I don’t often read non-fiction. Not due to a lack of enjoyment or a lack of non-fiction titles to choose from but mainly due to the fact that since I started blogging about books the majority of interest seems to lie in fiction and I have a tendency to become preoccupied with trivial matters such … Continue reading Tribes by David Lammy
It has been a little while since my last post. I decided to take a little break from blogging. I was struggling to enjoy reading or to find the time to dedicate to book blogging that is required to make it worthwhile. However, while I’ve been away, I finished Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. I … Continue reading The Vegetarian by Han Kang
Sisters is Daisy Johnson’s second novel following on from the outstanding Everything Under. Johnson also has a short story collection, Fen, published. Through these first two books she established herself as one of Britain’s brightest writing talents, becoming the youngest ever writer to be shortlisted for the Booker Prize (she was 27 at the time) … Continue reading Sisters by Daisy Johnson
One of the emerging genres of the last few years has been folk horror. Books such as Water Shall Refuse Them by Lucy McKnight Hardy, Andrew Michael Hurley’s excellent trio of books The Loney, Devil’s Day and Starve Acre and Pine by Francine Toon are just a few examples of the superb books to be … Continue reading The Balance by Kev Harrison
What’s it about? Hamnet tells a story about grief, love and the bond between families. First, Hamnet’s twin sister falls ill with the suspected plague before Hamnet grows ill himself. Though all this, Agnes desperately tries to get word to her husband who is working away in London and to care for her ailing children. … Continue reading Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
What’s it about? Giovanni’s Room, first published in the UK in 1957, tells the story of David, a young American, living in Paris. His fiancé has travelled to Spain to do some soul searching and while she is away, he meets and become infatuated with a beautiful and mysterious Italian barman named Giovanni. What proceeds … Continue reading Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin
Hopeful Monsters is Roger McKnight’s debut short story collection. It features 17 stories which often include characters experiencing hardship or difficulty while eventually finding some sort of solace. It is published by the wonderful Storgy Books who were generous enough to send me a copy to review. Regular readers of my blog will know I … Continue reading Hopeful Monsters by Roger McKnight
His Bloody Project tells the story of Roderick Macrae (Roddy for short), a young man living in the Scottish Highlands in 1869, who is arrested for a triple murder. The story is told through a memoir written by Roddy, a report from an expert on criminal insanity and the transcript of the trial. It is … Continue reading His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet
I, like so many people, was horrified by the video which showed Derek Chauvin kneeling on George Floyd’s neck for nine minutes, half of which George Floyd spent begging for help, for water, for his mother. Even once George Floyd had lost consciousness the officer refused to take his knee from his neck until he … Continue reading They Can’t Kill Us All by Wesley Lowery
What’s it about? The story centres around Billy Pilgrim. It tells us his life story with focus as his time as a prisoner of war in the Second World War. Billy is far from your typical war hero. He is in fact a chaplains assistant. He carries no weapon, has no boots and is not … Continue reading Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Fallen Figs Book Blog 