Book recommendations

Top 3 Overlooked Novels to Discover Today

/ Claire Fuller / 1 Comment

Read This: Books under the Radar is a weekly post, usually 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. But for a second time I’m inviting on a favourite book blogger of mine – someone whose taste in books I appreciate and follow: Sally Hughes, aka @salboreads on Instagram. If you’re interested in buying any of the books featured, please click on the covers and give these hidden gems some love. You can see the full list of books which have been selected on Bookshop.org, where you can have a browse and buy any that take your fancy. Happy reading!

Read This: Sally Hughes

Sally and I have never met in real life but we’ve followed each other for a while on Instagram and I always love her recommendations. Perhaps one day we’ll get to exchange book recommendations over a coffee. Here’s what she has to say about herself:

I am a librarian and teacher, currently volunteering at my local public library. I run the Children’s Classics Club on Instagram which is a virtual group celebrating the joy of children’s fiction. I have been book blogging as Salboreads for about 4 years. I read many genres from classics to thrillers. I have introduced two hashtags to bookstagram – Mindful Monday and Children’s Book Sunday. I have a beautiful, but crazy flat-coated retriever called Pippin who is well known by my followers and takes up the time when I am not reading! I have selected three books which I have absolutely loved and which also reflect something of the nature of my reading.

www.instagram.com/salboreads

Read on to find out which three books Sally recommends.

Continue reading →

Discover Underrated Books by Carole Burns

/ Claire Fuller / 2 Comments

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: Carole Burns

Carole was Head of Creative Writing on the MA I did, way back in 2011. She was only there a year before she left, but I remember being inspired and in awe – here was a real-life published author, telling me how it was done. Since then we’ve stayed in touch, she’s even come to my writing group on a couple of occasions and it’s always wonderful to get a sneak preview of what she’s writing. Here’s what she has to say about herself:

Carole Burns is an award-winning American writer and journalist living in the U.K.  The Same Country, her debut novel, named by Wales Arts Review as one of the Best Welsh Fiction Books of 2023, was described by the writer Gish Jen as “unearthing long-buried truths that remain the truths of America.” A freelancer for the Washington Post and LitHub, Burns was the winner of Ploughshares’ Zacharis Award for The Missing Woman and Other Stories. Her book, Off the Page: Writers Talk About Beginnings, Endings, and Everything in Between, features interviews with forty-three writers including Jhumpa Lahiri and Colm Tóibín. She is Associate Professor at the University of Southampton and lives in Cardiff.

Find her at:
http://www.caroleburns.com
Instagram @writercaroleburns
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/carole.burns.73

Read on to find out which three books Carole recommends.

Continue reading →

Three Must-Read Books by Cherie Jones

/ Claire Fuller / 4 Comments

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: Cherie Jones

I read Cherie’s debut when it was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize, and we met at the event in London when my novel, Unsettled Ground was also shortlisted, and when the winner was announced – which wasn’t either of our books. I loved How The One-Armed Sister Sweeps her House – it gave me such a different perspective on Barbados. Here’s what she has to say about herself:

Cherie Jones is a Barbadian author whose first novel ‘How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House’ was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize and translated into French and German. Cherie is working on her second novel. 

You can find her on:
Instagram @cheriejoneswrites and Facebook @cheriejoneswrites

Continue reading →

Hidden Gem Book Recommendations from Cate Baum

/ Claire Fuller / 3 Comments

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: Cate Baum

Cate Baum and I met a few times in person when I mentored her for her first (unpublished) novel which she wrote on her Creative Writing MA course – and I loved it. Land of Hope is the novel that got her an agent and a publishing deal (which I’m very much looking forward to) it will be published in May 2025, and is available to pre-order now. Here’s what she has to say about herself:

Cate Baum was born in Cambridge to a magician and a big band singer. She grew up in the East Anglian countryside, spending summers roaming the wilds of the UK. She attended UCLA to study Screenwriting, and then City University, London, gaining a Masters with Distinction in Creative Writing. There, she was mentored by Claire Fuller (The Memory of Animals), Clare Allan (Poppy Shakespeare) and Jonathan Myerson (Nuremberg). She now lives in Spain. Her debut novel, Land of Hope, will be published in 2025.

Find her on Instagram @catebaumwriter

Read on to find out which three books Cate recommends.

Continue reading →

Discover Lesser-Known Books Recommended by Leena Norms

/ Claire Fuller / 2 Comments

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.

Continue reading →

Hidden Gem Book Recommendations chosen by Cara Hunter

/ Claire Fuller / 1 Comment

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: Cara Hunter

Cara Hunter and I met in 2018 when we did an event together in Winchester for her debut novel, Close to Home, and my third, Bitter Orange. We were interviewed by the brilliant Rebecca Fletcher – I think it was her first interview, and now is much in demand. Cara, meanwhile has gone on to write many more novels, selling all over the world, and many in development for TV. Here’s what she has to say about herself:

Cara Hunter is the Sunday Times bestselling author of the DCI Adam Fawley series and the TikTok viral hit Murder in the Family. Her books have sold over a million copies in the UK alone and have been translated into 30 languages. Close to Home and The Whole Truth were selected for the Richard and Judy book club and the series is now in script development for TV. Murder in the Family was a Sunday Times, New York Times, and USA Today bestseller. The screen rights have been acquired by Neal Street Productions. On her podcast Watching the Detectives, Cara discusses crime scene investigations with DI Andy Thompson and former Crime Scene Investigator Joey Giddings.

Twitter @CaraHunterBooks
Instagram @CaraHunterAuthor
Watching the Detectives is available on Spotify, Apple and wherever you get your podcasts

Continue reading →

Nussaibah Younis: Top 3 Book Picks to Explore

/ Claire Fuller / 4 Comments

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: Nussaibah Younis

A confession: Nussaibah’s novel is sitting on my to-be-read shelf, glaring at me. What can I say? I have been writing and editing my own, I have been collating Read This: Books Under the Radar for all of you? I am sorry; I will get to it soon. Here’s what she has to say about herself:

Nussaibah Younis is the author of Fundamentally, a dark comedy about a heartbroken academic who accepts a UN job deradicalising ISIS brides in Iraq. The novel has been chosen by Jonathan Coe as one of his top five political novels of all time, and has been described by Dolly Alderton as ‘funny, gripping, and compassionate.’ 

Find Nussaibah here on Instagram.

Read on to find out which three books Nussaibah recommends.

Continue reading →

Hidden Gem Book Recommendations selected by Clare Pollard

/ Claire Fuller / 3 Comments

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: Clare Pollard

Clare Pollard is published by the same imprint of Penguin as I am: Fig Tree. And although I’ve read some of her books, we still haven’t met in real life but there are plans afoot, because Clare is also Artist Director of the Winchester Poetry Festival – not a million miles from where I live. Here’s what she has to say about herself:

Clare Pollard’s sixth collection of poetry, Lives of the Female Poets, will be published by Bloodaxe in 2025. Her translations include Ovid’s Heroines, which she toured as a one-woman show with Jaybird Live Literature. She has also written a play, The Weather, that was performed at The Royal Court Theatre; a non-fiction title, Fierce Bad Rabbits: The Tales Behind Childrens’ Picture Books; her first children’s novel, The Untameables, and two adult novels, Delphi, and The Modern Fairies. She has recently been made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and is the current Artistic Director of the Winchester Poetry Festival.

Substack: clarespoetrycircle.substack.com
Instagram and Threads: @poetclare

Continue reading →

Underrated Book Recommendations by Jo Furniss

/ Claire Fuller / 4 Comments

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: Jo Furniss

Jo wrote me a lovely comment on one of my Read This: Books Under the Radar posts on Instagram, and as simple as that, I invited her on. Here’s what she has to say about herself:

After spending a decade as a broadcast journalist for the BBC, Jo gave up the glamour of night shifts to become a freelance writer and expatriate, living in Singapore, Switzerland and Cameroon.

Jo’s latest novel, Dead Mile, is a murder mystery set in a traffic jam on a gridlocked motorway. A twist on the classic locked-room mystery, it has been described as a “literary joyride” with a “deeply human protagonist in an all-too-relatable setting”.

Her debut, a survival thriller called All the Little Children, was an Amazon Charts bestseller. Jo lives on the south coast of England. http://www.jofurniss.com/
https://www.instagram.com/jofurnissauthor/
https://www.facebook.com/JoFurnissAuthor

Continue reading →

Explore Lesser-Known Novels Worth Your Time, selected by Ruth Thomas

/ Claire Fuller / 6 Comments

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: Ruth Thomas

You might remember that a few weeks ago I had Jo Leevers, the author of The Last Time I Saw you, on Read This: Books Under the Radar and one of her choices was Ruth Thomas’s The Home Corner, and now here Ruth is with her three choices. Such pleasing circularity. Here’s what she has to say about herself:

Ruth Thomas is the author of three novels and three short story collections and her work has been shortlisted for various prizes including the John Llewellyn Rhys Award, the VS Pritchett Prize and the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award. Her latest novel The Snow and the Works on the Northern Line was a BBC Book at Bedtime in 2021. Ruth has taught Creative Writing at St Andrews University, been an RLF Writing Fellow and is a mentor for the Scottish Book Trust. She lives in Edinburgh and is working on a new novel and story collection.

Instagram and Bluesky @RuthieSThomas and at ruth-thomas.com

Continue reading →