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...
top of page
literature book reviews book recommendations reading lists
WELCOME TO MY BOOKSHELF
Search
- Nov 22, 2022
- 3 min
Stoner by John Williams
There are some books that just seem to split humanity into two camps – and Stoner by John Williams is certainly one of them. Reading this...
- Nov 8, 2022
- 2 min
Autumn by Ali Smith
‘It was the worst of times, it was the worst of times.’ I love a good opening line. And how true, describing 2016, the year of chaos and...
- Nov 6, 2022
- 2 min
The Booker Prize 2022 #12: Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley
Kiara is seventeen and desperately trying to pay the rent that has been increased yet again. After her father’s death and with her mother...
- Oct 11, 2022
- 2 min
The Booker Prize 2022 #8: Treacle Walker by Alan Garner
Joe is watching time pass by, measuring his days by Noony, the train that comes past his window once a day. He is all alone in his house,...
- Oct 7, 2022
- 2 min
The Booker Prize 2022 #7: The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka
Maali Almeida is dead and has just woken up in the afterlife, though he does not know yet. For how he still believes he is having a weird...
- Jul 5, 2022
- 2 min
The Echo Chamber by John Boyne
BBC talk show host George Beverly and his family live a comfortable life in their London home – until the trolls and woke people on...
- Jun 14, 2022
- 3 min
Swing Time by Zadie Smith
Our narrator first met Tracey when they were young girls nervously waiting for their first dance class to start. Their friendship did not...
- Jun 8, 2022
- 2 min
Dottie by Abdulrazak Gurnah
Dottie Badoura Fatma Balfour is seventeen years old and has just become the head of her small family in London. Her mother has just died,...
- Apr 26, 2022
- 2 min
The Women of Troy by Pat Barker
The Trojan War has left destruction in its wake. The city is defeated, its men have been murdered, and the women enslaved. But the Greek...
- Apr 19, 2022
- 3 min
The Lying Life of Adults by Elena Ferrante
“Two years before leaving home my father said to my mother that I was very ugly,” is the brutal opening line of Elena Ferrante’s most...
- Mar 17, 2022
- 3 min
Paradise by Abdulrazak Gurnah
Uncle Aziz comes by the house every year. His visits are always a cause for excitement. The wealthy merchant and his men are not only...
- Mar 2, 2022
- 3 min
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
Holden Caulfield has been expelled from his prep-school. Again. Having failed all subjects but English he now has to pack his bags and go...
- Feb 15, 2022
- 2 min
Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead
It is hot in this 1960s Harlem summer where we meet Ray Carney for the first time. A respectable furniture salesman, Carney is well-liked...
- Feb 8, 2022
- 2 min
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
It is a bitter cold winter in Ireland, 1985. We are in a small town, among good Christian citizens and meet Bill Furlong, the coal...
- Feb 2, 2022
- 2 min
Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney
Frances and Bobbi are students at Trinity College, Dublin. They used to be lovers, now they are best friends who perform poetry together....
- Jan 25, 2022
- 2 min
Tar Baby by Toni Morrison
L’Isle des Cheavliers is a tropical paradise where the rich American candy manufacturer Valerian Street has chosen to retire with his...
- Jan 18, 2022
- 2 min
White Teeth by Zadie Smith
Archie Jones and Samad Iqbal have been best friends since their adventures during World War II, though none of their friends and family...
- Jan 4, 2022
- 2 min
Milkman by Anna Burns
In an unnamed city, where two communities live in conflict with each other, where there is a right and a wrong kind of butter, just as...
- Nov 2, 2021
- 5 min
The Booker Prize 2021
Tomorrow, the winner of the 2021 Booker Prize will be announced. Over the past few weeks I read my way through the shortlist, and it was...
bottom of page