry) Reading Time: 2 days Rating: 8 So a lot of people …
Author: Kit De Waal Title: My Name is Leon Press: Penguin Prizes: Shortlisted for Costa First Novel Prize Date of publication: 2016 Date of purchase: November 2018 RRP: £8.99 Price of purchase: £2.49 Reading time: 3 days Rating:  8 Well if anyone had told me that a book about a nine year old boy who …
Despite the past two weeks being the busiest of my year so far (six day working weeks: part 14 hour waitressing shift, part an unpaid intern in the city) I have read three books. Despite having deadlines coming out of my ears, conferences to attend and catching up with distant friends I appear to have …
Title: Life of a Banana Author: PP Wong Press: Legend Press Prizes: Longlisted for the Baileys Women's Fiction Prize Date of Publication: 2014 Date of Purchase: November 2018 RRP: £7.99 Price of Purchase: £7.99 Reading Time: 3 days Rating: 8 This novel was a bit of a departure for me for several reasons. 1. it’s commercial fiction …
So having finished the moderately traumatic Here are the Young Men by Rob Doyle I have decided it’s time to step away from manly man fiction and start reading some women for once. I’ve regarded myself as a ‘bad feminist’ before but after attending the SYP (Society for Young Publishers) conference in London last weekend …
Author: Irvine Welsh Title: Filth Press: Vintage Prizes: Date of publication: 1998 Date of purchase: September 2018 RRP: £5.99 Price of purchase: £2.50 Reading time: 2 Week Rating:  6 As a Scot currently playing at contributing to the diaspora in the sunny South of England it seemed appropriate to return to my roots, read a …
Beth's Books (and other bits and bobs) 