Been forgetting to post for a bit, so I have a few; sorry for the mega-post:
DNF The Truth Must Dazzle Gradually, Helen Cullen. Poor writing; people were explaining the plot/their feelings to one another. Decided life is too short!
MNF (May not finish) Kiss Myself Goodbye: The Many Lives of Aunt Munca, Ferdinand Mount My enthusiasm on this one is waning. I agree with biblio's assessment that the author seems to find it very 'spicy', more so than a reader who doesn't know the people involved might. Bottom line, I don't think I care that much/it's THAT interesting or scandalous.
The Offing, Benjamin Myers LOVED this. A young man – well, teenager – Robert Appleyard, in a rural/coastal Yorkshire setting just after WW2, sets off for an itinerant summer, intending to work for board and lodging. He isn't doing too well when he meets a somewhat eccentric, unorthodox and rather dazzling woman, Dulcie Piper, who lives alone in a cottage by the sea. She drops names willy-nilly (inc DH Lawrence and Ezra Pound) and clearly has Had A Life, including the kind of travels to far-flung places that respectable and/or working-class women of that time wouldn't experience. She takes our narrator under her wing and encourages him to read, write and think.
What's wonderful about this novel is that it's basically about goodness; Dulcie encourages and supports Robert extremely generously. It is also full of beautiful nature writing and a lot of wit. Highly recommend.
Difficult Women: A History of Feminism in 11 Fights, Helen Lewis. Accessible feminism and feminist history, covering big subjects including the vote, work and the law. Her tone can be a bit flippant/clever-clever; I found it slightly reminiscent of overly matey magazine journalism at points. And I'm not 100% sure of her scholarship/analysis sometimes (although God knows I'm no expert). A good and engaging read though.
Mayflies, Andrew O'Hagan A novel of two halves. Starts off in small-town Scotland in the 80s, where a group of teenage/early 20s men and boys are obsessed with the Manchester music scene – the Smiths, the Hacienda et al. The central event of this half of the novel is a nuts weekend when they get a bus down to Manchester to go to a huge iconic gig and to the Hacienda, without having thought about things like where to eat and sleep. But it's really about male friendship, and their banter, and the way they actually support and love each other without ever talking in those terms, are pitch-perfect and very touching.
The second half takes us forward 30 years, into their middle age, and the central concern is something else entirely. I'm not totally sure how well the second half works and how well the two sections fit together. But I'd say it's well worth reading for their relationships and the humour.
Redhead by the Side of the Road, Anne Tyler I am agnostic on this author; I find her work quite folksy/homespun in a rather self-conscious way. This was fine, well written and observed, quite often witty and sometimes touching and thought-provoking, but in the end, I felt, a little inconsequential. I might yet read some more of her work; I remain convinced that I will find that one Anne Tyler novel I absolutely love!
Sight, Jessie Greengrass About a woman agonising over whether to have a child, weaving in sections on the man who invented the x-ray, and on Freud and his work, and his daughter Anna. Well written, and I always enjoy glimpses of history and interesting figures from it. But it was VERY navel-gazing. At one point the protagonist goes off to a cottage for a bit without her husband, to try to decide where she stands on having a baby, and I just thought 'lucky you' – imagine having the leisure and money! Apart from the historical sections I've almost entirely forgotten it already; it was so self-indulgent that none of it really resonated with me.
Now on Light Perpetual by Francis Spufford. I loved Golden Hill. This is quite different, set in and after WW2 in the UK. Good so far, with vivid characters and a lot of slightly sardonic humour and character observation.