This is an interesting memoir in that it is part childhood recollection and family saga, part travel memoir, and part the origins of a budding naturalist. I didn’t expect to be overly interested in Durrell’s exploration of the natural world he discovered when his family packed up and moved to Corfu. But his own READ MORE
Category: Book Review
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | WHEN I HIT YOU – MEENA KANDASAMY
This is another of the books on this year’s Women’s Prize for Fiction long and shortlists. It’s also the one that, after watching many BookTubers review some or all of the books on the list, I felt was a front-runner to win this year’s prize (it didn’t, Kamila Shamsie’s Home Fire did). I decided READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | ELEANOR OLIPHANT IS COMPLETELY FINE – GAIL HONEYMAN
Brief disclaimer: I’ve been working on this review for a month now, and it’s one of the hardest I’ve written. It’s not perfect. I may come back and try to tidy it up a bit in the future. But for now, I just wanted to get something up so I can move on to READ MORE
CANADA READS REVIEW | THE MARROW THIEVES – CHERIE DIMALINE
This is a post-apocalyptic young adult novel that takes place in a world where climate change has destroyed the land. The coastlines have moved inwards, waterways have become polluted, and populations have become more and more dense as people were forced to migrate inland. In this world, white people have lost the ability to READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | HUNGER – ROXANE GAY
I’m a little ashamed to admit that this was my first foray into the work of Roxane Gay. I don’t know how, but I have somehow managed to miss her previously published works – though they all sound like they are exactly my kind of books. I was drawn to this because of the READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | SLOUCHING TOWARDS BETHLEHEM – JOAN DIDION
This was my first foray into Didion’s writing, and now I’m wondering what took me so long. Slouching Towards Bethlehem seemed to be a good place to start, comprised as it is of a selection of short essays on various topics. She covers everything from a murder case to hippies in San Francisco to READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | ANOTHER BROOKLYN – JACQUELINE WOODSON
I’ve been meaning to read Jacqueline Woodson for a very long time. Her memoir, Brown Girl Dreaming, has been sitting on my shelf, waiting for me to get around to it, for years. I’m very grateful that this book was on sale, and that I decided to pick it up one day because of READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | BAD BLOOD – JENNIFER LYNN BARNES
I’m a huge fan of the TV show Criminal Minds, and this book is like a YA cross between that and The Mentalist. It’s about a group of teenagers with “special” talents – reading people, profiling, analyzing information and detecting lies. It’s a premise I absolutely love and the plots have been real page-turners. READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | LOST FOR WORDS – STEPHANIE BUTLAND
I picked this book up because I’d had trouble sticking with anything for a little while after a few books that failed to really impress me, and I wanted something light. I looked at the cover, saw it was about a bookstore (in England) and thought, great, that’ll do. I didn’t expect much. I READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | GROUNDED – SETH STEVENSON
I love reading travel memoirs. I’ve been a huge fan of the genre since reading Under the Tuscan Sun and several Bill Bryson books in high school. I haven’t read much in the genre for a few years, but felt like it was time to pick it up again – in no small part READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | RESTLESS – WILLIAM BOYD
I picked this book up because it’s a spy thriller with a twist – it’s the story of Ruth, a young woman discovering that her mother spent years working as a spy for the British government during the early years of WWII. Cool premise, right? It also won the Costa Novel Award in 2006, READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | A BEAUTIFUL, TERRIBLE THING – JEN WAITE
This is a memoir, but it reads more like a romance novel turned psychological thriller. In it Jen Waite shares the harrowing story of her fairytale marriage to a man who starts off as her soul mate and dream partner, but who becomes, more or less overnight, someone completely different. The book is Jen’s READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | THE POWER – NAOMI ALDERMAN
This is one of the books I’ve heard most about in the past six months, since it was nominated for (and later won, much to the surprise of many, myself included) the Bailey’s Women’s Prize for Fiction. This book is part dystopian fantasy, part sociological speculation. It brings to life a theoretical question many READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | THE TROUBLE WITH GOATS AND SHEEP – JOANNA CANNON
Set against the backdrop of Britain’s 1976 heatwave, this is the story of two young girls who, during a slow-paced summer, decide to look into the sudden disappearance of their neighbour, Mrs. Creasy. But this isn’t just the story of what happened to Mrs. Creasy. In following the amateur detectives, we learn about the READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | HENRIETTA’S WAR – JOYCE DENNYS
I don’t enjoy much historical fiction as a rule. With the exception of WWII-era fiction, particularly if it’s set in England. I think it’s because it wasn’t so far in the past that I have trouble picturing, relating to or tolerating it. It helps that my own family was there too, so there’s a READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | REBECCA – DAPHNE DU MAURIER
I remember a battered copy of this book, mass market paperback, yellowed and curling pages, ugly cover, somehow making its way onto my bookshelves when I was a teenager. I can’t remember if I read the first few pages and decided it wasn’t my thing, or if I was put off by the cover. READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | LAST NIGHT IN MONTREAL – EMILY ST. JOHN MANDEL
Last Night In Montreal is Emily St. John Mandel’s debut novel, but you’d never know it. From pretty much the first page, it had me completely under its spell. I went into this not really knowing what it was about. Just a vague idea that it would be your basic relationship story, but a READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | THE LIE OF THE LAND – AMANDA CRAIG
This is only the second Amanda Craig book I’ve read (the other being Hearts and Minds, which was one of my favourite books of 2014) but I already feel like I can count her among my all-time favourite authors. The Lie of the Land is, at its center, about the dissolution of a marriage READ MORE