Life intrudes on the life of a student struggling to write a paper
A day in the life of a young student who experiences her thoughts, fantasies, and wishes as she writes about — or tries to write about — Shakespeare’s sonnets.
Rosalind Brown’s Practice shows us just one day. Annabel, sitting in her small student room, attempts to write an essay about Shakespeare. She follows a meticulous, solitary routine but finds it repeatedly thrown off course as the day progresses: by family and friends who demand her attention and time, by thoughts of her much older boyfriend and his impending visit, by wild sexual fantasies and stories of her own invented characters — and by darker crises, obliquely glimpsed but capable of derailing Annabel’s carefully laid plans.
Rosalind Brown’s debut novel is getting some glowing and gushing pre-publication buzz, and I was lucky enough to receive a review copy from the publisher. As someone who has spent much of the past 20 years in and around academia, I was drawn to the premise: it sounded like a slightly different kind of campus novel. Brown is undoubtedly a gifted writer, but ultimately I think the premise was a little thin to maintain an entire novel. Continue reading
An engaging, entertaining journey through the world of crypto, from boom to bust
I first spotted the UK cover (below) for The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wasteland, Sarah Brooks‘s very-intriguing-sounding debut, via a 
Except on the last journey, though no one can say what occurred exactly because no one can remember it, not even Wei-Wei, the child of the train who was born on the Express. Only someone does know the truth: Elena, a strange stowaway with a mysterious connection to the Wastelands. As the Express embarks on a new voyage with a new set of travellers, each hiding their own motivations and secrets, Elena and Wei-Wei begin a dangerous friendship just as the train starts to misbehave. Desperate to save the only home she has ever known, Wei-Wei fights to keep the train from breaking down. But the rules of the Wasteland are changing and the wildness outside threatens to consume them all. 
A new guide stumbles across a dark mystery at the heart of an elite retreat
In 2021, Stacey Swann‘s “bighearted debut”, Olympus, Texas will arrive on shelves in North America and in the UK. I spotted it in a catalogue, and I’m very intrigued by it — it has “technicolor characters, plenty of Texas swagger, and a powder keg of a plot”, and has been described as “Wildly entertaining” by Richard Russo, who happens to be one of my favourite authors. So, yeah. Very much looking forward to giving this a try. here’s the synopsis:
Isaiah Quintabe’s latest case is a matter of perspectives…
The case of a young artist’s missing mother sets IQ on a collision course with his own Moriarty.
Isaiah Quintabe returns, investigating the death of his brother and getting mixed up in Las Vegas organized crime
I only just heard about John Ironmonger‘s upcoming novel, The Many Lives of Heloise Starchild, but it immediately caught my attention: not only does it have a striking cover, but the premise (see below) sounds great. It’s a little strange that I hadn’t heard about the novel sooner, actually, not sure how I missed it… Anyway, due to be published in the UK on August 6th, by 
Introducing Isaiah Quintabe
Civilian Reader 