A church called The Good Shepherd has found harbour on top of a small hill on the edges of the city of Edinburgh, and from here it offers refuge to others in its turn, supporting all who are lost, despairing or lonely. It helps that the church projects more than a hint of upturned ark, … More Seeking Shelter from the Storm

While the prose underpinning Gabriel’s Moon has (partly) won me over, I am afraid to report I was not thrilled by the book itself. Don’t get me wrong, Boyd has skill, writing so beautifully that even a description of the rain sparkles in his hands: ‘At Peebles the river was clear, fast and shallow, the … More Gabriel’s Moon

I’m almost ashamed to confess it, but I’d never read Heartburn by Nora Ephron until this month. Despite loving her movies over the last forty or so years. But after our local book group chose the title for this month’s discussion, I sat down and raced through the chatty yet heartbreaking pages. Now I wish … More Heartburn

This isn’t a book I’d have normally picked up, but someone suggested the title for our local book group in July and so I duly read it. Part of the fun in book group is discovering new authors, I’ve learnt, and I’ve enjoyed The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul by Deborah Rodriguez since it’s lifted the curtain on a world that’s largely hidden. Hidden not just for me but also most of Europe. … More The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul

There’s a dreamy, elegiac quality to this novel about Lara, a mature wife and mother coming to terms with her racier past as an actress as she relates carefully selected parts of her life to her three adult daughters. Written during lockdown, the novel itself is actually set during an unspecified pandemic and centres on Lara, her husband Joe and their children. … More Tom Lake

It’s still difficult to be sure I’ve properly understood Venomous Lumpsuckers by Ned Beauman and I say that after reading various press reviews of the book, re-reading parts of the text several times and talking it over with others who’ve also managed to soldier through to its bleakly depressing end. … More Chasing the Lumpsucker

Buy Off Course now Aballonia. 25th century. Famine is ravaging the universe. And journalist Cathy Prior’s world is in a mess too, with her long-term lover saying he’s leaving her, complaining she drinks too much. For inexplicable reasons, crops everywhere are failing, millions are dying; only the ultra-rich can afford enough to eat. Unlike more … More Off Course stumbles into life

Some things never change. Even in the age of Twitterati and social media, female friendship can remain as deceptive and fraught as ever, or so Yellowface shows us, foundering on the rocks of personal ambition and betrayal. June, the narrator of Kuang’s Yellowface, and her ‘friend’ Athena are both highly educated writers, recent Yale graduates … More Friendship can’t beat ambition