Category Literature
Review: The Chimes, Anna Smaill
The second book in my Summer Reading List. A boy stands on the roadside on his way to London, alone in the rain. No memories, beyond what he can hold in his hands at any given moment. No directions, as written words have long since been forbidden. No parents – just a melody that tugs […]
Review: Reasons to Stay Alive, Matt Haig
The first book in my Summer Reading List. WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO FEEL TRULY ALIVE? Aged 24, Matt Haig’s world caved in. He could see no way to go on living. This is the true story of how he came through crisis, triumphed over an illness that almost destroyed him and learned to live […]
Review: The Raven Boys, Maggie Stiefvater
For as long as she can remember, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love to die. She doesn’t believe in true love, and never thought this would be a problem. But as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she’s not so sure […]
Summer Reading List
As the days get longer, brighter and, hopefully, warmer (it’s the UK here, you never know), this year I have set myself the challenge of reading five very different books of different genres. Here’s my run-down: The Classic: The Mill on the Floss, George Eliot I’ve read about 50 pages of this but didn’t get much further and […]
Review: Burial Rites, Hannah Kent
Northern Iceland, 1829. A woman condemned to death for murdering her lover. A family forced to take her in. A priest tasked with absolving her. But all is not as it seems, and time is running out: winter is coming, and with it the execution date. Only she can know the truth. This is Agnes’s […]
Review: Room, Emma Donoghue
Jack is five. He lives with his Ma. They live in a single, locked room. They don’t have the key. Jack and Ma are prisoners. Room by Emma Donoghue is an extraordinarily powerful story of a mother and child kept in isolation, and the desire for, and price of, freedom. Room had been on my […]
Review: Wild, Cheryl Strayed
At twenty-six, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother’s rapid death from cancer, her family disbanded and her marriage crumbled. With nothing to lose, she made the most impulsive decision of her life: to walk eleven-hundred miles of the west coast of America and to do it alone. She […]
Christmas Reading | Little Women
When I first started my Literature degree, the first question I was asked in most of my seminars was, “What is your favourite book?” Now, I have to admit that I had a problem with this question, and I would like to point out that any discerning Literature student would probably not be able to […]
Review: The Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins
Woops, I did a bad thing, and that was to read this book and completely forget to post a review. I did have some thoughts about it though, and some discussions with friends, so if you just give me a moment, maybe I can try and rearrange a few ideas to share. A debut psychological thriller […]
Film Review: Brooklyn
It was a rainy Saturday in Manchester, and to avoid the damp crowds and deep puddles, my friend and I ducked into the city cinema to watch Brooklyn. “An Irish immigrant lands in 1950s Brooklyn, where she quickly falls into a new romance. When her past catches up with her, however, she must choose between […]
Bethany Wren 