#netgalley Pub 13th Feb in the UK

I‘d read The Tobacconist by this author and enjoyed it so when this popped up on NG I thought I‘d give it a try.

This is a quiet, contemplative book, following a number of years in the life of a café, its owner Robert, and many of the customers.

Just a delightful relaxing read - perfect for a lazy Sunday afternoon!

Narrated by a trans woman who was a young child in a blue-collar area of Madrid in the 1980s and grew up during the AIDS era this is a heart-breaking but life-affirming novel.

The vignettes of the neighbourhood, life and people around the MC were beautifully told, but always with a threatening undercurrent.

Loved the women who supported our un-named protagonist, and helped her become herself, particularly Margarita and Eugenia.

A must read!

#netgalley - pub 6th Feb UK

This is the second novel by the author of Black Cake. I may be going against the grain but I much preferred this one - some other early reviewers felt that the old jar featured in this book didn‘t have as much impact as the cake recipe in the first but I liked it.

There was quite a time distance between the tales of slavery (and the jar) and the modern day, which perhaps lessened the impact but the modern-day ⬇️

This was laugh out loud hilarious - I found myself glad that I drive for my commute now rather than going by train as I‘d have had some funny looks otherwise. (The humour is very British-centric and there‘s lot of British pop-culture references too)

The author is also very caring towards the women who have been involved in romance fraud, and rightfully very angry on their behalf.

Also has to be the funniest (& sweariest) acknowledgments ever!

A baby is found washed upon the shore of an Irish fishing village in the 1970s. Ambrose Bonnar, a local fisherman, decides his family should keep him but Brendan is an odd boy, given to offering benedictions to the other villagers, and despised by his ‘brother‘ Declan.

This was a little reminiscent of Coast Road, but not as good - there was too much about fishing for my liking. A pick, but #borrownotbuy.

#netgalley Out 6th Feb in the UK

I *nearly* bailed on this ‘hardboiled detective‘ novel from the #ToBlonglist but persevered and, about 30% in, found myself caring for one of the MCs which turned the book around.

It could also be called speculative fiction as it‘s set in an alternative 1920s USA, where First Nations people live side by side with Blacks and whites, but still with the KKK on the rise and a ritualistic murder on a rooftop setting the whole town on edge.

I wasn‘t going to read this, but then it made the #ToB shortlist. I still wasn‘t sure but thought if I borrowed it from the library, I could bail.

I ended up really liking it and it didn‘t feel (quite) as long as it looked.

Thanks #ToB - you made me read and enjoy a fantasy book about teenagers, with ghosts, magic and weird creatures, where I didn‘t always understand what the heck was happening!

Henry liked it too! 🤪

Loved this debut novel, out in the UK 23rd January.

Cora is left alone in NYC in Sept 2001 when her father dies in the Twin Towers. She travels to Ireland to live with her Mother‘s sister, who had been estranged from the family for years. We travel back in time to learn about Cora‘s mother, Maire, and her aunt Roisin, and then forwards as Cora‘s own daughter starts to piece together the family history.

Ultimately this is a book about ⬇️

I clearly didn‘t love this #ToB book as much as other Littens (looking at you in particular Holly, @Hooked_on_books ). I mean, I loved the writing style and all of the bookish references but I found it really depressing and the Book Censor‘s life was so ultimately futile.

I‘ve been trying to figure out why it felt more so than 1984 and I think the MC was actually likeable and, of course, there‘s the inclusion of his daughter in this one.

#netgalley #arc 16th Jan in the UK

Ethan & Gabe are married with a young daughter. Gabe is a Democrat and Ethan suddenly announces he‘s going to run for Congress as a Republican. Ethan‘s sister Kate is a political reporter who can‘t report on the campaign due to her brother running, and whose messy fling Nicole from 20 years ago (now married to a man) reappears.

I was really engrossed by this, and it became very tense as the vote grew ⬇️

One of my favourites (so far!) from the #ToB longlist. Daniel is a scholarship student at an elite East Coast university. His roommate, Sam, is the opposite - a popular, good-looking guy whose father also attended the college. Against first impressions the two become best friends and then something more, but can their relationship go the distance?

Be warned - it‘s a sad one. 😢

I didn‘t read the blurb properly on this #ToB longlister and was expecting a wacky, unrealistic, maybe horror-based, attempt by a logistics team at Town Square (aka Walmart)to get their disliked manager promoted away from them.

Instead, the author plays it ‘straight‘, which is a good thing - I really felt I got to know and care for the characters and you really see the impact of corporate decisions on the economically disadvantaged.

Another one from the #ToBlonglist. I didn‘t enjoy Manhunt at all, but thought I‘d give this a go anyway and it was much better.

I actually don‘t mind the body horror - it doesn‘t gross me out at all but this was still rather OTT and overwrought for me. It‘s just one thing after another and all a bit much. Bury Your Gays from the longlist did a similar thing but in a subtler way, but maybe that‘s the whole point of this book?!

I really enjoyed this and it didn‘t matter that I‘d already read The Personal Librarian previously - yes, I knew the general outline but the books are quite different stylistically, and complement each other.

This one felt a little bit more NF (even though the author doesn‘t claim that it is) and I thought Belle herself came across a bit more mercenary and unlikeable in this version.

Thanks @jlhammar for being a great host! #europacollective

This was a fascinating listen as we hear a story from Estela, a maid to a middle-class family, as we know straight away a child has died and that Estela is telling her story from a locked room.

I thought some of the impact was lost at the end, with the introduction of the wider political unrest in Chile, but I wish I knew more about this background and its relationship to the socio-economic structures of the country before listening,

https://amp.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/dec/24/this-book-is-my-bible-the-w...

Interesting read! A couple of comments here that made me 🤔 - eg ‘the author is older and cooler than me so that makes non-monogamy more legitimate.‘🤷‍♀️

What do you all think?!

Another #ToBlonglist book ticked off, although I‘ve been meaning to read this for some time.

If you like dysfunctional family stories where all of the characters are pretty awful, then this one‘s for you! Like many ‘family sagas‘, it worked well for me on audio as I think it may have been a touch too long / wordy in print and I would have been tempted to start skim-reading.

Whilst I liked Fleishman as well, this was better.

Thank you to my lovely friends Barbara and Meg for these wonderful Christmas gifts! Henry was fascinated as you can see - but luckily he was waiting for the wrapping paper, not the books.

Meg - 2 books I hadn‘t heard of before but both sound wonderful!

Barbara - I‘m so excited to read these 2 from the #ToBlonglist and I‘m delighted you sent me Book Censor as I can‘t get it here. Thanks for the chocs also - Jolabokaflod time now!

I‘m not really sure I understood this at all. 🤷‍♀️ A wealthy young Palestinian woman arrives in NYC to teach, and slowly starts to unravel, teaching in a very unconventional manner and getting involved in a Birkin bag scam.

She also has a cleaning obsession, and hang-ups with her body, and the final 25% gets *really* weird.

I‘m sure there metaphors / allegories aplenty, but I couldn‘t grasp any of them to make much sense of it.

#ToBlonglist

I was drawn to this on #netgalley as it was blurbed to be a campus, dark academia novel. Perhaps I should have read that blurb better, as it‘s also about magic, which I‘m not a fan of.

It‘s the same-old story of a student from a poor background trying to fit in with the rich kids at Cambridge.

It would have been a so-so but the ending lifted it to a light pick.

Published 16th Jan in the UK.

#top24of24

Here are my favourites of this year - probably quite similar to a lot of other Littens‘ lists! 🤪 There‘s a fair few from prize lists and, of course, many recommended (or even gifted) by Litsy friends.

I think the top 17/18 were easy but there were a few vying for those last few spots. Those that just missed out included Lula Dean, The Wedding People, Wolf at the Table, The Collected Regrets of Clover and Notes on an Execution.

Whew, this is one ANGRY 😡 book!

It chronicles the end of an abusive marriage (not physical, verbal) from the POV of Jane, a wife and mother. It‘s told in a stream of consciousness style and I found myself breathless with fury while reading it (why did she even get together with him in the first place?!) but I couldn‘t put it down.

It‘s supposedly semi-autobiographical and I hope the ex-husband has read it.

This is a play-in book for #ToB.

Look what those lovely folks at #panmacmillan #picador sent me for Christmas - a veritable feast of #netgalley digital ARCs all coming out next year between February and August.

I already had Fair Play on NG, although not read it yet, and I‘ve seen Thirst Trap on at least one ‘2025 books‘ list, but the others are all new to me.

I also recently got Tilt and Audition on NG too, from a 2025 list posted by a Litten (I can‘t recall who!).

Another book from the #toblonglist that I like better than many / most that made the short-list. 🤷‍♀️

It follows 2 out of a family of 5 siblings from childhood to adulthood, and one of their children too. It was a fascinating look at the nature / nurture question and how things we do or things that happen to us as children can reverberate throughout our lives.

It‘s long, but worked well for me on audio.

It took me a while to get into this, from the #ToBlonglist. I hadn‘t read the blurb and assumed that the book was about the titular Lazarus Man, pulled out of the rubble of a collapsed NYC building after several days.

It turns out it‘s also about 3 other characters indirectly involved in the incident as well and, once I realised this, the narrative became less disjointed and I started to enjoy it.

It wouldn‘t make my shortlist though.

This has had mixed reviews but I liked it. It follows a young Black man as he works on the political campaign of a Black nominee.

I did have a couple of issues though - it was too obviously based on Obama‘s campaign which detracted from the MC‘s own story. Also, there was too much talk about religion and I lost interest / lost my way in those parts.

I‘m still glad I read it though.

#ToBlonglist

I loved this, and it‘s another perfect example of why I love the #ToBlonglist so much.

Yes, it‘s a bit weird, but in a good way. And it‘s so beautifully but sparsely written - about motherhood, grief, regret, love, loss and forgiveness.

It has a bit of a feel of Catherine Chidgey‘s ‘Pet‘ but with added magical realism, so if you liked that - read this!

And I‘m not a fan of magical realism at all but it totally works here.

Now *this* is why I love #ToB so much!

This is a book / author I‘d never heard of and wouldn‘t have thought of reading. I wasn‘t sure at the start - the dialogue felt stilted and the storyline a bit simplistic but I soon became completely engrossed.

A Hollywood screenwriter refuses to kills off his gay characters, and weird s*** starts to happen. There‘s body horror / psychological horror but also a warm heart to the story.

#ToB books picked up from the library yesterday. Two are on the shortlist - I‘m not overly enthused about the Link as I bailed on the only other one of hers that I tried ( and it‘s a chunkster) but it‘s a library book so 🤷‍♀️.

The tagged didn‘t make it onto the shortlist but it was waving at me 👋 from the new books shelf and I do like the sound of it, so couldn‘t really say no.

I had to buy this when I saw it a few months ago - a book about languages, and also about NYC?! ❤️

This is a fascinating account of 6 speakers of little-known, almost extinct, languages who all live and work in NYC, all well as a history of immigration to that city and diversity within it. It looks at grammar and language structure, alongside cultural histories.

Of course, I had to pair the book with my Strand bookmark!

I loved this. The MC, a poet, ends up in the ICU after a sudden, devastating, medical episode.

The medical bits were a tough read, and quite upsetting at times but still weirdly beautiful. The rest of the book was also full of beauty, as the MC reflected on music, art, love, poetry and dogs. ❤️

I highly recommend this, from the #toblonglist - it should have made the shortlist.

Well, this was weird…. A group of translators gather together to translate Irena Rey‘s latest work. They only refer to each other by their languages - this book is written by Spanish but translated by English and I struggled to follow who was narrating. The MC, whoever she was, was also incredibly immature and whingey, or was that as a result of English not liking Spanish?! And the ending? 🤯🤨

I‘m kind of glad I read it though.

#tobshortlist

I loved this collection of short stories from the #ToBlonglist.

I‘m not usually a fan of the genre but I appreciated that these were all beautifully written with proper endings. They‘re also linked to each other in some way, even by just a small object, which was lovely.

The whole book felt like a lively warm bath (even though 1 or 2 of the stories were sad / upsetting)

Definitely on my shortlist.

Beautiful writing in this book from the #TobLonglist but a very confusing timeline. It was very difficult to work out if you were in the past, present or future, and who was alive and who wasn‘t.

I guess that‘s the whole point and I gave up trying to figure it out and just went with it, but it still made for a rather confusing read. (As did the MC‘s wife being called Helen in the blurb, but Hannah throughout the book 🤔)

A light pick.

The books that I bought from the #ToBlonglist all arrived over the past few days. 😊 Plus, today, I got both books that I applied for on NetGalley, Lazarus Man and Model Home so I‘m thrilled about that!

Just need to find some time to read now - too much work as usual. Even audio isn‘t working - over 2 hours of driving a day but colleagues seem to think it‘s acceptable to ring for a ‘chat‘, as if I don‘t have 15 books to get through! 🙄

Thank you for the gift link @Chelsea.Poole - I love a list, although it‘s not good for my TBR!

Lots of the non-fiction I‘d never even heard of…. 🤔

And I‘m only part-way through two of these, Someone Like Us from the #ToBlonglist and Language City.

#ToBlonglist

Not for me. Charles, a robot, inexplicably murders his owner and sets off to find out why. I thought it might be an interesting comparison with Annie Bot but, after 3 hours of the 12.5 hour audiobook absolutely nothing has happened. It‘s very repetitive too, feeling like a child‘s story.

I get the idea that most humans have disappeared so maybe there are some interesting insights later but I‘m not hanging around to find out.

I liked the first two parts of this story, Lily and her son Nick, although it felt similar to a lot of other books.

Once it moved on to Mei and the science-fictiony/ gene therapy bit I started to lose interest. I don‘t think it went into enough depth to have any kind of impact on the story and the 3 sections felt very disjointed, as the 3 MCs plus Nick‘s Dad weren‘t communicating with each other.

Still a pick though.

#ToBlonglist

Give me a list and I go a little crazy…. 🤪

These are the books from the ToB longlist that I want to read and can hold of. I bought 8 😳 and the rest are through various library systems, digital or physical.

I also really want to read Colored Television but it‘s not cheap here, plus I‘ve put in requests on NetGalley for Model Home and Lazarus Man.

Send help….. 🤓🤪😳

This is going to have to be two posts…. Too many books to fit on one picture. 😬

These are the books on the ToB list that I already own and want to read.

Next, the rather extensive list of the other books from the longlist that I want to read.

Taking my cue from @BarbaraBB these are the ToB longlisted books that I‘ve read, in some kind of order of favourites first.

I also bailed on Glorious Exploits and hibernated Intermezzo as it wasn‘t working on audio. I‘m not going to buy it and I‘m currently on a VERY long waiting list at the library so not sure when I‘ll get to finish it.

Next I‘ll post the books that I want to read…

Sorry if I‘ve forgotten to tag anyone!

Audio-puzzling with a view!

I don‘t have a huge interest in Elvis or his life, but this was well-reviewed on here and was available on audio on BorrowBox so I thought I‘d give it a go, and I‘m so glad I did.

It‘s an unusual format, but really worked to tell Lisa Marie‘s (and Riley‘s) story. I learned so much about their lives, most of it heartbreakingly sad, but Riley took care to tell how great a mother Lisa Marie was.

I struggled to get into this at the start, the art world seemed rather impenetrable, filled with obnoxious, entitled people, mainly men. But then I realised that this is the whole point of the book and I ended up loving it almost* as much as I did Olga Dies Dreaming.

Anita is a rising star in the art world in 1985 when she is found dead. Raquel, a student of colour, feels out of her depth at Brown, until she meets an older very privileged ⬇️

Book 21 in the Kim Stone series, not in the database yet, out in the UK on 10th December.

Yes, it‘s as good as all the rest! If you love Kim you‘ll love this one and, if you‘ve never read any before, then you‘ve got a gripping, fabulous long series to start!

This time, someone is leaving cryptic clues for the team to follow, otherwise something terrible will happen…. And can the team actually work alongside Frost?!

Quite different to the other Ogawa books I‘ve read, this was very sweet and whimsical and not very ‘challenging‘ or complicated at all.

Tomoko, aged 12, is sent to live in her Uncle‘s opulent mansion, where she makes friends with her cousin Mina who is one year younger and in delicate health.

It did read like a children‘s book at times and I loved it whilst reading it, but it‘s immediately gone out of my mind since I finished it.

I picked this up at the Amnesty Bookshop in York, on tour with @MicheleinPhilly ☺️

Set in Yorkshire it follows Neef and Danny as they meet as teens, then grow up together. Neef has never had a dad and her Mum can barely look after herself. Danny‘s Mum died and his Dad (a Black man) is perceived as a trouble-maker, so you can imagine how their lives furl out.

It‘s a tough read and *isn‘t* like Normal People, as claimed on the blurb.

A rather disturbing read for me, but one that really made me think. Annie is a ‘cuddle bunny‘ AI robot living with Doug, a 34 year old man who has issues with Annie becoming auto-didactic and therefore more human like.

The juxtaposition of the sex scenes and Doug‘s abuse of Annie was really uncomfortable and the book raised questions about what it is to be human and what constitutes abuse.

I got the ARC of this ages ago but never got round to it so thank you @BarbaraBB for bumping it up my TBR.

I loved it (read it in 2 hours) but it was totally not as expected from the blurb. That suggests it‘s a ghost story with a recently-deceased Max watching his girlfriend Hannah, but that‘s only a very minor part of this utterly fascinating novel.

It‘s quite a tough read though, covering past trauma and abuse amongst other difficult topics.

I‘m so glad I picked this at Gladstone‘s during Blind Date With A Book - thanks Jess! @jhod

This is an autobiographical novel - the author herself was in and out of prison for sex work and other petty crimes and died aged just 29 in 1967.

It‘s definitely a French novel, with that curious dispassionate, distant, style that is so common but I felt sad for the MC in her emotionless, grubby world and I want to read the author‘s other (2) novels.

I started this on audio and struggled to connect so switched to physical. However, whilst I really enjoyed the book overall, I think the lack of human connection might have been the issue rather than audio.

Neither of the two male MCs was very relatable and there was too much distance between all of the stories - they sort of came together at the end but I didn‘t feel emotionally connected.

It would still have made my #booker shortlist.