Top 3 Overlooked Novels to Discover Today

January 27, 2025January 10, 2025 / 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

January 20, 2025January 8, 2025 / 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

January 13, 2025January 20, 2025 / Claire Fuller / 4 Comments

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

January 6, 2025January 8, 2025 / Claire Fuller / 3 Comments

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

December 30, 2024January 8, 2025 / Claire Fuller / 2 Comments

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

December 23, 2024December 19, 2024 / Claire Fuller / 1 Comment

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

December 16, 2024December 19, 2024 / Claire Fuller / 4 Comments

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

December 9, 2024December 19, 2024 / Claire Fuller / 3 Comments

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 →

Discover Nina Stibbe’s Favorite Overlooked Novels

December 2, 2024January 8, 2025 / Claire Fuller / 3 Comments

Read This: Nina Stibbe

One of the joys of being a published author is having proofs of other authors’ books sent me. Sometimes the quantity and how they glare at me from the shelf, unread, can be overwhelming, but occasionally there is an author I always want the proofs of, and this for me includes Nina Stibbe. And then we met at an event full of publishers and we recognised each and she made me laugh, just like her books make me laugh. Here’s what she has to say about herself:

Nina Stibbe is the author of seven books. Love, Nina – winner of the Non-Fiction Book of the Year Award at the National Book Awards 2014, shortlisted for Waterstones Book of the Year – was adapted for BBC television. Her novels Man at the Helm (2014) and Paradise Lodge (2016) were both adapted for serialisation on BBC Radio 4 and shortlisted for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction. Her third novel Reasons to be Cheerful (2019) won both the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction and the Comedy Women in Print Award. A collection of stories and Articles; An Almost Perfect Christmas (2017) was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 over Christmas 2020 Her most recent novel One Day I Shall Astonish The World (2022) was shortlisted for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction. Her latest book Went to London, Took the Dog was published in 2023.

She is on twitter and Instagram as @ninastibbe
Here are her recommendations:

Continue reading →

Underrated Book Recommendations by Jo Furniss

November 25, 2024November 19, 2024 / Claire Fuller / 4 Comments

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 →