Book Review of “Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine” by Gail Honeyman: Loneliness, loss, and making friends
Book Reviews / British / The Latest

Book Review of “Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine” by Gail Honeyman: Loneliness, loss, and making friends


The opening of Gail Honeyman’s novel Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine has a quote from Olivia Laing’s book Lonely City, which I have reviewed on my blog here. I had talked about loneliness before the global crisis we find ourselves in today, and it feels like there are new levels of loneliness, loss, and struggles … Continue reading

Review of Dr. Joshua Wolrich’s “Food Isn’t Medicine”: Ask yourself the hard questions about your relationship with food
Book Reviews / British / nonfiction / The Latest

Review of Dr. Joshua Wolrich’s “Food Isn’t Medicine”: Ask yourself the hard questions about your relationship with food


If you want to change your relationship with food then Wolrich’s book is not a bad place to start. He breaks down complex research practices to help you figure out how medical research is conducted and therefore what the results of each outcome mean. He also helps highlight some of the main misconceptions we have about diet and food. Continue reading

A Review of Ottessa Moshfegh’s “Eileen”: An Ode to Daphne Du Maurier’s “Rebecca”?
American / Book Reviews / British / feminism / The Latest

A Review of Ottessa Moshfegh’s “Eileen”: An Ode to Daphne Du Maurier’s “Rebecca”?


I am a big fan of Ottessa Moshfegh’s writing. I have also reviewed her novel My Year of Rest and Relaxation which you can check out by clicking on the title. Moshfegh has an amazing way of writing perfectly awful characters in such a nuanced and special way. I feel like you love to hate … Continue reading

Four Shakespearean-Era Tributes Hidden in Maggie O’Farrell’s Award Winning “Hamnet”
Book Reviews / British / historical / The Latest

Four Shakespearean-Era Tributes Hidden in Maggie O’Farrell’s Award Winning “Hamnet”


Maggie O’Farrell won the Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2020 for Hamnet and if you have read her novel, it is easy to see why. It is not easy to take on a literary great like William Shakespeare, yet O’Farrell does so with grace. The story of Hamnet is gripping as it chronicles Shakespeare’s career … Continue reading

A Review of “Adults” by Emma Jane Unsworth: on- and offline life
Book Reviews / British / The Latest

A Review of “Adults” by Emma Jane Unsworth: on- and offline life


This book has all the trappings of contemporary adult living from social media and phone obsessions including the ways in which life online complicates our relationships, especially female friendships. The characters are generally dreadful in their own special ways, but there was something about them that also made them real, accessible, and relatable. The novel … Continue reading

Brexit Literature: a complete review of Jonathan Coe’s “The Rotters’ Club” trilogy including “Middle England”
Book Reviews / British / The Latest

Brexit Literature: a complete review of Jonathan Coe’s “The Rotters’ Club” trilogy including “Middle England”


This post as been a long time coming and I am so glad to be able to finally review all three of Jonathan Coe’s novels from his accidental trilogy, The Rotters’ Club. When his novel Middle England was published in 2018 it received worldwide literary praise. Despite it popularity many readers didn’t know that it … Continue reading

5 Things I Learnt About Life Thanks to Catherine Gray’s Book “The Unexpected Joy of the Ordinary”
Book Reviews / British / nonfiction / The Latest

5 Things I Learnt About Life Thanks to Catherine Gray’s Book “The Unexpected Joy of the Ordinary”


We find ourselves in weird times. Many of us have lost jobs. Others are trying to work from home while trying to look after children and family. Uncertainty is common place and it can be extremely easy to let that overwhelm you. Since Australia went into various stages of lock down I have fluctuated between … Continue reading

A Review of “The Dead Wife’s Handbook”: Moving through grief with the aid of fiction
Book Reviews / British / The Latest

A Review of “The Dead Wife’s Handbook”: Moving through grief with the aid of fiction


I bought this book in the first few months after arriving in Switzerland at the giant English bookshop, that used to be located on the Bahnhofstrasse in Zurich. I was so intrigued by the idea of a dead person narrating a book. The dead couldn’t talk. I tried to read the first chapter of the … Continue reading