This was a surprisingly difficult novel to review because while aspects of it captivated me I was in some ways left unsatisfied. I was initially sold on trying it due to the 'family saga' angle which is absolute catnip to me and I thought Jackson did a fantastic job of creating a family that was both recognisable and unique.

This book was an absolute surprise to me. It's not really like anything else I've read before although it absolutely has notes of other books I've loved including Wally Lamb's She's Come Undone, Meg Mason's Sorrow and Bliss and Emily Austin's Someday Everyone in this Room Will Be Dead.

Hello strangers! I’ve been so caught up with planning for my theatre tour (not so subtle plug, sorry) that I’ve totally neglected book reviews despite having read some utter delights recently. Today though, that changes!

For a couple of years now I’ve heard people gushing over Sally Rooney novels, obsessing over the BBC adaptation of Normal People, and getting into tit-for-tat arguments over whether her books deserve the celebrity status they’ve been afforded. Whatever people believe, they tend to have pretty strong feelings on Rooney’s writing.

I usually can’t wait to put together my reading wrap ups at the end of each month but for the last few months, around May onwards, I’ve had an absolutely terrible few months reading wise.

When I picked The Surrogate on NetGalley I actually thought I was getting THIS novel that I’d seen doing the social media rounds, when in actuality I was getting THIS one.

With fiction you’re able to seamlessly blend reality and imagination to produce some kind of truth without the reader knowing quite how much of the actual you they’ve encountered. With memoir, so we assume, everything is as close to truth as it can be.

As soon as I read the blurb for My Dark Vanessa I knew it was my kind of book and I was 100% correct. Slipping between present day (well 2017) and various points in the past, the novel explores the relationship between Vanessa and English teacher Jacob Strane which begins when she's his 15-year-old student.

I read True Crime Story without knowing much about it and I think probably that's useful with this book. So, if you think you'll read it, while I'll attempt as always to be spoiler free, I'm not sure how possible/helpful that is in this specific case and you might perhaps want to stop reading this for now.

If I were writing in the before times the blog would be chock a block with theatre trips or stand-up comedy nights.

I have no idea what genre Leave The World Behind is except the ‘excellent novel’ genre that I now hereby award it. I read this for January’s Chapter Chat Book Club but even before that it was already on my list.

Ooooh this book! I’m going to be so careful how I review this because I really loved launching into this novel with a fairly limited idea of what to expect within the pages.

It wasn’t until Stephen King published his non-fiction work On Writing that it occurred to me to read some of his fiction.

As someone who just finished a Faber Academy course and is in the process of writing her first novel, I’m both deeply envious and completely in awe of Anna Bailey, the 24 year old author of Tall Bones who finished her novel writing course, the Curtis Brown one, just last year (!) and was quickly published.

After the delight that was Beach Read earlier this year I’ve been waiting for another feel-good romance with a solid, engaging narrative. And, for the most part, I’ve got to say that The Summer Job absolutely delivered.

Mark Watson is, in my opinion, one of the sharpest, funniest and most articulate artists out there.

I do not know how to feel about this book. There I said it. Even while I was reading it I didn’t know how I felt.

Maus is one of those classic ‘one day I’ll read that’ books. Or two books, depending on which version you have. The downside to having a well-stocked bookshelf and a prolific book buying habit is that I’m constantly reminded of how much I haven’t read.

It must be almost impossible for anyone with even a passing interest in books not to be aware of Candice Carty-William’s Queenie. When it came out back in March 2019 it appeared in the windows of Waterstones in an eye catching display, the cover art printed in four different colours: pink, blue, minty green and orange. I, like many other book obsessives loved it, and had no idea which one to buy.

OK, first up, I have to admit that I’m probably the ideal reader for this novel.