So many books and nothing to read?
Here are 10 Spring titles that will fire up your reading mojo
It’s a while since I’ve done a books round-up, so this month’s free post, coinciding with the May Day Bank Holiday weekend (in the UK and Europe), seemed like the perfect excuse to look at some of the brilliant new reads out this Spring.
All Fours, Miranda July
I love, love, love, love, love this utterly original exploration of what happens when “a curious, creative, sexually active woman reaches the midpoint of her life, goes off the oestrogen cliff and starts to question her direction.” Equal parts painful, poignant, hilarious and extremely hot, All Fours is unlike anything else I’ve read about this life stage. (And I’ve read A LOT!) It’s a total gamechanger. Read it – whether you’re hurtling off the oestrogen cliff or not! (And look out for Miranda on The Shift podcast very soon…)
• Out May 16, from Canongate. Preorder it from amazon or The Shift bookshop on bookshop.org
You Are Here, David Nicholls
I know, I know, I’ve already banged on about this instant number one smash hit. But here I go again! I’d barely turned the first page of You Are Here, before I was picturing it on BBC1 at 9pm on Sunday evenings and casting the lead characters. Divorced Marnie is a copy editor, working from home and wondering where all her friends have gone (married with kids, that’s where). Geography teacher Michael’s wife has left him and he’s taken to walking the moors, dales and fells alone every weekend in an attempt not to think about what might have been. Both lonely and feeling like life has left them behind, the pair are thrown together when a pushy mutual friend, Cleo, decides Michael shouldn’t be walking alone and organises an (unwanted) walking party to keep him company as he does the coast-to-coast. Cue all the Nicholls trademarks: warmth, wit, home truths and an unerring ability to get to the heart of what ails us. Basically imagine One Day but with at-a-loss midlifers and you’ve got it in one. Nicholls has nailed it again. Damn him!
• Out now from Sceptre. Get it from amazon or The Shift bookshop on bookshop.org
Enlightenment, Sarah Perry
I’ve had a soft spot for Sarah Perry’s ambitious, intelligent, beguiling stories ever since I read The Essex Serpent and then raced through her backlist. In Enlightenment we are introduced to Grace and Thomas, both members of their local Baptist chapel, born decades apart, but brought together by their conviction that surely this isn’t all there is? Enter James, who introduces Thomas to the overlooked 19th century astronomer Maria Veduva who is believed to haunt a local manor… Perry has an uncanny knack for blending big (huge!) often complex ideas with the minutae of life and here she works her magic on astronomy, thwarted love, dreams, expectations and her beloved Essex. If you loved The Essex Serpent, Enlightenment will not disappoint.
• Out today from Jonathan Cape. Get it from amazon or The Shift bookshop on bookshop.org
Three Burials, Anders Lustgarten
And now for something completely different… Cherry is a head nurse, mother of two and all-round "hardworking member of society”. She’s also on the run in a pink, soft top convertible with a handcuffed policeman and the corpse of a murdered refugee… As blackly comic as it is ferociously angry, I’m pretty sure you’ll be seeing a lot more of this book and its author.
• Out today from Hamish Hamilton. Get it from amazon or The Shift bookshop on bookshop.org
Girls, Kirsty Capes
Ingrid Olssen – brilliant artist, terrible mother (trademark!) – has died. She left behind one last instruction to her traumatised daughters, Mattie and Nora: throw her ashes in the canyon and her art in the sea. Cue a road trip to fulfil her wishes and reclaim themselves from the legend the media made of them. A funny, heartbreaking, astute look at art, trauma, the nature of celebrity, mothers, daughters, sisters and the awful things we do to each other. Expect to see this on every sunlounger this summer.
• Out 16 May from Orion. Preorder it from amazon or The Shift bookshop on bookshop.org
The Lost Love Songs of Boysie Singh, Ingrid Persaud
Roll up, roll up for the charismatic gangster Boysie Singh (a notorious Trinidadian gangster in the first half of the 20th century). This is his story. Except it isn’t. Told and reclaimed by four women connected and controlled by him (Popo, Doris, Rosie and Mana Lala). They loved him, they loathed him, they thought they could change him, free him, help him. A story so familiar it hurts. Persaud could easily fall into the trap of romanticising the so-called “bad boy”. She doesn’t. The result is occasionally graphic, often tough, always compelling.
• Out now from Faber. Get it from amazon or The Shift bookshop on bookshop.org
The House of Mirrors, Erin Kelly
I love me some Erin Kelly, so I can’t believe I’ve been so slow off the blocks with this one. Remember The Poison Tree, her bestselling debut that was turned into a hit ITV drama? In The House of Mirrors we meet those characters again. Karen and Rex are now married with a grown up daughter, Alice (Kelly has a lot of fun with her vintage clothing emporium, Dead Girls Dresses…) Everything is hunky dory as long as the past stays there. Inevitably it doesn’t and we are soon immersed in an unravelling morass of secrets and lies. Kelly is often compared to the late, great Barbara Vine and with good reason. (By the way, if you haven’t read The Poison Tree, it doesn’t matter at all. The House of Mirrors is a gripping standalone read too.)
• Out now from Hodder & Stoughton. Get it from amazon or The Shift bookshop on bookshop.org
James, Percival Everett
Like many people I first encountered Everett with his Booker Prize shortlisted novel, The Trees and the recent film adaptation of his novel Erasure (the Oscar-nominated American Fiction). He excels at page-turning truth-telling, always funny but never flinching from what needs to be said. James is exactly that but more so. A retelling of Mark Twain’s American classic Huckleberry Finn from the point of view of the enslaved Jim. Huckleberry Finn isn’t really a thing for British readers, but if that’s been putting you off picking this up, it shouldn’t. This is thrilling, thought-provoking and wise.
• Out now from Mantle. Get it from amazon or The Shift bookshop on bookshop.org
The Divorcees, Rowan Beaird
Another one that didn’t deserve to slip through the net (but have you seen my book piles?!), The Divorcees covers six weeks in the life of The Golden Yarrow, one of Reno’s most respectable divorce ranches. It’s 1951 and Lois Saunders is suffocating in a loveless lacklustre marriage. Not that that’s any excuse to get divorced. Which is why she finds herself spending the necessary six weeks in Nevada, her only hope of getting out. There she meets Greer who sets about showing her an entirely different way to be a woman. Stylish, sultry and sinister. I inhaled it.
• Out now from Manilla Press. Get it from amazon or The Shift bookshop on bookshop.org
Levitation for Beginners, Suzannah Dunn
Back in the early 90s, I fell in love with a book called Blood Sugar. Fundamentally the story of a young woman in search of her own identity, I adored it. The author was Suzannah Dunn. She followed it up with Venus Flaring and I was in heaven. Then she made a very successful foray into historical fiction (which is not very often my bag) and we parted ways. But now, she and I are back together. Although I suppose I have to confess that a novel set in 1972 is historical by anyone’s definition… Anyway, it is 1972 and Deborah is ten. Think Raleigh Choppers, Angel Delight, Crackerjack. Am I over-identifying? Enter Sarah-Jayne. (Jayne with a Y!) The new girl. Pretty, popular and full of stories about levitation. Uh-oh. Levitation for Beginners is a joy from start to finish. And if you’re remotely familiar with my reading preferences you’ll know I use “joy” advisedly!
• Out now from Abacus. Get it from amazon or The Shift bookshop on bookshop.org.
What are you reading right now? Come along and share your recommendations.
* A note: this post contains affiliate links, which means that a very small percentage of any sale goes to help fund The Shift.
I cannot WAIT to read All Fours
I am currently reading In Bloom by Eva Verde and absolutely adoring it. It's been a while since I've felt like this about a novel. The book "tells of strength, survival, forgiveness, resilience and determination, and the fierce love and unbreakable bonds between mothers and daughters."
The writing, the characters, the settlings (Essex) just glitter off the page. They are so real and I'll be bereft when I have to leave them.
Love these recommendations, thank you Sam. Several now reserved at my local library!