We’ve all been there. Reading block is nasty, but it’s also an opportunity to try anything to get the ball rolling again, whether it’s light or fun or dark or trashy or easy or familiar. So, try one of these and call me in the morning.
If it’s a light slice of darkness you’re after, My Sister the Serial Killer is a brilliant, bloody book about how far we go for our siblings. And maybe there is such a thing as too far. Oyinkan Braithwaite finds out in her sizzling debut which has short chapters, sharp as a knife, ready to thrill you.
This globe trotting thriller about women evolving electric powers (like eels) reads like a blockbuster. The patriarchy is turned on its head, but is all that power still too much for the world? The Power by Naomi Alderman is so exciting my heart races at the thought.
Andrew O’Hagan told us (at the book club) that lots of men tell him Mayflies is the first book they’ve read, and it’s changed their life. If you know someone who loves the 80s Manchester music scene, the first half of this novel will draw them in so the second half can break their heart. Two men on the night of their lives agree to live life differently, then 30 years later, one of them has news. Spoiler alert: it’s not good.
Milk Fed by Melissa Broder, if it’s outrageous fun and filth you’re looking for, is so easy to get on board with. A woman with an eating disorder and identity crisis finds that all her problems disappear whenever she’s around Miriam. Broder writes about sex like it’s food and about food like it’s sex.
See what other suggestions we have to get you back on the reading train. Try our 2024 reading challenge if you want some more specific pointers.
