I like to read a mixture of fiction and non-fiction, both print and e-books.
Here is a selection of my blog posts about books and reading:
Book Reviews – Fiction
Dare Me by Megan Abbott
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander
The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim
Beyond Time and Spaceworlds edited by Mike Ashley
Foundation and I, Robot by Isaac Asimov
Transcription by Kate Atkinson
The Testaments by Margaret Atwood
Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey, Persuasion, Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
Life Seemed Good, But…. by Richard Bell
The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty
The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury
The Actuality by Paul Braddon
My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
Our House and The Heights by Louise Candlish
XX by Angela Chadwick
Monkey King: Journey to the West by Wu Cheng’en
The Other Side of the Sky by Arthur C Clarke
The Haunted Hotel by Wilkie Collins
Mrs Bridge and Mr Bridge by Evan S Connell
The Chalet by Catherine Cooper
Dark Matter and Recursion by Blake Crouch
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
Girl A by Abigail Dean
Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe
Pan’s Labyrinth by Guillermo del Toro and Cornelia Funke
The Other Things by Jonathan Dransfield
Me Mam. Me Dad. Me. and Sofa Surfer by Malcolm Duffy
The Doll: Short Stories by Daphne du Maurier
Inheritance by Jenny Eclair
Old Baggage by Lissa Evans
Mrs March by Virginia Feito
The Woman in the Window by A J Finn
The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald
The House Swap by Rebecca Fleet
The Temp by Michelle Frances
Bitter Orange by Claire Fuller
An Unreliable Man by Jostein Gaarder
Invisible in a Bright Light by Sally Gardner
The Beach by Alex Garland
Cecily by Annie Garthwaite
The Bachelor, The Matchmaker, Cold Comfort Farm and My American by Stella Gibbons
The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
The Diary of a Nobody by George & Weedon Grossmith
The Girl in the Letter by Emily Gunnis
Mrs England by Stacey Halls
Haverscroft by S A Harris
The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix
The Word is Murder, The Sentence is Death and A Line to Kill by Anthony Horowitz
We, Robots: Artificial Intelligence in 100 Stories edited by Simon Ings
Bullet Train by Kotaro Isaka
Klara and the Sun and Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
Daisy Jones & the Six and Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Everything Under by Daisy Johnson
Four by Andy Jones
Miss Benson’s Beetle and The Music Shop by Rachel Joyce
The Dare, The Rumour and Who Did You Tell? by Lesley Kara
The Nakano Thrift Shop by Hiromi Kawakami
He Said / She Said, The Burning Air, The Sick Rose and Watch Her Fall by Erin Kelly
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Doctor Sleep and The Shining by Stephen King
Reality, and Other Stories and The Wall by John Lanchester
The Victorian Chaise-Longue by Marghanita Laski
Solaris by Stanisław Lem
Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin
The White Road by Sarah Lotz
The Doll Factory by Elizabeth Macneal
Women of the Dunes by Sarah Maine
The Rise and Fall of Becky Sharp by Sarra Manning
The One by John Marrs
The Passengers by John Marrs
Friend Request and The Anniversary by Laura Marshall
Asylum by Patrick McGrath
While You Sleep by Stephanie Merritt
The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
That Glimpse of Truth: 100 of the Finest Short Stories Ever Written chosen by David Miller
The Light Keeper by Cole Moreton
The Girl Next Door by Phoebe Morgan
Five Minds by Guy Morpuss
Killing Commendatore by Haruki Murakami
Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
Everything I Never Told You and Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
My Lover’s Lover and The Distance Between Us by Maggie O’Farrell
The Flatshare and The Switch by Beth O’Leary
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
The Gormenghast trilogy – Titus Groan, Gormenghast, Titus Alone – by Mervyn Peake
After Me Comes the Flood by Sarah Perry
Magic Fire, Remember Me, Sati and The Starlight Crystal by Christopher Pike
Behind Her Eyes and Cross Her Heart by Sarah Pinborough
Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
The Witches trilogy: Equal Rites, Wyrd Sisters and Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett
The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley
The Secret Commonwealth by Philip Pullman
The Railhead series – Railhead, Black Light Express, Station Zero – by Philip Reeve
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
Conversations with Friends and Normal People by Sally Rooney
Original screeenplays of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and The Crimes of Grindelwald by J K Rowling
Final Girls, Home Before Dark, Lock Every Door and Survive the Night by Riley Sager
Once Upon A River by Diane Setterfield
The Speed of the Dark by Alex Shearer
The Last Man by Mary Shelley
The Oxford Book of Science Fiction Stories edited by Tom Shippey
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner by Alan Sillitoe
A Far Cry From Kensington by Muriel Spark
The Edge Chronicles – Beyond the Deepwoods, Stormchaser, Midnight Over Sanctaphrax, The Curse of the Gloamglozer, The Last of the Sky Pirates – by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Mockingbird and The Man Who Fell to Earth by Walter Tevis
The Adrian Mole series – The Secret Diary, The Growing Pains, The True Confessions, The Wilderness Years, The Cappuccino Years by Sue Townsend
The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton
Plague by Jean Ure
Blackberry and Wild Rose and The Image of Her by Sonia Velton
The Food of the Gods and The Time Machine by H G Wells
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
The Way Inn by Will Wiles
Much Obliged, Jeeves by P G Wodehouse
The Waves by Virginia Woolf
Loner by Georgina Young
We by Yevgeny Zamyatin
Book Reviews – Non-Fiction
James Acaster’s Classic Scrapes and Perfect Sound Whatever by James Acaster
Magnificent Desolation: The Long Journey Home from the Moon by Buzz Aldrin
Unicorn: the Memoir of a Muslim Drag Queen by Amrou Al-Kadhi
The Land Where Lemons Grow: The Story of Italy and Its Citrus Fruit by Helena Attlee
Visit Sunny Chernobyl by Andrew Blackwell
The Prison Doctor by Amanda Brown
One Two Three Four: The Beatles in Time by Craig Brown
The Apple Orchard by Pete Brown
The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs by Steve Brusatte
A Short History of Nearly Everything and The Body: A Guide for Occupants by Bill Bryson
The Diary of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell
The End of the Road by Jack Cooke
Look Up: Our Story with the Stars by Sarah Cruddas
How to Fail by Elizabeth Day
An Atlas of Extinct Countries by Gideon Defoe
Islands of Abandonment: Life in the Post-Human Landscape by Cal Flyn
In Miniature: How Small Things Illuminate the World, Mauve and Timekeepers by Simon Garfield
Eat, Drink, Run by Bryony Gordon
The Lost City of Z by David Grann
Peggy and Me by Miranda Hart
Hard Pushed: A Midwife’s Story by Leah Hazard
Handle With Care: True Confessions of an NHS Health Visitor by Rachael Hearson
Midnight in Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham
Always Look on the Bright Side of Life by Eric Idle
Milk of Paradise: A History of Opium by Lucy Inglis
Defeating the Ministers of Death by David Isaacs
A Del of a Life by David Jason
Me by Elton John
Sweet Dreams: The Story of the New Romantics by Dylan Jones
Bohemian Rhapsody: The Definitive Biography of Freddie Mercury by Lesley-Ann Jones
Toymaker by Tom Karen
Into the Fire: My Life as a London Firefighter by Edric Kennedy-Macfoy
Weeds: The Story of Outlaw Plants by Richard Mabey
Underland by Robert Macfarlane
Mail Obsession: A Journey Round Britain by Postcode by Mark Mason
Tunnel 29 by Helena Merriman
Stuff Matters and Liquid by Mark Miodownik
Murder: The Biography by Kate Morgan
Critical by Matt Morgan
A Sound Mind by Paul Morley
The Moon: A History for the Future by Oliver Morton
The Story of NOW That’s What I Call Music in 100 Artists by Michael Mulligan
Nice Cup of Tea and a Sit Down by Nicey and Wifey
I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes With Death by Maggie O’Farrell
The Library Book and The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean
Don’t Need the Sunshine by John Osborne
Limitless by Tim Peake
Slow Rise: A Bread-Making Adventure and The Man Who Made Things Out of Trees by Robert Penn
Help Me! by Marianne Power
Don’t Look Back in Anger by Daniel Rachel
Crossroads: In Search of the Moments that Changed Music by Mark Radcliffe
Around the World in 80 Trains by Monisha Rajesh
Step by Step: The Life in My Journeys by Simon Reeve
Dear Reader: The Comfort and Joy of Books by Cathy Rentzenbrink
The Lost Pianos of Siberia by Sophy Roberts
In Search of Mary Shelley: The Girl Who Wrote Frankenstein by Fiona Sampson
Strangeways: A Prison Officer’s Story by Neil Samworth
Who Dares Wins: Britain, 1979-1982 by Dominic Sandbrook
Unnatural Causes by Richard Shepherd
The Golden Thread: How Fabric Changed History and The Secret Lives of Colour by Kassia St Clair
By the Light of Burning Dreams by David Talbot and Margaret Talbot
Uncrowned Queen by Nicola Tallis
Confident Women by Tori Telfer
The Courage to Care by Christie Watson
Caspar David Friedrich by Norbert Wolf
Jane Austen at Home: A Biography and Queen Victoria: Daughter, Wife, Mother, Widow by Lucy Worsley
Falling Leaves by Adeline Yen Mah
The Life and Rhymes of Benjamin Zephaniah by Benjamin Zephaniah
Reading
5 classic books which should be adapted for the screen
It’s my 30th birthday! Here are my top 30 books…
A long time ago in a library far away: 6 weeks of summer reading magic
Money, sex, death and… sunshine [the poetry of Philip Larkin]
Poetry is all around us [written on National Poetry Day 2018]
This book seems familiar! Have I read it before? Let me check the spreadsheet…
The 5 themes of Roald Dahl [in honour of Roald Dahl Day 2018]
Books I’ve abandoned this year [2020]
Cats, cats and more cats: 5 books from my early years
‘DNF guilt’ – 3 books I did not finish and why
Pineapples and toilets: Weird books from my shelf
Paperback writers and neverending stories: books in songs!
Authors I want to re-read – and some I don’t
10 writers I’d love to have coffee with
10 writers I’d love to have coffee with – time travel edition
Fictional presents I’ll never get for Christmas
5 books which are literally about hearts: an alternative Valentine’s Day post
My mum’s favourite books [a Mother’s Day post]
Elmer is 30! [Elmer Day 2019]
Goodreads: a newbie’s perspective
Insects in books, films and music
Spaceship, sieve, peach? Fictional transport
Steam engines and sliding doors
Pumpkins, portkeys and polar bears: Fictional transport again
What happened when I used a random generator to choose my re-reads
What is ‘literary fiction’ anyway?
Who will you invite to your fictional party?
Why I use a random number generator to choose my next read
The time-travelling bookworm series: adventures into my reading past! Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4, Episode 5
The time travelling bookworm: rebooted series! The Midwich Cuckoos, Northern Lights, Point Horror Collection 1, South Riding, Three of Diamonds, Ethan Frome, Not Dressed Like That, You Don’t!, Mutant 59: The Plastic Eater, Junk, The Parasites, 2061: Odyssey Three, The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants, Jo’s Boys
The recommended authors series: Daphne du Maurier, Stella Gibbons, Sue Townsend, David Wiesner, Terry Pratchett, J K Rowling
The character of the month series: Lucy Snowe, Moist von Lipwig, Mr Darcy, Harry Potter, Beth March, Marvin the Paranoid Android, Bertie Wooster, Ebenezer Scrooge