Greek mythology is not my thing. I’ve never read any of the original myths, nor have I had much exposure to movies or re-tellings based on them. I’m not quite sure why – I know some of them are rippingly good yarns – but they just don’t appeal to me. Perhaps a little too
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THE SUNDAY REVIEW | ORDINARY PEOPLE – DIANA EVANS
I came across this book last fall while browsing titles online. I loved the cover, and even more the description of the book. First of all, it’s set in London, and you all know how much of a sucker I am for that particular setting. Second, it’s about two young couples with young children
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THE SUNDAY REVIEW | NORMAL PEOPLE – SALLY ROONEY
It has been a long time since I read this book, and in the intervening months, an odd thing has happened. When I read this book, I loved it and thought it was wonderfully written. I still think this, but the down time has put some distance between me and the reading experience has
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WOMEN’S PRIZE FOR FICTION | MY 2019 LONGLIST PREDICTIONS
It’s nearly time for one of my favourite book awards of the year to announce its 2019 longlist! That’s right, the Women’s Prize for Fiction announcement is coming up on March 4, less than a week from now! I haven’t had the best reading year, so I haven’t read very many books that are
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THE SUNDAY REVIEW | FROM A LOW AND QUIET SEA – DONAL RYAN
Donal Ryan’s novel All We Shall Know got a lot of attention a couple of years ago – for its beautiful writing style more than anything. I tried to read it and found it just wasn’t the right book at the right time for me, but I figured From a Low and Quiet Sea
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THE SUNDAY REVIEW | WARLIGHT – MICHAEL ONDAATJE
This was, I hate to admit, my first Ondaatje book. I’ve tried a few times in the past to read him, but I’ve never made it very far. I think this was due, in part, to having watched the film adaptation of The English Patient when I was about fifteen and a bit too
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MAN BOOKER PRIZE | 2018 LONGLIST
It’s that time of year again – Man Booker season! As you all know, I’m terrible at sticking to a TBR, so I’ve never managed to read more than two books from any longlist. But for some reason, this is one of the prizes that gets me excited every year, even if I know
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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
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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
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THE SUNDAY REVIEW | UNDER COVER – CHRIS RYAN
I adore this series. It’s Young Adult, and it’s a series of espionage thrillers. It’s completely unrealistic – often bordering on absurd – but it is just so much fun to read. This is the fifth book in the Agent 21 series, and the first that doesn’t centre on Zak Darke, a teenager who
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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
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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
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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.
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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
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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,
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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
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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
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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.
