What I Read – February 2023

Read: Brutes - Dizz Tate (Catapult, 2023) A Woman is No Man - Etaf Rum (Harper Audio, 2019) Small Things Like These - Claire Keegan (Grove Press, 2021) Abyss - Pilar Quintana (World Editions, 2023) (translated from the Spanish by Lisa Dillman) Stardust - Neil Gaiman (Harper Audio) Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier (BBC Audio,… Continue reading What I Read – February 2023

Book Review: Pastoral by Nevil Shute

Pastoral - Nevil Shute (William Morrow, 1945) I've read two Nevil Shute books now - A Town Like Alice and On the Beach - and enjoyed them both a lot. I appreciated the way Shute balances the reality and tragedy of war and death while focusing on individual characters and creating ones who feel like… Continue reading Book Review: Pastoral by Nevil Shute

What I Read: August 2022

Read: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd - Agatha Christie (William Morrow, 2021) The Human Factor - Graham Greene (Penguin Books, 1985) Liturgy of the Ordinary - Tish Harrison Warren (Intervarsity Press, 2016) The Baron in the Trees - Italo Calvino (translated from the Italian by Archibald Colquhoun) Astra - Cedar Bowers (McClelland & Stewart, 2021)… Continue reading What I Read: August 2022

What I Read – July 2018

It's been a great month for books around here! Often the summer is a slower reading time for me but this year I've been able to read more than ever. I even managed to read two books while on holiday at the beginning of the month - something I haven't accomplished since before I had… Continue reading What I Read – July 2018

Book Review: Be Frank With Me by Julia Claiborne Johnson

I read Be Frank With Me in a couple of days while away on the island. It was a fine vacation read - easy and entertaining. It had been recommended to me by an acquaintance when it first came out and so I was happy to find a secondhand copy recently. It is the kind of… Continue reading Book Review: Be Frank With Me by Julia Claiborne Johnson

Book Review: The Alice Network by Kate Quinn

The Alice Network tells the story of two women and two world wars, connected by one profiteering villain. We meet Charlie St. Clair in 1947, newly arrived in Europe with her mother in order to take care of her Little Problem/unwed pregnancy. Charlie has her own plans though and soon escapes from her mother in… Continue reading Book Review: The Alice Network by Kate Quinn

What I Read – May 2018

Read: The Boat People - Sharon Bala (McClelland & Stewart, 2018) (Read my review here.) The Redress of Poetry - Seamus Heaney (Faber and Faber, 1995) A Grace Disguised - Jerry Sittser (Zondervan, 2004) Loss is loss, whatever the circumstances. All losses are bad, only bad in different ways. No two losses are ever the same. Each loss… Continue reading What I Read – May 2018

Book Review: News of the World by Paulette Jiles

In post-Civil War Texas, the world is still a rough and lawless place. Information spreads slowly and divides run deep and dangerous. Captain Kidd - a veteran of two wars and a witness of more - travels from town to town and reads the news. In our world of instant information it's difficult to imagine… Continue reading Book Review: News of the World by Paulette Jiles

Book Review – Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda

Secret Daughter (William Morrow, 2010) is a book about adoption, cross-cultural marriage, and familial rifts. The "daughter" of the title is Asha, a baby girl born into an India where high dowry prices mean daughters are undesirable. Her father wishes to get rid of the baby girl, as he did with the daughter born previously.… Continue reading Book Review – Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda