The Bookish Mindset

Overview:

Title: Small Joys
Author: Elvin James
Published: April 2023
Genre: Literary
Themes: Friendship, Mental Health

One sentence summary: I don’t know what else I can add and say about this book that hasn’t already been said, but I will say it’s easily one of my favourite books of the year.

One sentence review: This is literary fiction at its best and is a modern day classic, implore you to read this.

Review:

I don’t know what else I can add and say about this book that hasn’t already been said, but I will say it’s easily one of my favourite books of the year.

Mensah writes so beautifully about male friendship that words don’t even do this justice in this review. It was tender and raw and just stunning. I couldn’t stop listening to this (the audio was * chef’s kiss *) but really didn’t want it to end.

Harley and Muddy are the kind of characters that are going to live rent free in your mind for some while. They’re compassionate, real and messy at times too.

Our side characters are equally brilliantly written, and I definitely think you could describe them as a bit of a handful.

Mental health centres the plot and there’s definitely some trigger warnings there, but it’s all handled with care on page. There’s so much love between the pages.

This is literary fiction at its best and is a modern day classic. I implore you to read this.

If you’d like to get yourself a copy, you can support local bookshops and my work while doing so on Bookshop.org with this link here or on audio with Libro.fm here.

If you like what you’ve read and would like to access more content, we have a cosy community over on patreon and if you love a bookish giveaway and learning about all the new releases, we’d love to have you with us. You can also find more content on my Instagram here.

And don’t forget to check out my other blogs and reviews – you can find books with similar themes in the same folder link below, or click back onto blogs to see the whole offering.

Last updated 17/07/2026