I was not at all ready for this book. This was one of the books I read for the quarterfinals of the BookTube Prize, and I went into it expecting your straight-forward novel with some interesting themes and maybe some magical realism in the background. What I got was… not that. This book is READ MORE
Category: Book Review
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | CLOUD CUCKOO LAND – ANTHONY DOERR
This book was daunting. It was the first I read for this year’s BookTube Prize Quarterfinals, mostly because I was unsure about it and it was looooong, so I wanted to get through it right away rather than worrying about it for weeks. I’m one of the only reviewers in the bookosphere who hasn’t READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | MATILDA – ROALD DAHL
I’ve read this book before, many times – of course I have. But not since I’ve had this blog, and so there has been this glaring gap in my reviewing that was the size of a tiny young girl named Matilda. My own kid is old enough now for Dahl’s less dark books, and READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | UNSETTLED GROUND – CLAIRE FULLER
This is the third book I read for the BookTube Prize‘s Quarterfinals. It’s a fairly simple story, that of a brother and sister who have been sheltered and kept largely separate from the world around them by their mother. They grow most of what they need, and scrounge enough money to pay bills by READ MORE
THE SUNDAY REVIEW | THIS IS GOING TO HURT – ADAM KAY
I’ve had this on my shelves since shortly after its publication about five years ago. In that time I’ve heard countless other bloggers and BookTubers chat about and review it (always in a very positive light), I’ve seen at least two other editions come out and I’ve seen it made in to a TV READ MORE
RE-READ REVIEW | Q’S LEGACY – HELENE HANFF
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
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