What Are We Reading Right Now?


book or the film

“What are you reading right now?”

It’s one of the many questions we bat around the office amidst our chats about all sorts of random things. Just this morning questions included 70s chart toppers and disappointing packed lunches! But this afternoon, it was that question about what we’re reading.

So, a quick round-up from the folk within chatting distance of my office chair….

The Fiction Team’s Lucy is reading two at the moment, one fiction, one not. One is Arundhati Roy’s The Ministry Of Utmost Happiness. The other A History Of the World In 100 Objects. Now, I was going to quote her brief comments here, but that wouldn’t really do justice to two such substantial books. So she’s going to write her blogpost later!

Editor Angela is reading 21st-Century Yokel by Tom Cox. Non-fiction. She’s read several other books by him and she really likes his writing. And it got excellent reviews. And so far it’s great; she loves it. It’s really different from what she usually reads here – though she warns that some of the language isn’t for the sensitive ear.

Sarah is working her way through the Game of Thrones collection – though she’s barely scratched the surface as yet. Ned Stark has just arrived in King’s Landing – and if you know the stories you’ll know how early that is in the overall narrative.

Me? I’ve just today started on The Lost Letters Of William Woolf by Helen Cullen. I’m only one chapter in but I’m already loving it. It’s beautifully written, which to me is very important. And I’m invested already in the character of William Woolf, one of thirty letter detectives working in the Dead Letters Depot in East London.

I’ll write a full review once I finish it, though it’ll be a while because I don’t want to rush it!

Shirley Blair

Fiction Ed Shirley’s been with the “Friend” since 2007 and calls it her dream job because she gets to read fiction all day every day. Hobbies? Well, that would be reading! She also enjoys writing fiction when she has time, long walks, travel, and watching Scandi thrillers on TV.