Bibliography, October 2025

BOTM: K. Rundell, The poisoned king (2025)

S. Choi, Flashlight (2025)
K. Desai, The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny (2025)
G. Flood, An Introduction to Hinduism (2003)

K. Kitamura, Audition (2025)
B. Markovits, The Rest of Our Lives (2025)
A. Miller, The land in winter (2024)
R. Perlstein, The Invisible Bridge (2014)

C. Sheffield, Brother to Dragons (1992)
D. Szalay, Flesh (2025)

Katherine Rundell's book was published too late for the Booker, but it wouldn't have been nominated because it's for children. This is a shame, but it is unquestionably better than half of them, including the winner. It's not quite as good as Impossible Creatures, which was utterly enchanting, but it's still very very good. Like all good fantasy writers, she knows what she's doing with the genre, and she writes lightly and cleverly. My children were delighted to see a 6-7 reference in there too. She's paying attention.

It was also Booker month, so I've read them all. I'm writing this after we know the result, but I didn't know when I read them. It's not a vintage year I think. The depth of the list is far from superb. I woudl only really recommend reading half of them. The concepts behind Kitamura and Szalay I think flaws them as novels too much, and makes frustrating reading. While I'm don't feel they or Markovits had much to say. Desai and Choi were too long, though the core of both was good. I enjoyed them; I'd have enjoyed them more if they had been shorter. Miller was the best, and I think is a very well done miniature of life in a point of change in social and economic shift in the 60s, just before something happens. My ranking:

1. Miller
2. Desai
3. Choi
4. Markovits
5. Kitamura
6. Szalay