The prompt this month for Spell the Month in Books — hosted by Jana of  Reviews from the Stacks — is Nostalgia. The Cambridge Dictionary defines nostalgia as "a feeling of pleasure and also slight sadness when you think about things that happened in the past". It's all about memories in a sense so that's the theme I'm going with this month.

Searching the bookshelves for something suitable for Novellas in November I came across Cities Without Palms, a 1992 novella by Sudanese-born author Tarek Eltayer. It's a work of fiction about a journey born out of desperation, disease and famine. It's the story of Hamza, a gentle young man from Wad al-Nar, a Sudanese village ravaged by drought and crop failure. When his father abandoned the family, Hamza feels that responsibility for his mother and two younger sisters now falls upon his shoulders.

My review back log gets longer by the week. In an effort to catch up I'm going to batch a few together. First on the scene are two crime novels by authors whose work I've read in the past. Force of Nature by Jane Harper I've endured many a corporate team-building exercise during my career. Mercifully none as arduous or fractious as the one featured in…

It's a truth universally acknowledged the commercial world views the end of October as the signal to begin the annual madness known as C. Everywhere I turn there are exhortations for me to get a move on and order my "festive food"; buy my party frock and start planning the theme for this year's table decorations. All in pursuit of that "perfect" celebration.

Book reviews, snippets of book news, and alerts about books outside the glare of the publicity spotlight.

Amor Towles's debut novel Rules of Civility landed on my bookshelves as a result of recommendations from several bloggers. I'd already read — and loved — his later novel A Gentleman in Moscow so I didn't actually need much persuasion. Rules of Civility is told from the perspective of Katey Kontent (real name Katya) looking back three decades to 1938 — the year the enigmatic Theodore "Tinker" Grey entered her life.

On The Beach was published at a time when the increasing tension between the United States and the Soviet Union made nuclear war seem a distinct possibility. So real was the fear that the US began dra...

Book reviews, snippets of book news, and alerts about books outside the glare of the publicity spotlight.

Translated by David Hackston For me, Antti Tuomainen is the new Antoine Laurain! When Gallic Books (now part of Pushkin Press) introduced Laurain via his novel The President’s Hat it was a bi…

On The Beach was published at a time when the increasing tension between the United States and the Soviet Union made nuclear war seem a distinct possibility. So real was the fear that the US began drawing up civil defence plans to prepare civilians for a military attack and deployed bombers near Soviet borders. Neville Shute imagined a scenario where the worst fears have happened.

The Classics Club Spin delivered number .... ... thus giving me the chance to re-read a novel published in 1948. No Highway by Nevil Shute is perhaps best avoided by anyone about to board a plane. The plot centres on Theodore Honey, an aircraft engineer who is considered something of an oddball in aviation circles. So when he begins to make claims of inherent flaws in some parts of a new aircraft, his superiors don't take him seriously.

"What I'm Reading" is my contribution to the WWW Wednesday meme run by Sam from Taking On a World of Words. The Ws represent three questions: What are you currently reading? What did you recently finish reading? What do you think you’ll read next? What I'm reading now I have four books on the go at the moment, soon to be reduced to just two.

Anna of the Five Towns was the first of Arnold Bennett's novels to be set in the pottery towns of Staffordshire. Through six novels published between 1902 and 1918 he gives a realistic picture of life, industry, religion and love in England’s industrial heartland at the turn of the 20th century. It's rather depressing but if you've read any of Elizabeth Gaskell's novels set in another English industrial heartland, you'll know what to expect.

it's time for another round of the classic club spin and this time I'm hoping to get something in translation.

I'm going for a re-brand of the posts I use to look back at the month just ended. "Reading Wrap Up" was such a dull and uninspiring title I was bored even just writing it into WordPress. So I'm kicking it into touch. Henceforth these monthly (well monthly assuming I remember to write them) will be called "My Reading Life" — I hope the personal touch will make it feel a little less yawn-inducing.

The second novel in a series can often be disappointing. But that's definitely not the case with A Necessary Evil, the follow up to Abir Mukherjee's debut novel A Rising Man set in pre-independence India and featuring a British police officer and his Indian second-in-command. Like the first novel, this one is a murder mystery with oodles of intrigue and suspense.

French Braid is a quiet family saga. There are no shocking revelations or big dramatic moments in the lives of various members of the Garrett family of Baltimore. Instead, Anne Tyler chooses to focus on the smaller stuff; the incidents and ingredients that combine to shape a family. We meet them through a series of snapshots — holidays, reunions, phone calls —over a period of about seventy years.

In three loosely connected stories, The Elephanta Suite features Western travellers who are disturbed and bewildered by their encounters with the "real" India. Their preconceived and somewhat romanticised ideas about the country are overturned once they come face to face with over-crowded streets, beggars, noise and bureaucracy. Instead of an exotic land of spirituality, yoga, temples and ancient traditions, they find poverty, corruption, and stark inequalities between wealthy elites and the urban poor.

This month's prompt for Spell the Month in Books — hosted by Jana of  Reviews from the Stacks —is Something to Savour OR books that have been on your TBR for a long time. Though I have a reasonably large collection of recipe books they're not going to match very well to the letters of September. It was much easier — and more fun — to delve into my TBR spreadsheet.

Environmental campaigners and ego-tripping capitalists clash in Eleanor Catton's Birnham Wood. It sounded promising but it's largely a promise unfulfilled. Birnam Wood — the portable forest that heralds the fall of Macbeth — is the name of an “activist collective” based in Christchurch, New Zealand. They're guerrilla gardeners in essence; taking over waste public land and neglected private plots to grow food crops.

August saw me racing against the calendar, hoping I'd be able to claim success with the #10booksofsummer project. In the end I managed eleven books in total; ten novels and one work of non fiction. I'm feeling pretty pleased with myself. I'd be even more pleased if I'd actually written reviews of all of these ... but that's another story. …

From librarians to postmen; watchmakers to doctors: looking through the list of books I've read has thrown up a surprising number of work-related titles. Perfect for this week’s topic for Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl): “Books with Occupations in the Title.” The Whale Caller by Zakes Mda I'm not making this one up. This novel really is about a South African man who spends his time communicating with the whales when they come close into land on their migration to Antartica.

Atmospheric. Psychologically insightful. Eminently readable. The three elements that are the hallmark of Andrew Miller's fiction, are shown in abundance in his latest novel, The Land in Winter. Set during the Big Freeze of 1962-3, The Land in Winter captures the lives of two mismatched recently married couples as they contend with disappointments and resentments in their marriages. As the narrative shifts between them, we learn of their unfulfilled expectations, their frustrations and their resentments.