Keeping Up Appearances by Rose Macaulay and Which Way? by Theodora Benson #BritishLibraryWomenWriters

Today's post is a look at two books I've been desperately trying to get to for some time. It's been a good summer for reading and I've managed to shift clear about half of the TBR pile - and I've finally read these two crackers from the marvellous British Library Women Writers series. I've been …

Still Life – Sarah Winman

I've been in a real reading slump this spring (and my reviewing has hit an all-time low in terms of productivity). Thankfully, my sister-in-law sent me Winman's Still Life, and there's so much to love about this novel that I don't know where to start. It might just be easier if I list what I …

Mamma – Diana Tutton (British Library Women Writers)

In other hands, this could have been an uncomfortable (or perhaps horribly salacious) read, concerning as it does a growing connection between a woman and a younger man. But Tutton is too good a writer for that, and this becomes a fascinating exploration of motherhood, aging, and the often uncomfortable acknowledgement of desire in anyone …

Klara and the Sun – Kazuo Ishiguro

Ishiguro's new novel picks up on some of the ideas and concerns visited in Never Let Me Go, but that novel now feels like something of a rehearsal for Klara and the Sun. In his latest novel, Ishiguro has perfected the limited-perspective narrative style and given us a marvellous new invention in Klara, an Artificial …

The Borrowed Boy – Deborah Klée

I raced through this novel in one sitting, so desperate was I to find out what happens to Danek, the 'borrowed boy', in Klée's story. Angie Winkle, aging and alone, knows she has cancer and probably doesn't have long to live. Her life has been unsatisfactory and she has decided to revisit an old seaside …

The Wave – Virginia Moffatt

'Perhaps I am wrong, but I have weighed the odds, and finding them so stacked against me, I have made my choice. If this is the remaining time allotted to me, I will spend it doing what I want. The sun is shining, the surf is up. It's a perfect day for the beach ... …

Re-Navigation by Sue Parritt #BlogTour

A gloomy seascape is of little consequence to Julia, as a ferry transports her to an isolated Welsh island to undertake a Spiritual Development course. Soon, Julia finds herself surrounded by new friends and questions. As relationships deepen, so does Julia’s feeling that something crucial is missing from her life. As passion ignites and deep-buried …

Charlie Laidlaw’s The Space Between Time

As in his previous novel, The Things We Learn When We're Dead, Charlie Laidlaw has taken on both the intensely personal and big sweeping ideas about time and space, examining what it is to be human, and situating his narrator’s existence in North Berwick within a much wider cosmic scale. I very much enjoyed The …

Gordon Kerr’s The Partisan Heart #BlogTour

Following his wife’s tragic death, Michael Keats’ grief is compounded by the discovery that she had been having an affair. This revelation leads Michael to Italy, his wife’s home country, where he becomes embroiled in tensions which date back to the 1940s. The violence and loyalties of the past reverberate down the years, and Michael …

What’s Left Unsaid – Deborah Stone

Deborah Stone’s novel begins with Joe telling us, from beyond the grave it quickly transpires, that he and his wife, Annie, have much to regret, that they hid the truth at many points in their lives. The consequences of what has been left unsaid are played out in this story, often to devastating effect. Annie …