2+ day, 19+ hour ago  (211+ words) This compendium of 49 of Britain's threatened species features lyrical prose poems evoking each bird's unique qualities and beautiful recordings of their distinctive calls The Book of Birds delivers a stark warning in its introduction about the "great thinning of the…...

3+ day, 13+ hour ago  (332+ words) Hum, Helen Phillips" third novel, featuring a woman whose job is taken by a humanoid robot, is a terrifying look into a future where AI rules and nature is scarce A novel featuring a protagonist whose job is taken by…...

5+ day, 22+ hour ago  (213+ words) The second series of Rivals has put the bestselling author's brand of saucy jollity back on screen, but what is her bonkbuster nonpareil? Classic Jilly themes Underdogs triumph; dogs also triumph. Classic Jilly themes Artistic people are naturally hornier; also,…...

6+ day, 3+ hour ago  (226+ words) A woman's encounter with the stepfather she hasn't seen for decades leads to a revived bond " but is it all too perfect? Tom Lake is a lovely book, indulgently so. A pandemic novel that imagines the crisis as Edenic: a…...

6+ day, 20+ hour ago  (217+ words) After visiting an island brothel in Bangladesh, the novelist was inspired to write an imagined uprising. She explores the radical fictional worlds where women have the power We live in a time of malignant patriarchy, one that spreads aggressively through…...

1+ week, 1+ day ago  (924+ words) The Guardian I laughed out loud dozens of times: authors choose books to make you fall back in love with reading From a darkly comic new novel to a gripping 1950s memoir " Katherine Rundell, Malala Yousafzai, Matt Haig and others appearing…...

1+ week, 1+ day ago  (367+ words) A bunny who loves to bake, illustrated poems about amazing animals and a YA verse novel of dancefloor salvation Ban Ban's Bakery by Elena Hiroko Magee, Do Re Mi, "12. 99 Ban Ban the bunny loves baking with Grandma " but will she…...

1+ week, 2+ day ago  (329+ words) The author of historical novel Taiwan Travelogue, and its translator Lin King, discuss the threat from Beijing, LGBTQ+ rights and the island's culinary delicacies "I appreciate that it's a really hard book to read," King says, laughing. "It's been really…...

1+ week, 2+ day ago  (285+ words) This heartfelt story of attraction and friendship, shortlisted for the Women's prize for fiction, is sensitively read by Dan Bottomley Our protagonist pursues her " his early thoughts about her are wilfully crude " despite being in a long-term relationship with Michael,…...

1+ week, 3+ day ago  (1032+ words) The Guardian The Mercy Step by Marcia Hutchinson review " indie debut on the Women's prize shortlist This vivid story of a Caribbean childhood in 1960s Bradford does not stint on accounts of poverty and systemic abuse, yet is pungent with wit…...