At the Table: a Times and Sunday Times Book of the Year

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To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Sometimes the novels chosen are new, often they are from the backlist and occasionally re-issued from way back. Claire Powell's great skill is to reveal to the reader what her characters struggle to realize themselves . To Nicole and Jamie Maguire, their parents seem the ideal couple – a suburban double act, happily married for more than thirty years.

The book starts with a brief scene of Nicole and her mother in a restaurant, waiting for others to join them. Each chapter is told from a different member of the family’s point of view, and helps to create these wonderful fleshed out characters.I really enjoyed this novel, with a good storyline that keeps a good pace throughout so I stayed easily engaged with it. Like her father, she can hear the thoughts of the recently deceased and give voice to their final wishes and desires. Each chapter has a meal (or drink, lots of drinks) and Claire Powell's writing and characters are funny and heartbreaking and moreish. But to keep ourselves on our toes, we have a rule that author gender is alternated, girl-boy-girl-boy, and the continents always rotated (with occasional glitches).

When Linda and Gerry Maguire announce their separation after decades of marriage, their thirtysomething children find the news difficult to digest. The quantum physicist and BBC presenter invites readers to adopt a scientific approach to modern living.

It's full of dry humour and wit, as well as astute psychological observations of what it is to be human. Tää oli tosi koskettava kirja, Sally Rooneyn tyyliin sellainen, että tässä ei oikeastaan tapahdu yhtään mitään, mutta hahmojen elämässä tapahtuu paljon!

To bardzo fajnie łączy całość i oczywiście trochę popycha do małej refleksji na temat tego, ile naszych własnych wydarzeń miało miejsce przy tytułowym stole.So when Linda and Gerry announce that they’ve decided to separate, the news sends shockwaves through the siblings’ lives, forcing them to confront their own expectations and desires. Her marriage is characterised by emotional compromise and she is full of regrets about the risks she dared not take in life.

I found myself absorbed in them, caring about them, wanting them to do the right thing , and I was very sorry to leave them. Nicole is a hard working, functional alcoholic, who never shies from giving her opinion, while Jamie is reticent and prone to people pleasing. The Things That We Lost is a beautifully tender exploration of family, loss and how far we will go to protect the ones we love. Brilliantly clever and funny and sad -- India Knight --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. A year of lunches, dinners and drinks we become acquainted with the Maguires, Powell’s witty, smartly observed prose gives us a sense of them all.We start with a meal where the parents reveal they’re getting divorced and we end with a meal shared with mother and daughter who are, due to the events they’ve been through, forging a new relationship. Sharp, topical, and powerful, Hyper is a story about what remains of our humanity in a world increasingly dominated by the flows of capital.