Copy for review provided by Angry Robot Books via NetGalley – publication due 14 March 2023. Humanity is balanced on a razor-thin knife edge. We may not always, or often, think so as we rush from train to work to lunch to evening function and on and on, but the Continue Reading
Books
Book review: Beach Read by Emily Henry
When the rubber hits the road in life, it’s hard, if not damn near impossible, to believe that any of the mess and damage can be fixed. Especially by love, which, if you go with the popularly romantic notion that it’s gooey, soft and ephemerally nice, is barely able to Continue Reading
Book review: The Seven Skins of Esther Wilding by Holly Ringland
If you have ever felt the full and unyielding grip of grief, you will be all too well acquainted with how impenetrably tight and suffocating it can feel. When it has its hold upon you, it becomes near impossible to imagine what it would like to be free from it; Continue Reading
All the action and intrigue a realpolitik-loving heart could want: Thoughts on Jack Ryan (S3)
When it comes to escapist entertainment, political action thrillers are in a gloriously batshit crazy class all of their very own. Employing only the loosest of adherence to the real world, although ostensibly a stalwart reflection of it, these gripping stories of life behind the veneer of political and diplomatic Continue Reading
Book review: All About Evie by Matson Taylor
When you fall in love with a character from a book, your fondest wish is to stay with them, enjoy their company and see where they go next. It’s a natural reaction to any character who leaps off the page and into your heart, or indeed any person you meet Continue Reading
UPCOMING READS: A. G. Riddle’s Quantum Radio’s perilous discoveries loom thrillingly large
SNAPSHOTAt CERN, a scientist has just made an incredible discovery – a breakthrough that may answer the deepest questions about human existence. But what he’s found is far more dangerous than he ever imagined. Dr. Tyson Klein is a quantum physicist who has dedicated his entire life to his research. Continue Reading
Lost in a sea of beautiful words: My 25 favourite books of 2022
Reading has always been my happy place. My safe space too, a place of escapism and reassurance, especially when I was growing up and my days were filled with bullying and a constant sense, gleaned from some of the people at the church where my dad was a minister, that Continue Reading
Book review: Tinsel – The Girl Who Invented Christmas by Sibéal Pounder
You would think by now that’s there not a lot of imaginative newness that can be brought to bear on the story of Santa; after all, his story is well documented, to the point of exhaustive detail, and you could rightly assume that’s all the festive mythmakers wrote. But, as Continue Reading
Book review: Christmas Island (A Very Hygge Holiday, Book 2) by Natalia Normann
If you’ve ever taken an extended overseas holiday, chances are you’ve experienced the interesting existential remove that happens when you are plucked from your everyday life and find yourself looking back at your life and into your soul in ways you simply don’t do when the priorities of the day Continue Reading
Kids’ festive book review: Jim’s Spectacular Christmas by Emma Thompson & Axel Scheffler + Marvin and Marigold: A Christmas Surprise by Mark Carthew & Simon Prescott and Christmas Lights by Ruth Symons & Carolina Rabei
While I am huge fan of novels aimed at adult Christmas tragics such as yours truly, there’s something innately pure and escapist about losing yourself in books aimed at children. They draw me back to a simpler time when Christmas meant, quite apart from freedom from school bullies, the chance Continue Reading