Ella's book diary

Reviews and must reads... Email me at [email protected].

[ellasbookdiary]

Books I’ve read in 2020

1. Rootbound by Alice Vincent

2. Motherwell by Deborah Orr

3. Strange Hotel by Eimear McBride

4. Burn The Place: A Memoir by Iliana Regan

5. Actress by Anne Enright

6. Here We Are by Graham Swift

7. Red Rising by Pierce Brown

8. Apeirogon by Colum McCann

9. Burn by Patrick Ness

10. Commonwealth by Ann Patchett

11. Kid Normal and the Final Five by Greg James and Chris Smith

12. The Great Godden by Meg Rosoff

13. Writers & Lovers by Lily King

14. Set My Heart To Five by Simon Stephenson

15. Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams

16. The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

17. The Weekend by Charlotte Wood

18. The Disaster Tourist by Yun Ko-Eun

19. Idaho by Emily Ruskovich

20. Those Who Leave And Those Who Stay by Elena Ferrante

21. Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld

22. Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell

23. The Wild Way Home by Sophie Kirtley

24. The Pull Of The Stars by Emma Donoghue

25. Here Is The Beehive by Sarah Crossan

26. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

27. Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

28. The One by John Marrs

29. Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo

30. Earthlings by Sayaka Murato

31. On Chapel Sands by Laura Cumming

32. The Mothers by Brit Bennett

33. Family Lexicon by Natalia Ginzburg

34. Piranesi by Susannah Clarke

35. The Betrayals by Bridget Collins

36. When The Lights Go Out by Carys Bray

37. Hungry by Grace Dent

38. How Much of These Hills Is Gold by C Pam Zhang

39. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

40. Such A Fun Age by Kiley Reid

41. The Survivors by Jane Harper

42. Ordinary People by Diana Evans

43. A Closed And Common Orbit by Becky Chambers

44. Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward

45. Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat

[ellasbookdiary]

All the books I read in 2019:

1. The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker

2. Late In The Day by Tessa Hadley

3. The Labyrinth Of Spirits by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

4. The Binding by Bridget Collins

5. The Weight Of Water by Sarah Crossan

6. The Lost Man by Jane Harper

7. Last Ones Left Alive by Sarah Davis-Goff

8. The Heavens by Sarah Newman

9. Spring by Ali Smith

10. Sweet Sorrow by David Nicholls

11. We Come Apart by Sarah Crossan and Brian Conaghan

12. How To Fail by Elizabeth Day

13. Machines Like Me by Ian McEwan

14. Enigma Variations by Andre Aciman

15. Toffee by Sara Crossan

16. Fingers In The Sparkle Jar by Chris Packham

17. Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss

18. Everything You Ever Wanted by Luiza Sauma 

19. The Long Forgotten by David Whitehouse

20. On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

21. City Of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert

22. Fleishman Is In Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner

23. Naturally Tan by Tan France

24. One More Croissant For The Road by Felicity Cloake

25. Sweet Home by Wendy Erskine

26. The Hiding Game by Naomi Wood

27. Lake Success by Gary Shteyngart

28. Crossfire by Malorie Blackman

29. Five Quarters Of The Orange by Joanne Harris

30. An American Marriage by Tayari Jones

31. Find Me by Andre Aciman

32. One Of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus

33. The Giver Of Stars by Jojo Moyes

34.  Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane

35.  I Never Said I Loved You by Rhik Samadder

36.  The Man Who Saw Everything by Deborah Levy

37. The Dutch House by Ann Patchett

38.  My Last Supper by Jay Rayner

39. Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout

40. Circe by Madeleine Miller

41. The Testaments by Margaret Atwood

42. The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

43. The Secret Commonwealth and Philip Pullman

44. The Cockroach by Ian McEwan

45. No Mercy by Martina Cole

46. Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

47. Greatest Hits by Laura Barnett

48. This Is Going To Hurt by Adam Kay

49. Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell

50. Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones

51. All The Old Knives by Olen Steinhauer

52. Permanent Record by Mary HK Choi

53. Finding Chika by Mitch Albom

54. Three Women by Lisa Taddeo

55. The Glass Hotel by Emily St John Mandel

56.  One Of Us Is Next by Karen McManus

[ellasbookdiary]

All the books I read in 2018

1. Kavalier & Klay by Michael Chabon

2. The Adulterants by Joe Dunthorne

3. The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa

4. Still Me by Jojo Moyes

5. Lincoln In The Bardo by George Saunders

6. Sourdough: A Novel by Robin Sloan

7. The Lido by Libby Page

8. Why I’m No Longer Talking To White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge

9. Tin Man by Sarah Winman

10. This Is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper

11. Tin by Pádraig Kenny

12. You Think It, I’ll Say It by Curtis Sittenfeld

13. Heather, The Totality by Matthew Weiner

14. First, Catch by Thom Eagle

15. Transcription by Kate Atkinson

16. Ponti by Sharlene Teo

17. Eggs Or Anarchy by William Sitwell

18. The Pisces by Melissa Broder

19. The Colour Of The Sun by David Almond

20. Less by Andrew Sean Greer

21. The Changeling by Victor Lavalle

22. How To Be Famous by Caitlin Moran

23. The Dinner Party by Joshua Ferris

24. There, There by Tommy Orange

25. Women Talking by Miriam Toews

26. Hold by Michael Donkor

27. Normal People by Sally Rooney

28. The Dry by Jane Harper

29. Heartburn by Nora Ephron

30. Take Nothing With You by Patrick Gale

31. Conversations With Friends by Sally Rooney

32. Washington Black by Esi Edugyan

33. Time’s Convert by Deborah Harkness

34. Tilly And The Book Wanderers by Anna James

35. Paris Echo by Sebastian Faulks

36. After The Party by Cressida Connolly

37. My Thoughts Exactly by Lily Allen

38. The Tattooist Of Auschwitz by Heather Morris

39.  And The Ocean Was Our Sky by Patrick Ness

40. Melmoth by Sarah Perry

41. Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie

42. Bridge Of Clay by Markus Zusak

43. Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton

44. Still Lives by Maria Hummel

45. Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata

46. Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

47.  The Last Children of Tokyo by Yoko Tawada

48. Pulp by Robin Talley

49. The Story Of A New Name by Elena Ferrante

50. How To Eat by Nigella Lawson

51. My Sister The Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

52. On The Come Up by Angie Thomas

[ellasbookdiary]

All the books I read in 2017

1. Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

2. Carve The Mark by Veronica Roth

3. A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

4. The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguru

5. Little Deaths by Emma Flint

6.  Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo

7.  The Jungle by Pooja Puri

8. A Manual For Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin

9. Hidden Nature by Alys Fowler

10. My Name Is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout

11. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

12. Mothering Sunday by Graham Swift

13. Anything Is Possible by Elizabeth Strout

14. Release by Patrick Ness

15. The Good Immigrant by Nikesh Sjukla

16. The Power by Naomi Alderman

17. The Ministry Of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy

18.  Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

19. On Beauty by Zadie Smith

20. Moonglow by Michael Chabon

21. The Dark Circle by Linda Grant

22. Freshers by Tom Ellen and Lucy Ivison

23. How To Stop Time by Matt Haig

24. I Am, I Am, I Am by Maggie O’Farrell

25. Knife Edge by Malorie Blackman

26. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

27. Summer by Laurie Lee

28. Transit by Rachel Cusk

29. Hot Milk by Deborah Levy

30. Moonrise by Sarah Crossan

31. The Book Of Dust by Philip Pullman

32. As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning by Laurie Lee

33. Outline by Rachel Cusk

34. Artemis by Andy Weir

35. Otherworld by Jason Segal and Kirsten Ritter

36. The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gowar

37. Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan

38. Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds

39. Winter by Ali Smith

40. In Our Mad And Furious City by Guy Gunaratne

[ellasbookdiary]

This is lovely. Illustrator Sebastian Harding makes intricate paper and cardboard models of London’s vanished and vanishing buildings. His latest focus is on the old Foyles Building on Charing Cross Rd which is trying to fend off demolition.

[ellasbookdiary]

All the books I read in 2016

1. The Bees by Laline Paull

2. The Red Abbey Chronicles: Maresi by Maria Turtschaninoff 

3. Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari

4. A God In Ruins by Kate Atkinson

5. Wigs On The Green by Nancy Mitford

6. The Incredible Adventures Of Cinnamon Girl by Melissa Keil

7. Divergent by Veronica Roth

8. Insurgent by Veronica Roth

9. Allegiant by Veronica Roth

10. My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante

11. Not Forgetting The Whale by John Ironmonger

12. When Everything Feels Like The Movies by Raziel Reid

13. Beetle Boy by M.G.Leonard

14. Flawed by Celia Ahern

15. The Book Of Strange New Things by Michael Faber

16. Our Endless Numbered Days by Claire Fuller

17. Counting The Stars by Malorie Blackman

18. Hot Pterodactyl Boyfriend by Alan Cumyn

19. This Is The Place by Maggie O’Farrell

20. The Girl Of Ink And Stars by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

21. The Green Road by Anne Enright

22. We Have Always Lived In The Castle by Shirley Jackson

23. The Bubble Boy by Stewart Foster

24. The Portable Veblen by Elizabeth McKenzie

25.  The War Against The Assholes by Sam Munson

26. Nora Webster by Colm Toibin

27. Blame by Simon Mayo

28. The Girls by Emma Cline

29. The Clasp by Sloane Crossley

30.  The Sound of Things Falling by Juan Gabriel Vásquez

31.  Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Parts One & Two by J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany

32. The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters

33. The Call by Peadar O'Guilin

34. The Shore by Sara Taylor

35. Swing Time by Zadie Smith

36. Lydia: The Wild Girl Of Pride & Prejudice by Natasha Farrant

37. The Bright Edge Of The World by Eowyn Ivey

38. The Graces by Laure Eve 

39. The Art Of Fielding by Chad Harbach

40. Today Will Be Different by Maria Semple

41. Bridget Jones’ Baby by Helen Fielding

42. The Hypnotist by Laurence Anholt

43. Blood For Blood by Ryan Graudin

44. Holding Up The Universe by Jennifer Niven

45. The Sun Is Also A Star by Nicola Yoon

46. The Light Between Oceans by M. L. Stedman

47. Hold Back The Stars by Katie Khan

48. The Loneliness of Distant Beings by Kate Ling

49. The Smell Of Other Peoples’ Houses by  Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock

50.  Jane Austen: The Secret Radical by Helena Kelly

51. The One Memory Of Flora Banks by Emily Barr

[ellasbookdiary]

David Mitchell buries latest manuscript for a hundred years

Author of Cloud Atlas delivers his new work – which won’t be read until 2114 – to Oslo’s Nordmarka forest as part of the Future Library project

This is such a beautiful idea

[ellasbookdiary]

Spot on at the moment...

[ellasbookdiary]

My aunt pointed out to me at the weekend that I have been slacking on the book blog front. Apologies. I haven’t been slacking on the reading though.

On the YA front I’ve managed to race through: the (really quite poor) Divergent series; the angry, confrontational When Everything Feels Like The Movies by Raziel Reid; the Roald Dahl-esque wannabe Beetle Boy (which I very much enjoyed); Celia Ahern’s AWFUL Flawed; was thoroughly disappointed by Malorie Blackman’s Counting The Stars (sci-fi teen dystopia ripping off Othello should have worked but fell really flat); Alan Cumyn’s madcap Hot Pterodactyl Boyfriend and The War Against The Assholes by Sam Munson whose staccato writing style I can’t help but struggle with. 

I also got around to (finally) reading My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante, which I loved, but apparently not enough to pick up the sequels... Not Forgetting The Whale by John Ironmonger was a quick “beach” read, while  Our Endless Numbered Days by Claire Fuller left me rather morose. I persevered (stupidly) with The Book Of Strange New Things by Michael Faber which was all god and aliens muddled up with the end of civilisation - but not in a good way. Maggie O’Farrell’s This Is The Place I read in practically one sitting - although I’ve adored everything she’s written, except for the bland Instructions For A Heatwave, and I ticked Shirley Jackson’s weird, atmospheric tale of two sisters in We Have Always Lived In The Castle off the list too, and have been trying to make my way through the Baileys shortlist (two down...). 

The Green Road by Anne Enright, which explores the different strands of an Irish family as their mother sells their childhood home, deserved to win if you ask me, and just for fripperies sake, The Portable Veblen by Elizabeth McKenzie - which is all about mental health and squirrels was a joy. 

[ellasbookdiary]

Inside stories from a prison book group

From The Hunger Games to Zadie Smith: a visit to HMP Thameside’s weekly event reveals just how powerfully books can bring people together

This is such a great story. 

[ellasbookdiary]

Stories inspired by the legendary barred list from the Half Moon in Herne Hill

This pub is at the end of my street! Such a great idea. 

[ellasbookdiary]

I loved this book. I read it one sitting. You should too. 

The Incredible Adventures Of Cinnamon Girl by Melissa Keil 

A kick-ass coming of age tale, The Incredible Adventures Of Cinnamon Girl sees comic book obsessed 17-year-old Alba losing her grip on her predictable, known world: school, the sugar clouded bakery her mum runs, her best friend Grady asleep on her sofa. Art College in Sydney looms, but she’s refusing to recognise that fact, preferring to hunker down and blot out anything that could unbalance her happy, comfortable sphere. And then a video goes viral announcing the end of days, and apparently Alba’s quiet, dusty little Australian town is the only place on the planet that will survive. The hippy masses descend, mucking up Alba’s Christmas plans and making her cling on to her blinkers even more fervently, but you can’t fight change… Our heroine swerves between being a confident, powerful, talented, chatty role model and irritatingly “naive” and “oblivious” at times in award-winning writer Keil’s second book for Young Adults, but she’s brilliantly wrought, as is her gaggle of friends, particularly sweary farmer’s boy Eddie and tortured insomniac Grady. While packed with the usual teenage angst (sex, drink, worries about the future), grief, fear and fun are woven in too, and in such a way that any room for cliché is obliterated. This’ll make you hungry for slabs of apple strudel from Albany’s bakery, nostalgic for home and will nudge every girl into valuing themselves just that bit more. And rightly so. 

[ellasbookdiary]

My latest column for Standard Issue magazine is on A Spool Of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler. I definitely wouldn’t call myself a fan... http://standardissuemagazine.com/arts/shelf-life-11/

[ellasbookdiary]

The books I read in 2015

1. The Invisible Woman - Claire Tomalin

2. A Wizard of Earthsea - Ursula Le Guin

3. The Ship - Antonia Honeywell

4. Us - David Nicholls

5. Station Eleven - Emily St John Mandel

6. The Age of Innocence - Edith Wharton

7. All The Light We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr

8. Purple Hibiscus - Chimimanda Ngozi Adichie

9. The Rosie Effect - Graeme Simsion

10. Chess - Stefan Zweig

11. Elizabeth Is Missing - Emma Healey

12. The Miniaturist - Jessie Burton

13. A Farewell To Arms - Ernest Hemingway

14. Train Dreams - Denis Johnson

15. The Martian - Andy Weir

16. Fourth of July Creek - Smith Henderson

17. So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed - Jon Ronson

18. The Book of Shadows - Deborah Harkness

19. Moon Tiger - Penelope Lively

20. Child 44 - Tom Rob Smith

21. The Lives of Others - Neel Mukherjee

22. Mrs Hemingway - Naomi Woolf

23. The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood

24. The Girl On The Train - Paula Hawkins

25. World War Z - Max Brooks

26. The Tiger's Wife - Tea Obreht

27. H is for Hawk - Helen Macdonald

28. The Storied Life of A.J.Fikry - Gabrielle Zevin

29. The Radleys - Matt Haig

30. What We Talk About When We Talk About Love - Raymond Carver

31. Where Am I? - Phil Tuffnel

32. The Rest of Us Just Live Here - Patrick Ness

33. Beneath The Earth - John Boyne

34. Go Set A Watchman - Harper Lee

35. The Household Spirit - Tom Wodicka

36. Sunkissed - Jenny McLachlan

37. White Teeth - Zadie Smith

38. The Taxidermist’s Daughter - Kate Mosse

39. I Am Zlatan Ibrahimović - David Lagercrantz and Zlatan  Ibrahimović

40. The Girl In The Spider’s Web - David Lagercrantz

41. Where My Heart Used To Beat - Sebastian Faulks

42. Railhead -  Philip Reeve

43. Slade House - David Mitchell

44. Liquidator - Andy Mulligan

45. A Place Called Winter - Patrick Gale

46. The Versions Of Us - Laura Barnett 

47. The November Criminals - Sam Munson

48. Brooklyn - Colm Toibin

49.  Wolf By Wolf - Ryan Graudin

50. A Spool Of Blue Thread - Anne Tyler

51. The Signature Of All Things - Elizabeth Gilbert

[ellasbookdiary]

I would say this is pretty accurate - although I don’t believe anyone arranges their bookshelves by emotion. Nonsense.

[ellasbookdiary]

Is it really possible, then, to be free as a writer? Free from an immediate need for money, free from the need to be praised, free from the concern of how those close to you will respond to what you write, free from the political implications, free from your publisher’s eagerness for a book that looks like the last, or worse still, like whatever the latest fashion might be?

Tim Parks, A Novel Kind Of Conformity, The New York Review Of Books, http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2015/12/01/novel-kind-of-conformity/ 

[ellasbookdiary]

September, October and November have passed in a blur of adventures in Scandinavia, Devon and London. But this lot made it onto my reading list anyway:

White Teeth - Zadie Smith

Finally got around to reading this (the guilt had been building), and it’s quite astounding. Although I wouldn’t re-read it.

The Taxidermist’s Daughter - Kate Mosse

Spooky, murky and sickening at times, atmosphere leaks from every page but ever twist and turn is dramatically signposted.

The Girl In The Spider’s Web - David Lagercrantz

Don’t judge, I still really enjoyed this even though Stieg Larsson didn’t have a hand in it.

Where My Heart Used To Beat - Sebastian Faulks

Had to drag myself through this one. If I didn’t feel horribly guilty for not finishing a book, I’d have abandoned it. Too slow and drowsy and hinged on memory (it is Faulks after all).

Slade House - David Mitchell

Gripping and terrifying, it’s a great spin off of The Bone Clocks (which is magnificent) - and so horrifyingly vivid. 

A Place Called Winter - Patrick Gale

Randomly picked this up and was not exactly mesmerised, but there’s a sharpness to it and a clarity that’s quite impressive.

The Versions Of Us - Laura Barnett

Sometimes you can’t beat a sliding doors love story - especially if it’s set in Cambridge (practically home). Beautiful and upsetting.

Brooklyn - Colm Toibin

Simply lovely, it creeps up on you until the whole world of it sits neatly inside your head. And now I need to go to New York again. 

A Spool Of Blue Thread - Anne Tyler

Another case of me not being on the same wave length as The Man Booker judges. A nice enough family drama which goes on far too much about porch swings. 

YA

Young Adult fiction-wise, Sunkissed by Jenny McLachlan got me into the mood for a trip to Sweden, space-travel by train in Railhead by Philip Reeve wasn’t particularly inspiring, Sam Munson’s The November Criminals struggled to be anything but angsty and Liquidator by Andy Mulligan was different but a bit worthy. However, Wolf By Wolf by Ryan Graudin, set in a world where Hitler triumphed is utterly thrilling.