Blog: Books

I’ve read a lot of books this March and April, but I’ll be honest: they’re mostly Point Horror! I’ve been working on a brand new podcast, Teenage Scream, about Point Horror and other 90s teen horror. I’m absolutely loving it, and it will be launching next month so I’ll post links then. I have managed to fit in some other reading too, mostly non-fiction. Here are the best books from March and April: Negotiating With the Dead, Margaret Atwood – I seriously…

January and February are always busy reading months for me. Scotland isn’t known for its sunny weather, and generally the start of the year is pretty cold and windy – and to me, lovely, as it means I get to stay in with a good book and a cup of something hot. Bliss. It’s been a particularly good few months for graphic novels and short stories for me, so perhaps next month I’ll get stuck into a longer novel. Here…

This year I read 250 books. 250! No idea how that happened. I did travel a lot for book events and festivals, which meant many hours on trains and evenings in hotel rooms. I get sent a lot of books for review and blurbs. I volunteer in an Oxfam Books and usually buy at least one book per shift. I love the library – I’m a member of four, and my local library now refers to me as a “heavy user”….

Want to read something water-themed on your summer holiday but still stick to your creepy, fabulist, witchy-dark bones? You’ve come to the right place. Orkney, Amy Sackville – An ageing literature professor honeymoons on Orkney with his much younger wife. He’s studying enchantment narratives about strange girls and women, and soon his research bleeds into his obsession with his mysterious new wife. Becoming Bone, Annie Boutelle – A biography-in-poems about Celia Thaxter, from her childhood on the stark islands off the New Hampshire coast…

I’ve somehow managed to read 133 books so far this year (how did that happen? I don’t even know). Luckily for me, some of them have been seriously amazing. Here are the best ones of April and May: Cobwebwalking, Sara Banerjee – A strange, lovely little book that I devoured in a day. Geek Love meets Cold Comfort Farm. A Wild Swan, Michael Cunningham – Gorgeous retellings of classic fairytales. The prose is so lush I could bathe in it. The…

  January and February are always big reading months for me. Blame the terrible weather and general post-festive blah, but all I want to do is escape into new worlds. For 2016, I decided to branch out and try new genres. So far I’ve read literary fiction, children’s novels, romance, horror, magical realism, nature non-fiction, memoir and essays. Here are my favourites of the year so far: The Deep, Nick Cutter – The perfect horror novel for claustrophobics, Event Horizon meets Stephen King’s…