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2020 Reading Challenge: Deal Me In

Deal Me In! The object of the challenge is to read 52 short stories over the course of the year. As I already had several anthologies of short stories that have been languishing on my bookshelves for a while now, I hoped that signing up would give me the impetus I needed to actually sit […]

‘The Circular Staircase’ by Mary Roberts Rinehart

“This is the story of how a middle-aged spinster lost her mind, deserted her domestic gods in the city, took a furnished house for the summer out of town, and found herself involved in one of those mysterious crimes that keep our newspapers and detective agencies happy and prosperous.” Rachel Innes, our amateur sleuth, is […]

‘Before You Say I Do’ by Clare Lydon

Another month, another fresh load of hell for us all to deal with. Next in the list of ‘things I shouldn’t have to feel fucking nostalgic about but do all the same’, after going outside and not panicking about post-Brexit food shortages, is ‘seeing the appropriate amount of Nazi salutes, i.e. zero’ on a daily […]

‘A History of Britain in 21 Women’ by Jenni Murray

This book has been lurking in my TBR pile for a while, I think – it was a Christmas present a few years ago and I just didn’t feel like picking it up at the time. My birthday is close enough to Christmas, and everyone in my life seems to think that books are a […]

‘Iron & Velvet’ by Alexis Hall

What a weird fucking month. Remember back in December, when all we had to be terrified of was nuclear war and post-Brexit food shortages? They were good times. I did not appreciate those joyous times when I had at least 12 months to start my own victory garden and dig a nuclear bunker. I was […]

As Autumn Leaves by Kate Sands

This has been a hard one for me to write. Not for any particular reason to do with the book, to be honest, but for COVID-19 reasons. I work in care. I work with disabled children and adults who have all the ‘underlying health conditions’ that are getting talked about as though that’s meant to […]

‘Selia’ by Marolyn Krasner

One of my favourite books is Truismes, the story of a woman who turns into a pig – but, like, a sexy pig, so that’s OK. It’s weird and hilarious and scathingly political but is so hard to recommend to other people because you end up having to use the phrase “a sexy pig” or […]

The Naked Lady of Prague by Kate Ellis

The best thing about this short story was the title. After you’ve finished that, it’s pretty much all downhill. That might sound a little harsh but it’s only because I found this story so frustrating to read. The premise was interesting, the first section set it up so I thought we were going to see […]

The Shortest Way to Hades by Sarah Caudwell

I’ve had an absolute nightmare of a month punctuated by flu, flooding and our work’s annual unannounced inspection from one of the regulatory bodies we answer to. The inspection itself is fine but because we never know when they’re happening until the inspectors are walking through the door, they’re super disruptive to your life outside […]

‘First Love’ by Ivan Turgenev

This edition of ‘First Love’ was published as part of Penguin’s ‘Great Loves’ boxset – a collection that I have no recollection of ever buying or being given. It’s not the sort of thing I would usually choose – being about a) romance, and b) a teenage boy with a crush on an older woman, […]

‘Why I Learned to Cook’ by Sara Farizan

‘Why I Learned To Cook’ is a short story from the Fresh Ink anthology of short stories. I picked it up from the library because I recognised the name of one of the authors who contributed to it but it seems to be aimed at teenagers interested in reading about people from a diverse range […]