Novels & Biogs
Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
Maggie O’Farrell has written a new book! It’s as if she knew we were going to be cooped up and would need something to read. She and Hilary Mantel should be given some sort of medal in these troubled times.… Read More
Summer Reads: Best Books To Take On Holiday
I read an enormous amount of words every week of the year, mostly to do with work. My daily consumption of fashion reports, consumer analysis and fragrance goings-on is always interesting but quite serious and thought provoking. That’s before we… Read More
The Lost Girl, By Carol Drinkwater
This week I found myself sitting opposite Helen Herriot, wife of vet James Herriot of All Creatures Great And Small fame and the person I most wanted to end up being when I was a teenager (after Rhoda). Who wouldn’t… Read More
A Certain Age by Beatriz Williams
I got sent this book ages ago, but couldn’t get passed the first page for some reason. Then on holiday, I noticed it on the shelves of a Greensboro book store tagged as a New York Times best-seller. Predictably, I… Read More
We’ll Always Have Paris, Trying and Failing to Be French, by Emma Beddington
I’ve been meaning to pop this book up for weeks now, life got in the way.
We’re huge fans of Emma Beddington’s blog Belgian Waffle and have been since we started TWR. She wrote it anonymously to start with (it… Read More
This Must Be The Place by Maggie O’Farrell
There is a new Maggie O’ Farrell out. I have not read the reviews, I have no idea what it’s about and frankly, I don’t care. Neither will you if you are a fan like me. All you need to… Read More
Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith
Just in case any of your are as addicted to murder mysteries as I am, I’m just flagging up that the third book in the excellent Comoran Strike series, written by Robert Galbraith (aka JK Rowling) is out.
Career Of… Read More
7 Miles Out by Carol Morley
Another day, another grown-up, girl-crush. This time the fabulously talented film director Carol Morley, she of The Alcohol Years, Dreams of A Life and The Falling. I was lucky enough to meet Carol last night at her book reading at… Read More
The Temporary Bride by Jennifer Klinec
This book surprised me, I approached it with a slightly heavy heart, anticipating it was yet another food-writer-seeks-world-travel-and-finds-herself, and although it kind of is, it’s also much more than that, as is the author Jennifer Klinec, and is worth considering… Read More
Girl In A Band by Kim Gordon
I love stories of girls in bands, maybe I really want a bit of rock & roll in my life…and Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon has written one that is better than most. Fessing up, I’m not much of a Sonic… Read More
The Improbability of Love by Hannah Rothschild
I was tipped off about this great book by the excellent Lee Randall, who reviewed it on her blog A History of my Life in 100 Objects. Lee writes a far more informed review than I ever could, but I… Read More
The First Bad Man by Miranda July
This was recommended to me recently (thanks Susan) and it’s a joy from the start. Quirky, odd and written in a freshly modern manner, The First Bad Man is Miranda July’s first novel, she’s written short stories before, which I’ve… Read More
The Girl On The Train by Paula Hawkins
This is thrill of a read, perfect for crime and thriller lovers. Based around the narrative of Rachel, who is mostly miserable, a drinker and suffering the lingering affects of her divorce. She witnesses a visual snapshot while on a… Read More
The Ruby Slippers by Keir Alexander
This is a sweet, sad and thoughtful novel to fill a bleak January or February. Set in New York, it weaves a list of characters around a mildly mild plot to sell a pair of the Ruby Slippers made famous… Read More
Flesh and Blood by Patricia Cornwall
On the back of my Serial addiction, I read my first Patricia Cornwall last week. I know! My first one…what’ve I been doing? This is a Kay Scarpetta story and I enjoyed it. My sister, who is an avid Cornwall… Read More
The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters
Set in 1922 , in a genteel Camberwell villa, bereft of brothers, husband and servants due to the war, Mrs Wary and her daughter Frances are obliged to take in lodgers to make ends meet. Enter Lilian and Leonard Barber,… Read More
Completion by Tim Walker
After a few books from this summer’s must-read list had turned out to be non-starters, I was delighted to tuck into Completion by Tim Walker, a feast for anyone with a taste for a character-driven book set in many authors’… Read More
If I Knew You Were Going To Be This Beautiful I Never Would Have Let You Go by Judy Chicurel
This is a fabulous read, one that took me right back to the days of teenage love-crushes and desperately wanting to be a grown up, but scared of going too fast. I had nothing in common with Katie, the heroine… Read More
Clothes, Clothes, Clothes, Music, Music, Music, Boys, Boys, Boys by Viv Albertine
If you’ve ever wanted to be in a band, you need to read Tracey Thorn’s book, followed swiftly by this one by the amazing Viv Albertine. Where Tracey is mostly quite sensible in her music career, Viv is wild and… Read More
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Americanah manages to weave issues such as race, culture and immigration around a captivating love story spanning three continents. I’d avoided this book for far too long, mistakenly thinking it sounded much too depressing and heavy for the early-morning commute.… Read More
Love Story With Murders by Harry Bingham
This is a cracking read for anyone who likes an intelligent crime novel. The heroine is a wonderfully written mash up between Saga from The Bridge and Sarah Lancashire in the dismally grim but completely compelling Happy Valley. The story… Read More
Still Life with Breadcrumbs by Amy Quindlen
Still Life with Breadcrumbs will have you immersed from the first page and leave you wishing for a sequel at the last.
It centres around the life of Rebecca Winter, a 60 year old photographer forced to up sticks to… Read More
A Curious Career by Lynn Barber
I love reading anything by journalist Lynn Barber. I’d never want to be interviewed by her as she sounds hugely terrifying, but she’s a brilliant writer with a formidable reputation for not pandering to her subjects, however famous they are.… Read More
The Signature of All Things, by Elizabeth Gilbert
I have it on very good authority (ahem, my sis) that this is a cracking read.
I know, I know, Eat Pray Love wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but Ms Gilbert is one hell of a storyteller, and we’re thrilled… Read More
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
Looking back through our We Are Reading posts I am shocked to find no Donna Tartt. How the heck did we forget to put up The Secret History? One of our favourite books ever. Do read it immediately if you… Read More
The Last Runaway, by Tracy Chevalier
Attention all quilters, this is a book you might want to check out.
You may all remember the lovely Tracy Chevalier wrote Girl With A Pearl Earring, this is her latest tale, wrapped up in quilts, applique, Quakerism and slavery.… Read More
Mind The Child by Camila Batmanghelidjh and Kids Company
Camila Batmanghelidjh, inspiring head of Kids Company, was asked by Penguin Books to help celebrate the London Underground by writing a book about what it meant to her. She promptly turned the project into a chance to focus on the… Read More
Love Nina, Despatches from Family Life by Nina Stibbe
This book is a fabulous antidote if you are having a miserable January, I’ve absolutely loved it and couldn’t put it down. It’s an easy read too, in a lovely open and fresh style that is both funny and touching.… Read More
The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd
There is much talk of slavery currently, with Steve McQueen’s extraordinary and hopefully Oscar winning film on the subject, but for those who can’t get to the film, there’s a revealing and moving book just out on the same subject… Read More
Plainsong by Kent Haruf
I was tipped off by my sister about this gentle, easy-paced story set in a small backwater town Colorado, it might be the perfect antidote to the January blues (or ‘greys’ as it should be called here in London, to… Read More