Recommendations

I do enjoy looking at the many prize lists coming out at the moment. We have had three interesting longlists recently:  the Carnegie Medal for children’s books, the International Booker Prize, and the Women’s Prize for Fiction. Most Enjoyable Romance Sometimes romance novels can seem to focus on the same …

Very few paperbacks are published in the final months of the year, and I am delighted to see that more are coming out now that we are into January.  I am also pleased to be able to say that I thoroughly enjoyed some books that I read in December. Most …

The Nero book awards don’t seem to attract as much attention as I would expect, but if you are looking for some more ideas for yourself or presents for others, their various shortlists may be helpful (https://nerobookawards.com/2025-shortlist/). Most Enjoyable Fantasy Novel  I loved Eva St John’s Flint in the Bones. …

This is a somewhat unusual selection as generally the books which I most enjoyed reading in October were reprints. I am very grateful that so many good and enjoyable books from the past are now available, and that many publishers continue to reprint them. Most Entertaining British Classic Crime Reprint …

There are lots of good books coming out at the moment,  but if you are very busy and looking for a shorter read you could look at Novellas in November. This is coming up soon with one of the hosts being the blogger Bookish Beck (https://bookishbeck.com). Most Entertaining Fantasy Novel …

The books I enjoyed most in August vary in their seriousness or light-heartedness, but they are all the same in one way. They all show protagonists finding that life has more opportunities than they might previously have supposed. Favourite Book from the Booker Longlist I enjoyed Benjamin Wood’s novella Seascraper …

Another month with some excellent reading. I was also pleased to see that the Booker longlist included some titles which look interesting, and even more pleased to see that I had already read one of the books – Universality by Natasha Brown which I much enjoyed. Most Compelling Literary Thriller  …

June was a month in which I was really pleased to see that two of my favourite recent books won awards: the Women’s Prize for Fiction was given to Safekeep, and  Greer’s Annie Bot won the Arthur C Clarke Award. Next month we have the Booker longlist. Even though I …

I have had another good month for reading, and am looking forward to seeing who wins the Women’s Prize for Fiction (12th June), and the Carnegie Awards for children’s and YA books (19th June). Best Speculative Novel  I loved Ali Smith’s Gliff, a dystopian novel set in the near future. Two children have to cope when they find …

Looking at the five books I have most enjoyed reading in April, I am interested to see that four of them are set in the past: one in ancient Greece, and three in the twentieth century. First, however, let’s look at a novella which plays with time.  Most Intriguing Speculative …

In recent weeks we have seen the announcement of many longlists and shortlists. I am always interested to see what gets chosen, and the ones which have most grabbed my attention are: the Women’s Prizes (for fiction, and for non-fiction), the Carol Shields Prize (North American women’s fiction), the Nebula …

I have read a particularly good selection of books this month, and found it hard to choose the best ones. Most Entertaining Novel The Housekeepers by Alex Hay. In this novel, set in 1901, a group of women carry out the audacious plan of stealing the contents of a London …