top of page

literature book reviews book recommendations reading lists
WELCOME TO MY BOOKSHELF

Search


Sibir von Sabrina Janesch
English version below 1945. Der zehnjährige Josef Ambacher und seine Familie steigen in einen Zug und treten die Reise in eine ungewisse...
Aug 3, 20233 min read


Venomous Lumpsucker by Ned Beauman
We are in the near future. The euro has, for reasons of simplicity, the same value it had in 2022, but everything else is exactly as it...
Jul 25, 20232 min read


Tiepolo Blue by James Cahill
James Cahill’s debut novel Tiepolo Blue enjoyed quite a bit of excitement before its release. I picked it up after listening to a podcast...
Jul 18, 20233 min read


Antarctica by Claire Keegan
“She thought of Antarctica, the snow and ice and the bodies of dead explorers. Then she thought of hell, and then eternity.” Just before...
Jul 4, 20232 min read


The Colour Purple by Alice Walker
Alice Walker’s modern classic The Color Purple portrays the lives and struggles of African American women in the last century, marked by...
Jun 29, 20233 min read


Echtzeitalter von Tonio Schachinger
English version below Till Kokorda ist fehl am Platz. Das elitäre, private Halbinternat, das er besucht, ist voll von Kinder, die mehr...
Jun 13, 20236 min read


The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
The Bell Jar is one of those books that has been sitting on my shelves for ages, that I have always wanted to have read but never ended...
Jun 8, 20234 min read


Grief is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter
“Once upon a time there were two boys who purposefully misremembered things about their father. It made them feel better if ever they...
Jun 6, 20233 min read


The Visibility Trap: Sexism, Surveillance and Social Media by Mary McGill
Whether we like it or not, social media has become an integral part of our daily lives and social interactions. The technologies have...
Jun 1, 20233 min read


Spring by Ali Smith
It is May, still spring, I‘m sure, and I am ready to discuss the third instalment of Ali Smith’s seasonal quartet. This week, we have...
May 23, 20233 min read


Pew by Catherine Lacey
“The reason churches have so many doors is that people tend to leave churches in groups, in a hurry. It seems people have a lot of...
May 11, 20233 min read


A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley
Set on a thousand acres of land is the Cook family’s farm, sternly ruled by patriarch Larry who teaches his daughters and their husbands...
May 2, 20233 min read


O Caledonia by Elspeth Barker
As a chronic blurb avoider I go into many a book blindly. This is true for Elspeth Barker’s O Caledonia, a 1991 novel I haven’t seen...
Apr 20, 20233 min read


Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
"First, I got myself born. A decent crowd was on hand to watch, and they've already given me that much: the worst part of the job was up...
Mar 22, 20234 min read


Winter by Ali Smith
The seasons have changed, from Ali Smith’s Autumn but we are still in contemporary Britain and therefore still in political turmoil. Four...
Mar 6, 20233 min read


Ruth & Pen by Emilie Pine
Dublin, October 7, 2019. Two women wake up to a new day in the old city. Ruth and Pen do not know each other, they are at vastly...
Feb 23, 20233 min read


A Month of Crime Reading
I spent this November deep in the world of crime novels. I read cosy crime mysteries, expansive thrillers, there was even some...
Feb 17, 20238 min read


Really Good, Actually by Monica Heisey
Maggie is 29 years old, working on a PhD she is not actually all that interested in, and now about to be divorced – after only 608 days...
Feb 7, 20232 min read


The Inseparables by Simone de Beauvoir
At nine years old, Sylvie meets her one great love at school in Paris: her best friend Andrée. The two girls could hardly be more...
Dec 20, 20222 min read


Vita Nostra by Marina & Sergey Dyachenko
Prepare for the vaguest of reviews - but the secrets of this book cannot be given away. It’s been a few weeks since I have finished...
Nov 24, 20222 min read
bottom of page