Category Archives: Books

What I’m currently reading and watching

There have been some wonderful new book releases and crime thriller series, so I thought I’d share some of my recent reads, books on my Wishlist and things I’ve watched and enjoyed.

CURRENTLY READING

The Giant on the Skyline, by Clover Stroud, is a memoir on home, belonging and learning to let go. It’s meditative, restless and unafraid to ask the difficult questions of life. Stroud’s ‘what ifs’ and ‘maybes’ are loud and resonant. I’m looking forward to seeing where the story will take me. I would recommend it from what I have read so far.

NEXT ON MY BOOKLIST

Kate Atkinson is a wonderful writer. In Death at the Sign of the Rook, Ex-detective Jackson Brodie is called to a Yorkshire town over a stolen Turner painting.

Once a grand country house, Burton Makepeace, Lady Milton’s home, has been converted into a hotel, hosting Murder Mystery weekends. As guests, including a vicar, an ex-army officer, aristocrats, we are taken on a Agatha Christie-style mystery tour.

Dream Count is the searing new novel from the author of Americanah, Chimamanda Ngoni Adichie. The Times hails this as a “feminist War and Peace.”  It tells the story of four women and their loves, longings and desires.

Adichie tells the stories of these women while leading the reader to consider the choices we make and those made for us and on our interconnected world. Dream Count presents unflinching observations on the human heart, in language that soars.

WHAT I’VE WATCHED

Adolescence is a four-part crime drama series that will make you feel you are living the nightmare that 14 year old Jamie Miller’s family are enduring, as we are thrown into his arrest for killing school girl and fellow classmate, Katie.

This is a gripping and timely drama that runs close to real life, telling a story of violence and shame, as we watch the story unfold in their home, on the streets, in the police station, an in a chilling interview with a psychologist.

In this fast-moving crime thriller, Black Work, police officer, Jo Gillespie, is left with unanswered questions surrounding the death of her husband, who is shot dead in the line of action as an undercover officer. Jo has to work out who to trust and retrace his steps, as she is left to confront issues in her marriage in order to discover who killed her husband.

PUBLICATION DAY

The day has arrived. It’s the release of my long-awaited second collection of short stories. Lots of you have asked when they will be available to buy and the wait is over. I’m thrilled to announce the release of a new collection of stories, many of which have been placed in competitions and published in international literary journals. Two of the stories can be found in anthologies – You Fold Yourself into Tiny Spaces was Longlisted in the Reflex Press Quarterly International Flash Fiction Competition and published in In Defence of Pseudoscience: Reflex Fiction Volume Five. Prolific was published in Pens of the Earth and is forthcoming in a Pens of the Earth Anthology in October 2024. Some of my favourite stories are new to this collection.

“Intense, beautifully realised and ice-sharp”

BUY

ABOUT THE COLLECTION:

The sentences we leave unfinished, questions surrounding sudden loss, a decision on a train. This second collection covers themes of relationships and memory, exploring what happens when memory fails. It looks at beginnings and endings, weaving through themes of generations, family, uncertainty, and what happens when experiences change us.

“F C Malby’s stories capture characters teetering on the edge of precipices in their lives, sometimes literal, sometimes metaphorical, as they decide whether or not to take a leap of faith into the unknown. These intense, beautifully realised and ice-sharp stories momentarily suspend us over an Everestian abyss.” Jonathan P Taylor, author and Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing, University of Leicester

“In this impressive collection of 65 short and very short stories, F C Malby gives us sharply honed glimpses into the profundity of the ordinary and the impact of the extraordinary. Malby’s characters deal with choices and their consequences, with themes of life passages, nature and the sea. Her prose is strong with much implied and left to the interpretation of the reader. Highly recommend.” Barbara Byar, novelist, short story author and Fiction Editor, Variant Literature

You can purchase my second collection of short stories, A Place of Unfinished Sentences, in paperback and as an eBook https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0DFW6BPMW

The joy of bookshops and finding signed author copies

I spent some time in Waterstones at the weekend. It’s a place I’ve always loved – the scent of books, the anticipation of finding new titles, the peace, the labyrinth of bookshelves. There are so many wonderful bookshops, both large and small, to peruse the shelves and find new books. These two new titles were a lovely surprise.

The scent of books, the anticipation of finding new titles, the peace, the labyrinth of bookshelves.

I love Kevin Barry’s work, but hadn’t heard about this new title, The Heart in Winter, released on 6 June and set in 1891 Montana. Butte is a city rich in copper mines and immigrant Irish workers. The story centres around Tom Rourke, a young poet and ballad maker. As he feels his life is heading nowhere, and struggling with alcohol, Polly Gillespie arrives in town as the new bride of the devout mine captain, Long Anthony Harrington. Tom and Polly steal a horse and head out west through the badlands of Montana and Idaho. This is described as a ‘ballad of a novel’ and ‘a glorious haunted yarn.’

A ‘ballad of a novel’ and ‘a glorious haunted yarn.’

Josie Ferguson’s The Silence In Between, released on 20 June and shortlisted for the Waterstone’s Debut Fiction Prize, is a historical debut novel about a family separated by the Berlin Wall. It piqued my interest because my debut novel, Take Me to the Castle, also centres around the political changes in Eastern Europe through the 1990s. Lisette is in hospital with her baby boy. The doctors tell her to go home and get some rest, that he’ll be fine. When she wakes up and a wall has divided the city in two and her child is on the other side. Lisette is trapped in the east, while her newborn baby is unreachable in the west. With the streets in chaos and armed guards ordered to shoot anyone who tries to cross, her situation is desperate. I can’t wait to begin reading this.

When she wakes up and a wall has divided the city in two and her child is on the other side.

Another thing I love about bookshops is the sometimes quirky and lovingly-written notes from the booksellers themselves. This one, caught my eye as I entered and drew me to the first bookshelf. Lost In A Good Book, No agenda – just treat yourself and escape reality with these wonderful stories. You’re worth it (and they need you). The last part reads like a L’Oreal add and is tough-in-cheek. I love these personal touches.

Lost In A Good Book, No agenda – just treat yourself and escape reality with these wonderful stories. You’re worth it (and they need you).

And then there’s this…Straight from the Tortured Poets Department…. Perfectly written and positioned below these two great classics by Dylan Thomas and William Wordsworth!

Straight from the Tortured Poets Department

Which signs have you seen in bookshops recently, and what do you love about bookshops? Have you seen my recent blog post about two wonderful bookshops in Italy? Don’t miss these.

Review copies have arrived!

Opening a hard copy of your work is always a thrill. This is my fourth book (or seventh, nearly eighth, if you count the anthologies which include my work) and my second anthology of short stories; and it’s no less exciting. These are review pre-publication copies to go out to reviewers. I can’t wait to share my stories with you. Many have been placed in competitions and published in international journals, and many are new to this collection.

This collection covers themes of relationships and memory, exploring what happens when memory fails. It looks at beginnings and endings, weaving through themes of generations, family, uncertainty, and what happens when experiences change us. I’m looking forward to hearing what might resonate with you and to discovering how these stories land.

I have dedicated two stories to those who are no longer with us: one to my dear friend, Meriel, gone too soon, and the other is in memory of Sarah Everard. These stories are important to me because their memories must live on. If you’d like to read more about what inspired these stories and much of my writing, you can read more in this recent post.

While you’re here, don’t forget to find out about these two wonderful bookshops in Italy. Also, you can sign up to my mailing list for pre-publication news and subscriber bonuses, and follow me on social media and subscribe to my blog at the bottom of this post. Thanks for journeying with me. Drop a comment below and tell me a little about yourself. Are you a book lover? What do you enjoy reading?

Two European Bookshops You Need to Know About

There are two fabulous bookshops in Europe that you might not know about. Both are in Italy, one is in Rome and one is in Florence.

GUINTI ODEON, FLORENCE

The first bookshop is the Giunti Odeon. Yes, you read that right. It’s a cinema with a built-in bookshop. What an amazing combination of culture from the world of books and film! The Giunti Odeon, or GO remains a cinema, showing films in Italian and English, but it also has a bookshop which is open 7 days week until the end of the film each night. The bookshop contains over 25,000 books, which fill the whole of the ground floor, including the foyer.

The cinema opened in 1922 in Palazzo dello Strozzino. It is one of the most stunning Renaissance palazzos in Florence with an Art Déco interior and sculptures by Antonio Maraini and tapestries by Matilde Festa Piacentini. Cinema Teatro Savoia, as it was known, hosted world-class film premieres, theatre performances and musicals. It was reopened after WWII and renamed Cinema-Teatro Odeon and has hosted Louis Armstrong and Kate Winslet.

In 2023, the Odeon partnered with publishing house Giunti Editore. It was then renovated and reopened in November 2023. The stalls have been redesigned, with the original detail remaining intact, as required by the city’s fine arts department – fountains, tapestries, ornate columns, terrazzo floors, glass dome, gilded lettering and heavy golden drapes. No less than 200 armchairs have been placed in the mezzanine gallery, where cinema goers remain undistracted by the bookshop below.

OPEN DOOR BOOKSHOP, ROME

The second gem of a bookshop is in Rome. The Open Door Bookshop sells second-hand books, and has been in Trastevere for more than forty years. Its name is both a wolcome to book lovers and a reflection of an open mind and a curiosity for learning. The bookshop sells “the unusual and even the bizarre.” Finding a book is a “treasure hunt among old, antiquarian and even new books”.

The contents of the bookshop vary on any given day and if you are looking for a specific book, they will try to find a copy! They also take second-hand books that people want to pass on. There is a good selection of books ranging from contemporary and genre to classics and Italian, French and Spanish. The cluttered nature of the bookshelves and the scent of second-hand books are enticing. It’s a literary Aladdin’s cave!

Photo credits: The Florentine, Open Door Bookshop, Amber Paulen.