What to Read Now: Vol LXXXIII
| Where I End by Sophie White £11.99 Aoileann has never left the island where she was born. Caged in by the sea, her home and the increasingly haunting figure of her bed-bound, mute mother, the four walls of her monotonous days are suddenly broken open by the arrival of an outsider who has come to work on her art. Written with such beautifully creeping prose, this is a story that will both haunt and wholly captivate you across every single page. Buy Now |
| The Book of Vanishing Species: Illustrated Lives by Beatrice Forshall £25 Did you know that there’s a type of bird that dances for the sheer joy of movement? Or that there is a turtle whose gender will be decided based on the temperature of the sand it is born in. Both a revelation and a warning of the irreversible direction some of our most beguiling animals are headed, Forshall’s blend of illustration and nature writing is is a gorgeously gripping exploration of the diversity and dangers at the heart of the animal kingdom. Buy Now |
| A Private Spy: The Letters of John le Carré ed. by Tim Cornwell £30 One of the most definitive writers of the 20th century, le Carré’s influence over the spy and thriller genres shaped the ways in which we understand, read and write the genres today. In this landmark publication of his decades-spanning letters, le Carré’s passion, dedication and intelligence shine through just as bright as they do in his novels. Buy Now |
| I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy £20 Forced into acting from early childhood, every aspect of McCurdy’s life, from her eating habits to her emotions, were entirely controlled by her mother. Taking us from her first audition through her time as a child star on Nickelodeon and into her adulthood, McCurdy’s memoir is a blend of absolute brilliance. Emotional, truthful, witty and still ultimately hopeful, it is an enthrallingly stark exploration of exploitation, agency and how we can learn to live with our trauma. Buy Now |
| Liberation Day by George Saunders £18.99 Following in the same vein as his Booker prize-winning Lincoln in the Bardo, Saunders returns with a collection of short stories that are just as subversive, surprising and engrossing. From an elderly protagonist who is brainwashed and deployed as a political protestor to a love letter between a father and son caught not-too-distant dystopian future, this new collection digs incredibly deep into the heart of our hopes, dreams and possibilities. Buy Now |
| An Unsuitable Attachment by Barbara Pym £9.99 Originally published in 1982, Pym’s take on the classic story of a woman breaking conventions by falling in love with a man deemed unworthy because of money and society is as readable as is was forty years ago. With Philip Larkin and Richard Osman amongst her fans, Pym’s writing is the perfect anecdote to the coming cold winter nights, and is a huge favourite here at L&R. Buy Now |
| The Ministry of Unladylike Activity by Robin Stevens £7.99 Once described by Katherine Rundell as the Agatha Christie of children’s books, the author of the massively popular Murder Most Unladylike returns with a war-time murder mystery that will have young readers hooked from start to finish. When Amy Wong and her friend Eric set out to uncover the hidden secrets, Elysium Hall, they get more than they bargained for when they discover a murder. The perfect mystery for readers aged 9+ Buy Now |
