If you loved the “Fishes” episode of The Bear, where Jamie Lee Curtis terrorises her extended family, you’ll also love Anne Enright’s book-length version of that same sort of bad, desperate love

I appreciate that Roth boiled this fantasy based on Polish / European folklore down to a fast-moving 163 pages. Reminded me of Gaiman’s “Neverwhere.

I also labored a bit to get through Thunderclap, so maybe I’m the problem not the authors

I persevered to the end with Sarah Perry’s latest but sadly I was so bored by it (genuinely sadly)

First read, at age 45. Tears prickling in the final pages. Struck by so much in this book — left stewing on all the different perspectives from which this story could be observed …

Tender, explicit, at times sentimental, an exploration of forms of and abilities to love. Also a catalogue of bodily smells — pungent, musky, acrid, intimate.

Kate DiCamillo is so good at packing wonder and kindness into a book

Layered techno-eco-thriller, could sit on a shelf between Neal Stephenson and Catton’s “Birnam Wood”. Much more complex than “The Power”. I hope this will become a sort-of triptych (like what Lauren Groff signalled with Matrix, The Vaster Wilds & a third book-in-progress)

A giddy public school love affair woven through a Pat Barker-esque immersion into the despair and horror of World War One. Initially a tonally strange pairing, but more convincing as the book wears on.

“A Children’s Bible” has taken a place on my mental bookshelf next to Meg Rosoff’s “How I Live Now”. A new entry into my list of favourite books with a teenaged narrator.