Blog:

Hello, summer! We’ve had some lovely sunny weather in Scotland (that’s it over now, winter is back, get your coats out) so I’ve been spending many a happy afternoon immersed in a book. I read 32 books in May and June, and it was a real mix: fiction, non-fiction, graphic novels, kids’ books; debuts, classics and collections of an author’s best.

Here is my lucky 13 of the best books I read:

The Night Visitors, Jenn Ashworth & Richard V. Hirst – Delightfully creepy! This book kept me company on a late train from Edinburgh to Glasgow, and I hadn’t quite got to the end when I got home. I couldn’t bear to stop reading so I sat down, still in my coat and shoes, and finished it. I wish I hadn’t read it so I could read it new all over again.

33 1/3: Tori Amos’ Boys for Pele, Amy Gentry – I loved this – one of the best 33 1/3 books I’ve read. It functions partly as a rebuttal of the 33 1/3 book on Celine Dion, which I enjoyed but also acknowledge is a fine example of Straight White Male Bullshit. Read that one, then read this one. Even if you’re not a fan of Tori Amos’s music or public persona (even if you’ve never listened to her), there’s a lot to take from this about women in the music industry, mental health, how we discuss fame and famous people, and who gets (and doesn’t get) critical attention and acclaim – and why.

My Name is Monster, Katie Hale – A complex, accomplished debut. The prose dazzles while the themes of feminism, power and fertility sneak in for a gut-punch. It kept me gripped from the first page, and the characters continue to live and breathe in my imagination.

The Familiars, Stacey Halls – Elegant, immersive, satisfying storytelling.

The Silence of the Lambs, Thomas Harris – Even better on a re-read. Not a word is wasted and the characterisation is a masterclass.

Underground, Will Hunt – I loved this – the writing is beautiful and I dog-eared so many pages to refer back to. As a claustrophobe I will never, ever understand the desire to go deep underground – I honestly can’t think of anything worse. But Will Hunt does a great job of exploring the push-pull of desire and fear that draws people underground, both now and throughout history.

Shiver: Selected Stories, Junjo Ito – Why did I read it before bed? WHHHYYYYYYY? Those puppets will haunt me forever and ever amen.

The Loneliest Girl in the Universe, Lauren James – Utterly addictive – read it all in a oner, barely moving from my chair. I love the way it starts out seeming like a cute space romance, and then becomes something much darker. It didn’t go QUITE as dark as I hoped it would (no spoilers but I thought it was going to go full Yellow Wallpaper), but I still really enjoyed it.

Julián Is a Mermaid, Jessica Love – This picture book has beautiful illustrations and an inspiring and important LGBTQ+ story. Get this for all the small folk in your life.

Conviction, Denise Mina – The plot is incredibly twisty, the suspense is great, and the protagonist was a joy to read – so scathing and bitter, but in a totally relatable way.

Daemon Voices: Essays on Storytelling, Philip Pullman – I’m midway through a novel at the moment, and this book helped me so much. “There is the wood and there is the path. The making-up part is different from the writing-down part.”

All My Colors, David Quantick – This is super fun and fair whips along. Mark Kermode advises a 6-laugh test for comedy films – this passed, and I laughed out loud like a weirdo several times while reading this.

Nancy Drew: The Palace of Wisdom, Kelly Thompson & Jenn St. Onge – We’ve had the woke millennial rework of Riverdale and Sabrina the Teenage Witch – now it’s time for Nancy Drew! I enjoyed this. The artwork looks good, the characters are distinctive, and the story is interesting. Also props for having the queer female characters look ‘hot to queer woman’ rather than ‘hot to straight guys’. I’ll be reading the next one.

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What are the best books you’ve read recently?

Hello, Spring! There’s been a heatwave in Scotland, and sunny days mean sitting out in Mama Logan’s garden with a flat white or a G&T (depending on whether it’s before or after 5pm) and getting lost in a book. I read 35 books in March and April, and it was a great though unplanned mix of non-fiction, novellas and crime fiction.

Here are the top ten:

Friday Black, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah – WOW. Just wow. This book is a punch in the jaw, in the best possible way. After the first story I had to put the book aside just to breathe, as I think I forgot to in the last few paragraphs. So many of the stories felt like they popped the top of my head off and made everything else I was reading feel flimsy in comparison. It’s a slim book, but it packs so much punch.

The Girl Aquarium, Jen Campbell – Having loved Jen’s short story collection and picture books, I was excited to read her debut poetry collection – and it doesn’t disappoint. Themes of bodily difference, feminism, and whose story ultimately gets to be told, all in lush and complex language.

White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk about Racism, Robin DiAngelo – This is the most important and mind-expanding book I’ve read this year, and I don’t exaggerate when I say it’s a must-read for everyone, and particularly white people. Yes, every white person. No, you’re not the exception. It’s relevant not only to race, but to so many of the debates online at the moment (it could easily be called Male Fragility or Cis Fragility and all the same points would apply). Read it now.

What Would Boudicca Do?, E. Foley & B. Coates – I read one or two pieces in this book every morning over a few months, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Not only did the words inspire me and set me up nicely for the day, but the cover image of tired (but badass) caffeinated redhead inspired me too! I now have it face-out on my shelf so I can get a little boost every morning.

The Blue Salt Road, Joanne M. Harris – You’d think I’d be sick of selkie stories and retold fairytales by now – but just when I think no retelling could surprise me, along comes Joanne Harris. I loved this.

Red Thread: On Mazes and Labyrinths, Charlotte Higgins – I love rambling, well-researched, personal books by smart people. The sort of thing that says it’ll talk about one thing (eg. labyrinths) and ends up wandering labyrinth-like through several other topics connected to the author’s life and interests (eg. Greek myth, the English Midlands, the colour red, the anatomy of the inner ear, the London Underground, Borges, the brothers Grimm, forests) while actually telling you a lot about labyrinths too. I’d read Charlotte Higgins on basically any topic.

The Paper Cell, Louise Hutcheson – This was an unexpected joy. I’ve never heard of it, and only got it because I had an hour to fill, it was on sale, and it’s a beautifully produced small hardback. I loved the 1950s setting, that it was about writers, and the complex gay love story.

Murder in the Crooked House, Soji Shimada – I’m a sucker for claustrophobic/inescapable settings, weird architecture, snowy landscapes, and stuff about dolls/automata – and this novel had all of that in spades. I found the problem-solving part quite tedious and the detective character deeply irritating (luckily he only appears halfway through the book). Overall I liked this a lot, and it’s nice to read a crime novel that’s not about a young woman being tortured.

The Electric State, Simon Stålenhag – I read this in one go, in a dream state. It’s like nothing else I’ve ever read – a mix of the immersive, visual worldbuilding of a computer game, and the introspective prose of a novel. I’ve already bought Stålenhag’s other two books, and I can’t wait to be immersed in them.

Take It As a Compliment, Maria Stoian – The artwork is stunning, and in so many different styles – can’t believe it’s all one artist. The stories are heartbreaking, shocking and deeply relatable. An absolute must-read.

 

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What are the best books you’ve read recently?

Hello, 2019! I hit the ground running with books, books books (and how’s my own book going? The novel I’m meant to be writing? Uh… let’s not talk about that). I hit the ground running with my reading this year, and have finished 48 books so far. Although, to be fair, this includes 7 Point Horror books I read for the teen horror podcast I co-host, Teenage Scream. So far this year I’ve mostly been reading fiction, though I did also read some brilliant translated graphic novels, some stunning poetry and a couple of great and unusual non-fiction books.

Here are the 15 best pieces of procrastination I’ve read so far this year:

What We Talk About When We Talk About Rape, Sohaila Abdulali – Vital reading. It’s hard to say you ‘like’ a book like this, as it’s a brutal and difficult read. It’s a great mix of personal and anecdotal stories with larger issues of rape, particularly the difficulty in balancing the life-shattering seriousness of rape with the fact that people can (and do) go on to live rich and joyful lives after rape. This book is worthy of close reading and discussion, and should be assigned reading for older teenagers in schools.

The Dollmaker, Nina Allan – This one’s not out yet, so you’ll need to wait until April to read it, but it’s worth the wait. I knew it was going to be something special when I realised it was a hardback proof (publishers don’t often do this). This is a dreamy, strange, beautifully rambling book, and I read it all in one sitting.

The Other Woman, Sophia Blackwell – Just when I thought I couldn’t love Sophia Blackwell’s poetry more, she produces this absolute glory.

Waves, Ingrid Chabbert & Carole Maurel (illustrations) – An absolutely beautiful book. I highly recommend this for anyone suffering miscarriage or fertility problems. It doesn’t hold back from pain or provide easy answers, but it does show a way through. Even if you don’t connect with it on a personal level, the artwork is beautiful – the technique of dropping out the colour and then gradually bringing it back in again is simple and clever.

A Hurry of English, Mary Jean Chan – I bought this after I read at a British Library event with Mary Jean Chan to celebrate the 40th birthday of LGBT+ bookshop Gay’s the Word. Chan’s reading was incredible and I couldn’t wait to read more of her work. Apparently she has a full collection out this year, which I eagerly await.

Ill Will, Dan Chaon – I devoured this book over two nights, totally absorbed in its lush prose and bleak, gothic world. I couldn’t even tell you what it’s about, really, but it’s dark and challenging and layered, and I loved it.

The Collector, John Fowles – Second time I’ve read this, and it was even better on the re-read. Strangely enough, in my memory there was only Miranda’s narration; I’d forgotten Frederick entirely. And I suppose that’s why he’s such a sinister character: the embodiment of the banality of evil.

All the Little Children, Jo Furniss – I don’t usually like post-apocalyptic fiction. That whole thing about a bunch of survivors banding together, navigating a wasteland, running from zombies, probably some of them die, have to save a moppet, blah blah. No thanks. But this book got to me. Maybe it was the voice – it was funny, wry and literary. Maybe the main character, who I found believable and sympathetic (and a badass, not in an unrealistic Lara Croft/Wonder Woman way, but in the way of real women, who try their best but have emotions and make mistakes).

We Sold Our Souls, Grady Hendrix – This was much better than it has any right to be. Most of the time it’s a funny, silly, gory rollick through the underground heavy metal scene – but it also addresses serious themes and at the end is genuinely uplifting. It was exactly what I didn’t know I wanted to read. It’s told from the point of view of two women who work really damn hard, but never get anywhere because they’re surrounded by idiot men who ruin it all (I know some of you can relate). I loved Kris Pulaski from the very first scene, and almost didn’t care what happened in the rest of the book because I’d happily read about her doing pretty much anything. This book didn’t change my life or make me think deeply about anything, but I enjoyed it. A lot.

Mrs Caliban, Rachel Ingalls – If The Shape of Water was stranger, darker and beastlier.

A Sea of Love, Wilfrid Lupano & Grégory Panaccione (illustrator) – The most ridiculously cute graphic novel I’ve read in a long time (although ‘read’ might be the wrong word as it’s entirely wordless). I love an old person romance – like the start of Up, except no one dies. Actually there’s quite an Up vibe through this whole thing. I don’t want to say more in case it spoils the story, but it’s sweet and cute and made me laugh out loud more than once. If you’re having a bad day, this will sort you right out.

Captive Audience: On Love and Reality TV, Lucas Mann – I always feel differently about books when I read them on work trips. The trips are always to do readings or teach workshops, and they involve a brief bustle of public-facing activity surrounded by hours of solitude (on the train/plane, having dinner, in a hotel room) during which I read. At those times, the voices in books speak to me in familiar tones; I feel like I’ve spent time with the author, like they’ve accompanied me on the trip. Because of this, it’s difficult for me to assess this book objectively – is it actually a good book, or did I just love it? Or does my love of it make it a good book regardless? Anyway, I made 48 bookmarks in this, so I obviously did enjoy it.

Convenience Store Woman, Sayaka Murata – A strange, yet strangely compelling character study. I read this in one sitting and I think that’s the best way to read it – immerse yourself in Keiko’s world and let the convenience store absorb you.

The Merry Spinster: Tales of Everyday Horror, Daniel Mallory Ortberg – This book was the definition of writer envy for me. Every story is absolutely killer and I wish I’d written them all, particularly the Little Mermaid retelling. I read it in one go on the train from London to Glasgow, and what a beautiful and surreal journey that turned out to be. I’m excited for Ortberg’s next book.

Bonfire, Krysten Ritter – I’ll admit it, I expected this to be another lightweight celebrity novel, probably ghostwritten and only published because they’re famous. But this was a real surprise: absorbing, pitch-black and beautifully written. I’d be surprised if film rights haven’t already been sold – with Ritter in the lead role, I hope.

We Were Always Here: A Queer Words Anthology, various – Bit of a cheat, maybe, as I have a story in here. But it’s a great and glorious collection, spanning the spectrum of LGBTQ+ experience.

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What are the best books you’ve read recently?

This year I read 258 books – and for the first time in my entire life, I read more non-fiction than novels!

The 258 books break down like this: 85 non-fiction, 63 novels/novellas, 41 YA/kids, 33 short story collections/anthologies, 26 graphic novels, 10 poetry collections. As always I have a slight female bias, with the authors 146 female and 103 male (the other 9 either genderqueer or I don’t know their gender, or multi-author anthologies).

In no particular order, here are my 50 favourites of 2018.

Books out in 2018:

• Best feminist myth-inspired stories: Apple and Knife, Intan Paramaditha, Stephen J Epstein (translator)
• Best domestic thriller: Lullaby, Leïla Slimani, Sam Taylor (translator)
• Best transgender protagonist (also best sad crime novel): The House on Half Moon Street, Alex Reeve
• Best badass (also deaf and bisexual) protagonist: Dark Pines, Will Dean
• Best ongoing series I can’t get enough of: The Blood, E.S. Thomson
• Best book that made me roll the prose around in my mouth like a sweet: In the City of Love’s Sleep, Lavinia Greenlaw

• Best sincere embracing of a surreal concept: My Boyfriend Is a Bear, Pamela Ribon (author) & Cat Farris (illustrator)
• Best book that indulges and also analyses nostalgia: Paperback Crush: The Totally Radical History of ’80s and ’90s Teen Fiction, Gabrielle Moss
• Best adorable LGBT graphic novel: The Prince and the Dressmaker, Jen Wang
• Best book on the importance of tenderness: Little Sid: The Tiny Prince Who Became Buddha, Ian Lendler (author) & Xanthe Bouma (illustrator)
• Best Agatha Christie/Black Mirror mash-up: The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, Stuart Turton
• Best graphic novel I love so much I want to eat it (particularly as the colors make it look like forbidden snacks): Paper Girls, Vol. 5, Brian K. Vaughan (writer), Cliff Chiang (illustrator) & Matt Wilson (colourist)

• Best book about books: Bookworm: A Memoir of Childhood Reading, Lucy Mangan
• Best book I keep telling everyone about to the extent that it’s probably quite annoying: Bullshit Jobs: A Theory, David Graeber
• Best book that both comforted and confronted me: Why Social Media is Ruining Your Life, Katherine Ormerod
• Best book I immediately wanted to give to all my female friends: How to Own the Room, Viv Groskop
• Best book about Pretty Dead Girl stories: Dead Girls: Essays on Surviving an American Obsession, Alice Bolin
• Best spooky stories: Eight Ghosts: The English Heritage Book of New Ghost Stories, Rowan Routh (editor)
• Best stories that gave me writer envy, bewitched me and creeped me right the fuck out: This Dreaming Isle, Dan Coxon (editor)

I also published two books in 2018 (I haven’t included either as part of my top 50 but I’m giving them a brief mention, as they were hard work to write and I’m proud of them!). One is a novel, The Gloaming, and one is a personal essay/memoir, The Old Asylum in the Woods at the Edge of the Town Where I Grew Up, published as part of Hometown Tales: Glasgow with Paul McQuade.

 

Books Out Before 2018:

• Best small, dense, perfect novella: Dept. of Speculation, Jenny Offill
• Best snowy, sparse, surreal novel: The Ice Palace, Tarjei Vesaas, Elizabeth Rokkan (translator)
• Best strange, claustrophobic, desperate crime novel: The Hours Before Dawn, Celia Fremlin
• Best gay crime novel: Fadeout, Joseph Hansen
• Best book I read on a mermaid inflatable in a swimming pool: Picnic at Hanging Rock, Joan Lindsay
• Best novel set in post-Katrina New Orleans: City of the Dead, Sara Gran

• Best stories that never went where I expected them to: Tiny Deaths, Robert Shearman
• Best short stories about Deaf experience and culture: Chattering, Louise Stern
• Best surreal, beautifully-written stories that gave me writer envy: The People in the Castle, Joan Aiken
• Best Malaysian horror stories: Them Horrors be Everywhere, Julya Oui
• Best gorgeously-illustrated new fairytales: The Language of Thorns, Leigh Bardugo
• Best horrible/brilliant stories I couldn’t read while eating: Daddy’s, Lindsay Hunter

• Best feminist pop-culture essays: You Play the Girl: On Playboy Bunnies, Princesses, Trainwrecks, and Other Man-Made Women, Carina Chocano
• Best true crime that made me examine how we portray female murderers: Lady Killers: Deadly Women Throughout History, Tori Telfer
• Best book that made me think more deeply about both Hillary Clinton and Kim Kardashian: Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud: The Rise and Reign of the Unruly Woman, Anne Helen Petersen
• Best book about a subject I didn’t know I wanted to read about: Let’s Talk About Love: A Journey to the End of Taste (33⅓), Carl Wilson
• Best book about what the concept of ‘celebrity’ is and isn’t: Where Am I Now?, Mara Wilson
• Best true crime book that expands the boundaries of what true crime can do: The Fact of a Body: A Murder and a Memoir, Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich

• Best book to read in cold seasons: The Nature of Winter, Jim Crumley
• Best book I should have been taught at school: Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, Reni Eddo-Lodge
• Best Re-Read: Ariel, Sylvia Plath
• Best book that inspired me while also making me want to read Russian novels: The Anna Karenina Fix: Life Lessons from Russian Literature, Viv Groskop
• Best nostalgic book: The Bucket, Allan Ahlberg
• Best book that made me want to read things I didn’t expect to want to read: Paperbacks from Hell: The Twisted History of ’70s and ’80s Horror Fiction, Grady Hendrix

• Best book that made me figure out what the novel I’m writing is actually about: Witchcraft: A Very Short Introduction, Malcolm Gaskill
• Best book to read on a writing residency: Bleaker House: Chasing My Novel to the End of the World, Nell Stevens
• Best book I read while doing novel research at the Wellcome Library: She-Wolf: A Cultural History of Female Werewolves, Hannah Priest (editor)
• Best book that broke all my illusions about writing for Hollywood: Dreams & Nightmares: Terry Gilliam & the Brothers Grimm, Bob McCabe
• Best how-to-write book: Damn Fine Story: Mastering the Tools of a Powerful Narrative, Chuck Wendig
• Best book to learn how (and why) to write a screenplay: Which Lie Did I Tell?, William Goldman

• And best devastating final line: Evening Primrose, Kopano Matlwa

 

What were your favourite books of 2018?

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Ah, September. What a dream you were. I spent the whole month in a Scottish castle. There was a library and an orchard and wild deer. I wrote 45,000 words of a new novel and went for 6-mile walks every day. I’m going to be dreaming about it for a long time.

October was a little more prosaic, as I had to catch up on all the emails and chores I missed in September. But I still had time to do some fun events and workshops – and to read books, of course. Here are the best:

The People in the Castle, Joan Aiken – Oh, Joan. How strange your stories are. How quotable your prose. How unique your worlds. How little the stories make sense, and how little sense seems to matter. This book isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. But it’s definitely mine.

The Unaccompanied, Simon Armitage – These poems are sad and funny and the sort of thing you want to keep under your pillow. Armitage is always excellent.

Wintering Out, Seamus Heaney – Reading Seamus Heaney puts me in such a weird floaty headspace. It’s impossible to read these poems quickly or distractedly. They’re like fever dreams made of language.

Notes to Self, Emilie Pine – Personal essays; I know, I know. But these ones are actually good. Not only are they beautifully written and observed, they’re actually about something. Some essay collections feel like the writer thought ‘need to write an essay, hmm, what can I write about…’; Emilie Pine seems to approach it from the other way. Each of these essays feel vital, like she had to write them. I loved this book and I can’t wait to read more from Pine.

How to be Both, Ali Smith – It’s a sign of real intelligence to make difficult concepts seem easy to understand, and that’s what Ali Smith does. I devoured this book in two long sittings; I didn’t mean to, but once I’d started each section I couldn’t stop until I had finished. I preferred the historical section, but both had plenty to offer.

Chattering, Louise Stern – I don’t think I’ve ever read a book by a deaf writer about deaf characters, and if this wonder is anything to go by, I’d love to read more. Raises issues of language (signed, spoken, emotional), connection and loneliness.

Bleaker House, Nell Stevens – Sometimes a book can be a companion. I read this while I was on a writing residency working on a novel, so of course reading about another writer on a (much more remote and difficult) residency working on a novel really connected with me. It’s a light, easy, funny read – at times this was frustrating, as there were opportunities to go deeper or smarter, which weren’t taken. But it is what it is, and I enjoyed it. It was exactly the book I needed to keep me company.

The Virago Book of Ghost Stories Volume 2 –I devoured this book in a single night. So many beautifully-written creeps (my favourite kind).

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What are the best books you’ve read recently?