Back Trouble - Clare Chambers

59%

23.10.25

Wry humour, sharp observation and a strong sense of place and time - yes, it's a Clare Chambers novel. I have a few to read and this was engaging and interestingly structured, if not ultimately memorable or profound.

Behind Every Good Man - Sara Goodman Confino

54%

20.08.25

This was well researched but I suspect the misogyny of the time was exaggerated for effect. It was hard to warm to the main character - or, indeed, any of the characters - and it was all a bit predictable, making the story rather lacklustre.

 

How To Solve Your Own Murder - Kristen Perrin

 47%

21.11.24

First of all, the murdered person does not solve their own murder (because she's, yer know, dead). Other examples of the many annoying things about this book are the endless punctuation errors, the wimpy, undeserving 'heroine', a plot and structure that made no sense, and the tiny village with its own two ambulances (complete with assigned paramedics), police station (complete with assigned detective who can't even find the cannabis farm), solicitors' practice, walk-in doctors' surgery, iPhone store and Oxfam shop.

Don't Forget to Write - Sara Goodman Confino

 61%

09.07.24

The word that best describes this story is 'breezy'. There's nothing particularly deep or disturbing but it's still engaging and readable - the holiday read I didn't know I needed.

Utopia Avenue - David Mitchell

 43%

03.07.23

I'm not sure why I persevered with all 561 pages of this when many more tempting books are literally piling up. For a story about a trendy band enjoying all the subversive aspects of the exciting 1960s, it was incredibly dull. Mitchell can't write convincingly about music - or fame - or women - or mental health issues - and I really dislike fictional characters meeting real people (most of whom are now dead, presumably included to avoid lawsuits). Daisy Jones and the Six was better  - hell, even Songs in Ursa Major was better - and the 'other' David Mitchell is more fun.

Little Wing - Freya North

 52%

13.06.23

This mostly seemed to be an advert for the Isle of Harris tourist board - apparently, it's practically perfect - but it was also a rather reactionary story about a fallen woman eventually getting her comeuppance and a couple of deeply uninteresting 30-somethings rediscovering themselves.

Songs in Ursa Major - Emma Brodie

 45%

26.02.23

This was comically badly written in many - too many - places. 'Daisy Jones and the Six' it was not, whatever the copy-cat cover suggests. It was, admittedly, entertaining but, from the terrible metaphors to the trite song lyrics to the awkwardly inserted (sorry) sex scenes to the tiresome main character who can play any instrument just by looking at it, this novel needed several more drafts to be any good.

(Oh, I must add that the reference to a British rock singer's 'Kentish voice' made me laugh out loud whenever it was mentioned. I'm British and have no idea what that might sound like, so I'm pretty sure someone who grew up on an isolated US island 60 years ago wouldn't either.)

The Bookseller - Cynthia Swanson

 52%

14.01.23

Although this story wasn't boring, exactly, it was hard to care. That's partly down to the two-dimensional characters (and the self-absorbed narrator) but mainly due to the author's rookie error of trying to shove in all her meticulous research at the expense of a well-constructed narrative. 

Lessons in Chemistry - Bonnie Garmus

 

51%

01.01.23

This book is so popular that my library reservation took three months to come through in the form of an enormous hardback. But I might as well have stood in line to be hit over the head with it, so heavy-handed is its execution. So women were disrespected in the 1950s - we get the point but the descriptions are so exaggerated they fail to ring true. Apparently also children were Roald Dahl's Matilda, you could become a champion rower by reading, not rowing, dogs were basically people who couldn't speak and people were, including and especially the main character, unlikeable and entirely unsympathetic. 

Celestial Navigation - Anne Tyler

 

54%

08.08.21

This early Tyler starts out promisingly with her trademark 'short story' opening chapter but it soon gets weird and inexplicable. Disappointing.

Where the Crawdads Sing - Delia Owens

 

43%

13.07.21

I can't see the appeal of this much-hyped novel. I think what irritated me most was the fact it was all so unlikely. Unrealistic I can handle - if the world building and characters are strong enough you can happily suspend your disbelief - but this was just silly because it didn't ring true on any level.
And the poetry! Dear God, the awful poetry, which even one of the characters thought was bad. So why include it? This book just didn't know what it was or where it was going.

The Vanishing Half - Brit Bennett

 

69%

12.06.21

This is June's choice for both my reading groups and I was expecting such a trendy book to be political and preachy and worthily hardgoing. But, on the contrary, it's a lyrical, engaging account of the shifting nature of identity. Yes, it's a little heavy handed at times and, yes, nothing much actually happens, but it's an easy read with a sophisticated structure.

Deacon King Kong - James McBride

 

63%

19.04.21

Confident and very clever, this engaging story can be read on a number of levels. Is it political satire, crime, farce, romance, memoir, allegory or comedy? Well, yes. It's a vivid peek into the lives of those not often remembered these days, though it does lack the emotional depth needed for you to actually care about them.