A Slipping Down Life - Anne Tyler

61%

01.05.26

This Tyler is so early that the distinctive small-town 1960s setting was contemporary. It's stranger and sadder than her later work - and it's not set in Baltimore! - but it's as intriguing and beautifully captured as ever. 

After I Do - Taylor Jenkins Reid

47%

03.04.26

I like TJR's vivid stories from the world of Evelyn, Carrie and Daisy but her contemporary relationship novels (see also this and this) might as well be by a different author. Everyone was just a cipher and, despite each person presenting a different aspect of long-term relationships versus independence, the ending was deeply conservative, with everyone ending up (spoiler) traditionally coupled up. 

It also made America seem very foreign, highlighting their strange food (sweet potato at Christmas? Pigs in blankets with pastry at a baby shower?) and traditions and approaches to life.

Three Days in June - Anne Tyler

 71%

12.03.26

Anne Tyler's extensive output can be patchy (or maybe patchworky?) but this is a jewel of a novella, every word carefully placed, every thought and action and memory contributing to the shining whole. Nothing much happens, but it happens so engagingly. If you don't like the best of Tyler's novels, do you really like reading? Or life?

Always On My Mind - Carys Green

40%

02.02.26

An interesting premise, poorly executed. The author needed to spend less time thinking about how it would adapt for Netflix and more time improving her writing skills. 

A Glass of Blessings - Barbara Pym

72%

18.12.25

I hadn't heard of this but it was by far the best Pym novel I've read. The snobbish, judgemental narrator was, oddly, especially engaging and relatable - in fact, it's surprising how much of a 1950s, middle-class, religious housewife's life is still relatable through Pym's witty and perceptive writing. Her relationships with her mother-in-law and, later, her gay friends, were surprisingly positive. Overall: delightful.

Behind Her Eyes - Sarah Pinborough

60%

09.10.25

All talk of this book is about the twist - or rather, twists - the first of which I guessed and the second I didn't, because it was, frankly, crazy (if not, on reflection, particularly surprising or original). But maybe I should have, as it was a crazy story in general, with so much booze consumed that it's no wonder it ends up like a fever dream. Although some of the weirdness never quite works, and characters are frustratingly inconsistent, the genre-bending approach worked for me and it was, in the end, simply entertaining.

Mary Jane - Jessica Anya Blau

67%

05.10.25

This was such a lovely story: pleasing turns of phrase, funny in the right places, sweet without being cloying yet secretly quite complex - and surprisingly wholesome, given the sex 'n' drugs 'n' rock 'n' roll at its heart.

Every Last Suspect - Nicola Moriarty

61%

24.09.25

I've read all of Liane Moriarty's books but luckily her sister writes in a very similar, entertaining style. It uses the same formula of bubbling domestic and social resentments, leading to an unlikely but somehow satisfying conclusion. The Moriartys make suburban Australia sound much more interesting that it probably is.

Rock Paper Scissors - Alice Feeney

 44%

29.10.24

No realistic people were harmed in the making of this novel.

What Alice Forgot - Liane Moriarty

 62%

24.10.24

Moriarty's tenth novel is about to come out so finding the only other one I hadn't read in the library was serendipitous. This was a fun yet surprisingly complex read - a woman forgetting the last ten years was almost like time travel but it cleverly stopped short of 'young her undoes the mistakes of older her', examining all the implications. Talking of mistakes, I enjoyed it all the way up to the ending(s), which were hugely disappointing, considering what had gone before.

Evidence of the Affair - Taylor Jenkins Reid

 n/a

08.05.24

It's a short story, really, so I won't give it a grade, but TJR's work is always entertaining. I mean, it's no Clarissa (what is?) but the epistolary structure worked well in the context and had a few intriguing twists (spoiler: the evidence of the affair was not the letters). But was it really set in the mid-1970s? More like the 1950s - that cultural part didn't ring true.

Unravelling Oliver - Liz Nugent

 63%

02.03.24

Another distraction from the slog of Ordinary Monsters, this was deceptively engaging - it was only afterwards that I realised what a dark story it was. But then it wasn't particularly realistic or subtle - Oliver was such a pantomime villain and most of the other narrators were so 'nice' that their behaviour wasn't very convincing and 'what happened and why' wasn't very satisfying. But it was a good read.

Really Good, Actually - Monica Heisey

 51%

04.02.24

The quality of the writing was indeed really good. But not the awful, self-obsessed narrator, who did female characters as much of a disservice as those written by the male authors I've read recently. There was no conflict or plot or anything relatable to anyone who's not a white middle-class 20-something living in Toronto. It just went on and on. And on. And on a bit more.

Sorrow and Bliss - Meg Mason

 59%

04.01.24

Towards the end of this book, the protagonist (and simultaneous antagonist) comments on her 'striking unlikeability and attention-seeking punctuation'. Both these things are true, although we are apparently supposed to believe she is an unreliable narrator, safe in the unquestioning love of her family and (second) husband. The structure was circular and meandering, presumably like the narrator's mind, but that didn't bother me as much as the entitled middle-classness of it all.

Truly Madly Guilty - Liane Moriarty

62%

18.05.23

I've now read most of Moriarty's novels and it's clear she sticks to the formula that works for her - various narrators from white, middle-class Australian families experiencing low-to-medium level trauma. She will tease you with what might have happened for most of the book, and then throw in a few twists that have been hinted at earlier on, and then continue with the story for rather longer than is necessary. In this one, I liked the portrayal of different marriage dynamics and the realistic sense of obligation that people have to each other over time. I doubt I'll remember much about it in a year, though.

French Braid - Anne Tyler

 

54%

29.04.23

Anne Tyler at her best is superlative. This was not her best, or even her middling. As a narrative covering the ebbs and flows of family dynamics over time, it worked fine, but the story and characters just weren't worth caring about. And enough of the pointless pandemic epilogues!

One True Loves - Taylor Jenkins Reid

 

49%

29.01.23

I think this was TJR's last novel before she found herself a niche in fake celebrity memoirs. Those are better. Perhaps it's the more focused characters in the later books - the two men in this seemed to be exactly the same so no wonder the narrator struggled to choose between them. And I have no idea what they saw in her. Unsurprisingly, that made the whole premise a little rocky.

That Summer - Jennifer Weiner

 

58%

20.09.22

The simplistic cover designs do this book no favours by implying it's a chick-lit beach read - but it soon becomes clear that beaches can be dangerous places. Its serious message is somewhat undermined by the pantomime villain of a husband, who any real wife would have left years ago, and by the weird 1950s vibe of what was supposed to be a contemporary story. The alleged twist was also so telegraphed from the beginning that I was surprised to learn from reviews that it was a twist at all. But it was interesting enough, in a 'rich people's drama' kind of way.

The Husbands - Chandler Baker

 52%

24.10.21

It wasn't badly written but it was badly executed. A sympathetic, believable main character would have been a good place to start. (And a four-year-old who goes to school is not a toddler. Was that a deliberate metaphorical choice or just poor editing?)

Recipe for a Perfect Wife - Karma Brown

55%
28.04.20

I don't really know what to make of this. On the one hand, it was an appealing two-day read with an interesting premise. On the other, the story depended on the protagonists' unrealistically irrational behaviour. Why do contemporary novels feature such unlikable women with whom we are expected to empathise? The ending of both narratives was decidedly iffy and heavy-handed. And, of course, it needed a decent edit, but what book doesn't these days?