A Little Blog of Books

The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout is a stand-alone novel separate from the Olive Kitteridge universe and has been longlisted for this year’s Booker Prize.

Departure(s) by Julian Barnes is the Booker Prize-winning author’s final novel, published earlier this year on his 80th birthday.

The longlist for this year’s Booker Prize was announced on Tuesday.

My Booker Prize predictions list is an annual tradition, although based on my track record for predictions in recent years, I have probably scuppered the chances of my choices below.

Death of an Ordinary Man by Sarah Perry is an account of the final days of the author’s father-in-law, David, who died just nine days after receiving a cancer diagnosis in 2022.

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans became a word-of-mouth bestseller last year and recently won the Women’s Prize for Fiction.

Year of the Rat: Undercover in the British Far Right by Harry Shukman won the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award in 2025.

Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams is an account of the author’s employment at Facebook as a director of global public policy, working closely with Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg for six years.

Leaving Home by Mark Haddon is the author’s memoir about his parents and growing up in Northampton in the 1970s.

The Haunted Wood by Sam Leith is a survey of childhood reading from Aesop to J.

As always, I have been keeping an eye on new books coming soon in 2026, despite already having so many other books on my TBR list… In fiction, Departure(s) by Julian Barnes is said to be the Booker Prize-winning author’s … Continue reading →

The 2025 debut novels which will stay with me are Nesting by Roisin O’Donnell about an emotionally abusive marriage and We Pretty Pieces of Flesh by Colwill Brown about three teenage girls growing up in Doncaster.

Homesick by Peter Apps is a study of the current housing crisis in London.

The Bookseller of Hay by James Hanning is a biography of Richard Booth, the second-hand bookseller who helped establish Hay-on-Wye as the book town of Wales.

Moveable Feasts: Paris in Twenty Meals by Chris Newens sees the expat Englishman tour the 20 arrondissements of the French capital, sampling the local cuisine of each neighbourhood.

The Hallmarked Man by Robert Galbraith is the eighth book in the Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott series.

It’s rare for me to binge-read multiple books from a series close together, but having devoured the Apple TV series Slow Horses earlier this year, I gulped down the first four books of the Slough House series by Mick Herron … Continue reading →

First published in 2000, Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain is the celebrity chef’s memoir of working in restaurants in New York City.

The longlist for this year’s Booker Prize was announced today.

It’s that time of year again… I haven’t had much success with my Booker Prize predictions in the last couple of years, but it’s still fun to consider which books might appear on the longlist, due … Continue reading →

Question 7 by Richard Flanagan won last year’s Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction and is a seamless combination of memoir, history, science and ethics.

One More Croissant for the Road by Felicity Cloake documents her gastronomic travels cycling 2,300 kilometres around France and sampling all the regional culinary delights the country has to offer.

Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie tells the interconnected stories of four Nigerian women who live in the United States.

Bookish by Lucy Mangan does what every great bibliomemoir should do: it reminded me of lots of books I would like to reread, helped me discover lots of books I now want to read and gave me a new appreciation … Continue reading →

Show Don’t Tell by Curtis Sittenfeld is a collection of 12 short stories by the author of American Wife, Rodham and Romantic Comedy.

The Watermark by Sam Mills is a truly wacky and audacious piece of metafiction which tells the story of celebrated reclusive author Augustus Fate who kidnaps Jaime and Rachel so he can trap them in his novel to give more … Continue reading →