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 READ MORE
Category: Book Review
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | MY SISTER THE SERIAL KILLER – OYINKAN BRAITHWAITE
Though it’s a thriller at heart, this is one of those books that seems to somewhat defy categorization. This seems to be upheld by its recent selection for the Women’s Prize for Fiction longlist, a list that, in the few years I’ve been following it, hasn’t favoured the thriller genre. Before seeing it on READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | AN AMERICAN MARRIAGE – TAYARI JONES
I’m not sure what made me choose this book when I did. I had just started using Audible, and I hadn’t yet built a library of books to choose from. This one wasn’t too expensive, and I remembered hearing good things, so I downloaded it. I was out walking to an appointment one day, READ MORE
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 READ MORE
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 READ MORE
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 READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | LIFE AMONG THE SAVAGES – SHIRLEY JACKSON
I discovered this book thanks to Acacia Ives, who mentioned it in one of her reading wrap-ups. I’d heard of Shirley Jackson, of course, but since most of her stories are of the terrifying variety, and I am a wimp through and through, I discounted her as one of those authors I’d never be READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | MY FAMILY AND OTHER ANIMALS – GERALD DURRELL
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
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