Read This: Books under the Radar is a weekly post written by a guest author – often a friend of mine, someone I’ve met on my writerly travels, or an author I admire – who recommends three books they think deserve more recognition. If you’re interested in buying any of the books, please click on the covers and give these hidden gems some love. You can see the full list of books which have been selected, as well as the author’s latest book on Bookshop.org, where you can have a browse and buy any that take your fancy. Happy reading!

Read This: Leena Norms

A while ago I read Leena’s poetry collection, Bargain-Bin Rom Com, and this is what I wrote about it: funny, smart, sad, and wise. And book-ended by the two most perfect poems (that’s in no way to say the ones in the middle aren’t brilliant too), but I love how I can hear Leena’s voice in them both, saying it’s ok, you don’t need to read this, and then by the end, it’s ok, you can go now. Actually I would have been happy to stay much longer. I was lucky enough to meet her in person when she came on the Arvon Editing Fiction and Non-fiction course I taught (and am teaching again in January 2025), and now her next book has just been published: Half-Arse Human – How to Live Better without Burning Out. Here’s what she has to say about herself:

Leena has spent almost a decade and a half forming communities online, creating video essays about books, eco-conscious style and how we can all participate in ‘positive panic’ about the climate crisis. Her first poetry collection, Bargain-Bin Rom Com and her ‘slap-dash self help’ essay collection,  Half-Arse Human, was published this month by John Murray. 

Find Leena here on Instagram.

Read on to find out which three books Leena recommends.

Girly Drinks by Mallory O’Meara

Perfect for those of us not doing dry January 😉 This is an incredibly engaging historical gossip around the tavern tables about all the incredible women behind the history of gin, beer, commerce and pub culture. Once you hear their stories, you’ll wonder why they’re not household names! It’s truly international, with stories about women from all walks of life and corners of the globe, and it’s one of the best accessible history books I’ve ever read.

Closing Ranks: My Life as a Cop by Leroy Logan

A memoir packed with action and heart, this is a really nuanced look at serving in the police force as a black man in Britain and how it’s changed over the past few decades – Leroy, who was galvanised to join the police force after his father experienced police brutality, looks at what it means to defy the system from inside it, and what it means to believe reformation is possible against all odds.

Charlotte by Helen Moffett

A cosy one to curl up with; this is an imaginative jig around what might have happened to the characters from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice after the book is closed. Thorough the eyes of much side-lined Charlotte, Elizabeth’s ill-fated best friend, we follow her life almost a decade on from marrying the dreaded Mr. Collins – and discover that all might not have been as it seemed, all those years ago at Longbourn. Elizabeth and Darcy are going through a rocky patch, everyone’s now elderly parents are causing mayhem and there’s a hunky piano expert in town… wonderfully written hijinx, surprisingly arresting and (I’ll admit it) I had a little hopeful cry at the end.

  

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I haven’t read any of these – always what I love about Read This: Books Under the Radar – discovering new books and new authors. Any of these three catch your eye? And if you’d like to be told about future Read This recommendations, you can follow me on Instagram, or subscribe to my newsletter.

More Read This: Books Under the Radar

Lou Morrish author of Women of War
Francesca Ramsay author of Pinch Me
Sarah Leipciger author of Moon Road
Tim Chapman university librarian
Juliet West author of The Faithful
Lindsay Hunter author of Hot Springs Drive
Gina Chung author of Sea Change
Susmita Bhattacharya author of Table Manners
Vanessa Harbour author of Safe
Freya North author of The Unfinished Business of Eadie Browne
Judith Heneghan author of Birdeye
Clare Mackintosh author of I Promise it won’t always Hurt like This
Barney Norris author of Undercurrent
Jo Leevers author of The Last Time I saw You
Alice Winn author of In Memmoriam
Anna Mazzola author of The House of Secrets
Alice Peterson author of The Saturday Place
Jenna Smith bookblogger
Lucy Atkins author of Windmill Hill
LV Matthews author of To Love a Liar
Jo Furniss author of Dead Mile
Ruth Thomas author of The Snow and the Works on the Northern Line
Clare Pollard author of The Modern Fairies
Nina Stibbe author of Went to London, Took the Dog
Nassaibah Younis author of Fundamentally
Nina Stibbe author of Went to London, Took the Dog
Nassaibah Younis author of Fundamentally
Cara Hunter author of Making a Killing