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Less

Playful Pulitzer Prize winner

Arthur Less is having a massive mid-life crisis. His last book proposal has been turned down, his boyfriend Freddy of eight years has dumped him only to announce he will marry his new beau instead. And if that wasn’t bad enough, the big five-O is lurking on the horizon. What to do? Escape seems the sensible option. Less by Andrew Sean Greer, which won the Pulitzer Prize last week, gets off to a bit of a slow start but picks up once Arthur hits the shores of Europe. A perfectly pitched comic portrayal of other cultures through the eyes of an American. I grew fond of anti-hero Arthur, his insecurities and fumbling efforts to rebuild his life. A heart-warming, funny and original read.

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Children of Blood and Bone

Teen/Young Adult

Heralding a powerful new voice in YA fiction

One day magic breathed. The next, it died.

Orïsha was once a land blessed with ‘maji’, sacred clans people with divine powers over the land. When their magic abruptly vanishes, Orïsha bows to the tyranny of a bloodthirsty king, a despot who wishes to wipe the magic arts from the face of his kingdom. But the children of the fallen maji remain, cowed and silent.One day they will rise.

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Pachinko

Faltering family saga

Han Kang’s quirky Booker Prize winning The Vegetarian opened my, and I suspect many other’s, eyes to South Korean literature. I was curious, then, when Pachinko by Min Jin Lee, a Korean-American, came out to rave reviews. Especially, as I have a soft spot for epic family sagas, the kind that sucks you in and makes you cry when you finish as you feel you’ve become a part of the family. However, Pachinko has turned out to be a tricky book to write about. It has many strong points but almost as many faults. I learned about the immigrant experience, Japanese racism towards Koreans, but missed some more historical context. There were characters in this book I really felt I got to know while others remained like card-board cut-outs. All in all, an uneven reading experience but one which still, somehow, managed to keep me going.

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Weekend fun for book nerds

I’ve done it! Sorted my books alphabetically, a plan I’ve had for years. High time, as my books have been piling up on the shelves, helter-skelter, making it impossible to find anything. I’ve been lazily buying new books rather than sifting through my shelves and as a result I have no fewer than four copies of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, for example, it’s a great book but…I decided to separate the books into genres as well, with plays and poetry unfairly being relegated to a lesser shelf. My books look great on the newly painted bookshelf and my anal side is hugely enjoying the sight of them all lined up and the thought of actually finding books that I’ve read. God help the family member who messes this up! How do you organise your books?

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On Chesil Beach

A nightmare of a wedding night

Edward and Florence are about to consummate their marriage, Edward has been waiting for this moment since he first laid eyes on her, Florence has been dreading it. Few authors can slow down time to a snail’s pace and still make gripping writing quite like Ian McEwan. His several pages long description of a disastrous kiss in On Chesil Beach will have you glued. Sexual mores of the early 1960s, class, failure of communication and deep love mix in a testing cocktail in McEwan’s book. Read it now, before it comes out as a film in May.

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