Books I Read in March 2025

Bookish by Lucy Mangan does what every great bibliomemoir should do: it reminded me of lots of books I would like to reread, helped me discover lots of books I now want to read and gave me a new appreciation of books I will probably never read. While Mangan’s previous bibliomemoir Bookworm covered the nostalgia of childhood reading, Bookish is a sequel about reading habits in adulthood and how different genres can be appreciated at particular stages or challenges in life from adolescence to middle age. Unsurprisingly, Mangan’s taste is eclectic and she writes persuasively about what she enjoys, such as devouring Lee Child novels during maternity leave. Reading Bookish made me feel very seen – in particular, Mangan’s holidays browsing bookshops in Hay-on-Wye and north Norfolk with her partner Christopher in tow sound remarkably like mine. Many thanks to Random House UK, Vintage for sending me a review copy via NetGalley.

Base Notes by Adelle Stripe is a memoir about the author’s working-class background in late 20th century northern England and her complicated relationship with her mother. I really enjoyed Stripe’s book about the life of Andrea Dunbar, Black Teeth and a Brilliant Smile, and her memoir also features plenty of bleak humour. Like My Good Bright Wolf by Sarah Moss, Stripe’s memoir is written in the second person, and the episodic format allows her to focus on candid storytelling about the most significant events in her life without any unnecessary filler. Each chapter is associated with a different fragrance worn either by Stripe or relatives, friends or colleagues she was with at the time. Whether it’s the smell of her mother’s hair salon or the sickly fragrances worn by colleagues in dead-end jobs, Stripe recognises how personal, powerful and emotionally evocative olfactory memories can be in this excellent memoir.

I enjoyed watching the excellent film American Fiction last year, which is an adaptation of Erasure by Percival Everett. Thelonious “Monk” Ellison is a black author and professor frustrated by the success of Juanita Mae Jenkins’ novel We’s Lives In Da Ghetto and the critical acclaim it receives for its supposedly “authentic” portrayal of black lives. With his mother’s healthcare needs escalating and his academic career prospects in decline, Monk writes a ghetto-lit parody entitled My Pafology under the pseudonym Stagg R. Leigh which also garners critical acclaim and is nominated for a major literary prize. With its book-within-a-book structure, Everett skewered the biases of the literary world in this prescient and bracing satire first published in 2001.

Is This Working? by Charlie Colenutt has a similar premise to All Day Long by Joanna Biggs, drawn from interviews with dozens of people about their jobs in the UK: “We spoke about what work meant to them: what did they do for a living? Why did they do it? And did they like it?”. Colenutt presents short portraits taken directly from the words of around 100 people including a midwife, a food delivery driver, a joiner, a cleaner and many more. Brexit, the Covid-19 pandemic and the cost of living crisis have all had enormous impacts on various industries in the decade since All Day Long was published, but it seems to be the burden of paperwork and inputting data that saps a lot of joy and productivity out of work for many people. Perhaps in another ten years’ time, the growth of artificial intelligence and automation will have changed the world of work again, and some of the jobs in this book will barely exist anymore. Although fatigue is a recurring theme, there are rewarding moments too, with genuine job satisfaction usually found in more practical jobs. Is This Working? offers fascinating snapshots of working life in the UK today.