There are books that come across your path which are beautifully written and eminently readable, and which, like all good books should do, make you feel glad for having taken the time to read them. And then there are books like Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano which go far beyond Continue Reading
Books
Book review: The Yellow Bird Sings by Jennifer Rosner
If you have even a shred of your humanity intact, you cannot help but be deeply and profoundly moved by the emotionally powerful but nuanced storytelling in Jennifer Rosner’s debut novel The Yellow Bird Sings. Told with an elegant simplicity that belies its complex, at times (many times) heartbreaking material, Continue Reading
Time to start singing with Fa-la-la-la-llama by Alix Bosco #ChristmasInJuly
If you haven’t noticed yet, Christmas books for kids are the absolute, creative best. All those hilariously quirky permutations of festive language use that we have known and loved since we ourselves were kids, find their way into these books and with a talented writer and inspired artist working together, Continue Reading
Book review: Every Sky a Grave by Jay Posey
Is there anything more compelling to read than imaginatively conceived, well-written expansively sprawling, blockbuster-inclined sci-fi? There is, actually. Sci-fi with all of the above very welcome attributes that also has a heart and soul embedded into the very DNA of its beguiling narrative, a sense of humanity and crackling intelligence Continue Reading
Book review: TRUEL1F3 by Jay Kristoff
Sticking the landing is the thing. Not just in gymnastics but in trilogies, whatever medium they occupy; you can have the most glorious story unfurl with grace and fury over two gripping first instalments but if you don’t land the finale just so, all anyone will remember is how you Continue Reading
Book review: One Day in December by Josie Silver #ChristmasinJuly
Making an enduring love affair, especially one thwarted by time and circumstance feel wholly and immersively believable is no easy feat. Especially when you are also trying in the grandest of all romantic comedy traditions to keep the escapist magic alive and well too. But Josie Silver manages it with Continue Reading
Book review: Writers & Lovers by Lily King
It’s not until all consuming grief hits you that you realise how tenuous your grip on the world around you is and how easily it can shaken. Throw in any additional kind of emotional destabilisation such as moving, a stressful job or a break-up and suddenly what seemed certain, stable Continue Reading
Book review: The Life of Elves by Muriel Barbery
For most people in the heavily secular 21st century, the world begins and ends with the things we can touch, see and taste. We live, as Madonna observed, in a material world and the majority of us are content with boundaries that are physical and see no need to venture Continue Reading
The delightfulness of Charlie Brown’s Christmas Stocking #Peanuts #ChristmasInJuly
There’s no question that Peanuts makes Christmas special. Spending time with Snoopy, Charlie Brown. Lucy, Sally and the rest of the thoughtfully lovable cast of characters brings not only a richness to proceedings since these are kids who really think things through, but a quirky delightfulness as they pose the Continue Reading
Book review: Ghost Species by James Bradley
As the dominant species on the ever-worsening earth block, Homo Sapiens has developed quite the existential swagger. Unchallenged for some 300,000 years, we think we are the be-all and end-all of sentient, kings and queens of all we survey, so mighty and in control that there is nothing we cannot Continue Reading