I have always loved nature documentaries, ever since I was a child. I have been in awe of the natural world and have always felt a powerful urge to protect, learn from, and be in harmony with it. Wildlife and nature documentaries were the gateway drug, so to speak, for a little nature nerd like … Continue reading
Tag Archives: male authors
A 2025 Summer Reading List (Generated by a Human)
So, I thought. Perhaps it wouldn’t be so terrible to make a summer reading list written and recommended by an avid reader and book-loving human with some literary qualifications up her sleeve.
Below, you’ll find six books that I highly recommend for reading over the summer. Some are new releases, and some are recent. There is a mixture of fiction and nonfiction. They are weird, serious, and hilarious. Hopefully, there is something for everyone. You get extra points if you read all six over the summer and let me know what you thought of them in the comments below. Continue reading
History “Lessons” with Ian McEwan: A review of McEwan’s latest novel
The novel follows the life of Roland Baines, and the novel swaps between Roland’s formative years at an all boys boarding school in the U.K. and his adult life as a single father to his son Lawrence, after his wife disappears one day. Continue reading
5 Life and Writing Lessons From A World Famous Author – Haruki Murakami
His latest work though is a very different kind of book. Instead of creating worlds in a well or alternate universes through tunnels, Murakami has released a book about his experiences as a career author, and in it, he details all the highs and lows of what it is really like to write books for over 35 years. In this book, he talks about each section being a speech rather than an essay or memoir, and I feel like that is perhaps the best way to think of this book. It does feel like Murakami is talking to you – delivering a speech at a graduation or event. Considering that Murakami rarely makes public appearances, he does this kind of speech writing well. Continue reading
A Review of “Isaac and the Egg”: Magic realism and grief
When I started to see this book around my local independent bookstores, I was intrigued but unsure. The blurb does not give much away so you might not think it is a book about grief, alien eggs, or magic realism. It wasn’t until a friend of mine read this book and told me about it, … Continue reading
A Review of Donal Ryan’s “Strange Flowers”: race and sexuality in 1970s Ireland
This novel is about all the things that families don’t say to each other. It explores the things that are left unsaid, and how that can shape ideas of identity, family, love, and home. Continue reading
Review of Niall Williams “This Is Happiness”: when the rain stops in Faha
When a telephone gets installed in Noe’s home, people line up to call loved ones from afar. However, the telephone calls are not really considered private. And indeed, many of the villagers feel that writing things down and sending letters is much more intimate and personal. Continue reading
A Review of “Shuggie Bain”: the lingering effects of poverty
I bought Shuggie Bain at the beautiful beachy bookshop “Turn the Page” on Millowl (Philip Island) many moons and lockdowns ago. I quickly read it and then proceeded to recommend the book to every person I met. It quickly became one of my favourites from 2020. I have resisted reviewing this book straight away. Sometimes, … Continue reading
The Endless Pursuit of Chasing Your Dreams: A book review of William Boyd’s “Trio”
Trio by William Boyd has been one of those books that has grown on me. It has been months since I read it, and sometimes I review things straight away and other times I like to wait. Trio has fallen in the latter camp. The book is centred on three characters – Anny, Talbot, and … Continue reading
Literary Olympics: The best literary fiction books of 2020-2021
The Olympics just finished up in Tokyo, Japan. It has been, to say the very least, a very strange time. On the one hand, my brain can’t seem to comprehend that we even had an Olympics given the current state of the world right now, and then, on the other hand, I also understand the importance of having something ‘normal’.
With all that said, I wanted to have some light-hearted fun and do the 2020-2021 Book Olympics! Continue reading
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