Books
The Skinny book guide – bringing you book reviews, features, events, reviews and author interviews. Find previews and on the ground reporting from festivals of literature and poetry in Scotland and beyond.
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Book ReviewsBread and Circus by Airea D. Matthews
Philadelphia Poet Laureate Airea D. Matthews' new poetry collection is a formally and politically ambitious reckoning with racial poverty in the US Read more »| 07 Jun 2023 -
Book ReviewsRural by Rebecca Smith
In her nonfiction debut, Rebecca Smith charts working class histories through stories of land and rural life Read more »| 06 Jun 2023 -
Book ReviewsDisturbance by Jenna Clake
A woman escaping an abusive relationship finds herself caught between reality and the supernatural in this atmospheric debut from Jenna Clake Read more »| 06 Jun 2023 -
EventsScottish Books Events: June 2023
It's a poetry heavy month, with the launch of two new poetry nights in Glasgow and plenty of spoken word at Hidden Door and Spit It Out Festival Read more »| 31 May 2023 -
Book ReviewsBored Gay Werewolf by Tony Santorella
Tony Santorella’s witty and sharp debut novel follows its titular bored gay werewolf as he navigates encountering his fellow beasts Read more »| 29 May 2023 -
Book ReviewsBecause I Don't Know What You Mean and What You Don't by Josie Long
At once soothing and painful, acclaimed comedian Josie Long’s short story collection comprises characters who struggle with the inequities of daily life Read more »| 17 May 2023
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Book ReviewsThis Is My Body, Given For You by Heather Parry
Fresh off her debut novel Orpheus Builds A Girl, Heather Parry returns with her gory, unsettling debut collection This Is My Body, Given For You Read more »| 09 May 2023 -
FeaturesMusicality, desire and Blackness in Caleb Azumah Nelson's Small Worlds
Caleb Azumah Nelson's remarkable sophomore novel Small Worlds is an investigation into music as a structuring force, and as a space where its characters can find security and expression Read more »| 09 May 2023 -
Book ReviewsWeak Teeth by Lynsey May
Lynsey May's debut Weak Teeth is an exercise in voyeuristic pleasure, exploring the way one woman's life falls apart in small and big ways Read more »| 04 May 2023 -
EventsScottish Books Events: May 2023
There's plenty of books festivals this month, as well as book launches for the likes of Kae Tempest and R.F Kuang Read more »| 02 May 2023 -
Book ReviewsOrdinary Notes by Christina Sharpe
Christina Sharpe's experimental visual poetic work Ordinary Notes is a profound rumination on knowledge, loss, Black American life and memory Read more »| 27 Apr 2023 -
Book ReviewsFray by Chris Carse Wilson
Chris Carse Wilson's debut is a beguiling and hallucinatory tale of grief amidst the wilderness Read more »| 27 Apr 2023 -
Book ReviewsEnter Ghost by Isabella Hammad
A woman leaves her home in London to return to her homeland of Palestine in Isabella Hammad's complex, tender meditation on art, family, and resistance Read more »| 26 Apr 2023 -
FeaturesTrue Crime & Smuggling Snails: Alice Slater & Heather Parry in conversation
Authors Heather Parry and Alice Slater sit down over a shared Google Doc to discuss Slater's new book, the power of unlikeable characters, and grossness in fiction Read more »| 26 Apr 2023 -
FeaturesAlice Slater on her true crime-inspired debut Death of a Bookseller
We chat with Alice Slater about her fierce, grimy debut Death of a Bookseller and the legacy of true crime in fiction and beyond Read more »| 17 Apr 2023