Top 10: classic summer novels This month’s list features novels in which summer drives the plot. These are books of sultry summers where time has a hazy, dream-like quality. Frequently about love, sometimes unrequited, and loss of innocence. Classic summer novels often include a sense of transience and nostalgia. Bubbling Read more…
Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead Summary Ray Carney was only slightly bent when it came to being crooked….’ To his customers and neighbours on 125th street, Carney is an upstanding salesman of reasonably priced furniture, making a life for himself and his family. He and his wife, Elizabeth, are expecting Read more…
Top 10: books celebrating plants and Spring May is the festival of Flora, the Roman goddess of Spring and flowers. Accordingly, this month we dig deep into all things botanical with the best of fiction and non-fiction about gardening, plants, nature and plant-hunters. Bubbling under
The Trees by Percival Everett Summary When the rural town of Money, Mississippi is beset by a series of brutal murders, a pair of detectives from the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation arrive, only to be met with resistance from the local sheriff, his deputy, the coroner, and a mob of Read more…
The Timetraveller’s Wife (2023) by Audrey Niffenegger Summary Clare and Henry met when Clare was just six and Henry thirty-six, and were married when Clare was twenty-two and Henry thirty. Impossible but true. The Time Traveler’s Wife is the international bestselling novel of a time-altering love. Henry is a librarian who suffers Read more…
Top 10: books about insanity This month, we descend into madness with the best of fiction and non-fiction exploring insanity. Fiction Non-fiction
This month the Lit List has been taken over by the Burton Book Club as they celebrate their tenth anniversary. When the Book Club first came together in March 2014, who knew that we’d still be going strong ten years later. Over that time we have read everything from enduring Read more…
Love Untold (2023) by Ruth Jones Summary Grace is about to turn ninety and she doesn’t want parties or presents or fuss. She just wants a quiet celebration: her daily swim in the sea and a cup of tea with granddaughter Elin and great-granddaughter Beca. More than anything, she wants to Read more…
Everything is Everything (2023) by Clive Myrie Summary As a Bolton teenager with a paper round, Clive Myrie read all the newspapers he delivered from cover to cover and dreamed of becoming a journalist. In this deeply personal memoir, he tells how his family history has influenced his view of the Read more…
Top 10: best reads of the year A retrospective of our favourite reading during 2023, not necessarily published this year, in fiction and non-fiction. These are books that stay with you long after the last page is read.