Sporting an atmospheric of intrigue and melancholic claustrophobia where no one is as they seem, and we mean no one, The Birdcage Library dwells in the midst of the before and after in a number of people’s lives and how nothing is ever truly left behind in the past. The Birdcage Library tells a story about people who lost themselves in one way or another, for different reasons. Told through two timelines, the mystery reveals itself piece by piece – this is a great example of slow-paced but suspenseful storytelling, which keeps the reader hooked. From the very start of the book until the last chapter, it is quite difficult to tell how the story will end, as the plot is full of twists and turns – exactly how I like it to be. Characters are well-developed with interesting and strong personalities. If that doesn’t sound much like holiday fare, fear not, Bunting’s book, while justifiably angry at society’s ills, is also a magnificent piece of travel writing, combining just the right mix of history tracing our seaside resorts’ development from the 18th century, personal memoir and observational reportage.

To that end, we've rounded up the most exciting, thoughtful and perspective-altering reads of the summer, from the second novel of Emma Cline, who stunned the world with her 2016 debut, The Girls, to Rebecca Kuang's much-lauded Yellowface, an arch satire of the publishing industry and a truly brazen takedown of cancel culture. Freya is clearly a master at her craft and I look forward to reading more of her work —She’s definitely a new auto buy author for me. I have not heard anyone with a bad word to say about this book so am looking forward to it very much. We do encounter a lot of real historical figures such as Mamie Fish, Hyatt Frost and Lord Rothschild, which I thoroughly enjoyed—though historical purists should probably take note that there’s has been some creative licence taken with some of their stories/ personal lives.The clever, mystery within a mystery-style plot was incredible—I genuinely had no idea where things were heading 90% of the time, with the other 10% spent marvelling at how intricately devised even the smallest and inconsequential of details was. At the end of a celebratory night, Athena chokes to death on a pandan pancake in her apartment, leaving her new manuscript about the Chinese workers sent to the Western Front during the first world war at the mercy of her friend, who steals it, makes some minor alterations and has it published as her own work. I adored how rich and visceral the descriptions were and felt they definitely brought 19th C New York and 1930s Scotland to life. And was equally impressed by the depth and complexity Freya Berry manages to imbue her characters with. Even the more antagonistic characters, prone to bouts of cruelty and avarice were really well written (though not nearly as in-depth as Emily or Hester.) What makes this book extra special is Yarmysh as Alexei Navalny’s long-serving press secretary. Having spent time in prison herself, not to mention being forced into exile since 2021, hers is an authoritative insider’s perspective on the perils of criticising the Putin regime. Russian literature has a long tradition of important dissenting voices and Yarmysh more than deserves her place among them. To the reader with a most inquisitive mind and a fearless disposition, you are invited to embark on a quest, a treasure hunt, if you will, down a path only a puzzler may dare tread, for the answers to such a perplexing and beguiling puzzle lie hidden within an old and long-forgotten book…

The Birdcage Library is at its heart a treasure hunt, drawing Emily across the world in search of a prize men would kill to find. Researching and writing about fantastic locations was so immensely important to the plot, and I’ve tried to capture a kind of savage beauty in the locations I wrote about, both familiar and strange. I hope you enjoy it! The publishing industry does not emerge well out of Yellowface, which has much to say about the contemporary literary world and themes of cultural appropriation, but this is a rip-roaring read by an author who already has five novels to her name despite being only 27 years old. Expect Yellowface to appear near the top of many “books of the year” lists. Goodreads Librarians are volunteers who help ensure the accuracy of information about books and authors in the Goodreads' catalog. The Goodreads Libra Goodreads Librarians are volunteers who help ensure the accuracy of information about books and authors in the Goodreads' catalog. The Goodreads Librarians Group is the official group for requesting additions or updates to the catalog, including:I thought the mystery itself was clever, I won’t say too much for fear of spoilers. However, I enjoyed the intertwining of different elements to solve the clues. But, of course, what would a blindingly good mystery be, or a mystery within a mystery, if there weren’t broken, fallible people at its core? To help with this, here is a selection of titles that have caught my eye in recent weeks that might be good to fill summer days – once we’ve negotiated the Oppenheimer v Barbie conundrum at the electric music hall, of course. Switching between the aftermath of the 2008 financial crash that hit Ireland harder than most and the 1960s, The Bee Sting is a hilarious, profound family saga that turns on a single moment to produce wide-spreading ripples in time and space. By the time I met Hester, I honestly could not take my eyes off the book. This is the woman whose diary Emmy finds in the castle. Through her diary excerpts, we find what Emmy is so interested in, and how, by reading the diary, she soon realises that Hester is trying to tell her something and that there are clues in the novel as to where she she should look to find out Hester’s secret from the grave.

But when she accepts a new commission to catalogue all of an old man’s taxidermied animals in a remote and hauntingly beautiful part of Scotland, it’s out of economic necessity with the Great Depression having wiped out the funds that had allowed her and her father to lead a relatively comfortable, thought not lavish, existence. Toward the end of things, one thinks about beginnings,” writes Hunt in this unusual, highly original debut novel that will hopefully not prove his only venture into fiction. Welcome, dear reader. You have found me, and I you. The diary you hold in your hands is a treasure map. It will lead you to what you ought to seek. Like all such maps, the trail is cryptic. The reason for this is simple. The man I love is trying to kill me.” No decision, especially ones made under stress of any kind, has no consequences, and so it is in The Birdcage Library which is an instructive lesson in how a momentary twist of the existential knife or a caving into the demands of the heart can have far-reaching repercussions down the decades, so much so that dealing with becomes both a thing of sorrow and terror, depending on where you are standing when the consequential birds of your flawed decision-making come home to roost.I looked at him a moment, thinking of the girl I had been at the cage factory, her head filled with empty dreams. The woman who had married, hoping for an augmentation of the soul, for other worlds than this. And the creature I was now, her whole being narrowed to the man before her. ‘Perhaps. But look at the emporium, Henry. The best most of us can hope for is to find comfort inn our cages.’ The summer solstice, with its sliver of dark, seemed a strange time of year for a haunting. But perhaps it was not the creatures of night that were most terrifying - at least with those you knew that day would come. Worse, perhaps, were the monsters that rose while the sun was high.” If that’s the book I’ve swiped from the front display table of our mutual bookshop, held up to you, tapped its cover and said: “Mark my words, this is the one to save for your holidays,” there are plenty of others alongside it well worthy of your consideration. Having lost a huge chunk of wealth to the financial crash, Emily needs the reward money that finding Heinrich Vogel’s prized heirloom will earn her—an heirloom which disappeared along with his brother after Hester’s untimely death.

Will Emily be able to unravel the mysteries that she has before her or will her own curiosity leave her fate in the hands of the unknown? Pretty much everyone in the novel has a secret of some kind, and while some are highly destructive and some are desperately sad, they are all the product of people making what they believe are the best decisions at the time, blinded by either character flaws, traumatic situations or a need to preserve a particular perspective to avoid hurt or loss. Oh and the snippets of information which really completed the picture – the book is set during the time that the iconic Brooklyn Bridge is being constructed. Fifth Avenue has just got electric lighting. One book stands out for me as particularly seasonally appropriate and is already one of my books of the year. Madeleine Bunting is the author of The Plot, a fabulous piece of micro-history and memoir about a small piece of land owned by her father on the edge of the North York Moors and Love of Country, an account of her near-lifelong relationship with the Western Isles of Scotland. I was drawn into this powerful book. D ark and multi layered... Claustrophobic and clever storytelling' JANE SHEMILTEmily later takes up a post at Tring Museum, the wonderful institution founded by the great collector Lord Walter Rothschild. The original exhibits are still there, and it also houses the Natural History Museum’s bird collection.