Tag: reading

September books (and more films)

So I’ve finished Natalie Hayne’s No Friend To This House and my review is winging its way to The Historical Novel Society.

You can see my other book reviews for the HNS here. But, spoiler alert, I liked it.

It will be my last review for the HNS because I have other irons in the fire, which I must pull out at some time to check if they’ve reached the correct temperature.

I’m still a reviewer for NetGalley, and I’ve just finished this:

The Naked Light by Bridget Collins ***

(Due to be published by Harper Collins 25 September 2025)

Set just after the First World War, The Naked Light tells a a dark story of life in a small rural village where the inhabitants feel protected by the Face, a simple and ancient chalk image on a hillside, which acts as a kind of amulet against evil.

We follow the fortunes of beautiful spinster, Florence, her precocious and unsettling niece, Phoebe, and a female artist called Kit, who is haunted by the disfigured soldiers from her war work and moves into an old cottage which used to be the home of the Bone family, who were custodians of the Face.

The Naked Light is a slow burner, but a fascinating story of womanly love, darkly Gothic in places and peppered with a heavy dash of country folklore, which serves as allegorical device bringing home the horror of war and its effects on a small community.

Bridget Collins is imaginative and writes beautifully. This is a novel that will stay with me for some time but I struggled to like or understand some of the main characters, hence my giving it three stars.

Films worth watching (or not)

I’ve watched three films recently, only one of which I actually enjoyed (in the main).

Happy Gilmore 2 (2025)

As you’d expect, Happy Gilmore 2 is the sequel to Happy Gilmore, a sports comedy film from 1996 which Mr Grigg particularly enjoyed because it involved lots of whacking. And I quite liked the original because of the underdog-conquering-stuffy-establishment-vibe (think Eddie the Eagle and Dream Horse, two excellent examples of the genre).

Happy Gilmore 2 sees Adam Sandler reprise his role but now as a winner down on his luck. He’s a widower, an alcoholic and hasn’t played golf for years but is forced into it because his talented daughter needs to go to dance school.

I’m not keen on anything with Sandler in it and this film relies heavily on in-jokes and characters from the first movie. If, like me, you’ve forgotten those, then you’ll probably sit in front of the screen po-faced and reaching for the fast-forward button.

I can’t recommend the film but I was fascinated that Sandler recruited his wife and two daughters for peripheral roles. Keeping it in the family led me down a long internet rabbit hole which was far more enjoyable than the film.

The Naked Gun (2025)

The fourth film in the slapstick crime franchise, in which the late Leslie Nielsen made the role of cop Frank Drebin his own back in the 1980s (I just loved Police Squad!, the American comedy crime series on which the films were based), sees Liam Neeson playing Frank’s son, Frank Drebin Jnr.

If you like corny jokes, seeing Neeson stumbling around in a ridiculous setting and a plot as far-fetched as the way in which politics is going all over the world, you’ll love this. The only similarity between the two actors is their names.

I’ve never been able to take Neeson seriously since I saw him as Zeus in the dreadful 2010 remake of Clash of the Titans, where he utters the immortal line: ‘Release the Kraken’ to unleash the monster onto poor, chained-up Andromeda.

This line has been used many times during lock-ins at the Lush Places pub, although I hasten to add that lock-ins there, now it’s a community pub, are a thing of the past.

Mind you, these days, Neeson, who was in the Oscar-winning Schindler’s List (1993), doesn’t seem to take himself too seriously either, playing recent roles with as much depth as a half-inch ruler.

But I did like him in the action thriller In The Land of Saints and Sinners (2023), set in a very beautiful and stark Donegal. He plays a quiet contract killer in this surprisingly moving film.

However, I digress. The Naked Gun is terrible, apart from having ex-Baywatch beauty Pamela Anderson in the same sort of role that Priscilla Presley (who makes a cameo appearance in the latest film) played in the original.

Pam is now 58 and still a stunner, embracing the ageing process both boldly and beautifully, a shining, make-up free beacon for older women rejecting the relentless barrage of turning back time.

So I’ll let them both off for having a laugh, even if the audience is not splitting its collective sides.

The Friend (2024)

This takes a while to get going but it’s a lovely film, starring Naomi Watts as Iris, a writer coming to terms with the death of her friend and mentor, Walter, a louche author played by Bill Murray.

Set in New York, Iris finds it hard to grieve for Walter and is bottling-up her emotions. All around her, the women that were close to him have their own agendas when it comes to mourning, and seem to be expressing themselves much better than she can.

Iris has been tasked, along with Walter’s daughter, with putting together a book of his letters, but she’s struggling.

It’s not just writer’s block, but something that goes deeper.

Things begin to change when she finds herself having to look after Walter’s dog, Apollo, a Great Dane ‘the size of a pony’, which dominates her small apartment and her life.

The performances, sentiments and storyline, are lovely, particularly Bing as the massive, mournful dog.

I’ve never had a hankering for a Great Dane but I do now.

A long film (120 minutes), but definitely worth a watch. Gentle, heartwarming and touching on universal themes in a understated and layered way.

August book reviews

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Two Kinds of Stranger by Steve Cavanagh ****

(Expected publication March 2026)

Another solid novel by Steve Cavanagh in the Eddie Flynn series.

Even if you’ve not delved into Eddie’s world before, you’re in for a treat with this thriller.

Lawyer Eddie Flynn is hired to defend Ellie, a social media celebrity whose perfect world is turned upside down when she is accused of the murder of her husband and her best friend. The two victims were having an affair, which Ellie had revealed inadvertently in real time when she was doing a live stream at her perfect aparment in New York.

Eddie is pitted against the cunning of charismatic sociopath, Logan, a chilling killer, while, at the same, time protecting his own daughter, ex-wife and her husband when they are pulled into Logan’s complicated web.

This is a bingeworthy novel, which could easily be read in one sitting.

As soon as it hooks you in (which is very quickly), Two Kinds of Stranger will have you turning the pages to reach the climactic conclusion.

Recommended for lovers of taut, high-speed thrillers and seat-of-the-pants courtroom dramas.

Thank you NetGalley and to the publishers for an advance review copy of this novel.

The Predicament by William Boyd ***

(Expected publication September 2025)

I have loved William Boyd’s previous novels but this was my first foray into Gabriel Dax territory.

Boyd turns the spy novel on its head – a bit of a pastiche, written with verve and wit and a surprising lead character who seems to bumble through things and situations – including romance – and comes up smelling of roses.

It’s the early 1960s and travel writer Dax is called upon by MI6 to carry out several top secret assignments, the last of which involves President John F Kennedy. It’s comic but Boyd’s gift for writing makes this a very readable novel and not at all clunky. I did feel a bit overwhelmed by plot and some of the villains and for that reason I’m giving it three stars.

The Killing Stones (Shetland #9) by Ann Cleeves

(Expected publication October 2025)

Jimmy Perez, the detective protaganist of the ‘Shetland’ series of novels, returns for another quiet thriller. But this time, he’s in Orkney, where he is happily settled down with Willow and their young son, James.

When his best friend from childhood, is brutally murdered on an ancient archaeological site, Jimmy and Willow are drawn into a tangled web of murder and mystery in a small, island community, where everyone knows everyone else’s business, newcomers never quite fit in and where legend and folklore run deep.

Archie’s death is followed by two more gruesome killings, both at other significant sites on the islands. Can Jimmy and Willow solve the crimes and keep the community safe?

This is a solid, reliable and thoughtful thriller where, of course, everything is not quite so straightforward as it seems initially. A list of suspects reveals itself to Jimmy and Willow, together with some plausible motives. I had my suspicions about the killer’s true identity quite early on but not the reasons for their actions.

This was my first Ann Cleeves’ novel, having only seen the Shetland television series previously. Perez was nothing at all like Douglas Henshall who plays him on screen, but I still had the image of the actor in my head when I visualised the detective.

For me, there was too much telling as opposed to showing and that annoying thing when you as the reader know that the protagonist has been told something important because the author tells you that but the ‘what’ is not revealed to you until the end.

A map of the Orkney islands at the beginning of the novel would be useful, especially in a print version.

NetGalley

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for advance review copies of these novels.

NetGalley is an online platform for booksellers, librarians, educators, and media professionals to discover and recommend books. Publishers and authors offer free digital books and audiobooks to the NetGalley community of book advocates and industry professionals.

I have been a NetGalley member since 2021.

July book reviews

I’ve read a bumper crop of novels this past month, thanks to NetGalley and the publishers who’ve given me advance copies in exchange for honest reviews.

There have been some really brilliant ones, which I’ve very much enjoyed. Also a couple of stinkers (in my opinion) but I’ve decided that anything I’ve awarded fewer than three stars won’t appear here. All my book reviews – for the stellar and the stinkers – are on Goodreads.

One of Us by Elizabeth Day *****

Publication expected September 2025

Razor sharp, well written, intriguing and right on trend – that’s One of Us by Elizabeth Day.

Martin, a former art critic and now working as a university professor at Cambridge – but not that university – has a secret about his old school friend, Ben, who is now an eminent Tory politician on a star-studded trajectory to becoming prime minister.

Everyone around Martin has secrets. In a ruthless world of political scandal, privilege, passion, insecurity, betrayal and lies, his desire for revenge has repercussions far greater than he could ever have imagined

Told from the viewpoints of all the major players, this was a cracking read, a kind of House of Cards for 2025 but told on a much more personal level, with humour, insight and keen observations, and characters with more than a passing resemblance to some famous politicans.

Highly recommended.

Party of Liars by Kelsey Cox *****

Published July 2025

From the outset of this novel, the reader has an ominous feeling about the house on the hill where the ‘party of liars’ is about to convene.

Set high above the Texas countryside, the gothic-style property is haunted by ‘The Mother’, according to local legend and stories. After years of dereliction, the house has been restored into a designer mansion, with one side stripped back and glazed, almost like a dolls’ house.

This is the venue for a 16th birthday party where secrets, lies, murder and mystery come to the surface. Whose is the body hinted at that has fallen from a balcony? And who did the deed?

Party of Liars is that perfect crime novel to binge – short chapters from multiple viewpoints, shifting perspectives and timelines but not (hurrah!) confusing to follow.

Very well written, with pace and panache, the narrative featured tricky subjects but keeps the reader hooked throughout.

Highly recommended.

Buckeye by Patrick Ryan ***

Publication expected September 2025

This was a novel that revealed its storyline quietly and slowly in a family saga that spans two generations in small town America, spanning World War II and the end of the Vietnam War. It’s a novel with vividly drawn characters, all with their own motivations, wants and desires. And it’s the desires that come to haunt them – is it better to keep a secret or, faced with living proof that desire has happened, come clean and face the repercussions? And if you do come clean, is there ever a right time to do it?

It was beautifully written in parts, and reminded me of the novel, Stoner. It had me thinking for several days afterwards about the consequences of reckless acts and repressed feelings, which has to be a good thing in a novel.

I enjoyed the first and third parts but struggled with the middle, hence I’m giving it three stars.

Love, Mom by Iliana Xander ***

First published October 2024.

When Kenzie receives letters from her (dead) mother, who was a bestselling novelist, she unravels a network of lies, secrets and tragedy.

She never got on with her late mother but finds herself sucked in and intrigued by the mystery, which she sets out to resolve with her friend.

Set in small town USA, this was an interesting, undemanding yet gripping novel, full of twists and turns and good and bad characters and an unexpected direction and a climactic ending.

It was a clever story and great plot, which would work well as a film or TV series. However, as a reader I wanted to know more – there were characters and parts of the story I felt were underdeveloped. It felt like a YA novel (maybe it was) and lacked a bit of depth.

For this reason I’m giving it three stars.

The Lucky Winners by K L Slater ***

Publication expected August 2025

Down on their luck and struggling to pay the rent, Dev buys his wife, Merri, a ticket for a prize draw to win a luxury house in the Lake District. Merri is a glass half-empty sort of person because of something terrible that happened years ago. She’s cross with Dev, a glass half-full kind of person, for spending £20 on the ticket. They end up winning first prize and move to this grand show home overlooking Lake Windemere. But Merri can’t shake off the ghosts of her past and locals seem to be lining up against them.

This is a light thriller, with a dual timeline to help make sense of Merri’s seeming paranoia. It’s tautly written, would work well as TV drama but wasn’t as suspenseful or thrilling as I’d hoped, although the ‘winning a luxury house’ aspect was very topical.

Book Corner

I have the good fortune to be a reviewer for NetGalley, a website which distributes advance reader copies of books to hundreds of thousands of members in exchange for honest reviews.

I was introduced to it by a friend in Lush Places, who insisted it would be for me after we started reviewing books from the village phone box library during lockdown.

It was too much hassle at first, but she kept on at me until I signed up and requested my first book. Thank you, Vikki!

Several years on, I’m now getting some amazing (free) downloads for my Kindle. The more books you review online, the more likely you’ll be approved for books in your favourite genres.

I share my reviews on the Goodreads platform or here on this blog.

I don’t very often award five stars but I’ve had some absolute corkers recently. Here are a couple of novels to look out for (both books are available to pre-order):

You Are Here by David Nicholls (due to be published by Sceptre 23 April 2024).

I was very excited to be approved for the latest David Nicholls novel. It didn’t disappoint. I didn’t want it to end, although I did, to find out what happened.

Michael and Marnie are two single strangers approaching middle age, living lonely, separate lives, north and south of the country. Michael is a geography teacher, obsessed with geology and his broken relationship with his beloved ex. Marnie is a self-employed, self-taught book editor who is finding her way after divorcing her entirely unsuitable husband She is anchored to her work, her ‘cosmopolitan’ life in London and, most of all, the joys of the English language.

The two are thrown together by a mutual friend on an arduous walk across luscious countryside in the Lake District and Yorkshire Moors. As the walk progresses, and as other walkers fall by the wayside, the reader learns more about the two of them and their problematic love lives. We are willing them to get together, to reach some kind of understanding that will see them triumph, ultimately, as a couple. But the course of true love, just like a coast-to-coast walk, does not run smoothly.

Romance isn’t really my thing but I loved this novel. I loved the characters of Michael and Marnie (and most of all, Marnie, who has a kick-ass sense of humour and pedantic eye for detail).

Nicholls’ writing is seemingly effortless and a joy to read. Tender moments are captured with humour and clarity. There are laugh out loud moments and I imagined myself picturing who might play the roles when it’s adapted into a television series like his best-known novel, One Day.

The new novel has so much hope at its core, following the desperation and isolation of the covid lockdowns. I thoroughly recommend it.

The Silence Factory by Bridget Collins (expected publication by The Borough Press, May 2024).

In 1870s London, widower Henry Latimer is working in his father-in-law’s shop selling hearing aids. A mysterious customer, who owns a silk factory in the Devon town of Telverton, asks Henry to help his young daughter who has been deaf since birth. Intrigued, Henry takes up his invitation. He travels to the man’s big house in Telverton and ends up getting caught in a web of deceit, greed and enchantment.

Henry’s story is interspersed with the first person journal of a previous lady of the house, whose sojourn on a Greek island results in the discovery of spiders which spin the most incredible silk. When worked into fabric, the spider silk has a unique property that can bring calming silence or excruciating madness to those exposed to it.

I was spellbound by this novel – more so because I wasn’t expecting to like it. I had read one of Collins’ previous novels, The Binding, which I was enjoying before it started to get weird. The Silence Factory, however, is streets ahead in its storytelling, quality of writing and characterisation. If you like gothic novels, you will love this. Prepare yourself for an immersive ride. It’s definitely got big screen potential written all over it, either as a film or television series. Highly recommended.

Books: which are your favourites?

World Book Day was created by UNESCO on 23 April 1995 to celebrated books and reading.

It’s marked by more than a hundred countries.

In the UK and Ireland, the charity celebrates World Book Day on 7 March – today!

‘Our mission is to promote reading for pleasure, offering every child and young person the opportunity to have a book of their own. Reading for pleasure is the single biggest indicator of a child’s future success – more than their family circumstances, their parents’ educational background or their income. We want to see more children, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, with a life-long habit of reading for pleasure and the improved life chances this brings them.’

World Book Day

It’s great to get children into books from an early age. Books take the young – and the old – to new worlds. The printed word and writers’ imagination allow us to go backwards or forward in time, and meet fictional and real-life characters from history.

There’s nothing quite like curling up with a good book.

As a child to my early twenties, I was an avid reader. And then life got in the way, until, about ten years ago, I reignited my love affair with books, and novels in particular.

Back in the day, I read Enid Blyton’s Tales of Long Ago, which filled me with a longing for stories from Greek mythology. And then it was magical things like The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, The Princess and the Goblin and The Hobbit.

At school, I loved Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas. Still do.

In my early twenties, it was anything by Ray Bradbury, John Steinbeck or F. Scott Fitzgerald.

My two favourite novels are Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes. And I love the Steinbeck collection of linked short stories, The Pastures of Heaven.

These days, I’m into witty and thoughtful reinterpretations of the Greek myths, such as Natalie Haynes’s Stone Blind: Medusa’s Story and Madeline Miller’s Circe, historical fiction like The Bookbinder of Jericho by Pip Williams and Once Upon A River by Diane Setterfield.

I’m very keen on Elizabeth Strout, Stephen King, Rachel Joyce and Barbara Kingsolver and literary fiction by John McGregor and Max Porter.

I love a good thriller, I’m not at all keen on chick lit or romance, and, most of all, I adore a quiet, coming-of-age novel set in small-town settings, such as Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger, To Be Sung Underwater by Tom McNeal, Go As A River by Shelley Read and Black Swan Green by David Mitchell. Although I hated Where The Crawdads Sing. I think it was the melodrama I didn’t like.

At the moment, I’m reading an advance reader copy of Sarah Perry’s Enlightenment. So far, it’s a good ‘un.

What’s on your reading list?