What the Mushens Entertainment team will be reading over Christmas…
In our December blog post, the Mushens Entertainment team tell us what they’ll be reading over the Christmas holidays. Fair warning: the team are fully embracing the darker side of the season in their reading choices!
Juliet Mushens
I’m aiming to read WILD DARK SHORE by Charlotte McConaghy. What says Christmas more than a remote island near Antarctica, a woman washing up near dead, and a freshly dug grave? I have heard nothing but raves for this novel and can’t wait.
Rachel Neely
This Christmas I’m looking forward to reading YESTERYEAR. Pitched as THE HANDMAID’S TALE meets THE STEPFORD WIVES, it follows a trad-wife influencer who wakes up in the past facing the brutal reality of the old-fashioned life she has been promoting online. I love high-concept books like this – as a reader and an agent! I would love to sign something similar for my list in the new year!
Maria Whelan
Now that we are winding down for Christmas, I am excited to sit by the fire and gorge on chocolates (no thank you, mice pies), catching up on books I have been meaning to read this year! I have been dying to read the Booker Prize-winning novel, FLESH by David Szalay. I am intrigued by the initial Hungarian settling, the protagonist’s affair, and the eventual rise to the financial elite in London. Roddy Doyle describes it as “a dark book, but it is a joy to read”, which is my kind of book! I adore books set in different places that dive deep into the psyche of their characters.
In hopes of doing more armchair travel, I also hope to read EUROTRASH by Christian Kracht (translated by Daniel Bowles). Set in Switzerland, it is centred around a middle-aged man and his 80-year-old mother, who was recently discharged from a mental institution, who decide to take road trip. Sounds utterly madcap and I road trip novels! With these two picks, I reckon any cabin fever will be kept at bay!
Alba Arnau Prado
I’m planning to read short story collections this Christmas as I’m going to be in and out of home visiting family and friends. The first one is LIFE CEREMONY by Sayaka Murata - I’ve read her EARTHLINGS and CONVENIENCE STORE WOMAN, and I know she is known for her short stories in Japan so I can’t wait. The other one is FRIDAY BLACK by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah - I bought it literally years ago but as with many books that I know I will love, I need the time to be just right.
Catriona Fida
During the Christmas break I would love to read BAT EATER by Kyle Lee Baker, a pandemic-set horror novel about a crime scene cleaner who discovers a serial killer targeting East Asian women. I'm aware this isn't at all festive, but it’s been on my TBR for a while and the holidays make for the perfect opportunity to binge read, which, in my opinion, is the only way to read horror.
Emma Dawson
Continuing the team theme of reading the darkest books during the season of joy, I am going to read Sarah Clegg’s THE DEAD OF WINTER: THE DEMONS, WITCHES AND GHOSTS OF CHRISTMAS. The non-fiction top twenty hardback and paperback charts have not experienced a great deal of movement across the last few months and there isn’t much narrative non-fiction charting, so this new entry grabbed my attention. Based on the cover, it looks almost too scary for me, but I am fascinated by mythology, so perhaps I’ll just avoid reading it before bed!
