Beth Miller’s novel posits the question: What happens when you love someone outside of your faith? There are thousands of answers to this question, and arguably loving the ‘wrong’ person is something humans seem pretty good at since we have been doing it for centuries. The Two Hearts of Eliza Bloom is in many ways … Continue reading
“Who hasn’t—sometime—wanted to escape? But from what? To where? And once we have arrived at the good place, is this the end of the desire to move? Or does it stir again, tempted by another image […]” p xi. Tuan,Yi-Fu Escapism. Yi-Fu Tuan describes the universal nature of our desire to escape in his geographical … Continue reading
I am not going to lie, the decision I made to read this book was heavily based on the cover. What is that old saying again? Anyway, I found myself drawn to the strong yellows and greens and I had also seen this book everywhere. It was popping up in book stores, in my library, … Continue reading
I am going to cut to the chase on this review. Like the title suggests, there is a problem with the way that Asian literature is represented, or to be more precise its lack of representation, in the Western world. Many scholars and teachers have suggested to me over the years that Asian literature cannot … Continue reading
Suki Kim’s book Without You, There Is No Us: My Secret Life Teaching the Sons of North Korea’s Elite was written in 2014. It was gifted to me by a beautiful friend of mine in 2017 because she knows I am a huge fan of nonfiction (specifically memoirs) and North/South Korean literature. I really enjoyed … Continue reading
Anyone who lives abroad knows how hard it can be to engage with literature from your mother tongue. For me, living in Switzerland means that German is a regular part of my day-to-day life. This means I forget English words all the time (just ask any of my friends back home when I throw in … Continue reading
In the past few weeks I have read two books: Brian Conaghan’s When Mr Dog Bites is about a teenage boy, Dylan Mint, and his struggles with going to Drumhill special school and battling tourette’s syndrome (amongst other mental health issues). On top of all of that, he thinks that he is going to die. … Continue reading
