Reading Books In 2025

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February Roundup

The Night Manager - John le Carre
I’m genuinely surprised this was written in the 90s. It’s absolute old-fashioned (sexist/ homophobic/ vaguely classist) spy tosh. I hated all of the characters (charmers with no charm/ beautiful women with no personality/ posh English boys) and only kept reading because I finish books before they finish me.

Autumn - Ali Smith
I read this because my friend loves Ali Smith. I liked the dreamy bits and the misremembered bits but it all felt very inconsequential. I’m not really sure what I was supposed to get from it if I’m honest.

Grimwood: Party Animals by Nadia Shireen
Probably the best one since the first one.

Currently reading Chronicles From The Land of The Happiest People on Earth by Wole Soyinka. It’s currently a novel about corrupt governments in Nigeria. I normally love a bit of vaguely-afrofuturist magical realism but this is taking a while to warm up. The prose is very dense and I’m having to reread sections often because I get lost.

I still haven’t finished the formative assessment book or the Grimm fairytales.

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Tell me what to read pls

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The Changeling - Robin Jenkins
My final Kindle Unlimited book, and I almost didn’t go for it due to reviews saying it was quite bleak, but I’m happy I did. Written/set in the 1950s in Glasgow, a school teacher decides to take a smart, but troublesome/under-privileged, boy on holiday with him and his family - thinking it would do him good to get out of his normal dreary life/situation. Needless to say it doesn’t go to plan, but I loved how it developed. The ending: Oh boy, I was wondering how it would end, as I saw the page numbers dwindle away. I suppose it may have been the only way that book could have ended, but still pretty shocking/depressing.
9/10

The Door - Magda Szabo
Set in Hungary, a busy writer and her husband hire an old lady to be their housekeeper, who is extremely good at her job, but has her own peculiarities and is very stubborn. An interesting/exhausting relationship builds between the two over the years. I liked it, but was happy to finish it. Still curious to read more by the author though. 6/10

Pedro Paramo - Juan Rulfo
Thought I’d read a few short books to make a dent into my backlog after a month of Kindle Unlimited, and went for this book from the 1950s, which Gabriel Garcia Marquez said was one of his favourite books/biggest influences. Of course it was, you swine, as it was completely hard to follow. A young man visits a small village in search of his unknown dad, after his mum had recently passed away. Then a bunch of talking with dead people/ghosts, or jumping back in time to follow some of the past residents, but never entirely sure who is speaking/thinking/dreaming, from one paragraph to the next. I almost gave it up early on, but it was short and is nicely written - for the bits I can understand. It might get better/clearer upon re-readings. I’ll watch the film from last year that’s on Netflix so that I can find out what the plot was. 6/10

Minor Detail - Adania Shibli
The first half is based on a true event from after the nakba/Israeli war in 1949, and what happened to a Palestinian woman, from the perspective of an Israeli officer. A bit detached and unsettling, and unsurprisingly bleak. and then the second half is in modern times, as a young Palestinian risks her life to find out more. Obviously not cheery, but I read it in one sitting. 8/10

Assembly - Natasha Brown
Another short book, following a black British woman as she navigates through life/makes a success of herself, in a stream of consciousness kind of way, jumping back and forth through her experiences. Brilliantly written. 8/10

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with the big problem in his midst (the Cold War) ‘finished’ and his defacto autobiography in The Perfect Spy knocked out, he really does become a bit 2D. Some of the ones at the very end are contemporary remixes of older works - not bad, but he cannot write women or men under 40. the ending in the TV show is worse than the book, and they’re undoing it for the second series.

I got into him through his mentor John Fante - Ask the Dust is imo a better executed version of that ‘desperate and squalid man schemes his way into oblivion’.

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Swimming in the Dark - Tomasz Jędrowski

Absolutely loved this, starting and finishing it in two sittings over the course of the weekend. Beautifully written, succinct, no flab. Reminded me a lot of Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room, the influence of the novel inspiring the protagonist. I found it deeply affecting, the characterisations beautifully crafted, the relationships so real. For a debut novel it’s so assurred. Such a pertinent novel, especially in the current climate in Poland.

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Started reading, ‘Detransition Baby’ on a whim and ended up finishing it in a week, incredibly poignant, funny and nuanced treatise on race, gender, class and why trans women have many points in common with divorced women.

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I thought it was great. Learnt a lot, and it was a bit shocking in parts, but gives you a proper feel for the lived existence.

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There were definitely parts where I found myself checking who the author was because she very much had an… unfiltered way of talking about queer existence :sweat_smile:

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:rotating_light: Torrey Peters’ very well reviewed short story collection Stag Dance is out on Thursday :rotating_light:

She’s also doing a few dates in the UK, the London one is with Eliza Clarke.

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Saw the hardback in Foyles today but tbh have far too many books on the go at the moment.

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Oh fuck! At the Southbank the day before my birthday, and I’m off work - this must happen!

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Under The Eye Of The Big Bird - Hiromi Kawakami
Nominated for this year’s International Booker. Speculative distant future stuff, humanity on the verge of extinction, separated and quite different small societies/types of people. It kind of feels like short stories to begin with, and then kind of interlinking together a bit, maybe a bit more sci fi than I was expecting. Very strange in parts, maybe not for everyone, but I loved it and zoomed through it. 9/10

Antimatter Blues - Edward Ashton
The sequel to Mickey7. A sequel that just wasn’t needed. It was fine. 5/10

Clean - Alia Trabucco Zeran
Set in Chile, a story told by a maid who is presumably imprisoned (?), telling us about a child at her household who had died, and then talking about / deliberately dragging out the back story leading up to that moment. I just love the way it was written, intrigued to know how it would unravel, but mostly just enjoying the journey. It’s still 99p on Kindle at the moment. 9/10

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That’s interesting. Finished Under the Eye… yesterday myself and didn’t get on with it ultimately. Was fully engaged at the start, piecing together what was going on but halfway through it felt like it got less and less subtle and then that second to last chapter just seems to hand everything to you on a plate. Wondering if it’s partly the mood I’ve been in lately - I’ve been a bit harsh on a couple of books that I’d maybe enjoy more in a different state of mind.

Have started The Line of Beauty by Alan Holinghurst, got high hopes for that.

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Yeah, I could imagine the second to last chapter putting some people off! I think my high rating is probably more from the first half of the book too, but I was still just so keen on reading it all and seeing how what else would happen, and I didn’t mind when it got a bit less subtle.

Line of Beauty is on my backlog too - I half feel like I read it 20 or so years ago, but I’m not entirely sure, as it doesn’t feel like it’s something I would have read then. Will need to read it (again) to make sure… Not that I would even remember it anyhow!

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To read The Line of Beauty for the first time again…I envy you. Hollinghurst’s best, imo. A worthy Man Booker winner.

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Coupled with a collection of her short stories - Record of a Night too Brief - I’ve got this on my borrow list, but I find her work a bit hit and miss. Really didn’t like the last novel I read of hers The Third Love, but any writer who has written Strange Weather in Tokyo and The Nakano Thrift Shop I feel is worth persevering with.

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Fucking hell, well I just finished Prophet Song. Don’t think I’ve ever felt that close to having a panic attack from reading before.

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Chain Gang All Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

A near future where incarcerated people fight to the death for profit. A touch of The Hunger Games or Battle Royale, but more grounded in the political reality of the USA. Does the Babel thing of putting real life facts in footnotes as well. I found the character aspects well done, but the violence a bit too much and repetitive in the story. I got the point fairly quickly. The protest story was quite thin without offering anything to the overall story as well. So, mixed I’d say.

Onto the last Earthsea now

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My favourite book that I read last year. Adored it!

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Simon Rich - The Last Girlfriend on Earth

Friend recommended this a couple of years ago, been meaning to seek it out but stumbled across it in Oxfam last week. Very funny short stories about relationships by this guy who apparently used to write for SNL (don’t hold that against him) and Pixar. Apparently that American Pickle film from a couple of years ago was based on one of his short stories but that’s not from this book (never seen the film, dunno if it’s any good, forgot it existed).

Very funny and very easy book to blast through, even for me. Might seek out some of his other stuff.

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