Frances Hardinge’s The Lie Tree was the perfect read for my summer holidays in Catania last week. The book is fast paced with some good suspense and plot development. At the core of the narrative is a scientific discovery: a tree that will give you truth and knowledge through its fruits if you feed it … Continue reading
Conversations With Friends was Sally Rooney’s debut novel published in 2017. Set in Ireland, the story follows the closely-knit and complicated relationships of Frances and Bobbi, who are both university students in their early 20s, and Melissa and Nick, a married couple in their early 30s. With these two couples, Rooney already offers up a … Continue reading
Note: plot spoilers and discussions of death by suicide. Disclosure: This page may contain affiliate links. Clicking through for additional information or to make a purchase may result in a small commission. In February this year, I had the chance to go to Ireland for a long weekend. I’ve been threatening to visit Ireland for … Continue reading
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
Disclosure: This page may contain affiliate links. Clicking through for additional information or to make a purchase may result in a small commission. “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, … 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
Disclosure: This page may contain affiliate links. Clicking through for additional information or to make a purchase may result in a small commission. 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. I really enjoyed this book. It was a powerful … 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
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