Emma Types Stuff

It seems to me that I type the words ' this isn't my usual thing at all, but I loved it ' on a regular basis. So regular, in fact, that you might secretly think that I'm in denial about what my usual thing actually is. But for me the story concept trumps all else. I'll happily try genres I traditionally hate if the summary makes a good case for it. And this one did.  Our Wives Under the Sea [Julia Armfield] is literary. It's also about the sea - the clue being in the title - which isn't a subject I find particularly interesting. But the summary did its job, offering a queer love story filled with subtle horror and a Lovecraftian undercurrent. I sat up and took notice.  It's about a lesbian couple, Miri and Leah. They are British millennials - cosmopolitan, married, and relatively settled in life. Miri writes grant proposals and Leah is a marine scientist, who vanishes on submarine missions for weeks at a time. But then Leah vanishes for a long, long time

There are very few authors that I dip into pretty much every year, and even fewer who publish enough to allow me to do so. Terry Pratchett was one, and Alexander McCall Smith's genteel No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency books are like a yearly visit to old friends.  Gail Carriger's extensive Parasol Protectorate universe is the other.  For those of you who recognise the books, I can sense the surprise. Vampire/Werewolf Steampunk novels are the very essence of that Devil Wears Prada ' groundbreaking ' meme. I probably wouldn't have picked up the first (Soulless) had I not been seeking salvation in a second-hand bookshop while on a very tedious day trip.  The cover has a woman in Victorian garb, ripped straight from a DeviantArt Steampunk page, and a title in hot pink. Luckily I was being dragged round charity shops, at the seaside, in March and therefore up for literally anything that sounded more fun than that rainy experience.  So here is my guide to the series,

On paper, Convenience Store Woman (Sayaka Murata) isn't my thing at all. My dislike of contemporary literary novels is well-documented and while I appreciate the Japanese love of mystery novels , I'm not unusually obsessed with Japanese culture.   Yet, it's a contender for the best book I read last year.  Convenience Store Woman is a love story between a woman and a convenience store. Sounds crazy, right? Not in a totally ick way (like women who marry bridges) but with a hint of ick. Just enough to leave you unsettled, while also kind've rooting for it. You can't help but ship this woman with a place that sells sushi and toiletries, when that place makes her so very happy.    Keiko is a thirty-something woman in Japan. A couple of telling stories from her childhood show how she struggles to understand others. She's too literal, to the point of accidental assault, and doesn't feel things in the same way as other children. The book never diagnoses her with a

Bear Town (by Fredrik Backman) shouldn't appeal to me.  In fact, if I'd actually read the plot description before using my Audible credit on it, I wouldn't have bothered. But I was looking for a wintry, Scandi book for my December reading challenge and this was a title I'd seen several times, so I took a punt.  It's slow. It's got a huge cast. It's about ice-hockey.  I effing LOVED it.  Bear Town, a small town in Northern Sweden, is dying. 'If you reach Bear Town, you've gone too far' pretty much sums the place up. The factory jobs are dissapearing, shops are closing, and house prices are nosediving.  But their junior (seventeen-year-old) ice-hockey team has a real chance. They are about to play a game that could turn them into the best team in the country. Kevin, their star player, has a future so bright that a professional ice-hockey career is almost certain. If they win this game, they'll become an ice-hockey destination. Money will po

Here is where you can see a list of everything I read in 2023 and find links to any blog posts mentioning those books. To see my 2022 list, go here .  January I'm Glad My Mom Died Observations by Gaslight  Hither, Page [Page & Sommers 1] A Dead Djinn in Cairo [The Dead Djinn Universe 1] The Honjin Murders [Detective Kosuke Kindaichi 1] The Missing Page  [Page & Sommers 2] The Factory Witches of Lowell  All Systems Red [The Murderbot Diaries 1] Our Wives Under the Sea  [1] Curtsies & Conspiracies [ Gail Carriger's Finishing School 2 ]  Britt-Marie Was Here Paris Dalliencourt is About to Crumble [Winner Bakes All 2]  The Dictator's Wife February Tuesday Mooney Wore Black  Paladin's Grace [Saint of Steel 1] A Natural History of Dragons [Lady Trent 1] Every Heart a Doorway [Wayward Children 1] The Haunting of Tram Car 015    [The Dead Djinn Universe 2] The Cat Who Saved Books Tea and Sympathetic Magic [Teacup Magic 1] When Women Were Dragons Gideon the Ninth