I really enjoyed this novel from first time author Ayobami Adebayo. Stay With Me is set in Nigeria, beginning in the early years of marriage between Yejide and Akin. They meet in university and have an instant connection. Despite polygamy being a common occurrence in Nigeria at this time, they agree that this will not be the… Continue reading Book Review: Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo
Woefully lately but in the interests of keeping track (for myself because I'm sure no one has been waiting with baited breath), here is what I read in July: The Lonely Hearts Hotel by Heather O'Neill (Harper Collins Publishers, 2017) Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo (Knopf, 2017) Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero (Blumhouse Books, 2017) Himself by Jess… Continue reading What I Read – July 2017
This felt like kind of a strange reading month for me. I started off by reading Alexie's memoir and Verghese' back-to-back, while also working my way through Chesterton's autobiography. While I enjoyed each one, it also felt like a lot of male experiences and I was itching for some feminine perspective to balance it out.… Continue reading What I Read – June 2017
A couple of disclaimers first: This book will be released on July 11th by Knopf. I got an Advanced Reading Copy, with no expectation of anything in return. I did not finish reading this book. I made it to page 92/chapter 12 and gave up. I knew I wasn't the target audience of this novel.… Continue reading Book Review: Gork, the Teenage Dragon by Gabe Hudson
Ten Thousand Lovers - Edeet Ravel (Review Books, 2003) This was a well-written, interesting, and engaging read. The characters are believable and fascinating. It's easy to imagine that their lives began and continue before and after we meet them in the action of this novel. Set in Israel in the 1970s, Ten Thousand Lovers, tells… Continue reading What I Read – July 2015
The First Person and Other Stories by Ali Smith (Hamish Hamilton, 2008) I once tried to read a novel by Ali Smith, lost interest part way in and returned it unfinished to the library. I did finish reading this short story collection but now, less than a month later, can't remember much about it. I… Continue reading What I Read – April 2015
Since weekly book reviews seem to be something I can't accomplish right now, I thought I'd post mini-reviews of everything I read this past month. January's been busy but I managed to squeeze in a fair amount of reading and finished 9 books. The Birth House - Ami McKay (Vintage Canada, 2006) I did write… Continue reading What I Read – January 2015
I'll admit that I've never quite gotten the fuss over Houdini. Does there really need to be another book about him? That said, having enjoyed both The Cellist of Sarajevo and Ascension by Steven Galloway, I gave The Confabulist (Knopf Canada, 2014) a shot and I'm glad I did. The Confabulist contains stories within stories.… Continue reading Book Review – The Confabulist by Steven Galloway
Having previously read The Book Thief, I should have suspected that Markus Zusak is not a straightforward novel writer. Yet the conclusion of I Am The Messenger (Knopf, 2005) still came as a surprise to me. Ed Kennedy is a nineteen-year-old cabdriver. He's from the rough side of town and he's on the right track… Continue reading Book Review – I Am The Messenger by Markus Zusak
Gabriel Garcia Marquez is undoubtedly best known for his beautiful "magic realism" prose. In novels like Love in the Time of Cholera or The General in his Labyrinth, Marquez masterfully joins fiction and fancy so that it becomes beautifully impossible to tell what's based in reality and what is not. Even his personal memoir, Living… Continue reading Book Review – News of a Kidnapping by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Karissa Reads Books 