Category Book Reviews

Review: For Whom the Bell Tolls, Ernest Hemingway

Boy, did it take me a long time to finish this one. I really knew absolutely nothing about this book, or Hemingway, before I picked it up and it subsequently took me a while to get into Hemingway’s style of war narrative, including frequent phrases and sentences kept in untranslated Spanish. Set during the Spanish […]

I Got a Kindle and Then I Read Paper Towns by John Green

So I think that the title really sums up what I’m about to say… I was very fortunate to receive a Kindle as an early graduation present, and in my literary-induced excitement, I bought the first book I could think of: Paper Towns by John Green. I then proceeded to read said book, partially because […]

Review: Tess of the d’Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy

I’ve wanted to read this book for a long time, and completing The Return of the Native last summer only whetted my appetite for some more Hardy. If you don’t know what Tess of the d’Urbervilles is about, then you must have somehow managed to avoid, like I did, any spoilers for a text widely studied […]

A Bucketful of Tears and The Fault in Our Stars

It was pretty inevitable that I would cry at The Fault in Our Stars. I cried at the book, I cried at the advert and I cried at the songs. So, yes, I cried at the film. A lot. There was a huge amount of hype surrounding the film adaptation of John Green’s best-selling novel […]

‘unavoidably detained by the world’ – Review: Stardust, Neil Gaiman

Have been unavoidably detained by the world.  Expect us when you see us. And so I celebrate finishing my degree with some words that I feel will serve me well in the coming months. I’ve never read any Neil Gaiman before, and despite feeling like I knew a lot about him (graphic novels and Doctor […]

Review Book #4: Enduring Love, Ian McEwan

Ok, so I have two confessions to make. 1) I completely forgot about my reading list for the year… https://foreveronalilo.wordpress.com/2013/02/11/7-books-im-going-to-read-this-year/ 2) I also completely forgot that I read book #4 Enduring Love over the summer… Oops. Basically I have a terrible memory. Let’s crack on! Having read and enjoyed a couple of Ian McEwan’s books (Atonement, […]

Review: The Rosie Project, Graeme Simsion

“Meet Don Tillman. Don is getting married. He just doesn’t know who to yet. But he has designed a very detailed questionnaire to help him find the perfect woman. One thing he already knows, though, is that it’s not Rosie. Absolutely, completely, definitely not.” This is just a quick little post to say how much […]

Review: The Fifth Wave, Rick Yancey

On a lonely stretch of highway, she runs from them. The beings that only look human, who roam the countryside killing anyone they see. Who have scattered earth’s last survivors. To stay alone is to stay alive, until Cassie meets Evan Walker. Beguiling and mysterious, Evan may be her only hope for rescuing her brother […]

Review Book #3 : The Great Gatsby, Scott Fitzgerald

As I come to the third book on my self-imposed 2013 reading list, I should probably point out that it’s a bit silly of me to title some of these posts as ‘reviews’ when they’re really just my thoughts. I don’t really know how I can review such a classic as The Great Gatsby. I should […]

Review Book #2 : The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath

“Working in New York one hot summer, Esther Greenwood is on the brink of her future. Yet she is also on the edge of a darkness that makes her world increasingly unreal. In this vivid and unforgettable novel, Esther’s vision of the world shimmers and shifts: day-to-day New York living, her crazed men-friends, and hot […]