4) Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata This was one of several books I got for Christmas, and I'd added it to the Santa list after reading quite a few positive reviews of it last year. And now I can see why: it's a wonderfully quirky, insightful, surprising short novel, quite unlike any books I've… Continue reading Year 4 / Book 4: Convenience Store Woman
Category: literary fiction
Year 4 / Book 3: Family Life
3) Family Life by Akhil Sharma I picked this up at the local charity shop, I think having read about Akhil Sharma's A Life of Adventure & Delight (which is on the TBR pile) in some well-informed person's recommendations list at some point in the not-too-distant past. So I knew little or nothing opening the… Continue reading Year 4 / Book 3: Family Life
Year 3 / Book 48: Anatomy of a Scandal
48) Anatomy of a Scandal by Sarah Vaughan If you've read Apple Tree Yard by Louise Doughty or The Party by Elizabeth Day, then you may well enjoy this book, as it struck me as a combination of the two - the courtroom drama and scandal of the former, mingled with the party politics and… Continue reading Year 3 / Book 48: Anatomy of a Scandal
Year 3 / Book 37: Ghachar, Ghochar
37) Ghachar, Ghochar by Vivek Shanbhag I can't for the life of me remember where I heard about this wonderful, short book by the Indian author Vivek Shanbhag, brilliantly translated by Srinath Perur - but it got added to the wishlist a while back, and then spotted in the local Oxfam bookshop. It is one… Continue reading Year 3 / Book 37: Ghachar, Ghochar
Year 3 / Book 36: Transit
36) Transit by Rachel Cusk This was recommended to me by a friend who is also a writer (shout out to Chris), and I spotted it in a charity bookshop nearby, so here we are. Brilliantly, I now realise that I've started with the second book in a trilogy - the first being Outline and… Continue reading Year 3 / Book 36: Transit
Year 3 / Book 31: The Girls’ Guide to Hunting & Fishing
31) The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank I will be honest with you reader, normally I wouldn't go near a book with this title, particularly when it is coupled with a chick-lit-ish cover: in short, it looks from the outside like it is specifically designed to not make me read it.… Continue reading Year 3 / Book 31: The Girls’ Guide to Hunting & Fishing
Year 3 / Book 20: Civilwarland Is In Bad Decline
20) Civilwarland Is In Bad Decline by George Saunders I'm a big fan of George Saunders and, as I think I said in my review of Lincoln In The Bardo (his Booker-winning novel of 2017), I'm a particular fan of his short stories: Tenth of December and A Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil are… Continue reading Year 3 / Book 20: Civilwarland Is In Bad Decline
Year 3 / Book 16: Man With A Seagull On His Head
16) Man With A Seagull On His Head by Harriet Paige I can't remember why or where I added this to the 'to-read' list; I think it might have been in the Guardian's round-up of recommendations from small presses. I think the title and the cover didn't hurt either: it's a memorably title and the… Continue reading Year 3 / Book 16: Man With A Seagull On His Head
Year 3 / Book 15: The Party
15) The Party by Elizabeth Day I've never read anything by Elizabeth Day, but this was highly recommended by lots of people in the end-of-year lists that I used to get ideas for reading for the year ahead, and those recommendations tended to use words like 'readable' and 'pacy' which is like catnip to a… Continue reading Year 3 / Book 15: The Party
Year 3 / Book 12: Fever Dream
12) Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin This was recommended in lots of 'best of' lists in 2017, as a compelling piece of fiction by a young, emerging writer: Schweblin has been named one of the best young writers in Spanish (under 35) and this book was shortlisted for the International Man Booker Prize. It is… Continue reading Year 3 / Book 12: Fever Dream
Dog-eared Man: a book a week 