Suroor Alikhan

The Booker Prizes Welcome to the home of the Booker Prize and the International Booker Prize, the leading literary awards for works of fiction published in the UK in English

Congratulations to David Szalay for winning the Booker Prize for his novel Flesh!

thebookerprizes.com

It's beautiful. The leaves almost look like stars.

Orbital: Samantha Harvey Published by Vintage, 2023, 136 pages “Rotating about the earth in their spacecraft they are so together, and so alone, that even their thoughts, their internal mythologies, at times convene. Somet…

This week's #bookreview: Samantha Harvey's Orbital, a luminous book about six astronauts in space. Beautifully written with an astonishing level of detail, almost meditative, and a reminder that our earth—our only home—is incredibly precious. #fiction
talking-about-books.com/2025/11/08/o...

It happens to me...

I know the feeling...

Three new posts on Women's Travel Books! On #Italy, #UnitedStates and #Pakistan.

talkingaboutbookswomenstravel.review

#travelbooks #travelbooksbywomen

Save the dates! The Hyderabad Literary Festival 2026 is 24-26 Jan., Hyderabad, India. HLF is a multi-genre, multidiscipline, and multilingual event with nearly 300 writers, artistes, academics, scholars, and publishers from India and abroad each year. #literaryfestival

Do your bit to make the Hyderabad Literary Festival happen!

Payment details here: forms.gle/jc3UyfApbRhz...

HLF is gearing up to bring you an exciting array of speakers, artists and performers in January 2026. Mark your calendars and stay tuned!
More info on www.hydlitfest.org.
#literaryfestival

Warwick Prize for Women in Translation longlist 2025 Fourteen titles have been longlisted for the 8th annual award of the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation. The 2025 competition received a total of 145 eligible entries from 34 languages. The lon…

Warwick Prize for Women in Translation longlist 2025 clairemcalpine.com/2025/11/04/w...

This week's #bookreview: Deesha Philyaw's The Secret Lives of Church Ladies, a collection of short stories about Black women. Sensuous, funny and perceptive, with memorable and completely believable characters. #fiction
talking-about-books.com/2025/11/01/t...

3 new posts on talkingaboutbookswomenstravel.review!
Elizabeth Pisani on Indonesia, Gwen Maka on cycling from Seattle to Costa Rica, and Lina Boegli on travelling the world on her own in 1892. All intrepid travellers! #travelbooks #travelbooksbywomen @elizabethpisani.ternyata.org

Hi Jonathan, I sent you an email through your website. Could you respond when you have a moment? Thank you.

I learned so much!

Owls of the Eastern Ice—The Quest to Find and Save the World’s Largest Owl: Jonathan C. Slaght Published by Allen Lane / Ferrar, Strauss and Giroux, 2020, 348 pages “This dishevelled mass of wood-chip brown regarded us warily with electric-yellow eyes. … It was clearly an owl, but bigg…

This week's #bookreview: Jonathan C. Slaght's Owls of the Eastern Ice—The Quest to Find and Save the World’s Largest Owl. Slaght researches fish owls in Primorye, southeastern Russia, to help protect them. Vividly written. #naturebooks @jonathanslaght.com
talking-about-books.com/2025/10/25/o...

New reviews on Women’s Travel Books! Sally Howard on sexual mores in India; Alba Kunadu Sumprim’s on moving to her native Ghana; and Diccon Bewes on retracing Jemimah Morrell’s journey on the 1863 Thomas Cook tour of Switzerland. @salvolatile.bsky.social
talkingaboutbookswomenstravel.review

Happy Diwali from the Hyderabad Literary Festival!

Three new reviews on Women's Travel Books this week! Take trains around the US with Jenny Diski, follow the olive route with Carol Drinkwater, and travel to Papua New Guinea with Kira Salak. @carol4olivefarm.bsky.social #travelbooks #travelbooksbywomen
talkingaboutbookswomenstravel.review

The Count of Monte Cristo: Alexandre Dumas Translated from French by Robin BussPublished by Penguin, 1996, 1276 pages. Original version serialized in 1844-46 and published as a book in 1846. First unabridged translation by Emma Hardy, 1846.…

This week's #bookreview: Alexandre Dumas's The Count of Monte Cristo, a classic that I only just discovered and found impossible to put down, despite it being over 1200 pages. Great translation by Robin Buss. @penguinbooksusa.bsky.social #booksintranslation
talking-about-books.com/2025/10/18/t...

These are just four of the books reviewed on Women's Travel Books, the new section of my blog that highlights #travelbooks by women. Check it out! I'm adding more all the time.
@monisharajesh.bsky.social @noosarowiwa.bsky.social #travelbooksbywomen #books #bookreviews

The Peacock and the Sparrow: I.S. Berry Published by No Exit Press / Atria Books, 2023, 338 pages. Shane Collins is a CIA spy, posted in Manama, Bahrain. He is coming to the end of his career and merely wants to see his final posting out…

This week's #bookreview: The Peacock and the Sparrow, IS Berry's spy thriller set in #Bahrain. Shane Collins is CIA spy posted to Manama. He gets more involved in local politics than he should, with far-reaching consequences. #fiction
@atriabooks.bsky.social
talking-about-books.com/2025/10/11/t...

László Krasznahorkai wins the Nobel prize in literature 2025 The Hungarian novelist whose books ‘reaffirm the power of art’ was announced as winner at a ceremony in Stockholm

Congratulations to Hungarian writer László Krasznahorkai for winning the Nobel Prize in Literature!
Awarded him the prize for his “compelling and visionary oeuvre that, in the midst of apocalyptic terror, reaffirms the power of art”. @nobelprize.bsky.social
www.theguardian.com/books/2025/o...

Women's Travel Books Reviewing travel books by, and about, women

Big news! Check out my new website for #bookreviews of #travelbooks by women. These are the reviews I wrote for Women on the Road that I will now move to my website. Over the next several months, I will publish them here, starting with the oldest, as well as reviews of any new ones that I read.

Driving Over Lemons—An Optimist in Andalucía: Chris Stewart Published by Sort Of Books, 1999, 247 pages. In 1988, Chris Stewart and his wife Ana bought an old, remote farm in Las Alpujarras in the Sierra Nevada foothills of Andalucía. This is the first book…

This week's #bookreview: The first book in Chris Stewart's trilogy about moving to a rundown farm in Andalucía. Funny, moving and thoroughly enjoyable. #memoir
talking-about-books.com/2025/10/04/d...

Dr Jane Goodall 💚

3 April 1934 - 1 October 2025

Any reason to visit your bookshop will do...

Frankenstein in Baghdad: Ahmed Sadaawi Translated from Arabic by Jonathan WrightPublished by OneWorld Publications / Penguin, 2018, 272 pages. Original version published in 2013. Ahmed Sadaawi takes the story of Frankenstein and transpo…

A book for #internationaltranslationday2025: Frankenstein in Baghdad by Iraqi author Ahmed Sadaawi. Saadawi transposes Frankenstein to Baghdad in the 2000s, after the US invasion. A darkly comic novel and utterly original. Translated by Jonathan Wright.
talking-about-books.com/2019/09/28/f...

Such a Good Family: Caitlin Weaver Published by Storm Publishing, 2024, 352 pages. Two perfect suburban families: Lorrie and Ed, and their children Knox, Archie and Chloé; and Eden and Witt, and their daughter Summer. Summer and Kno…

This week's #bookreview: Caitlin Weaver's Such A Good Family, about the fallout from a rape. And about relationships in all their complexity. Lorrie and Eden are best friends. But how will they cope when Lorrie's son rapes Eden's daughter?
talking-about-books.com/2025/09/27/s...

Grey Bees: Andrey Kurkov Translated from Russian by Boris DralyukPublished by MacLehose Press, 2021, 352 pages. Original version published in 2018. Set in the period after the 2014 Russian invasion of Crimea, this book by …

A #bookintranslation: Grey Bees by Andrey Kurkov, about a man living in the grey zone in Ukraine, between the Russian army and Ukrainian forces. A political story, told by an innocent. Translated by Boris Dralyuk. #fiction
talking-about-books.com/2022/04/02/g...

Snow Country: Yasunari Kawabata Translated from Japanese by Edward G. SeidenstickerPublished by Penguin, 1956, 121 pages. Original version published in 1948. Shimamura takes a train to a town in the mountains of Japan. It is cold…

This week's #bookreview: Yasunari Kawabata's Snow Country, a dreamlike book about the relationship between a wealthy man and a geisha. With a strong sense of place. Translated by Edward G. Seidensticker. #fiction #japaneseauthor @penguinbooksusa.bsky.social
talking-about-books.com/2025/09/20/s...