Category Book Reviews
Review: Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
Fifty-one years, nine months and four days have passed since Fermina Daza rebuffed hopeless romantic Florentino Ariza’s impassioned advances and married Dr Juvenal Urbino instead. During that half-century, Flornetino has fallen into the arms of many delighted women, but has loved none but Fermina. Having sworn his eternal love to her, he lives for the […]
Review: The Essex Serpent, Sarah Perry
London 1893. When Cora Seaborne’s husband dies, she steps into her new life as a widow with as much relief as sadness: her marriage was not a happy one, and she never suited the role of society wife. Accompanied by her son Francis – a curious, obsessive boy – she leaves town for Essex, where […]
Review: The Hate U Give, Angie Thomas
Every now and again a book comes along that I recommend to every single person I know. A book that I think everybody should read, regardless of age or gender or race. The Hate U Give is one of these books, because it’s moving and powerful and necessary.
Review: Strange the Dreamer, Laini Taylor
The dream chooses the dreamer, not the other way around—and Lazlo Strange, war orphan and junior librarian, has always feared that his dream chose poorly. Since he was five years old he’s been obsessed with the mythic lost city of Weep, but it would take someone bolder than he to cross half the world in […]
Review: Everyone Brave is Forgiven, Chris Cleave
When war is declared, Mary North leaves finishing school unfinished, goes straight to the War Office, and signs up. Tom Shaw decides to give it a miss – until his flatmate Alistair unexpectedly enlists, and the conflict can no longer be avoided. Young, bright and brave, Mary is certain she’d be a marvelous spy. When […]
Review: Three Daughters of Eve, Elif Shafak
Is it cheating to listen to a book instead of reading it? I’ve always somehow counted it as morally wrong in typical snooty bookworm style. But I had a deadline to read this book, and with a free Audible credit and a lot of time commuting and pottering where I liked to listen to […]
Review: The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern
The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. The black sign, painted in white letters that hangs upon the gates, reads: Opens at Nightfall Closes at Dawn As the sun disappears beyond the horizon, all over the tents small lights begin to flicker, as though […]
