The Books In My Basket

I’m trying to work my way through my “to read” pile, which is teetering dangerously on my bedside table at a height of approximately four and a half feet. It doesn’t make for a peaceful slumber, I can tell you, constantly wondering whether a pile of paperbacks are going to smash you in the face at 3am.

Although the idea of a peaceful slumber is laughable at the moment. Not since we got the heated blanket. Or warming mattress protector, or whatever the hell it’s supposed to be called. God, it’s a thing of absolute joy, this electric blanket, but it’s impossible to moderate yourself when you’re setting the heat level. Because why gently warm the bed when you can turn it right up and virtually incinerate yourself as you sleep? Why have it on “Cornish sands in Springtime” mode when “Hurghada at Midday” exists?

I’m pretty sure my liver has turned into pâté at this point. My other organs have most definitely taken a hit from being slowly poached throughout the night for the past thirty-odd days. And to get back to my intended point: this extreme heat does not make for a peaceful slumber. The other night I woke in terror at around midnight, having managed to burst myself out of a nightmare in which I was being boiled in a big black pot by the witch out of Hansel and Gretel. But it was quite literally a case of out of the pot and into the frying pan: it was hotter in the bed than in the imaginary witch’s cauldron!

Anyway, once I’ve worked my way through the leaning tower of literary Pisa I’m going to allow myself to buy more books and here’s what’s on my list:

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Quick Roasting Tin: 30 Minute One Dish Dinners, Rukmini Iyer*

Recommended in the comments the other week on my post about lunches. (Read that here.) And also by quite a few people on Instagram in my DMs. I’m trying to be careful with cookbook buying, as I mentioned in my last post, because I have a hideous number of them and use only four or five on a regular basis. I will have to appraise this Quick Roasting Tin one in person when I’m next in Waterstones to see whether it will truly serve me.

I am being really, really strict with book-buying in general, actually, mainly in an attempt to clear the bedside table.

Small Pleasures, Clare Chambers*

Oh, I’ve just realised I bought this the other day! So much for my rule. I know nothing about this book and nothing about its author, but have you seen the line-up of Clare Chambers’ novels? The covers are all just sublime. And there’s a real theme, a cohesion, throughout the different designs. Whoever was in charge of the artwork, I taketh off my hat. I’ll get back to you with a book review.

Shy Creatures, Clare Chambers*

See? Absolute cover p*rn.

Orbital, Samantha Harvey*

Well this one has been dividing opinion amongst all of the people I know who regularly read books. Some have found it life-changing, others very boring. Some have found it to be boring but haven’t wanted to say that, maybe because the book won the Booker Prize 2024 and they don’t want to look as though they’ve missed the point or something.

I say: you either find it brilliant or boring and that’s that. I can’t stand it when you have to wade through a novel and you feel like poking your own eyes out with a fork because it’s so dull but you don’t want to give up on it because it might mean you’re a bit thicker than you thought you were. I’d honestly rather be thicker than I thought I was than be painfully bored.

I’m excited to see how Orbital turns out for me. Then we can all have a right old chinwag. I have to say that the idea of going into space is horrifying to me and I wouldn’t even go into that shuttle simulator at Disney World, so.

Erasure, Percival Everett*

Everett has a solid 10/10 track record with me because both The Trees and James were instantly placed into my mental category of “books I will never forget”. Erasure is the one I’m going to go for next.

The Raptures, Jan Carson*

I’m pretty sure I heard about this book whilst trawling through a Substack post on book recommendations that had been linked in a different Substack on book recommendations which in turn had found its way to me through someone I follow’s recommendation of a completely different post again. What a puzzle.

I have absolutely no way of knowing how solid the recommendation is because I can’t even remember the person’s name who recommended it. They could have appalling taste. I won’t go all Nicky Haslam on you and list the things I consider to be in appalling taste, the point is that I have thrown this book into my basket on no good authority whatsoever. It’s a risk. Unless one or more of you pipes up to reinforce the recommendation…

Have to say it sounds terrifying, creepy and excellent all at the same time: “When several children from the same village start succumbing to a mysterious illness, the quest to discover the cause has devastating and extraordinary consequences.”

Lessons, Ian McEwan*

This is an obvious choice because, well, it’s Ian McEwan, but for some reason I haven’t managed to get around to reading it. I keep getting drawn back by the cover art, though. This would make a great “Books n Chocs” contender, wouldn’t it? Maybe this year I’ll only do paperbacks, I feel they’ve been unfairly overlooked…

When I Hit You, Meena Kandasamy*

Another book added to the wishlist because I got lost down a Substack wormhole of book review posts. I have to admit, in the interests of transparency, that I’ve ordered this one too. Blast! I was going to keep it quiet, because it sort of weakens the whole concept behind the post and the nice little narrative that I needed to finish off the first lot of books before I bought any more, but I’m a terrible liar.

Here’s the blurb:

“Caught in the hook of love, a young woman marries a dashing university professor. She moves to a rain-washed coastal town to be with him, but behind closed doors she discovers that her perfect husband is a perfect monster. As he sets about battering her into obedience and as her family pressures her to stay in the marriage, she swears to fight back - a resistance that will either kill her or set her free.”

You can order it here*

Small Bomb at Dimperley, Lissa Evans*

I think this was possibly a book that I saw on India Knight’s Substack. Possibly, she raved about it. Hard. I added this to my basket months ago and it has become buried under all of the new items I’m procrastinating about, including “Zinger Ginger Shots”, a “Multi-Purpose Fire Extinguisher” (what possible other purpose could it have?! We need to come back to this one!) and a “Medieval Maid Bonnet / Victorian Mob Cap”.

Death at the Sign of the Rook, Kate Atkinson*

I don’t think Kate Atkinson has ever failed me so it’s unfair that this one wasn’t purchased immediately upon release. I do like the Jackson Brodie series she writes, though not as much as her non-detective work. Personally I think they’re better than the Strike books, but Strike is (in my mind) sexier.

Discuss.

Those are the books in my basket. I actually have another seven cookbooks in there, too, but didn’t want to tell you about those in case I sounded deranged. Perhaps that’s another post. I’m off to do more research on this multi-purpose fire extinguisher!

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Last week’s post: