by Roz Dineen — Conveys an aching sadness for a lost world, and the exhaustion of daily struggling in a hostile environment.
Author: Nanni
When We Were Silent
by Fiona McPhillips — When We Were Silent is a raging, screaming #MeToo. It’s also very well written: well constructed and vivid, with strong characters and plot.
Birding
by Rose Ruane — Birding is an immersive novel about women’s lives, consent and about how acknowledging and verbalising abuse can lead to greater clarity.
The Household
by Stacey Halls — A mystery and fictionalised account of the setup, by Charles Dickens and a wealthy heiress, of a house for fallen women.
The Book of Secrets
by Anna Mazzola — We are plunged into 17th century Rome, where women strive to survive in a patriarchal world perhaps not so very different from our own.
The Husbands
by Holly Gramazio — What if you could order an unending list of husbands (and lifestyles) to choose from? An imaginative, funny, philosophical fantasy novel.
The Ministry of Time
by Kaliane Bradley — Secret government mission involving a myopic civil servant, time travellers and a plot to save our future. Gripping and beautifully written.
Violet Hamilton, Lady Detective series
by Hannah Dolby — Meet the most delightful detective ever written, Violet Hamilton, in No Life for a Lady and How to Solve a Murder Like a Lady.
Toxxic
by Jane Hennigan — A matriarchal world damaged by and struggling to move on from its patriarchal, violent past. A moving novel and a painful read.
Shaking Hands With Elvis
by Paul Carroll — An apparently light-hearted novel about assisted dying that feeds into a facile, populist narrative. Scare-mongering.
What Doesn’t Kill Us
by Ajay Close — A beautifully written, gripping and immersive, and still very relevant historical novel about misogyny and activism.
The Trials of Marjorie Crowe
by C.S. Robertson — Murder in a small community. Robertson does it again, with another great female character, Marjorie Crowe. Gripping and immersive.
The Undiscovered Deaths of Grace McGill
by C.S. Robertson — Grace is a death scene cleaner. A well written, character-driven, immersive crime read. I loved it. Dark, disturbing and unusual.
Head First
by Alastair Santhouse — Troubles in the mind cause troubles in the body. Boom. The ‘insight’ stops there. Head First says NOTHING new about the mind-body connection.
The Hunter
by Tana French — Another episode of American ex-cop Cal Hooper in rural Ireland. Intelligent, insightful and well written. French gets better all the time.
The Best Way to Bury Your Husband
by Alexia Casale — The Best Way to Bury Your Husband is, surprisingly, a very moving AND uplifting AND very funny book about domestic abuse and violence. Really!
Top 10 novels of 2023
Looking for a really great read among novels published in 2023? Here are my top 10 favourites. Covering a range of fiction genres — literary, speculative, historical, crime and fantasy — they are all guaranteed great reads! Weyward (Emilia Hart)
The List of Suspicious Things
by Jennie Godfrey — A child tries to track the Yorkshire Ripper. Immersive and multilayered.
The Lost Cause
by Cory Doctorow — Is the world a lost cause? We should be screaming a warning from the rooftops. I applaud Doctorow for trying.
Under Ground
by E.S. Thomson — Victorian filth is Under Ground. Feel it clinging to your shoes and smell it as it assails your nostrils. It is gross — and engrossing.