Book after Book

Welcome back to Blind Date With a Book Thursday… even if it’s Friday morning! Thank you all for joining in the fun and sharing your guesses on Twitter or on the blog. I hope you enjoyed yourselves! A quick look at the clues: I was published in 2013 I was written by a female American writer I have been described as literary fiction, speculative fiction and near-future satire I am set in Iowa I explore relationships with family and food My main characters are brother and sister If you like jazz, I won’t disappoint you Any last-minute guesses? No? Ok, here we go… This week’s book was… Big Brother by Lionel Shriver. I loved this book but I haven’t reviewed it on the blog. I have however featured it in my 2017 top 5 books, which you can find here . I hope to see you next week for some more fun!

I came across this podcast on Twitter and it has already become my favourite! There seem to be only three episodes so far. On the one hand, it’s great as there isn’t an overwhelmingly large archive to navigate. On the other hand, it’s not great at all as… there isn’t an overwhelmingly large archive to navigate! The first episode I chose to listen to is the second in the series. The combination of Lionel Shriver and Tracy Chevalier was too good to resist and it was indeed phenomenal! It was so good that I’ve already listened to it twice! For the main part of the episode, the two writers chatted with host Joe Haddow about all sorts of literary and non-literary delights. Appearing in the former category: the authors’ publishing journeys and their relationship with editors, the difference (or lack thereof) between researching for a historical novel or a contemporary novel, autobiographical elements in novels, reading fiction and non-fiction books, Shakespeare. Appearing in t...

Am I too late to write a post about my top 5 books in 2017?  Yes? No? I can't hear you so I'll just go ahead! Without further ado, here are the books I loved last year: 1) The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga Very simplistically, it could be described as a rag to riches story with the Indian caste system thrown in. Absolutely fascinating. I couldn't put it down.  2) Big Brother by Lionel Shriver This should really be in joint first place. Adoring sister helps obese brother get back on the right track. I drank every word of this book only to find myself chocking at the end. Only McEwan's Atonement has had this effect on me so far and that's another book I love! 3) Gloria by Kerry Young This was a book group read and I spent the first 50 pages wondering how on earth I would be able to read the Jamaican dialect it was written in. I just wanted to correct grammar and spelling - and I'm not even an English native speaker. And then it happened: Glo...