editor’s choice

  Have you heard of kintsugi? Sydney says. Ila shakes her head. It’s the old Japanese art of repairing broken or chipped pottery. They use layers of lacquer, often with powdered gold. Instead of hiding the damage, it’s embraced. It’s treated as part of an object’s ongoing beauty. I love that, Ila says.”   Rachel … Continue readings →

Tags : Books to watch out for 2019, contemporary women's literature, death, Do Not Feed the Bear, grief, Headline books, Rachel Elliott, St Ives books, Sydney, The Literary Lounge, The Literary Shed, The Literary Shed editor's choice, Tinder Press

    ‘Very ancient buildings have a way of talking to you … So many secrets waiting to be uncovered.’ ‘I’ve always thought that, too,’ I say. ‘Actually, I’ve always talked to Ponden since I was little; it seems impolite not to.’ ” – Tru Heaton Jones discussing Ponden Hall with Marcus Ellis   Rowan … Continue readings →

Tags : Anne Brontë, Brontë, Brontes, Charlotte Brontë, Emily Brontë, Gothic literature, Greybeard, Gytrash, Heatons, Ponden Hall, Rowan Coleman, the Bronte family, the Brontë vicarage, the Brontës, The Girl at the Window, the Gytrash, the Heaton family, The Literary Lounge, Wuthering Heights, Yorkshire moors

    We’re utterly delighted to welcome wonderful Welsh–Canadian romantic-historical fiction writer Mary Balogh to The Literary Lounge. Described as the ‘superstar heir’ to the legacy of late, great Georgette Heyer, Mary is the recipient of numerous awards and has graced the New York Times bestseller list thirty-six times in her career thus far. Her … Continue readings →

Tags : Bedwyns, Canadian writer Mary Balogh, Frederica, Georgette Heyer, historical romantic fiction, Little Brown authors, Mary Balogh, Mary Balogh 2019, New York Times bestselling writers, Piatkus romantic fiction, Regency, Regency writer Mary Balogh, RNA, romantic fiction, RWA, Simply series, superstar heir to Georgette Heyer, The Literary Lounge, The Literary Lounge Q&As, Welsh-Canadian authors, Westcott series

  There’s a point early on in Paul Burston’s The Closer I Get when protagonist Tom goes to the police to report that he’s being harassed. The female detective who interviews him is astonished to hear that he’s been stalked for about a year and not reported it. Why?, she asks. I was embarrassed, he … Continue readings →

  I love it when I’m introduced to writers I’ve never read before, especially when I know they’re going to be new friends. That’s the case with Joseph Knox. The Sleepwalker, which is published this month by Doubleday, is the third outing for Detective Aidan Waits and yet it’s my introduction to him. I really … Continue readings →

Tags : Aidan Waits, Aidan Waits 3, British crime fiction, British noir, Doubleday, Joseph Knox, Manchester noir, The Sleepwalker

    Longlisted for the Women’s Prize 2019, Yvonne Battle-Felton’s novel Remembered is a book of many stories. In 1910 Philadelphia, central character Spring sits by the hospital bed of her dying son. Edmund is accused of driving a streetcar into a ‘no coloreds’ department store. As Spring watches him, the ghost of her dead … Continue readings →

  We’re huge fans of JD Robb’s Eve Dallas–Roarke futuristic crime series, especially as they just get better over time. Connections in Death builds on Dallas’ ever-growing family, seeing familiar and beloved characters go through extremely challenging and bloody times only to rise stronger than before. As always, Robb creates a fast-paced, detailed and carefully … Continue readings →

Tags : Connections in Death, Dallas–Roarke, dystopian crime fiction, Eve Dallas, Eve Dallas thriller, In Death series, JD Robb, Nora Roberts, Peabody, Roarke, women in crime fiction

  Early on in Sarah Henstra’s The Red Word, protagonist Karen wakes up in ‘someone’s backyard’, wearing ‘boxer shorts, one turquoise jelly sandal’ and ‘no bra’. She tells Steph, the woman who finds her, that she’s had sex. ‘On purpose?’ Steph asks. ‘There was a frat party,’ she responds. The party was at GBC (Gamma … Continue readings →

  Rough Magic is the kind of book I devoured as a child, a rip-roaring, triumph-against-adversity adventure, set in a faraway, exotic locale, told by the real-life hero, who usually, 99 per cent of the time, was male. In this case, the hero of the story is actually a heroine … and, God, ain’t that … Continue readings →

Tags : 000 km Mongolian horse race, 1, 13th-century Mongol history, adventure travel, Genghis Khan, Genghis Khan's postal system, global horse races, Lara Prior-Palmer, Moghul Empire, Moghuls, Mongol Derby, Mongol Empire, Mongol Horse Stations, Mongolia, Rough Magic, Rough Magic Riding the World's Wildest Horse Race, travel writing, women travel writers

  I recently reread Elizabeth Smart’s classic By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept, which I first devoured as an eager teen and have come back to many times since. It resonated then, the language so beautiful, the emotion so raw. It still rates as one of my top books about love – … Continue readings →

Tags : books about love, By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept, Canadian authors, Canadian poet Elizabeth Smart, Canadian women authors, Elizabeth Smart, Elizabeth Smart and George Barker, great books about love, poet George Barker, prose poetry

  Jodie Jackson’s You Are What You Read: Why Changing Your Media Diet Can Change the World is what all good non-fiction should be – exciting, challenging and perceptive. That said, we are Jackson’s readership. The people who’ve stopped reading newspapers, watching the news, even watching terrestrial television because we’re irritated with the way in … Continue readings →

Tags : balanced news, don't believe everything you read, intelligent news, Jodie Jackson, negative news, news cycles, questioning the news, Stephen Pinker, You Are What You Read

  ‘Let him be an example. My Frank. Of how to live best, and to stop all this death. Let them put down their knives, stop being ruled by fear. They are all so fearful, that’s why my boy died. Not because another kid was showing off, as the papers said, not muscles being flexed. … Continue readings →

Tags : Bath writers, Best 2019 crime fiction, Brexit London crime fiction, crime fiction, Di Marnie Rome, London crime fiction, Marnie Rome, Marnie Rome series, Never Be Broken, procedural crime fiction, RIchard and Judy Book Club, Sarah Hilary, Theakston Crime Fiction of the Year

  A beautifully nuanced novel, Permission by Saskia Vogel is a sometimes challenging and often lyrical exploration of longing, loneliness and loss. Following her father’s tragic death, LA actress Echo struggles to deal with her bereavement – ‘the gape of loss’. Cast adrift, she embarks on a series of meaningless encounters with men, before meeting … Continue readings →

Tags : alternative lifestyle, BDSM, bereavement, community, debut 2019 novelists, dialogue books, grief, Hollywood, LA-based books, loss, permission, saskia vogel

  Today, we’re delighted to welcome Canadian author Paul E. Hardisty to The Literary Lounge. Shortlisted for the CWA John Creasy Dagger award, Paul’s Claymore Straker series is critically acclaimed and has garnered fans such as Lee Child. Turbulent Wake, Paul’s latest book, is a beautifully penned standalone, examining love and loss. It is published … Continue readings →

Tags : Arcadia B, Arcadia Books, Clay Straker, CWA, John Creasy Dagger award, Karen Sullivan, Orenda, Orenda Books, Paul E. Hardisty, reading on location, The Australian Institute of Marine Science, Turbulent Wake

  Set in Edinburgh in the 1840s, Ambrose Parry’s excellent The Way of All Flesh is an utter joy. From the very first line, we are immersed in the Victorian world of Will Raven, a struggling medical student, newly apprenticed to the eminent Scottish obstetrician Dr James Young Simpson. As the city is beset by … Continue readings →