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Colourless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage

A bit pallid Murakami

Haruki Murakami is a rare creature: an author of literary fiction and hugely commercial, a Nobel Prize contender and a best seller. I was completely engrossed by his last book, 1Q84, a 1300 page, three volume magic realist ‘thriller’. Would his new novel Colourless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage live up to my sky-high expectations? Not quite. It is a perfectly good book and if you are a long standing Murakami fan you would probably want to read it. If you are a Murakami virgin, I suggest you start with one of his other books, as I don’t think this is his best. Read full Review

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The Paying Guests

Nail-biting story of illicit love and murder. Pre-order now!

The Paying Guests is a novel full of surprising twists and turns and nail-biting suspense. Revealing details of the story would ruin it for you so I won’t say much. What I can say is that it includes a steaming love story with a twist and a brutal murder against the backdrop of post-World War I London. The Paying Guests is a completely gripping book, the kind of novel you read while walking around and that keeps you awake into the night. Few contemporary authors can beat Sarah Waters in reconstructing the feel and atmosphere of a period in history. In The Paying Guests, she skilfully does it again.

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The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair

Hyped candyfloss for the brain. Is this the Damien Hirst of literature?

I first heard about this book at the Frankfurt Book Fair two years ago. It was one of those classic book fair stories where everyone is dying for some gossip; something extraordinary to tell the next person they meet. In October 2012, The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair was exactly that book. It had a great story to match, a 28 year old, good-looking author (incidentally, not unlike the author in the book), an old publisher about to retire, stumbling over a goldmine. The novel was sold to 32 territories for extraordinary sums and has since gone on to sell more than two million copies. So far, so good…

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The Impossible Knife of Memory

Teen/Young Adult

Powerful teenage novel about fitting in...or not?

I loved Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson, the first in the Seeds of America series, gripping historical fiction for young adults set in the American Revolutionary War. The Impossible Knife of Memory couldn’t be more different to Chains, on the surface.

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Rosie Revere, Engineer

Learn how to make mistakes and keep on trying!

Rosie loves to invent strange and glorious contraptions, but ever since her Uncle Fred laughed at the magnificent cheese hat she invented for him, Rosie has been keeping her inventions to herself. Read full Review

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Unforgettable classics

I’ve made a list (in no particular order) of seven books that come to mind every time I think of classics. Most of these I read a while ago and some of them I have read several times, but all of them are brilliant. There is a wide variety, from stories about love and betrayal to dark outposts and surreal transformations, from very long to very short. Take your pick and enjoy!

 

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Rooftoppers

8-11 years

A children’s novel of breathtaking adventure and huge heart

Winner of the Blue Peter Book Awards 2014, this is a fantastic adventure story with a speedy plot, keeping children hooked till the very last page. It’s full of life-affirming messages: ‘Never ignore a possible’ is young Sophie’s war cry as she battles to find her real mother – we have to fight for our dreams, she shows us.

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Claire of the Sea Light

Endearing novel set in Haiti, a beach read with soul

Claire of the Sea Light, recommended to me by my literary student niece a while ago, is a lovely, quiet, unassuming kind of book. It’s made up of a number of intertwining stories from the poor Haitian fisherman’s village of Ville Rose and is a novel about poverty, destiny, superstition and human relationships. A delightful story and a perfect beach read.

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