I read this one again after recommending it to someone and realizing it had been a while. I adored this book when I first read it, it was right down my bookish street and in Helene Hanff I found someone with both my love of books and sense of humour. Hanff is the author READ MORE
Category: Book Review
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | THE 1619 PROJECT – NIKOLE HANNAH-JONES
I’ve been eagerly looking forward to this book since I first found out about it. It’s an expansion of an award-winning article published in The New York Times in 2019 to commemorate 400 years since the first ship carrying African slaves landed in America. It was a sensation, bringing a history not often taught READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | THE ANTHROPOCENE REVIEWED – JOHN GREEN
For anyone who has read Young Adult books in the 21st century, the name John Green is synonymous with the genre. His most famous book is, of course, The Fault In Our Stars (also the book that both got me back into reading for pleasure post-university, and the book that brought me into Young READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | MAID – STEPHANIE LAND
I committed the cardinal sin of bookworms by watching the TV adaptation of this book before actually reading it. But it didn’t really matter – they were both very good. This is the story of a particular life’s path, unique and yet also familiar to thousands (or more) of young people who spend their READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | TOMBOY SURVIVAL GUIDE – IVAN COYOTE
I read Care Of by Ivan Coyote, which was such a perfect book to read during times of doom and despair. It offered connection, empathy, and a small but significant opportunity to leave my existence behind. I was already a fan of Coyote’s, but that book really clinched it. I’ve had Tomboy Survival Guide READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | LET ME TELL YOU WHAT I MEAN – JOAN DIDION
I have a bit of a complicated relationship with Joan Didion. I first read her collection of non-fiction, Slouching Towards Bethlehem, because it’s the book I’d heard the most about. I liked her observation skills, that she had access to such a wide range of people and experiences, and that she wrote about a READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY – DOUGLAS ADAMS
Technically, this isn’t the first time I’ve read this book. My parents, odd ducks that they are, played the audiobook of this for all of us to listen to when I was about 6 or 7. I can’t remember it, of course, but it did feel generally familiar and comforting. Probably because of this READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | BETWEEN TWO KINGDOMS – SULEIKA JAOUAD
So I’ve had my yearly hibernation period and didn’t finish a book for nearly three months. I normally resurface a bit sooner, but, you know, Omicron. I unexpectedly am now homeschooling… again. I love it, but it’s all-consuming! I have picked at a few books – Under the Whispering Door, made quite good headway READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | YOU ARE YOUR BEST THING – TARANA BURKE & BRENÉ BROWN, EDS.
Ever since May 2020, when George Floyd, a Black man, was suffocated – murdered – by a White police officer, race has become both a suddenly trendy and deeply divisive issue. It’s always been simmering under the surface of any interaction across racial lines, but one side of that equation was often oblivious to READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | I’M STILL HERE – AUSTIN CHANNING BROWN
This is yet another of those books that languished on my shelves for absolutely ages before I finally came across the audiobook from my library and decided to give it a try. I’m really glad that I finally got to it, because it was excellent. This book is part personal memoir, but also largely READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | CARE OF – IVAN COYOTE
I’ve known of Ivan Coyote for years now. I saw them speak when I was in college, an experience that was deeply impactful and that created in me a lifelong fan. But, much to my shame, this is the first book of theirs that I’ve actually finished reading – and I finished it in READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | THE BEST, MOST AWFUL JOB – KATHERINE MAY (ED.)
There are as many ways to experience motherhood as there are mothers. Motherhood encompasses everything from pregnancy to miscarriage to abortion to birth to adoption to caring for grandchildren. And yet, there are elements to it that are universal. I’ve yet to meet a mother who doesn’t feel judged for her choices, like she’s READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND – RUMAAN ALAM
This has probably been one of the more divisive books of the past year. It seems that some people love it, others really don’t. It’s an odd story. Amanda and Clay take their two kids for a vacation in a rental home on Long Island. The house they rented is idyllic and offers an READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | SEVEN DAYS IN JUNE – TIA WILLIAMS
Romance is not my jam, as anyone who’s been around here for a while knows. If I’m honest, I didn’t know this was a romance when I went into it. I had seen the cover around and it was available from my library, and I decided to give it a try. So it was READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | BETWEEN THE WORLD AND ME – TA-NEHISI COATES
This book is short but will turn your worldview on its head, shake it up and set it decisively to rights. It follows in the tradition of James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time, a book so short but with such power that it is still one of the most important books on race in READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | ARISTOTLE AND DANTE DISCOVER THE SECRETS OF THE UNIVERSE – BENJAMIN ALIRE SÁENZ
Dante and Aristotle are two characters who will leap off the page and act out their story vividly in your mind. And they will be as real to you as the people you share your life with. They’re flawed but beautiful, vulnerable but strong, scared but loyal. When we first meet Ari, he is READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | WHEREABOUTS – JHUMPA LAHIRI
I’ve had Lowland on my shelf for years. I’ve had it recommended to me over and over again, and I’ve seen it in more must-read lists than I can count. And yet, this is the first Jhumpa Lahiri book I’ve gotten around to trying. It’s a quiet book, an internal exploration. It follows one READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | THE UNLIKELY PILGRIMAGE OF HAROLD FRY – RACHEL JOYCE
Harold Fry has been languishing on my shelf for years, just waiting for me to get around to meeting him. I was expecting a charming, sweet story of personal challenge and growth. I was expecting something heart warming and deeply emotional. What I got was… not exactly that. This book has a simple story READ MORE