Wow. That’s the one word version of this review. I can’t believe it took me this long to finally read this blockbuster book, or that I went into it with zero idea what I was getting into. Honestly, I think that’s probably the best way to experience it, so if you want to go

  In Bomb Shelter Mary Laura Philpott introduces herself while lying upside down on her living room floor, rendered immobile at the age of forty-four by two herniated discs. While she’s down there, she ruminates on memories of her family, Christmases past, the house they share, and thinks about how she ended up there. But

  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

  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

  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

  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

  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,

  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

  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

  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

    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

  Who would have thought that a book partially narrated by an octopus could be one of the most evocative, touching reads I’ve encountered in the past year? And further to that, who would have guessed that the octopus himself would not only be my favourite character in the book – but one of my

  This book was a fascinating reversal of our usual superhero tale. This one is not only told from the perspective of the villains of the piece, but, even more interestingly, from the perspective of one of their henchwomen. In this story, henches are often contract employees. The story starts with Anna, a novice hench,

  I love knitting, and I also love the idea of a craft – particularly one that is traditionally women’s domain – offering both solace in and of itself during difficult times, and also an opportunity to connect with other women while learning and practicing the craft. Ann Hood is the editor of a couple

When this book starts, Gertie Bingham has just lost her beloved husband. She still has the bookstore that they ran together and her lovely dog, Hemingway, but she’s foundering. She’s lonely at home, adrift in her life, and can’t engage with the bookstore as she did when Harry was alive. When she’s there she’s haunted

  I’ve read many books that deal with the second world war – it’s usually the only historical time period that I’ll actively seek to read about – but this book is set earlier, before and during the first world war. And yet, it felt familiar in the way that WWII narratives feel familiar, because