I don’t normally do family sagas. They’re just so detailed and finicky and full of petty drama and these complicated strands of storyline you have to keep a constant eye on. I find them wearing and exhausting and not generally worth the effort. But something about this one made me want to give it READ MORE
Category: Book Review
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | GIRL, WOMAN, OTHER – BERNARDINE EVARISTO
I was intimidated going into this book. It’s long, and it’s written in an experimental style of verse that doesn’t include periods or capitals. I was nervous I’d be unable to find my feet and that it would prove too difficult for me to get into. Not so. It took about 50 pages, but READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | HOME IS BURNING – DAN MARSHALL
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | DAISY JONES & THE SIX – TAYLOR JENKINS REID
Everyone and their dog, I’m pretty sure literally, has been raving about this book. On the face of it, it didn’t seem that different from any other book marketed to women set in the 20th century. This one is set in the 1970s and centres around a fictional band that split mysteriously after playing READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | PATIENT – BEN WATT
I came to this book after reading two of Tracey Thorn’s books – Bedsit Disco Queen and Naked At the Albert Hall. She and Ben met in college, and not only went on to create one of the hit bands of the ’90s, Everything But the Girl, but build a life and family together. READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | SMALL ANIMALS – KIM BROOKS
I feel like I’m taking my very life in my hands writing a review of this book, fraught as the topic is with judgement, opinions and our certainty that our own viewpoint is the correct one (if you want to see what I’m talking about, check out the comments on reviews of this book READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | BIRDS, BEASTS AND RELATIVES – GERALD DURRELL
Birds, Beasts and Relatives is the second book in Gerald Durrell’s Corfu Trilogy, a series of stories about the time his family upped sticks and moved from drizzy, depressing England to the Mediterranean island of Corfu. I read the first in the series, My Family and Other Animals, last summer (though I believe it READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | KID GLOVES – LUCY KNISLEY
As a new(ish) mom, I’m always on the lookout for books that share the intimate and less rosy parts of becoming and being a mother. This book is focused on the pregnancy itself, and promised to do just that. I’ve never read anything by Lucy Knisley before, though I have a couple of her READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | ON THE COME UP – ANGIE THOMAS
Unless you reside under a particularly large and heavy rock, you will have heard of Angie Thomas’ first book, The Hate U Give, which came out in 2017. If you haven’t heard of it, please do yourself a solid, stop reading, go buy it or borrow it or steal it (okay, maybe not that READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | THE SILENCE OF THE GIRLS – PAT BARKER
I didn’t want to read this book. Not because I didn’t think it would be good – I’ve heard mainly positive things – but because I don’t love mythology, I’m not big on re-tellings, and I just finished reading Circe, which is both. But I’m so close to finishing the entire shortlist for this READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | DEAR FAHRENHEIT 451 – ANNIE SPENCE
I adore the concept of this book. Before I even opened it I was half in love, and ready to fall all the way. It’s a book of letters from an avid reader and librarian to the various books she has loved or hated most, books that are being removed from circulation, and books READ MORE