Reading

Here is a selection of my blog posts about books and reading. You can find more posts by browsing the categories drop-down menu or using the search box (these are on the right-hand side, or at the bottom of the page, depending on your screen).

Book Reviews – Fiction

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander, The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim, Beyond Time, Future Crimes, Menace of the Machine and Spaceworlds edited by Mike Ashley, Who Is Maud Dixon? by Alexandra Andrews, Foundation and I, Robot by Isaac Asimov, Transcription by Kate Atkinson, The Testaments by Margaret Atwood, Emma, Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey, Persuasion, Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

Abandoned by Vicky Ball, Greed and Envy by Tim Beeden, Life Seemed Good, But…. by Richard Bell, Yinka, Where is Your Huzband? by Lizzie Damilola Blackburn, The Thunder Girls by Melanie Blake, The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty, Mary Jane by Jessica Anya Blau, The Illustrated Man and The Martian Chronicles 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, Queenie and People Person by Candice Carty-Williams, XX by Angela Chadwick, Monkey King: Journey to the West by Wu Cheng’en, The Other Side of the Sky by Arthur C Clarke, Piranesi by Susanna Clarke, The Haunted Hotel by Wilkie Collins, Mrs Bridge and Mr Bridge by Evan S Connell, The Chalet by Catherine Cooper, Dark Matter, Recursion and Upgrade by Blake Crouch

James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl, Girl A by Abigail Dean, Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe, The Temple House Vanishing by Rachel Donohue, The Birds and Other Stories, The Doll: Short Stories and I’ll Never Be Young Again by Daphne du Maurier

Inheritance by Jenny Eclair, In the Ditch by Buchi Emecheta, The Neverending Story by Michael Ende, 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, Eve Green by Susan Fletcher, Out There: Stories by Kate Folk, Bitter Orange by Claire Fuller

An Unreliable Man by Jostein Gaarder, The Beach by Alex Garland, Cecily by Annie Garthwaite, A Pink Front Door, Cold Comfort Farm, Enbury Heath, My American, Starlight, The Bachelor, The Matchmaker, The Swiss Summer, The Weather at Tregulla, The Woods in Winter, The Snow-Woman by Stella Gibbons, 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, Nightshade Revenge and Where Seagulls Dare by Anthony Horowitz

We, Robots: Artificial Intelligence in 100 Stories edited by Simon Ings, Bullet Train, Mantis and Three Assassins by Kotaro Isaka, An Artist of the Floating World, 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, Everything Under by Daisy Johnson, Hex Appeal by Kate Johnson, Four by Andy Jones, Miss Benson’s Beetle and The Music Shop by Rachel Joyce

The Apartment Upstairs, 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 House of Mirrors, The Sick Rose, Watch Her Fall and We Know You Know by Erin Kelly, On the Road by Jack Kerouac, 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, Snakes and Ladders by Morton R Leader, Solaris by Stanisław Lem, Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin, Of Ants and Dinosaurs by Cixin Liu, How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn, The White Road by Sarah Lotz, The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudesley by Sean Lusk

The Rise and Fall of Becky Sharp by Sarra Manning, The One and The Passengers by John Marrs, Friend Request and The Anniversary by Laura Marshall, The Mad Women’s Ball by Victoria Mas, Asylum by Patrick McGrath, The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides, The Light Keeper by Cole Moreton, The Girl Next Door and The Wild Girls by Phoebe Morgan, Five Minds by Guy Morpuss, Killing Commendatore by Haruki Murakami, Convenience Store Woman, Earthlings and Life Ceremony by Sayaka Murata

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness, Everything I Never Told You and Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

The Country Girls Trilogy by Edna O’Brien, Hamnet, My Lover’s Lover and The Distance Between Us by Maggie O’Farrell, Mayflies by Andrew O’Hagan, The Flatshare and The Switch by Beth O’Leary, Burmese Days and Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell, Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

The Dutch House by Ann Patchett, Titus Groan 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, Cross Her Heart and Insomnia by Sarah Pinborough, The Witches Trilogy by Terry Pratchett, The Maid by Nita Prose, The Secret Commonwealth by Philip Pullman

The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse and The Toyminator by Robert Rankin, 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, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, The Crimes of Grindelwald and The Secrets of Dumbledore screenplays by J K Rowling

Final Girls, Home Before Dark, Lock Every Door, Survive the Night and The House Across the Lake 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, Swing Time by Zadie Smith, A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket, A Far Cry From Kensington, Loitering With Intent and The Girls of Slender Means by Muriel Spark

Once Upon A Time in Hollywood by Quentin Tarantino, 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, The Lost Diaries, The Prostrate 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

A Japanese Blossom by Onoto Watanna, Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day by Winifred Watson, 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, The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham

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, World in My Eyes by Richard Blade, 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, We Can Be Heroes: A Survivor’s Story by Paul Burston, The Diary of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell

The End of the Road by Jack Cooke, Simply Vegan Baking by Freya Cox, Reach for the Stars by Michael Cragg, Look Up: Our Story with the Stars by Sarah Cruddas

Thanks A Lot Mr Kibblewhite by Roger Daltrey, How to Fail by Elizabeth Day, An Atlas of Extinct Countries by Gideon Defoe

Head Heart and Hipbones by Gillian Entwistle, Listening to the Music the Machines Make by Richard Evans

Beyond the Wand by Tom Felton, Islands of Abandonment: Life in the Post-Human Landscape by Cal Flyn

In Miniature: How Small Things Illuminate the World, Mauve, The End of Innocence: Britain in the Time of AIDS and Timekeepers by Simon Garfield, The Lost City of Z by David Grann, The Storyteller by Dave Grohl

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, Adventures in Modern Recording by Trevor Horn

Always Look on the Bright Side of Life by Eric Idle, Milk of Paradise: A History of Opium by Lucy Inglis

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, Ticket to the World: My 80s Story by Martin Kemp, Into the Fire: My Life as a London Firefighter by Edric Kennedy-Macfoy, Gone by Min Kym

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

Seashaken Houses by Tom Nancollas, Nice Cup of Tea and a Sit Down by Nicey and Wifey, (R)evolution: The Autobiography by Gary Numan

Lead Sister: The Story of Karen Carpenter by Lucy O’Brien, 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, Burning the Books: A History of Knowledge Under Attack by Richard Ovenden

Ghostland by Edward Parnell, 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, Daemon Voices by Philip Pullman

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, Badgeland by Steve Rayson, Step by Step: The Life in My Journeys and Journeys to Impossible Places by Simon Reeve, Dear Reader: The Comfort and Joy of Books by Cathy Rentzenbrink, The Lost Pianos of Siberia by Sophy Roberts,A Tomb with a View by Peter Ross

Strangeways: A Prison Officer’s Story by Neil Samworth, Who Dares Wins: Britain, 1979-1982 by Dominic Sandbrook, Major Labels: A History of Popular Music in Seven Genres by Kelefa Sanneh, The Theory of Everything Else by Dan Schreiber, The Seven Ages of Death and Unnatural Causes by Richard Shepherd, It’s All Too Much by David Stark, 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, Elizabeth’s Rival and Uncrowned Queen by Nicola Tallis, Confident Women by Tori Telfer, Journeys in the Wild by Gavin Thurston