Book reviews, recommendations and literary life
Book reviews, recommendations and literary life
We All Want Impossible Things is a celebration of female friendship and life, good bits, bad bits and painful bits included. We All Want Impossible Things by Catherine Newman Who knows you better than your best friend? Who knows your secrets, your fears, your desires, your strange imperfect self? Edi and Ash have …
Cackle is a dark tale of feminism, witches, ex-boyfriends and plenty of spiders. Cackle by Rachel Harrison All her life, Annie has played it nice and safe. After being unceremoniously dumped by her long-time boyfriend, Annie seeks a fresh start. She accepts a teaching job that moves her from Manhattan to a small village …
Pachinko is a story of love, sacrifice, ambition, and loyalty told through a sweeping multi-generational epic. Pachinko by Min Jin Lee Yeongdo, Korea 1911. In a small fishing village on the banks of the East Sea, a club-footed, cleft-lipped man marries a fifteen-year-old girl. The couple have one child, their beloved daughter Sunja. …
Elektra follows in the path of Ariadne and retells an Ancient Greek myth. This time the focus is on the battle of Troy and the women that it affected – some you may have heard of but others get their voice for the first time. Elektra by Jennifer Saint The House of Atreus is …
The Giver of Stars is an inspirational tale of friendship, determination and above all the power of books! The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes Alice Wright doesn’t love her new American husband. Nor her domineering father-in-law or the judgmental townsfolk of Baileyville, Kentucky. Stifled and misunderstood, she yearns for escape and finds it …
The Key in the Lock is a simmering Gothic mystery, full of secrets, deception and ghosts from the past. The Key in the Lock by Beth Underdown I still dream, every night, of Polneath on fire. Smoke unfurling out of an upper window and a hectic orange light cascading across the terrace. By day, Ivy …
Five Tuesdays in Winter is an intimate, nuanced and memorable collection of short stories. Five Tuesdays in Winter by Lily King For the first time ever, Lily King collects ten of her finest short stories, opening fresh realms of discovery for avid and new readers alike. Told in the intimate voices of unique and …
To Paradise is a bold, sweeping novel that traverses three centuries and three imagined Americas, held together by the unified themes of love, loss and what it means to find utopia. To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara In an alternate version of 1893 America, New York is part of the Free States, where people may …
Lunar Living is both magical and practical, teaching you how to work with the cycle of the moon to better understand yourself and reclaim ownership of your life. Lunar Living by Kirsty Gallagher Are there certain days when you feel overly emotional for no apparent reason? Do you have days when you feel exhausted, close …
I picked up The Binding on an innocent visit to the local Oxfam bookshop. I wasn’t intending to buy anything of course, but I tripped and fell, which led to me leaving with this and probably some others. But let’s not dwell on that, or why I am buying more books when I already work in …
