When we meet Liv, she is in a situation many of us have faced in our lives. Her life is spent on jobs that are necessary but not enjoyable – her work life is spent cleaning offices and homes for people who see through her and don’t notice or care much about the work she’s READ MORE
Category: Book Review
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | CHRONIC – REBECCA DIMYAN
I always find it interesting to read memoirs by people who have dealt with – or are dealing with – medical issues. Particularly if they’re debilitating and, as the name of this book says, chronic. One of my favourite such book was The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating, which I have read one and READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | ALL THE UGLY AND WONDERFUL THINGS – BRYN GREENWOOD
The story in this book seems to be an easy one to judge. There are some things that seem to be moral absolutes. And yet, somehow this book takes some of the most basic moral absolutes and makes them ambiguous. It takes the easy good guys and has them become at best misguided, at worst READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | INSTRUCTIONS FOR A HEATWAVE – MAGGIE O’FARRELL
It’s been rather warm here over the past couple of months (except, of course, the last week), so this felt like a very thematic book to tackle this summer. I haven’t read many of Maggie O’Farrell’s books – in fact, before this, I’d only read one. But that one made such an impression on me READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | THE STORY OF ARTHUR TRULUV – ELIZABETH BERG
Sometimes even for very different people at very different points in their lives, there is a shared experience. In this book, that shared experience is loneliness. The book begins in a cemetery. Maddy, a lonely teenaged girl, is there on her lunch hour to visit her mother’s grave. Arthur Moses is there – as he READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | LOCALLY LAID – LUCY B. AMUNDSEN
I enjoy books about pretty much any kind of pursuit that works with part of nature in a respectful way. Whether it’s gardening, homesteading, farming, wilding, or – as in this case – raising chickens for eggs. It all started with a modest backyard brood of hens. Manageable, not too difficult to care for, produced READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | IN A SUNBURNED COUNTRY – BILL BRYSON
Bill Bryson is a fixture in the world of travel writing, and for good reason. His books have long been favourites of mine, and this one may very well be top of the pile. I read it a couple of decades ago, and have been wanting to re-read it pretty much ever since. Not only READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | GROWING OLD – ELIZABETH MARSHALL THOMAS
If things go to plan, growing old is something we all expect to face at some point. When we are young – like, really young – we don’t feel as if this is the truth. Older people, even those our parents’ age, seem like a whole different species. Then we make it to adulthood, and READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | HIDDEN NATURE – ALYS FOWLER
Anyone who has been familiar with Alys Fowler for any length of time knows her most as a gardener. She was a presenter on Gardener’s World, and had her own mini-series called The Edible Garden in which she used a combination of polyculture and foraging to grow and find most of the fruit and vegetables READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | THE FORTNIGHT IN SEPTEMBER – R.C. SHERRIFF
I love discovering quiet books that have completely escaped my notice for years, but that suddenly become reading experiences that irrevocably change my internal literary landscape. This is one such book. It was published in 1931, and written by a WWI survivor who had come to fame when he wrote a play, Journey’s End, based READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | BETWEEN THE STOPS – SANDI TOKSVIG
Sandi Toksvig is a legend. She has lived an amazingly interesting life, she is hilarious, smart, knowledgeable and has a voice I could listen to for days. (I have, actually.) She is not only a writer, but a comedian, a former presenter of The Great British Bake Off, and took over as host of notorious READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | PAGEBOY – ELLIOT PAGE
I, like many people, have been following Elliot Page’s career for years. He has a wonderful ability as an actor to evoke emotion in the viewer. I’ve loved films from Juno to Whip It to Hard Candy, but I’ve always felt an edge to his work. Not quite cynicism, but definitely a feeling of some READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | THE GREAT UNEXPECTED – DAN MOONEY
Why had I not heard of this book before? I wouldn’t have ever discovered it if it hadn’t been on sale through one of my audiobook sites, and I’m so grateful it was. This is the story of Joel, an elderly man who lives in a nursing home. He has lost his wife, his READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | THE MIDNIGHT LIBRARY – MATT HAIG
TW: depression, suicide, death, self-harm Man, this book is a trip. Literally. It’s the story of Nora, whose life is not going well. In 24 hours her cat has died, she has lost her job, her piano student’s mother has fired her, her neighbour has told her he doesn’t need her to help him READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | BEYOND THE WAND – TOM FELTON
It’s impossible to be alive in the 21st century and not have experienced some part of Potter-mania, or at least to have been aware of it going on as a buzz in the air around you. The Harry Potter books and films have become probably the most influential and widely-read children’s books ever. The READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | THE LOST LETTERS OF EVELYN WRIGHT – CLARE SWATMAN
If I’m honest, I decided to read this book based on the fact that it has a bookcase on the cover and is about a woman who moves into an old cottage and finds letters. That’s all it took. I didn’t even know until I was about a third of the way into it READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | RACELESS – GEORGINA LAWTON
I’m always looking for books that offer new views on to social construct we call race. I like reading both North American and European accounts, because it’s important to understand not only the similarities, but the differences between the two. This book, however, offers a story I’ve never encountered before: The story of a READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | MEREDITH, ALONE – CLAIRE ALEXANDER
Meredith hasn’t left her house in 1,214 days when we first meet her. It’s easy to judge this, to think it’s sad and unhealthy and even to those lacking in sympathy, pathetic. It’s easy to think that she must be miserable. And yet, she isn’t. She’s not exactly happy with her situation, but READ MORE