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J O A N N A M I L L E R

@joannamillerreader

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✍🏻 Books enjoyed by @joannamillerauthor
📚 Writer & bookseller
🎓 Debut novel THE EIGHTS pub. 2025

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A new Kate Atkinson is always a pleasure (I named my son Jackson) but Our Noble Selves really is a complete and utter joy - my favourite KA since Life After Life.
The Festival of Britain (1951) provides a colourful backdrop for this witty, tender thriller about postwar politics, personal ghosts and how the smallest gestures can be noble.
Like journalist Harry Flynn, my grandfather was captured in Singapore and forced to work on the death railway, and Atkinson explores the painful readjustment to civilian life with subtlety and humanity. The detached, dry narratorial style suits Flynn, who works on the festival with a gang of oddbods (think Slough House) and socialises unwittingly with lovers, chancers, spies, and murderers. He goes out with the wrong woman for a drink and chaos ensues. There are also two very amusing children. Brava KA, I absolutely loved it!
Thank you @alisonbarrowbooks and @transworldbooks for the proof - as you can see I had to treat myself to the real deal. One of my favourite reads in ages. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ by @joannamillerreader

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13 days ago

Another contender for my book of the year, Mrs Dickens is the sort of novel I yearn for! As the title suggests, it’s an imagining of the ill-fated marriage between Charles and Kate Dickens told from the point of view of Kate and her trusted maid and companion, Anne.
It’s beautifully written, (the pace and narratorial balance is sheer perfection) as well as being brilliantly observant of human nature and fallibility. I was utterly immersed and savoured every single sentence. Brava and thank you @emilyhowesbooks ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ by @joannamillerreader

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a month ago

Another candidate for book of the year - did I call it too soon last week? Because this novel completely consumed me for three days. It took a little settling in to, but then, WHAM, I was all in. It’s a very clever book (I feel wiser for reading it), brilliantly plotted, keeping you hooked until the very last sentence. So if, like me, you adore academic settings, poets and the study of poetry, environmental themes, futuristic settings (it is 2100 and the UK is an archipelago), discourse on the study of history and interpretations of it, and lots of infidelity, then WHAT WE CAN KNOW is a must read. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ by @joannamillerreader

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a month ago

Well this was fun! It’s the early 1970s and Jan and Sue have made a discreet life together in a quiet Cotswolds village. But then a pig escapes, Susan has a wobble and baby Butch arrives - from then on life is never the same. The Girls is a macabre comedy of rural life, of love (and fear of losing it), of living off the land, and of how to dispose of a body in a septic tank. Although it’s short, it’s the sort of novel where every sentence is a joy and must be consumed at leisure. Unique, surprisingly sensuous, and imbibed with folk history, it’s as if Shirley Jackson, Thomas Hardy and Barbara Pym co-wrote an episode of Midsommer Murders. Highly recommended! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ by @joannamillerreader

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a month ago

Dare I say it, my book of the year has landed!
I was utterly consumed by May We Feed The King to the point of finishing it at 4am. It’s a dazzling, poetic, strange and arresting novel telling two parallel stories, one of a modern day palace curator, the other a reluctant medieval monarch. Perry explores a myriad of themes, from creativity and power, to what brings meaning to our lives and how resisting conformity is a radical act. Not to be missed. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ by @joannamillerreader

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2 months ago

I’m a huge fan of Roxy Dunn’s first novel As Young As This, so pounced on the follow up Wants & Needs. It’s equally witty, sexy, and entertaining, but laced with a little more brutal honesty about the trials of modern love.
Misty turns to dating apps after splitting with her fiancé. She meets Christopher, who practices ENM (ethical non-monogamy) and the chemistry is irresistible. Misty decides to date him for six weeks until his partner returns, but is Christopher what she really wants or needs? by @joannamillerreader

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2 months ago

Revisiting the inimitable Barbara Pym and loving every single sentence. Mildred Lathbury is an excellent woman; capable, community-minded, unmarried. The arrival of glamorous new neighbours, and an equally glamorous widow in the vicarage sets tongues wagging and Mildred becomes caught up in more than just planning the church jumble sale. First published in 1952, this is a witty, observant and completely addictive novel, widely considered Pym’s best. I adored it even more the second time. by @joannamillerreader

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2 months ago

I was lucky enough to receive a proof of This Immortal Heart and absolutely adored it. My endorsement is, incredibly, printed in the hardback edition: ‘An intoxicating blend of desire and longing, political machinations and fascinating, unpredictable characters, This Immortal Heart is an Olympian feast for the mind and senses. I could not put it down.’
Suffice to say, highly recommended! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ by @joannamillerreader

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2 months ago

I was asked to review this recently and loved it. Rainforest is a dark and haunting tale set in the hostile and feverish jungle of 1970s Mexico. Loner entomologist Simon Corbett has gone there to study mantids in a bid to escape the aftermath of a doomed relationship. But the ghost of Penelope won’t let him. Read it just for the absolutely stunning description of the fauna and flora. Not for the faint hearted!! by @joannamillerreader

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2 months ago

In the running for one of my favourite books of 2026, Pink Soap won this year’s @weatherglassbooks novella award, judged by Ali Smith. The fact that the author Anju Gaston is my goddaughter has nothing to do with it; Pink Soap is an insightful, witty, devastating and profoundly observant piece of writing, following a young woman’s search for healing, forgiveness and a new normal in response to being sectioned. Highly recommended. 🩷 by @joannamillerreader

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2 months ago

Short but perfectly formed, Tin Man is a beautiful and moving depiction of the complexities of loss, love and friendship. Spanning nearly fifty years, it is set in south Oxford (refreshingly town rather than gown) and features Ellis who is mourning the death of his wife, and reflecting on the impact of his best friend Michael on his life. Spare, lyrical, honest, and at times, heartbreaking.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ by @joannamillerreader

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4 months ago

Is this the book of the summer? Probably!
It’s the story of a modern-day ‘trad wife’ influencer who lives a seemingly idyllic existence on a farm. But when she is suddenly transported to the past and forced to live the grim life of a settler’s wife, the truth of her carefully curated world unravels. It’s hugely addictive, clever, ambitious, and entertaining, acting out its own themes of manipulation and deception on the reader. Highly recommended. Don’t research it beforehand though - it’s much better without spoilers! by @joannamillerreader

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4 months ago