Best of: May and June

Hello! It’s been a long time since I posted. A lot has happened since then, and at the same time not much has happened. Earlier during the pandemic I found myself entirely unable to concentrate, and unable to read books with challenging content. I remember I picked up an Agatha Christie that was set during…

Best of: April

How are you? I hope you’re well, I hope you have loved ones near you and are finding some moments of joy in each day. I’m feeling much less anxious than I was a month ago, but being off that merry-go-round means I have more energy to look outward again, and it’s heartbreaking. People are…

Best of: March

Hello, dear fellow book-lovers. Current circumstances are feeding my anxiety like a hungry puppy, but when I can step away from my devices, and talk myself down from the crazy thoughts popping up in my mind, I find that I’m clear-headed enough to read. And I am incredibly grateful, both for the escape it offers…

Best Reads of 2019

Many of you in this lockdown are juggling extra responsibilities, working from home, wrangling small children or elderly relatives who won’t stay put, and perhaps bouncing off some walls. Please know that I am thinking of you, and I hope you are finding a few moments of peace each day. If that’s not you though,…

Best of: September

Once again, it took me about three seconds to choose my top three books from last month, I love it when it’s easy! I’ve already reviewed Reckless Paper Birds in full, so do go and read that post if you haven’t yet, and I’ll just give it a few words below. I know the whole…

Review: Reckless Paper Birds

I needed the God of my childhood to be useful so I folded him, shaped his pages into wings. Cranes at first, then more challenging roosters, swallows, owls. I pinched edges, split clauses to make word plumage. I fractured Leviticus into pleats. […] I bought Reckless Paper Birds, John McCullough’s third collection, after opening it…

Best of: August

I took a bit of a reading holiday in August and spent a large part of the month re-reading old favourites, also just reading a bit less in general. Even with a longer list to pick from though, I’m pretty sure I still would have selected these three. This is not the first Patrick Gale…

Best of: July

This was a shorter reading month as I extended Pride reading up until July 5th, but I still managed to add three books to my ‘almost certainly on my shortlist for the year’ pile. I also just started writing about the first book (it was The Night Watch, by Sarah Waters) and realised that it…

Best of: June – Pride Month

June is Pride Month, and in London the Pride festival took place on July 6, so this post covers my reading up to that point. I read only books with LGBTQ+ authors or themes during the month, and although I did pick a top three, I thought I’d also share the rest of what I…

Best of: May

So many good books this month. It was hard to choose… But then I always say that – time to just accept it perhaps?! Best Queer Read: Tin Man, by Sarah Winman. I loved this. I was telling everybody about it, it was going to be in my top reads of the year. In my…