What are you reading at the moment? Recommendations welcome

[Hannah Faoileán]

Read Silver by Olivia Levez - YA Sci fi - I highly recommend. An alien girl need to live with humans and collect data that will allow her shipmates to invade, but when she integrates with a human family and meets a human boy . . . - so it's mainly based on earth, in one mid-England village: an urban sci fi.

Read We Were Liars by E. Lockhart - YA contemporary - this month's book club choice. I suppose I should recommend it for the brilliant writing and the amazing twist, but I found Act 5 far too gut-wrenching. I won't dare to read any further books in the series. I'm not into novels that leave me a blubbery mess of agonised tears when I reach the end. Blubbery mess for a while is ok, but I want uplifting endings.

 

[Aethalope]

Just finished Shadow of the Torturer by Gene Wolfe and... wow. Simply beautiful.

They must have pitched things differently in the 80s. Yeah, it fantasy with science bleeding through...slow start, densely baroque prose, and it doesn't actually end because in the middle of a scene the narrator says I'm done for now and that's it.

 

[Sedayne]

Just finished Glyph, the new book by Ali Smith. It's the follow-up to her previous novel, confusingly called Gliff.
Both are anti-war novels about sisters and horses - or a ghost horse in the case of Glyph.
I loved both these books, especially when two of the characters in Glyph discovered they'd both read Gliff and debated whether or not it had a good ending.
I think Ali Smith is probably my favourite novelist these days.

 

[Pamela Jo]

Rereading Wolfe Hall, Hilary Mantel. It is a crunchy with exposition. Like a nougatty Mardi Gras Praline of relevant info downed w delight. I've tried reading her other books but they are impenetrable to me or repellant. But this, her voice is chef's kiss. She believed in ghosts and felt Cromwell came to her and told her what to write. I can believe it. The Tudor world comes to life.

 

[Pamela Jo]

Just finished Glyph, the new book by Ali Smith. It's the follow-up to her previous novel, confusingly called Gliff.
Both are anti-war novels about sisters and horses - or a ghost horse in the case of Glyph.
I loved both these books, especially when two of the characters in Glyph discovered they'd both read Gliff and debated whether or not it had a good ending.
I think Ali Smith is probably my favourite novelist these days.

Ah must check out to see if there is a comp.

 

[Sedayne]

Ah must check out to see if there is a comp.

Like most Ali Smith novels, these are strange whilst reading as completely normal. The fantastical elements are introduced so matter-of-factly that you wouldn't consider the writing to be fantasy or horror. Dystopian, yes, but only in as much as real life is a dystopia.
I'd be interested to know what you think.

 

[Josephine]

Rereading Wolfe Hall, Hilary Mantel. It is a crunchy with exposition. Like a nougatty Mardi Gras Praline of relevant info downed w delight. I've tried reading her other books but they are impenetrable to me or repellant. But this, her voice is chef's kiss. She believed in ghosts and felt Cromwell came to her and told her what to write. I can believe it. The Tudor world comes to life.

I agree, I haven't read the last one yet but the 1st two Wolf Hall novels are far and away her best work in my opinion. So good

 

[wrightstuff]

Rereading Wolfe Hall, Hilary Mantel. It is a crunchy with exposition. Like a nougatty Mardi Gras Praline of relevant info downed w delight. I've tried reading her other books but they are impenetrable to me or repellant. But this, her voice is chef's kiss. She believed in ghosts and felt Cromwell came to her and told her what to write. I can believe it. The Tudor world comes to life.

I agree with you on the superiority of her Wolf Hall novels, but feel you are a bit harsh about her other work. I generally like the short stories, though most are OK rather than astonishingly good.

 

[wrightstuff]

I have just finished Karla's Choice, a Smiley novel written by John le Carre's son.

It is as near perfection as is possible on the page.

Harkaway captures the mood, style and voice of his father, John le Carre almost without mis-step, and it's a great story, worthy of Smiley. There are phrases, sentences, passages that could have been lifted from a le Carre-written Smiley novel - it's that faithful. I spent much of the first third of the novel stopping to remind myself that this was written by a real author, not a spooky apparition.

The mood, atmosphere and even dialogue feels as though it had been written in the late sixties...until about two-thirds of the way through, when it has, briefly, a distinctly modern tone. Although that steadily recedes in the last third, the spell has been broken. This a minor glitch, and most readers will probably not even notice it.

Nick Harkaway, as is so often the case with Smiley, set himself an impossible task. The plan was executed almost without a hitch, but, again like Smiley, one has a sense that the author would have preferred less improvisation, and has regrets...

Has anyone else read it, and what was your reaction?

 

[Josephine]

I have just finished Karla's Choice, a Smiley novel written by John le Carre's son.

It is as near perfection as is possible on the page.

Harkaway captures the mood, style and voice of his father, John le Carre almost without mis-step, and it's a great story, worthy of Smiley. There are phrases, sentences, passages that could have been lifted from a le Carre-written Smiley novel - it's that faithful. I spent much of the first third of the novel stopping to remind myself that this was written by a real author, not a spooky apparition.

The mood, atmosphere and even dialogue feels as though it had been written in the late sixties...until about two-thirds of the way through, when it has, briefly, a distinctly modern tone. Although that steadily recedes in the last third, the spell has been broken. This a minor glitch, and most readers will probably not even notice it.

Nick Harkaway, as is so often the case with Smiley, set himself an impossible task. The plan was executed almost without a hitch, but, again like Smiley, one has a sense that the author would have preferred less improvisation, and has regrets...

Has anyone else read it, and what was your reaction?

I haven't, but based on this I'm tempted. Will report back if I do!

 

[RK Wallis]

Just finished listening to Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar. Wow. What an amazing voice!

 

[Sedayne]

Just finished listening to Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar. Wow. What an amazing voice!

I loved The Bell Jar in my youth. I've read it a few times, but not recently. Maybe time to revisit.

 

[RK Wallis]

I loved The Bell Jar in my youth. I've read it a few times, but not recently. Maybe time to revisit.

Definitely worth it. I couldn't have appreciated her voice as much when I was younger.

 

[E G Logan]

Maybe time to revisit.

Not sure. I read it in my very early 20s: it resonated then, both what she was saying/feeling and the times it represented. I don't think it would now.

 

[MattScho]

I'm revisiting Cat's Cradle, just in time for book club March 21!
Gotta admit, i do love this book.
Also, great perspective on chapter lengths

 

[RK Wallis]

Not sure. I read it in my very early 20s: it resonated then, both what she was saying/feeling and the times it represented. I don't think it would now.

It definitely reads like historical fiction now but the style of her writing and the flow of it is captivating. As a writer, I found myself in awe of the writing and that's what interested me, more than the subject.

 

[Aethalope]

I'm revisiting Cat's Cradle, just in time for book club March 21!
Gotta admit, i do love this book.
Also, great perspective on chapter lengths

The chapters are a lot of fun like this. But then there are 127 of them...

 

[RK Wallis]

I just finished listening to The Housemaid by Freida McFadden. Another wow. Gripping. Finished in 2 days.

 

[Sedayne]

I've read two debut novels in the last two weeks.

The first was The Artist by Lucy Steeds which has had a lot of attention and won the Waterstones debut of the year 2025. I might not have chosen to read it, but one of my colleagues lent it to me, and I felt like I ought to. It's set in 1920s France and is about a painter so vividly depicted alongside real characters such as Paul Cezanne and Peggy Guggenheim, that I had to double-check he wasn't a real historical person. The blurb on the cover that says it's a "sun-drenched mystery" is completely misleading and would have been enough to put me off had someone not personally recommended it. Any mystery about it is deduced early on with seeds sown from the prologue. And I prefer that. I loved it and would recommend. I did spot a medical anachronism, though, which is both irritating and gratifying at the same time. I doubt it would matter to anyone else. (The GP who lent it to me is much younger than me and didn't know that the terminology wasn't in use before the late 1990s, so the writer more than got away with it.)

The second, which I finished this morning, is Cloudless by Rupert Dastur. There's been much less fuss made about this novel, and I didn't know about it until I saw it in Waterstones last weekend and recognised the author's name. Rupert is/was the EIC of a Lit Mag called The Short Story and he also ran the Cambridge Short Story Prize. He gave me the kindest personalised rejection for one of my very first submissions, highlighting the strengths of my writing and encouraging me to keep at it. I'm disappointed to see that TSS hasn't published anything for a while, but I guess that's because he's been busy with his novel. Anyway, I was curious enough to have a read, and I absolutely loved it. Engrossing from first to last page, it's set in Llandudno in 2004 where a farming family wait for the return of their eldest son from Iraq. Deals with themes of addiction, sexuality, aging - all the stuff I'm interested in. Even though I'm not especially interested in farming, I found these aspects of it compelling too. So very highly recommended.

Now, from firsts to lasts, I'm going to listen to Departure(s) by Julian Barnes, read by the author. It's his 14th novel. He's also written ten non-fiction works and three collections of short stories. Apparently, he has said that he won't write another novel after this. I'm sure it will be good, but I can't imagine it being anywhere near as engaging as Rupert Dastur's debut.

 

[MattScho]

For fans of historical fiction, I've been working my way through the Robert Harris catalogue. On Munich right now. It's quite good. He's almost always good