Breathing Just a Little

It's been a minute since I had time to blog, but as I just finished typing this up anyway, I thought I'd share it here! I am optimistic that November will contain a little more opportunity for posting, although the rest of October is unlikely. ------------------ I'm generally a fan of Jon Ronson - both So You've Been Publicly Shamed and The Psychopath Test are high on my list of non-fiction / journalism books - but I don't think he quite nails it with this one. I think the main problem is that he can't seem to make up his mind if he's writing an expose of an undeniably creepy overgrown elderly frat boy, Chris Mark (the owner of the eponymous castle), or if he's trying to write a more comprehensive thesis about the crisis in modern masculinity, and using Mark as the anchor case.  As the former, the book is reasonably successful. I definitely got a feel for Mark as a skeevy Hefner wannabe with outstandingly dodgy and weird behaviours, and I'll follow w...

This will be the last longlist book I review - I ended up not being able to get into The Renovation, so I left it over - and what a way to finish. It's my equal favourite to win now (wish the Booker would give a three-way tie, but while they have done two winners in the past, three might be a bit much to hope for!) Here's the rolling list. I use a green cross if I attempted the book but didn't finish; red crosses are for ones that I (at this stage) don't intend to attempt. I abandoned All Them Dogs at about 1/3 of the way through and The Renovation at about 1/4 of the way. ✅1. The Shadow of the Object by Chloe Aridjis: 8.5/10 ✅2. Switzy by Emma Cline: 9.5/10 ❌3. Helen of Nowhere by Makenna Goodman ✅4. The End of Everything by M. John Harrison: 5/10 ❌5. The Disappearers by Marlon James ✅6. Black Bag by Luke Kennard: 7/10 ❎7. The Renovation by Kenan Orhan ✅8. May We Feed the King by Rebecca Perry: 8.5/10 ✅9. The Palm House by Gwendoline Riley: 6/10 ✅10. The Things We Neve...

Now it's time for a couple of stars of the longlist, and also for my first DNF of the year! I don't review books I give up on - I think it's very unfair - but the very fact of my not completing can be read as a comment (not a positive one) on what I thought of the book. I'm about to start the audiobook of The Renovation, and will try to read Switzy once it's available (release date is 8 Sept). I've decided not to attempt Helen of Nowhere, which is getting dire reviews (you don't often see a rating dipping below 3 on Goodreads!) or the James book because ... I don't want to. I'll roll into shortlist announcement at 11/13 attempted, 10 read, which is not too bad.  With nine down, I am prepared to rank the ones I have read, and call whether I think they a) should be and b) will be on the shortlist. I have a feeling that both Switzy and the James book might shortlist, so I am only picking four from my current nine for that reason. Stars are next to the o...

Next three are done, and this time, I wasn't as impressed (although I am sure views will differ!) My next two, as I approach the halfway mark, is Douglas Stuart's John of John, one of the heavy hitters (and favourites to win), and the highly praised All Them Dogs, so I am preparing for bedazzlement :-) The rolling list is below. 1. The Shadow of the Object by Chloe Aridjis 2. Switzy by Emma Cline 3. Helen of Nowhere by Makenna Goodman ✅4. The End of Everything by M. John Harrison: 5/10 5. The Disappearers by Marlon James ✅6. Black Bag by Luke Kennard: 7/10 7. The Renovation by Kenan Orhan ✅8. May We Feed the King by Rebecca Perry: 8.5/10 ✅9. The Palm House by Gwendoline Riley: 6/10 ✅10. The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout: 9.5/10 11. John of John by Douglas Stuart 12. All Them Dogs by Djamel White ✅13. The Vivisectors by Missouri Williams: 5/10 The End of Everything by M. John Harrison: 5/10 Have we got up to one of the Booker Stinkers already? Well ... maybe. Sort of. ...

Well, the time has rolled around for the Booker Prize longlist again! The thirteen titles in contention are: 1. The Shadow of the Object by Chloe Aridjis 2. Switzy by Emma Cline 3. Helen of Nowhere by Makenna Goodman 4. The End of Everything by M. John Harrison 5. The Disappearers by Marlon James 6. Black Bag by Luke Kennard 7. The Renovation by Kenan Orhan ✅8. May We Feed the King by Rebecca Perry: 8.5/10 ✅9. The Palm House by Gwendoline Riley: 6/10 ✅10. The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout: 9.5/10 11. John of John by Douglas Stuart 12. All Them Dogs by Djamel White 13. The Vivisectors by Missouri Williams I had already read the Strout book prior to the list (review is here ), but have decided to take a tilt at banging through the rest of the longlist in advance of shortlist announcement in late September. We'll see how we go! I'll tick each title on the list as I cover it. Kicking off, here are two of the shorties (under 250pp) that I started with. I listened to the au...

This has been a much bigger reading month for me than the two preceding, largely because I spent a week in social isolation in the lead-up to surgery and then a week recovering from surgery, which left more available time for books. As is not unusual for me at times of physical and psychological stress, I dropped back to one of my favourite comfort-read genres, which is mystery fiction.  Rather than doing a detailed review of each of the six titles I read, here's a little para about each just to give a flavour! No covers because, frankly, I can't be bothered :-P I've just stepped off into the 2026 Booker Prize longlist reading challenge, so my reading for the next two months will be Booker-dominated (and so will any book posting to this blog). I may end up missing these lighter reads by the end of that! To every season, its book will come... 1. The Word is Murder by Anthony Horowitz This is the first book in Horowitz's very popular Horowitz and Hawthorne series, which f...