Search

Search only in certain items:

40x40

Richard Dawkins recommended Red Strangers in Books (curated)

 
Red Strangers
Red Strangers
Elspeth Huxley | 2006 | Fiction & Poetry, Romance
(0 Ratings)
Book Favorite

"This epic saga sweeping through four generations of life among Kenya’s Kikuyu tribe is a novel of Steinbeckian stature neglected by literary connoisseurs. Huxley leads us into the Kikuyu world so that, when the British arrive, they seem as alien as invading Martians. Her descriptive powers rival Steinbeck’s, but her imagery is drawn from the Kikuyu mind. A felled tree ‘tottered like a drunken elder.'

Source
  
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
J.K. Rowling | 2014 | Children, Fiction & Poetry
8
9.1 (271 Ratings)
Book Rating
The characters, setting, pacing, storyline. (0 more)
It has a very young voice, almost childlike. (0 more)
Future literary classic
In 100 years time the Harry Potter books will be taught in schools and studied in universities the way current students study Dickens and Austen. Whilst not being the greatest piece of writing ever it is a perfect starting point for young readers to begin their journey through the myriad world's of books.
  
Pages and Co: The Bookwanderers (Pages and Co. #1)
Pages and Co: The Bookwanderers (Pages and Co. #1)
Anna James | 2019 | Children, Science Fiction/Fantasy
9
8.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
Fun Characters (0 more)
I received an uncorrected ARC from a Job I used to have and this children's book is a fun read no matter your age. Tilly a bookworm who lives with her grandparents next to the bookshop they own. Tilly and her friend Oskar's life gets turned upside-down. Tilly discovers that she has the ability to travel inside books and talk to her favorite literary characters.
  
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Annie Barrows, Mary Ann Shaffer | 2016 | Fiction & Poetry
10
8.0 (21 Ratings)
Book Rating
I’ve always believed that you should read the book before it becomes a movie, and I couldn’t be more insistent in the case of “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.” If you read my recently revised review of this book on my blog here, you might understand why I’m avoiding seeing it, at least for now. https://tcl-bookreviews.com/2014/08/01/an-occupied-island-and-unusual-occupations/
  
Throne of Glass
Throne of Glass
Sarah J. Maas | 2012 | Children, Fiction & Poetry
8
8.7 (91 Ratings)
Book Rating
I love how different this book is. It left me turning pages and wanting more because I hadn't seen anything quite like this yet. The main character is such a bad a** and I never once found her dull. While there is romance, this isn't a sappy love story. (0 more)
This is purely commercial fiction, not literary. That's perfectly fine, but that simply means it's not art. Just something to read for fun. (0 more)
A unique read!
  
JA
Jane Austen Out of the Blue
4
4.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Even now I've finished it, I'm not entirely sure what to make of this one. It's a sequel of sorts to Sanditon, but includes other Austen characters and even the shade of the author herself, following her death. Nothing happens as you might expect and there's not really a very strong narrative drive through it. On one level I think it serves as a disection of the novel as a literary form. Strange.
  
40x40

Nigella Lawson recommended Middlemarch in Books (curated)

 
Middlemarch
Middlemarch
Rosemary Ashton, George Eliot | 2003 | Fiction & Poetry
6.3 (4 Ratings)
Book Favorite

"Despite its grand place in the literary canon, “Middlemarch” is really a rich, gossipy boxed set of a novel. I first read this as a teenager in short bursts nightly with a torch after lights-out, and it gripped me like a soap opera. The foolishness of the human condition, the urgency of its whims and fancies, and the often blinding need to find meaning are unsparingly chronicled in this feast of a book."

Source
  
Christopher and His Kind
Christopher and His Kind
Christopher Isherwood | 2013 | Fiction & Poetry
(0 Ratings)
Book Favorite

"This is the unedited and unadulterated version of the stories that made up Isherwood’s books Goodbye To Berlin and Mr Norris Changes Trains, which were the source material for the play I Am A Camera and later the musical Cabaret. I find it fascinating that Isherwood still writes about himself in the third person. An interesting literary device, yet it feels like a smokescreen and leaves you wondering how much more there is to tell."

Source
  
40x40

Jo Nesbo recommended Gentlemen in Books (curated)

 
Gentlemen
Gentlemen
(0 Ratings)
Book Favorite

"This has been a cult novel in Sweden ever since it was published in 1980, and has to some degree been discovered in Norway, too. It steals from both the classics and pulp fiction and has this couldn’t-care-less-attitude combined with literary talent that reminds me of Jim Carrol's “Basketball Diaries.” Both have this special sense of time and place that makes you want to move to Stockholm or New York."

Source
  
My Counterfeit Self
My Counterfeit Self
Jane Davis | 2016
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
What does poetry have to do with social activism? A whole lot, actually, as you'll find out in Jane Davis's novel "My Counterfeit Self" and through my #bookreview of this historical, contemporary, women's literary fiction novel on my blog now. (I think this has just become my favorite of her books, as it just edged out "Smash All the Windows" by a whisker!)<br/>https://tcl-bookreviews.com/2019/05/11/a-poetically-explosive-story/<br/>;