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Billy Shakeshaft @morgatronix.bsky.social · 21d

#Piranesi by #SusannaClarke – Piranesi lives in the House, with many rooms, lined with statues. The lower levels are prone to flooding. He keeps a journal and records the water levels. The only other occupant is the Other, who Piranesi helps in his quest for Knowledge.

Billy Shakeshaft @morgatronix.bsky.social · Sep 29

#LongIsland – #ColmToibin – 20 years on from #Brooklyn. Eilis’s family live on Long Island. A man tells her his wife had an affair with Tony and is pregnant; he will disown the baby. She says she won’t help raise the baby. She decides to return home for her mother’s birthday.

Billy Shakeshaft @morgatronix.bsky.social · Sep 15

#TheMinistryofTime by #KalianeBradley – an unnamed woman agrees to be the carer for Graham Gore, a time traveller (“expat”) from a disastrous expedition to find the Northwest Passage in 1847. Other expats come from different times, including the Great Plague in 1665 and the Somme in 1916.

Billy Shakeshaft @morgatronix.bsky.social · Aug 29

#LoveAfterLove by #IngridPersaud – Trinidad: Betty lives with her son Solo. Her drunken abusive husband had died. She offers a room to her colleague Mr Chetan, who becomes friends with Solo. Solo overhears something devastating and goes to stay with Uncle Hari in New York.

Billy Shakeshaft @morgatronix.bsky.social · Aug 7

And the #MountainsEchoed by #KhaledHosseini – a young girl is taken from a small village in Afghanistan to Kabul and adopted by a wealthy couple. Nine linked stories about Pari, her family, birth and adoptive, and the people who they influence, or who influence their lives.

Billy Shakeshaft @morgatronix.bsky.social · Jul 13

The #StrawberryThief by #JoanneHarris – Narcisse leaves a wood to Vianne’s young daughter Rosette and gives a written confession to Reynaud, the parish priest. Narcisse’s daughter fights the will. Vianne is unsettled when the mysterious Morgane opens a tattoo shop.

Billy Shakeshaft @morgatronix.bsky.social · Jun 16

#James by #PercivalEverett – the world of Huck Finn from the point of view of Jim, a slave. Jim is friendly with Huck but runs away when he finds out he is going to be sold. He has taught himself to write and reads avidly. Jim starts to write down his story.

Billy Shakeshaft @morgatronix.bsky.social · Jun 2

#QueenMacbeth by #ValMcDermid – a retelling of the story of #Macbeth, or rather his queen, #Gruoch. She was married to Gille, Earl of Moray, when she met and fell in love with handsome, ambitious Macbeth. Gille is said to have murdered Macbeth’s father. Brutal times.

Billy Shakeshaft @morgatronix.bsky.social · May 25

#FoolsandMortals by #BernardCornwell – early Elizabethan London. Richard is an actor. His brother Will is a playwright and “Sharer”. Richard mainly plays women’s roles but he’s getting older and wants male parts. There is pressure on Will to write a “wedding” play.

Billy Shakeshaft @morgatronix.bsky.social · May 5

#Intermezzo by #SallyRooney – brothers Peter and Ivan are very different. Peter is older, confident, a lawyer with two lovers, Sylvia who was injured in a car accident, and Naomi, young and attractive. Ivan is a competitive chess player. He starts seeing the older Margaret.

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Billy Shakeshaft @morgatronix.bsky.social · May 1

The Fox by #FrederickForsyth – a family home is raided by the SAS. The US want to extradite a young British hacker but the UK comes up with a plan. A new Russian warship goes out of control. The Russians discover the location of the boy and mount a failed attempt to kill him.

Billy Shakeshaft @morgatronix.bsky.social · Apr 6

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by #GabrielleZevin – Sam was injured as a child in a car accident. He met Sadie who’s sister had cancer. They both loved video games. Years later he sees her and they rekindle their friendship and start writing video games together.

Billy Shakeshaft @morgatronix.bsky.social · Mar 6

The Ripping Tree by #NikkiGemmell – a woman tells her grandchildren a story. Thomasina, “Tom”, is sailing to Australia with her married brother. She is to wed a vicar she has never met. The ship is wrecked. Tom is saved and taken in by a family but hides her true identity.

Billy Shakeshaft @morgatronix.bsky.social · Feb 17

#SnowPatrol – #BPPulseArena, Birmingham – sold-out, featured heavily from 2006’s #EyesOpen and last year’s #TheForestIsthePath, with the audience taking over singing duties on many, including Run and Chasing Cars. Martha Wainwright appeared on video for Set the Fire to the Third Bar.

Billy Shakeshaft @morgatronix.bsky.social · Feb 17

What Are You Going Through by #SigridNunez – a woman visits a friend in hospital. The friend’s cancer treatment is unsuccessful and she decides to end her own life. She asks her friend for help, being with her when she dies. This triggers a series of memories for the woman.

Billy Shakeshaft @morgatronix.bsky.social · Feb 6

A Good Liar by #AmandaBrooke – journalist Leanne is investigating a fire at a theatre in which a number of people died, including her friend Lois. She thinks the developer and a contractor were responsible. She wants the people who saved or tended victims to be recognised.

Billy Shakeshaft @morgatronix.bsky.social · Jan 20

#MurderBeforeEvensong by the Reverend #RichardColes – Canon Clement discovers a body in the church, stabbed with secateurs. The victim was Anthony Bowman, cousin of Bernard de Floures, head of the estate. Soon after Ned Thwaite, the former headmaster, is found drowned. Who killed them? Why?

Billy Shakeshaft @morgatronix.bsky.social · Dec 30

#AlltheLightWeCannotSee by #AnthonyDoerr – Marie-Laure is blind and lives in Paris with her father. Werner and his sister Jutta are orphans and live near Essen. World War 2 looms, Marie-Laure is taken to stay with family in St Malo and Werner enters a training school.

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Billy Shakeshaft @morgatronix.bsky.social · Dec 4

The House of Eyes by #KateEllis – reformed criminal turned property developer Darren Hatman reports his daughter missing. Detective Wesley Peterson suspects she’s has gone to London looking for modelling work. Then Darren’s body is found at a barn conversion near a posh hotel.

Billy Shakeshaft @morgatronix.bsky.social · Nov 24

#Orbital by #SamanthaHarvey – a day in the life of six astronauts and cosmonauts, four men and two women, on the International Space Station. Sixteen 90-minute orbits of the Earth. Being on the ISS changes how the crew think about their planet and their own lives.

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Billy Shakeshaft @morgatronix.bsky.social · Nov 22

The #OrderofTime by #CarloRovelli – we experience the passage of time. But Rovelli says time is far more complex, it is relative due to gravity and velocity. Time may not actually exist. Could time just be the way human minds order events?

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Billy Shakeshaft @morgatronix.bsky.social · Nov 16

#Weyward by #EmiliaHart – three women: Altha, on trial for being a witch in 1619; Violet, 1942, in conflict with her aristocratic father; and Kate, present day, who flees an abusive relationship to the tiny Cumbrian cottage she inherited from the great-aunt she hardly knew.