Short Book and Scribes

To the point book reviews and other bookish stuff

Home
About
Contact
Reviews
Articles
Blog Tours
Giveaways
Cover Reveals
Extracts
Guest Posts
Q&A
Tales from the Backlist
Seven Day Spotlight Posts
Fame at last!
Review Policy
Privacy Policy

Short Book and Scribes

Category: Tales from the Backlist

ShortBookandScribes #TalesFromTheBacklist #BookReview – Few Eggs and No Oranges by Vere Hodgson

Posted on 1st May 2020 By Nicola

Welcome to what is likely to be a very occasional series of posts about either books I read pre-blog which I’d like to showcase now […]

Continue reading »

4

Reviews, Tales from the Backlist

Follow Short Book and Scribes

Follow Short Book and Scribes on WordPress.com

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

In doing so you are consenting to this website storing your personal information, none of which will be shared with any third parties.

Email Address

Search for:

Currently Reading

Follow me on Twitter

FOLLOW ME ON FACEBOOK

FOLLOW ME ON FACEBOOK

FOLLOW ME ON INSTAGRAM

shortbookandscribes

New review: Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers. Pub

New review: Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers. Published by W&N and out now.
🍊
I’ve read several of Clare Chambers’ previous books and loved them. I’ve been hoping for a new book for some years and at last here it is! Small Pleasures is an absolute triumph.
🍊
It’s 1957. Jean Swinney is a reporter on the North Kent Echo. She’s led a life of disappointment and stultifying routine, being the daughter required to stay with her mother and look after her. One day a letter is received at the newspaper from Gretchen Tilbury, claiming that her daughter was the product of a virgin birth. Jean meets the family and finds herself being drawn into their lives, seeing in them all the relationships she could have had.
🍊
"She had spent a lifetime on the sidelines, observing, noting, learning; the little details that other people missed were not lost on her."
🍊
This is a beautifully written book. Chambers’ prose is exquisite, so observant and full of wry humour about the minutiae of life. It’s the sort of book where I wanted to continually stop and mark passages that stood out. The characters are so well-drawn. I found Jean to be a frustrated, yet sympathetic character, and I particularly liked Howard, Gretchen’s husband, a kind and thoughtful man.
🍊
This isn’t a book I was able to rush. I wanted to take my time and savour not only the story and the characterisations, but also the sheer quality of the writing and the way that the author writes about everyday events with beauty and perception. She takes us from stifling suburbia to smoggy London with ease, transporting the reader there as surely as if they were living through it themselves.
🍊
A comparison has been made with the writing of Kate Atkinson and I think this is very accurate, but Chambers has a style all of her own which I delighted in. The ending left me with mixed feelings and if you read it you’ll see why, but I haven’t got a bad word to say about this wonderful read. It’s an absolute delight.
🍊
My thanks to the publisher for the gorgeous proof copy of the book for review purposes.
*
*
*
*
*
*
#bookreview #bookreviewer #bookblogger #bookstagrammer #50sfiction #instabooks #instareads #shortbookandscribes

🎉Happy Publication Day 🎉 I'd like to say con

🎉Happy Publication Day 🎉
I'd like to say congratulations to all the authors and publishers of these books which are published today. What is it about July? There are so many amazing books being published this month.
*
*
*
*
*
*
#publicationday #newbooks #bookstagrammer #bookstagram #booksofinstagram #readersofinstagram #instareads #instabooks #lovebooks #lovereading #booklover #booklove #booklife #bookobsessed #booknerd #bookworm #shortbookandscribes

New review: How to Disappear by Gillian McAllister

New review: How to Disappear by Gillian McAllister. Published by Michael Joseph today in paperback and ebook.
📚
I’ve just finished reading How to Disappear and am sitting here wondering how on earth to put into words what an amazing book it is and how much it’s affected me. It’s an unexpected book in so many ways. It’s a big book at 450 pages yet I flew through it. I expected a psychological thriller but it’s got such an emotional punch to it.
📚
Lauren and Aidan are a really happy couple. Lauren’s daughter, Zara, lives with them. Aidan’s daughter, Poppy, lives with her mother. This is a blended family that works. They have a great life, good home, a gorgeous dog. Everything is good until Zara witnesses a terrible crime and being an honest person who believes in doing the right thing, she comes forward and reports what she saw. This is the beginning of a nightmare for the family as Lauren and Zara must give up their lives and disappear for their own safety.
📚
I’m having to be so vague about what I say. I really don’t want to give anything away. Right from the beginning I was imagining what I would do and how I would feel in the place of the characters, imagining being wrenched from my life in the space of a couple of days, never knowing when or if I could return.
📚
Gillian McAllister has written one of my top reads of the year with How to Disappear. It’s a fast-paced thriller, but also a love story, a book that had me turning the pages as fast as I could whilst also wishing it could last forever. I cried more than once. I found the empathy in the writing really emotive and it’s a book that will stay with me, I’m certain. To be honest, I hardly know what to do with myself at the moment, and I love a book that makes me feel THAT much.
📚
I thought this book was a perfect combination of characters I really cared about, a story that gripped me and wouldn’t let go, and writing that just blew me away. How to Disappear is an absolute tour de force. It’s incredible!
📚
My thanks to the publishers for the proof copy of the book for review purposes.
*
*
*
*
*
*
#bookreview #bookreviewer #bookblogger #bookstagrammer #grippingread #lovereading #shortbookandscribes

Thank you Andersen Press for this lovely surprise

Thank you Andersen Press for this lovely surprise #bookpost. I, Ada by Julia Gray sounds brilliant, about the 19th century mathematician who is hailed as the world's first computer programmer.

This little beauty is my current read and I love i

This little beauty is my current read and I love it. It's the sort of book where I want to be constantly marking passages that are so brilliantly observed.
🍊
#SmallPleasures by Clare Chambers will be published on Thursday 9th July.
*
*
*
*
*
*
#currentlyreading #bookstoread #bookstagrammer #bookstagram #booksofinstagram #readersofinstagram #instareads #instabooks #bookblogger #bookblog #lovereading #lovebooks #booklove #booklover #bookworm #booknerd #bookobsessed #50sfiction #shortbookandscribes

Thank you Hodder for sending this proof of #AllThe

Thank you Hodder for sending this proof of #AllTheLonelyPeople by Mike Gayle. I love this author's books and this one sounds lovely.

#BookPost

Thank you so much HQ for sending me this fabulous

Thank you so much HQ for sending me this fabulous proof of #ElevenLinesToSomewhere by Alyson Rudd. I've been looking forward to this one for a while.

#BookPost

Thank you William Heinemann for sending #TheLiarsD

Thank you William Heinemann for sending #TheLiarsDictionary by Eley Williams. I absolutely love the sound of this unusual story.

#BookPost

Last•Now•Next 📚 Good morning book lovers. H

Last•Now•Next
📚
Good morning book lovers. Hope you're all well today.
📚
I thought I'd share my #lastnownextreads with you. I have just this minute finished #HowToDisappear and all I can say is that it's PHENOMENAL!! I'll be reviewing on publication day (Thursday) for the blog tour.
📚
So now I've picked up #SmallPleasures 🍊 I'm a big fan of Clare Chambers and was so pleased when I saw that she had written a new book.
📚
And then next will be #IfICantHaveYou which I've been looking forward to reading for ages.
📚
What do you think of my selection? have you read any of these or would you like to?
*
*
*
*
*
*
#booksread #bookstoread #currentlyreading #bookstagrammer #bookstagram #booksofinstagram #bookblogger #booklove #booklover #booklife #lovereading #lovebooks #gillianmcallister #clarechambers #charlottelevin #shortbookandscribes

Morning 😊 Happy Sunday! 📚 My #SundayStack t

Morning 😊 Happy Sunday!
📚
My #SundayStack today is a #publisherappreciationstack full of #hqbooks. As you can see, there are quite a few on this stack and if I'd delved deeper I could have found lots more. HQ do publish some amazing books don't they?
📚
Have you read any of these books?
*
*
*
*
*
*
#hqbookstack #hqstack #bookstagrammer #bookstagram #booksofinstagram #readersofinstagram #instareads #instabooks #lovereading #lovebooks #booklover #booklove #booklife #bookobsessed #bookworm #booknerd #shortbookandscribes

New review: Finders, Keepers by Sabine Durrant. Pu

New review: Finders, Keepers by Sabine Durrant. Published in hardcover and eBook by Hodder on 9th July.
🌿
What a thoroughly tangled story this is, so benign on the surface but with so much bubbling away beneath.
🌿
We have a fabulously unreliable narrator in Verity Ann Baxter (as she introduces herself to her new neighbours). Every single thing that happens is seen from her viewpoint and I honestly didn’t know whether I could trust her or not. Ailsa and Tom Tilson are the new neighbours, along with their three children. From the off Verity both simmers and simpers under Ailsa’s gaze, craving her friendship and yet there’s a sense of independence from Verity that doesn’t seem to match this desire for approval and appreciation.
🌿
I suppose you might call Verity a bit odd. It’s hard to say if she’s a nuisance or a help. She’s gathering knowledge about the family, insinuating her way in, but of course it’s her story and she doesn’t see it like that. Verity is an amazing creation, the kind of character that stays with the reader, one I wanted to know better whilst all the while metaphorically backing away.
🌿
There’s a major event around which the story revolves, but the whole thing is really about Verity’s life, both past and present, before the Tilsons and with them. It is absolutely compelling reading with a slightly sinister undertone to it.
🌿
I’ve read Sabine Durrant’s books before she excels at twisty stories and unreliable narrators. Finders, Keepers is a masterclass in clever plotting, keeping the reader on their toes and drip-feeding nuggets of information. I loved how each chapter started with an item (the reason for which becomes clear as the book progresses), and a word and its meaning (Verity works for the Oxford English Dictionary rewriting the existing entries). There is so much that is cunning and inventive about this book and Durrant is a fantastic writer. This book is exactly my idea of psychological fiction, where the mind and all its deepest, darkest corners, is the focus. It’s such a great read.
🌿
My thanks to the publishers for the copy of the book for review purposes.
*
*
*
*
*
*
#bookreview #bookblogger #bookstagrammer #shortbookandscribes

Good morning and happy Friday! How about some more

Good morning and happy Friday! How about some more #wardrobetreasures today? My wardrobe treasures are those special looking books that live in my wardrobe so they don't get scuffed or discoloured.
📚
I bought My Friends the Miss Boyds by Jane Duncan in preparation for a holiday on the Black Isle in Scotland 9 years ago. The author spent much of her childhood there and the book is set there. I think I then bought My Friend Monica and the pamphlet about Jane Duncan in the bookshop in Cromarty.
📚
These books were republished by Millrace Books to mark the centenary of Jane Duncan's birth. Looking at their website it looks like their focus has changed onto outdoor books now.
📚
Duncan wrote 19 in the My Friends series. Has anybody else read any of her books?
*
*
*
*
*
*
#bookblogger #bookstagrammer #bookstagram #booksofinstagram #olderbooks #scottishreads #scottishbooks #readersofinstagram #instareads #instabooks #lovereading #lovebooks #booklover #booklove #blackisle #shortbookandscribes

Load More… Follow on Instagram

Popular
Comments
Latest

Today Week Month All

ShortBookandScribes #BookReview - The Back Up Plan by Elsie McArthur
ShortBookandScribes #BookReview - Precious You by Helen Monks Takhar
ShortBookandScribes #BookReview - Normal People by Sally Rooney
ShortBookandScribes #BookReview - In the Sweep of the Bay by Cath Barton #novella
ShortBookandScribes #BookReview - The Other Passenger by Louise Candlish

ShortBookandScribes #BookReview – Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers
ShortBookandScribes #PublicationDay #BookReview – How to Disappear by Gillian McAllister #BlogTour
ShortBookandScribes #BlogTour #GuestPost by Sherryl Clark, Author of Dead and Gone @Verve_Books @sherrylwriter
ShortBookandScribes #BookReview – Finders, Keepers by Sabine Durrant #BlogTour
ShortBookandScribes #BlogTour #GuestPost by Cath Staincliffe, Author of Quiet Acts of Violence @CathStaincliffe

Today Week Month All

ShortBookandScribes #BookReview - The Other Passenger by Louise Candlish
ShortBookandScribes #BookReview - The Golden Rule by Amanda Craig
ShortBookandScribes #PublicationDay #BookReview - The Family Holiday by Elizabeth Noble #BlogTour
ShortBookandScribes #BookReview - In the Sweep of the Bay by Cath Barton #novella
ShortBookandScribes #BookReview - The Seduction by Joanna Briscoe

Netgalley Badges

Archives

Archives

© Unauthorised use and/or duplication of material contained on this site without express and written permission from this site’s author and owner is strictly prohibited. Authors and publishers may use excerpts and links, provided that full and clear credit is given to Short Book and Scribes and shortbookandscribes.uk with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy

Powered by WordPress and Momentous.

Follow

Get the latest posts delivered to your mailbox: