Life

5 new books to read this week

This week’s bookcase includes reviews of Wife by Charlotte Mendelson and The Rich People Have Gone Away by Regina Porter.

New books to read this week
Composite New books to read this week
By Prudence Wade, PA

From political memoirs to rom coms, there’s a range of new releases on offer this week…

Fiction

1. Wife by Charlotte Mendelson is published in hardback by Mantle, priced £18.99 (ebook £9.99). Available August 8

Charlotte Mendelson returns with her latest novel, Wife, an intelligently written story bringing readers into the heart of the making and breaking of a marriage. When young Classicist Zoe Stamper meets the beautiful and mature Dr Penelope Cartwright, she is instantly enamoured, and the two embark on a passionate affair that turns into a loving marriage. But as one’s career blossoms and children (as well as complex relationships with their daughters’ dad) are added to the mix, things become fraught. Or were they actually always? With an intriguing format taking us back-and-forth between ‘Then’ and ‘Now’, Wife dissects gay marriage in the Nineties, legal rights of parents, coercive relationships and motherhood. It is insightful, engaging and thoroughly enjoyable.

8/10

(Review by Holly Cowell)

2. The Rich People Have Gone Away by Regina Porter is published in hardback by Jonathan Cape, priced £18.99 (ebook £9.99). Available August 8

Although it starts somewhat slow and confusingly, The Rich People Have Gone Away quickly takes up and transforms into a restless, intriguing novel about a large ensemble of various New Yorkers handling the disappearance of a young, pregnant woman during the peak of the Covid pandemic in 2020. After a fiery upstate hike with his pregnant wife Darla, Theo finds himself the prime suspect of a front-page police search for the perfect missing woman, bringing the cast together in an original and complex novel. The Rich People Have Gone Away also raises debates of race and class – underlined by a gripping ending. It’s worth getting into, as it’s interesting and different – it’s well worth pushing through the convoluted beginning that navigates introductions of a vast array of characters once the story starts to unravel.

7/10

(Review by Carla Feric)

3. The Pairing by Casey McQuiston is published in hardback by Macmillan, priced £18.99 (ebook £8.99). Available now

Theo is still nursing a broken heart four years after an abrupt break-up with his best friend-turned-lover, Kit. The pair had booked a food and wine tour of Europe, so rather than waste the tickets, Theo decides to go alone, only to find Kit on the same coach. This rather unlikely coincidence forces the pair to confront their past and, in Theo’s case, all the assumptions made about their ex’s new life. McQuiston’s latest novel gets off to a slightly slow start but the characters become more engaging as the author fills in their back story as they travel, eat, drink and get to know each other again. A hook-up competition adds a frisson to the story but the real plot is about whether Theo and Kit can rekindle their romance.

7/10

(Review by Beverly Rouse)

Non-fiction

4. Let’s Be Honest: Truth, Lies And Politics by Jess Phillips is published in hardback by Gallery UK, priced £20 (ebook £11.99). Available August 8

Jess Phillips, freshly re-elected as the MP for Birmingham Yardley, sees her new book published just weeks after a Labour landslide victory, which she hopes will alleviate many of the issues plaguing politics that she tears apart with razor-sharp wit in Let’s Be Honest. Across her nine years as a parliamentarian, Phillips has vociferously railed against the state of things under the Conservatives and nothing or no one is safe from her tirades: to her, short-lived PM Liz Truss is a ‘dangerous lunatic’ while Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak are deeply criticised for, in her opinion, allowing culture wars to hijack the good work government should be doing. It is not all vitriol, though, as Phillips also offers emotional first-hand accounts about how some national structures seemed to be breaking down in recent years, with the first chapter offering a nightmarish account of a late-night trip to A&E.

8/10

(Review by James Cann)

Children’s book of the week

5. The Blonde Dies First by Joelle Wellington is published in paperback by Penguin, priced £8.99 (ebook £4.99). Available now

The second novel from Joelle Wellington is a dark yet comedic coming-of-age tale woven with some of the most classic horror tropes. It’s Drew’s last summer at home before she enters the big wide world and goes away to college, and her sister Devon is determined to make it the best summer ever. The summer begins with Drew taking Devon and their group of friends to a gathering where the main party piece is a Ouija board. Devon isn’t happy, and everyone else brushes it off as a prank – but then things get spooky and murderous. Can Devon keep everyone alive? Wellington has created a world where Goosebumps meets Scream, with a hint of Gilmore Girls. There is pop culture, classism, racial strains and LGBTQIA+ issues interwoven, yet it never gets heavy or preachy. The self-awareness of the kitsch horror means it never tips over on gore, and the story is fully immersive and enjoyable.

9/10

(Review by Rachel Howdle)

BOOK CHARTS FOR THE WEEK ENDING AUGUST 3

HARDBACK (FICTION)

1. Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon

2. Witness 8 by Steve Cavanagh

3. A Darkness Returns by Raymond E. Feist

4. You Are Here by David Nicholls

5. When The Moon Hatched by Sarah A. Parker

6. The Book Of Elsewhere by Keanu Reeves & China Miéville

7. Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors

8. Down Cemetery Road by Mick Herron

9. Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros

10. The Story Spinner by Barbara Erskine

(Compiled by Waterstones)

HARDBACK (NON-FICTION)

1. Pinch Of Nom Air Fryer by Kay & Kate Allinson

2. So Good by Emily English

3. Autocracy, Inc by Anne Applebaum

4. Much More To Come by Eleanor Mills

5. Lochs And Legends by Andy the Highlander & Lilly Hurd

6. Catherine, The Princess Of Wales: The Biography by Robert Jobson

7. Dinner by Meera Sodha

8. Paris ’44 by Patrick Bishop

9. Ask Not: The Kennedys And The Women They Destroyed by Maureen Callahan

10. Jane’s Patisserie Easy Favourites by Jane Dunn

(Compiled by Waterstones)

AUDIOBOOKS (FICTION AND NON-FICTION)

1. Message Deleted by K. L. Slater

2. Atomic Habits by James Clear

3. Killers Of The Flower Moon by David Grann

4. The Square Of Sevens by Laura Shepherd-Robinson

5. None Of This Is True by Lisa Jewell

6. The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

7. The Book Of Elsewhere by Keanu Reeves & China Miéville

8. MILF by Paloma Faith

9. A Game Of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

10. Unruly by David Mitchell

(Compiled by Audible)