Book Reviews

  • ‘The Paper Palace’ – By Miranda Cowley Heller Review

    Heller's storytelling is both tender and devastating, leaving an indelible mark on the reader's heart and mind. In a literary landscape rich with tales of love and life, "The Paper Palace" stands out as an evocative and thought-provoking masterpiece that challenges conventions and dares to explore the depths of the human experience. This novel is an absolute must-read for those who appreciate emotionally charged narratives.

  • ‘Demon Copperhead’ by Barbara Kingslover –  Review 

    Demon Copperhead' is a clever book that plunges readers into the rugged ‘white trash’ terrain of southern Appalachia. Drawing inspiration from Charles Dickens' 'David Copperfield,' Kingslover cleverly reimagines this classic story within the contemporary American South. The results are breathtaking. The story follows the life of Demon, a red-headed boy born into a life of adversity and challenges. It delves into the heartbreaking realities of poverty, marginalization, and addiction, themes that echo those of Dickens’ masterpiece.

  • Home Is the Road by Diane Glancy

    When you think of someone taking a road trip you do not imagine a women her late seventies, driving alone across the Midwest and West. That is the framework Diane Glancy uses for her book Home Is the Road. She feels at home on the road, has since her childhood, when her first car trip was to her grandparent’s farm. She drives from her home in Kansas to her son in Texas to her teaching position in California by way of New Mexico. She keeps to her mobile cocoon except to stop for gasoline and food. She sleeps in her car at rest stops, among the long-haul truckers, arriving after…

  • Fresh Water For Flowers  – Valérie Perrin

    I grew up holidaying in France and my father speaks fluent French yet somehow my grasp of the French language is not good. What did stay with me is a love for the 'feel' of spoken French. The cadence, the passion, the beauty.  Fresh Water For Flowers was originally written in French and was a huge bestseller in France. Its translation has taken the literary world by storm. The book has an essential French feel about it that goes beyond its settling. The turn of phrase, the style, and the feel of the book are quintessentially French and I loved it. I could not put this book down. I have a busy life…

  • What We Are Reading – The Immortalists

    With typical childhood curiosity, they track down the fortune-teller, and enter the woman’s apartment one-by-one. She gives them a precise date for their deaths, an experience the children find terrifying, the date never to be revealed to their friends. It also becomes a seminal moment that ends up shaping their entire lives. 

  • What We Are Reading – The Dutch House

    The Dutch House is a stunning novel written with Ann Patchett’s tightly woven prose. The book flirts with themes of fairy tales, wicked stepmothers, and orphaned children cheated of their inheritance, but at its heart, it is a book about a house and its enduring effect on everyone who ever lived in it.

  • Words Matter

    said it. In terms of authenticity and sincerity, I still believe that to be true. However, as an avid reader, and lover of a good story, I am always reminded of the fact that individual words do matter.