May to December romance which I disliked. I kept going in the hope of a narrative swerve.

Image is book on wooden surface. Cover shows a photo of a young Japanese woman floating in the air in a supermarket.

Robert says he‘s off to buy a paper. He doesn‘t come back.

Another story in which the patriarch is an absence around which the rest of the family swirl as secrets emerge.

I first read O‘Farrell last year and she‘s now firmly on my must-read list. This was compelling in its everyday strangenesses.

Image shows book cover: a table set with a green and yellow cloth, with an inset photo of two kids on a beach in blazing sun.

On a remote Mexican peninsula, Dr Moreau is playing god. Told from the alternating viewpoints of Carlota, his daughter, and Montgomery, his major-domo. Picking at colonialism and patriarchal ideas of power.

Gift.

Image show book. Cover shows a Mexican woman in a blue silk dress standing in the doorway of an overground, dark pink hacienda.

What happens in a community after a visiting teenage girl goes missing.

I loved the structure and rhythm of this, and the idea of using nature-writing to make people seem small in the landscape.

Image description: Book as named in post. Cover shows a high moor with a large blob of water over it.

Novelisation of one of the more standalone Whittaker stories.

Image description: Book as named in post. Cover illustration showing Jodie Whitaker as the Doctor and two Kerblam robots

Novel in the form of letters as a woman writer in London is drawn into under covering life in an occupied island in WW2. Nicely drawn characters but one bit where the story broke the form.

From a charity shop and already in the stack to be redonated.

Image description: Book as named in post. Cover shows a pretty woman looking sad and dear god the font is twee.

Book about the growth mindset for tween which I have read before passing it to them. Straight-forward and with a good explainer of marginal gains and some decent looking exercises.

I rather hope we end up with a full set of Donna novelisations. This one adds some great details including additional character notes.

A consulting detective working in the LA hood. Brilliant crime book.

The original was one of the first Target novelisations I bought so this was a small delight. This is the Who I fell in love with. A mix of fantasy and science fiction with some comedy and some rad bite too.

Image description: Two copies of the novelisation and a small K9 toy. The 2023 version on the left has a cover illustration shows the Doctor and Romana plus the eyes of a man lion and a spaceship. The 1982 version has a gateway.

A meditation on memory loss, time and the perils of nostalgia. Some laugh out loud moments but also some that made me cry. A slow read.

From a high street book chain.

Image description: book cover has photos of rooms from different times in the twentieth century. Next to the book is a bookmark saying “get lost in a good book”.

Look at the new logo! With gold embossing and everything! A very fast, slight new Target novelisation with some lovely little jokes.*

*See the use of footnotes to refer to other stories, which earlier Targets would do.

Gift.

Image description: Book cover is an illustration of Peter Capaldi and Jenna Colman as the Doctor and Clara, with two zygons menacingly looming over them them.

A girl and her grandmother spend their summer on an island.

I was fascinated by the absences. The lost mother is only mentioned once. Papa comes and goes, and works, but never gets a line of speech. I recognised my own mother when she was old in the Grandmother.

Loan from husband

Angry, heartfelt and depressing. Le Guin writes furiously about colonialism and patriarchy. Still a punch to the guts 50 year after it won a Hugo.

Bought from an indie bookshop.

Another set of Miss Marple stories. This time using the conceit of 12 fireside stories that then lead to the 13th active crime scene. Delightfully sharp and funny.

Charity shop find.

Piranesi lives in the House and works with the Other until strange new writing appears…

Absolutely glorious meditation on self, alternative realms and magical thinking.

I have failed to read Strange and Norrell twice: I‘m hoping having finished this I‘ll not get stuck a third time.

Loan.

A collection of Korean magic realist and ghost stories, in translation.

I need to read at least three again.

Gift.

Relatively cosy crime from the pov of an amateur detective who is a sailor from Shetland.

Library loan.

A collection of articles, talks, screenplays, plays and blogs by the columnist so many now copy. Funny, but not laugh out loud funny.

From the original Foyles back at Christmas

An Edwardian North and South with less time for toxic masculinity, and a free heroine who doesn‘t judge people. Really enjoyed this. Bought from Handheld Press at a pre-pandemic convention and finally read!

AKA the Miss Marple with characters called Halliday. A young woman returns to Devon, only to be haunted by her past. Comes complete with the idea Miss Marple‘s birthday treat was to see a performance of John Gielgud in The Duchess of Malfi.

Well, oh dear, yes, quite. I have come to the conclusion I disliked Christie when I was a teen because I thought they ought to be ‘proper‘ crime books. I now realise they are comedies with some crime in them.

A family holidaying in Norfolk have the lies they tell themselves stripped away by the arrival of a random person on their doorstep.

I normally love Ali Smith books so I was surprised to not love this one. It was still funny, and angry and all the things I like in her writing but…

Sometimes difficult, sometimes illuminating and sometimes very North American book about ADHD.

Bought from that famous online bookshop.

A lost woman untangles the identity of an old woman found dead in a flat, discovering connection to her own past. Split over multiple time periods, so the reader knows more than the main protagonist. CW for implicit child abuse.

YA in which young women deemed cursed are rescued from mistreatment in order to fight. CW for depictions of violence and descriptions of sexual violence.

Bought from an indie shop a while back.

The loss of, and hope for recovery of, a family‘s land. Told from three perspectives, and in three forms. Some tough passages of violence against Aboriginal people.

Library loan

Exceptionally 90s punk magic realism with drum and bass as a key thread. The early magic police procedural subplot vanishes near the end. I struggled at first as one character is so obnoxious, but then it became compelling.

A dark view of human nature as patterns of behaviour repeat in an old house in Berwick. CW for if you want to read it: violence against women. I hovered between pick and so-so as if you‘ve read “All The Birds, Singing” then this feels very much like more of the same and veering towards misery porn. But I also stayed up late reading it, so I‘ve gone for a pick.

A collection of autobiographical stories. Some feel too sparse, like they are making weight. Others are fantastic. ‘The Squirrel‘ and ‘Travelling Light‘ were favourites for me.

This year all but four books in my #LitsyAtoZ will be off my TBR bookshelf. This has been lurking there since my husband finished it a few years ago.

Actually laid out my #LitsyAtoZ for 2023 as I‘m trying to make serious inroads into my TBR bookcase. I have all but five letters (K, U, X, Y and Z). Any suggestions for the gaps? Ideally available from a library.

Dated what if romp in which Lestrade investigates the death of Lord Carnarvon. Not really my thing but got me to 52 books for the year.

Underwritten characters and a misanthropic narrative voice. And sometimes adding “so it goes” at the end of a scene does not make it Slaughterhouse 5.

I only finished it as I‘ve never given up on a Who novelisation.

Present.

My #FourFoursIn22 grid has just the one gap. @Lauredhel

12 new Marple stories from the best women crime writers of today. I loved it so much! Each one plays with the tropes and the Christie Marple canon. A little over reliance on nephew Raymond West to get Marple into some scenarios, perhaps. Library loan.

“I often underestimate the steel under the tweeds when it comes to my older female parishioners. ‘Mary‘s not sulking, my dear. Mary‘s been murdered,‘ Miss Marple said, her tone entirely lacking in drama.”

Having to pace myself with this book of new Marple cases.

Technically an illustrated short story but it‘s in a book by itself so, like the Penguin 60s, I‘m counting it. Lyra wants to repair the harm done in her relationship with Pan. It feels like mood music, not a story.

A youth‘s first crush crashes into the more complex adult world. Told in retrospect, the naivety of the narrator whilst also dropping clues for the reader is excellent.

Spinsters in Jeopardy by Ngaio Marsh. 1954 Inspector Alleyn murder mystery. Not one of the best, and filled with dodgy national stereotypes that veer towards racism towards Egyptian characters.

Charity shop find of an omnibus. Just Scales of Justice to go.

Angular novella set in East Anglia. Stark and sparse prose that creates a strong sense of place and melancholic air.

Short biographies of the twenty women shortlisted to have a statue in Manchester back in 2018.

I didn‘t like Christie as a teen. I wanted my golden era crime hard-boiled or aristo. I‘ve come back to her and am enjoying some immensely.

CW: a queer character is treated as inherently suspicious.

Charity shop find.

This rattled alone and had a lead protagonist who learnt some tough lessons. Very much filled with Bawden‘s tropes: old woman seen as a witch by kids; spooky woods; kids getting out of their depth.

This non-fiction book delves into several key automata and “living dolls” throughout history, looking at their relationship with the uncanny. Brilliant.

From a bundle of Puffin books. Like Bowden‘s most famous (Carrie‘s War) there are skulls and child guilt. Some lovely descriptions of an island, and kids that are not too precocious.

Ideal for 8-11 year old wanting some Ms Marvel content. Teenage life is stretched thin even if you‘re not a superhero. Lovely artwork too.

Straightforward 1970s non-canonical Holmes. The story itself is closer to a novella, but multiple framing devices establishing the game make it longer. Read in a day as it was so light.

Josephine Tey goes to spend Christmas with her Chief Inspector friend on St Michael‘s Mount. Cut off by a storm, the murders start…

Well, this is a cosy crime series I‘m going to devour.

Ali Smith‘s seasonal quartet was something I grew to look forward to during the pandemic. This new novel, set in two times of plague and exploring connections, is another corker.

Contemporary fiction as three women circle each other‘s lives and their roles as grandmothers. A quick read and slyly funny.