Continuing on my current kick of memoirs related to mental and physical illness, I finally got around to picking up Dan Marshall’s book that has been sitting on my shelves for years and years. This is the memoir of a man whose mother has cancer (has done most of his life) and whose father READ MORE
Year: 2019
BOOKER PRIZE | 2019 SHORTLIST
The wait is over! The 2019 Booker Prize shortlist was announced on Tuesday. It contained some obvious choices, but also a few surprises. I’ve only completed one of the books on the long list – Girl, Woman, Other (review to come shortly) – but I had been watching reviews and predictions of some of READ MORE
TOP TEN TUESDAY | BOOKS I LOVED THAT AREN’T MY USUAL STYLE
I love it when a book pleasantly surprises me. I tend to feel like I have a good handle on what I’m going to like, but every once in a while I hear so much about a particular book that I decide to give it a try, even though on the surface it doesn’t READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | THE WALL – JOHN LANCHESTER
I went into this with no expectations at all. I had been mildly interested in it before its nomination for the Booker Prize, and that made me pick it up sooner. But I don’t much care for dystopian books, and though the concept behind this is timely and brings up a few important issues, READ MORE
TOP TEN TUESDAY | BOOKS AND EDITIONS I WANT
I’m very lucky because I’m at a point in my life where if I really want a book, I can just get it. There are exceptions to this, though. Some are out of print, others I can only find in damaged editions or at prices I’m not willing to pay. I don’t know if READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | VINTAGE 1954 – ANTOINE LAURAIN
I’ve only read one Antoine Laurain novel, the delightfully charming The Red Notebook. It was the closest I’ve come to finding a book that felt like watching the film Amélie, one of my favourites of all time. Laurain is a master at capturing details of character and setting that bring the story to life READ MORE
TOP TEN TUESDAY | FAVOURITE TROPES
I feel like, particularly among adult readers of YA books, the word “trope” tends to conjur negative associations. The word is usually applied to played-out plot devices and relationships that we are all so, so tired of reading. So to come up with a list of ten (seriously, ten??!!) that I like feels like READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | FIVE FEET APART – RACHAEL LIPPINCOTT
I’ve had this book on my radar for a while. In my current quest to find books about illness, it drifted up to the top of my TBR – it helped that I also wanted to watch the movie and felt like the book had to come first. I’m going to be up front READ MORE
TOP TEN TUESDAY | CHARACTERS I CONSIDER FRIENDS
The best books are ones that feel real, like you’ve actually stepped into them and live, for a time, in their world. Because of this, the characters we find there often feel just as real to us as the people we bump into in real life. There are characters I have loved, hated, learned READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | LANNY – MAX PORTER
I’ve heard wonderful things about Max Porter’s last novel, Grief Is the Thing with Feathers. It wasn’t a story that appealed to me, but I was curious about Porter’s writing because all the rave reviews talked about his linguistic ability. Lanny has started to generate similar praise, bolstered now by the book’s inclusion on READ MORE
TOP TEN TUESDAY | COVER RE-DESIGNS
I don’t have a ton of re-designs I loved or hated, but I do have a few special editions I like and wish were the only editions, and a few books I wish had better editions but I haven’t found any! Books I don’t love the covers of in any edition: I love READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | LOCKING UP OUR OWN – JAMES FORMAN JR.
Let me begin with the one thing I want you to take away from this review: You need to read this book. I don’t care who you are, what your background is, whether you live in the USA or whether you are even interested in this topic. You need to read this book. It READ MORE
BOOKER PRIZE 2019 | LONGLIST
After a year of waiting, it’s finally Booker Prize season again! The 2019 longlist has just been announced and includes a “Booker’s Dozen” – thirteen books. Some of you may remember the furor last year’s longlist brought about on account of the inclusion of a thriller and a graphic novel. This year’s list is READ MORE
TOP TEN TUESDAY | BEST NON-FICTION BOOKS
I love learning from the books I read. Whether it’s about a set of experiences outside of what I can encounter first-hand, a place I’ve never been, an area of social or scientific research of particular interest to me or a culture that diverges from my own, I love finding ways to expand my READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | DEAR MRS. BIRD – A.J. PEARCE
This book intrigued me because it has a couple of the things I generally perk my ears up when I hear: WWII home front account of women’s lives during the war, and a young woman trying to carve out a career for herself as a journalist. Plus it’s set in London, so bonus! I READ MORE
TOP TEN TUESDAY | SETTINGS I LOVE
I love visiting other parts of the world in my books, but there are definitely places I love to read about, and that will make me want to pick up a book, and there are others that I find less appealing and will likely make me put it back down again. But this post READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | MY LOVELY WIFE IN THE PSYCH WARD – MARK LUKACH
I’ve had this book sitting on my shelves pretty much since it came out. I was drawn to it because it’s about a woman suffering through some serious mental health issues, which strikes a chord with me, but also because it’s not written by her – it’s written by her husband. This is a READ MORE
TOP TEN TUESDAY | AUTO-BUY AUTHORS
I have several of these, and there are more that I’m sure will become auto-buy authors once they have more books out to buy! These are the ones that most immediately came to mind when I read the prompt: Isabel Allende I adore her mix of astute representation of the full range of READ MORE