Earlier this week I returned to the BBC Wiltshire studios in Swindon to offer a summer read recommendation to afternoon show listeners. Karen Gardner was again the host and had been browsing my blog prior to our conversation. She told me that her book group had read The Trouble with Goats and Sheep by Joanna Cannon, and His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet, both of which she enjoyed. On the show she asked me about why I thought these books had proved popular. I hope that I did these excellent stories some sort of justice.
The book I recommended this week was Missing by Alison Moore, published by Salt. I chose it as a contrast to last week’s suggestion (We that are young), as it is a short novel that still packs a mighty punch.
Karen asked why I favour the smaller presses. Again, I hope that the words I was required to conjure live on air made sense – the willingness to take risks and offer an alternative to the commercial fiction generally favoured by the big publishing houses.
If interested you may listen to the radio segment, which lasts just under 8 minutes, here.
I have one more slot to participate in before summer’s end. I now need to decide on my final recommendation.
