I’m a big fan of The Undetectables series by Courtney Smyth!

A graphic showing the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2026 shortlist: Flashlight by Susan Choi Dominion by Addie E. Citchens The Correspondent by Virginia Evans The Mercy Step by Marcia Hutchinson Kingfisher by Rozie Kelly Heart the Lover by Lily King

A little disappointed by the Women’s Prize for Fiction shortlist, since I found Kingfisher and Heart the Lover quite forgettable 💙📚

Maybe I’ll feel differently once I’ve read Dominion and The Mercy Step

The Treasure and the Thief: Scenes of Elopement in Shakespeare and Middleton Shakespeare and Thomas Middleton both use elopement as a plot device in comic and tragic plays. Elopement drives the subplot of The Merchant of Venice (1596), resolves the main plot of A Chaste Mai...

My article on elopement in early modern drama is now live!

(in which I argue that eloping women are stealing themselves…)

The cover of Yesteryear, which looks like it has been ripped in half with the top half featuring a pastoral scene and the bottom half a woman’s face.

Natalie believes in living a traditional life, where women raise children and men work the land, or at least that's what she tells her social media followers. But then she wakes up one morning to find herself apparently stuck in the time period she was previously only playing at inhabiting... Ever wary of over-hyped books, I started Yesteryear prepared to DNF but ended up loving it. I was completely absorbed in the alternating timelines between Natalie's life as a "tradwife" influencer, her journey to becoming one, and her present stuck in the past. Yesteryear does a brilliant job of balancing page-turning content with thought-provoking ideas, and I particularly enjoyed seeing behind the scenes of Natalie's Instagram-perfect life. It was only the ending that fell a little short of a five-star read for me, as it felt like the story built everything up to such a climax that it didn't quite know where to go next. But I think it's fair to say this one lives up to the hype, and I think it would make a great book club pick!

Some thoughts on Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke 💙📚

This week’s #FridayReads is Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney 💙📚

Women’s Prize Longlist 2026: A Guardian and a Thief and The Correspondent My Women’s Prize longlist reading continues this week with two more titles, one a hit and one a miss, but the hit was a real highlight of my reading year so far! In Megha Majumdar’s A Guardia…

wp.me/p49UqI-5eE

Toby Jones reads from The Director | The Booker Prize YouTube video by The Booker Prizes

Watch Toby Jones read from The Director, the #InternationalBooker2026 shortlisted book written by Daniel Kehlmann and translated Ross Benjamin.

youtu.be/7B1x_YW7_qQ

Snagged the last free seat at a screening of Project Hail Mary this afternoon 😮

It’s not what I expected, but I’m kind of loving it…

I loved Seascraper - enjoy!

It’s definitely the book of the moment!

Bookish Checkpoint 💙📚

Last book read: The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones

Currently reading: She Who Remains by Rene Karabash (tr. Izidora Angel)

Next read: Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney

Last book added to my TBR: Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke

INTERVIEW: with author Stephen Graham Jones Stephen Graham Jones is the award-winning author The Buffalo Hunter Hunter. Here, we talk about the importance of short fiction, accolades in horror writing, juggling a day-job and how to balance horr...

We talk with Stephen Graham Jones about the importance of short fiction, accolades in horror writing, juggling a day-job and how to balance horror with the horrific.

First time for me!

This week’s #FridayReads is The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones 💙📚

Yay!

Ooh! I didn’t even know there was an adaptation in the works

The cover of The Correspondent by Virginia Evans, which is pale pink and features a red mail box.

The Correspondent is comprised almost entirely of letters and emails sent to and from Sybil Van Antwerp over the course of several years, during which she ruminates on the life she has lived and proves that life is not over at seventy. This one seems to be causing quite a buzz, and I wonder if it's because of its unusual format. Telling a story through letters is an impressive feat, and I loved how we have to read between the lines as we're given one-sided conversations and biased accounts. I did see one review describe The Correspondent as saccharine, and there is a certain element of this in the story's neat plot (whose twists many readers will see coming) and uplifting message. But I think this overlooks the complexity of Sybil's character (who is by no means likeable for the entirety of the book), and I also think a little tugging of the heart strings is good from time to time. The kind of five-star read that stays with you rather than the kind that blows you away, but one I hope will make the Women's Prize for Fiction shortlist.

Some thoughts on The Correspondent 💙📚

This week’s #FridayReads is Paradiso 17 by Hannah Lillith Assadi - another one from the Women’s Prize for Fiction longlist 💙📚

Mr. Nobody Against Putin - DMovies Small-town teacher Pavel Talankin exposes Putin's militarisation of schools, in this extremely brave documentary about state propaganda - from the Tallinn Black Nights

"Instead of ball games, the children train how to throw hand granaries, and have marching practice between classes"

Watch the Best Documentary Oscar winner now on BBC iPlayer:

dmovies.org/2025/03/25/m...

3⭐️ March Reads 💙📚

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

Heart the Lover by Lily King

4⭐️ March Reads 💙📚

The Antique Hunter’s Murder at the Castle by C. L. Miller

Vera Wong’s Guide to Snooping on a Dead Man by Jesse Q. Sutanto

(2/2)

4⭐️ March Reads 💙📚

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

Death of an Ordinary Man by Sarah Perry

Call for the Dead by John le Carré

Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy

The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward

(1/2)

5⭐️ March reads 💙📚

Stolen in Death by J.D. Robb

A Guardian and a Thief by Megha Majumdar

The International Booker Prize 2026 shortlist: The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran by Shida Bazyar, translated from German by Ruth Martin She Who Remains by Rene Karabash, translated from Bulgarian by Izidora Angel The Director by Daniel Kehlmann, translated from German by Ross Benjamin On Earth As It Is Beneath by Ana Paula Maia, translated from Portuguese by Padma Viswanathan The Witch by Marie NDiaye, translated from French by Jordan Stump Taiwan Travelogue by Yáng Shuāng-zǐ, translated from Mandarin Chinese by Lin King

Presenting the shortlist for the #InternationalBooker2026, supported by Bukhman Philanthropies.

Find out more about the books, authors and translators: thebookerprizes.com/ibp2026

SIX FILMS FROM THE 1980s THAT I THINK ARE UNDERVALUED AND/OR UNDERSEEN This post started out as 17 Films from the 1980s that I think are Undervalued and/or Underseen, but I got bored halfway through and cut it down to a more manageable six. Some of the other titles I …

Was searching my blog for something I thought I'd written; didn't find it, but did find SIX FILMS FROM THE 1980s THAT I THINK ARE UNDERVALUED AND/OR UNDERSEEN.

I love Emily Wilson’s translation of the Odyssey - enjoy!

Bookish Checkpoint 💙📚

Last book read: A Guardian and a Thief by Megha Majumdar

Currently reading: Sisters in Yellow by Mieko Kawakami (tr. Laurel Taylor and Hitomi Yoshio)

Next read: Paradiso 17 by Hannah Lillith Assadi

Last added to my TBR: It’s Not What You Think by Clare Mackintosh

10 Booker Prize-nominated books that explore mid-life crises | The Booker Prizes From Bernice Rubens in 1970 to Ben Markovits in 2025, the mid-life crisis has long been a rich source of material for Booker-nominated novelists

Featuring authors who:

- feared dying in the middle of a novel "in case some bastard comes along and finishes it";

- lost "a large and expensive pork pie" (it never turned up);

- hated being second fiddle to Amis and McEwan ("I'm way better"); & more

I wrote about mid-life crisis Booker novels:

Thanks! I haven’t really seen many people talking about this one, but I’m loving it so far