An Awfully Big Adventure by Beryl Bainbridge

An Awfully Big Adventure by Beryl Bainbridge

Comments 0 comment

An Awfully Big Adventure was originally published in 1989 and is set in Liverpool in 1950. Beryl Bainbridge was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for this novel, and was nominated four other times, but never won. I bought An Awfully Big Adventure from Daunt Books in Marylebone, London on my recent trip to the UK. I bought this novel because it is supposed to be a “darkly comic novel” about a theatre company, but I do not find anything comic about An Awfully Big Adventure because all the characters in the novel are pathetic.

…

Read More Read More

This Story Might Save Your Life by Tiffany Crum

This Story Might Save Your Life by Tiffany Crum

Comments 0 comment

I feel like mystery thrillers these days are all about the shock factor rather than crafting a good mystery story that makes sense. Tiffany Crum’s This Story Might Save Your Life is no exception. Did I devour this book to find out what happens at the end? Of course I did. I am like a cat; curiosity got the better of me. Did I mostly dislike this book while I was reading it? Also, of course I did. I have really got to stop reading overly hyped mystery novels.

…

Read More Read More

The Blood of Others by Simone de Beauvoir

The Blood of Others by Simone de Beauvoir

Comments 0 comment

I bought The Blood of Others during my trip to Paris last year from the Shakespeare and Company bookstore. It felt appropriate to buy a book written by a French author, and I choose The Blood of Others because it is about fascism in Europe before and during WWII, which feels like a timely topic given the current global political climate.

…

Read More Read More

Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke

Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke

Comments 0 comment

If you like novels with a protagonist who is a narcissistic, mean, pseudo-Christian tradwife Instagram influencer, then Caro Claire Burke’s Yesteryear is for you. And even if that does not sound like your cup of tea, I think you should still read this book because it will suck you in and you won’t want to escape it until you have finished the last page, even with its absolutely terrible main character.

…

Read More Read More

Japanese Gothic by Kylie Lee Baker

Japanese Gothic by Kylie Lee Baker

Comments 0 comment

There are two reasons why I bought Japanese Gothic: 1. The word “Gothic” in the title. 2. It is a dual timeline story supposedly involving a ghost. Japanese Gothic is an unexpected read. I think I like it, but it’s hard to tell with the melancholy I feel every time I think about it.

…

Read More Read More

Foe by Iain Reid

Foe by Iain Reid

Comments 0 comment

Iain Reid is the author of I’m Thinking of Ending Things, which I have not read, but I did watch the movie adaptation by Charlie Kaufman, which was surreal and confusing, even if I was able to parse together what was going on by the end. I let the movie put me off from reading the book, and I almost did not read Foe either, but I am glad I did because I got a kick out of the ending (Foe has also been made into a movie, as you can see by Saoirse Ronan and Paul Mescal being on the cover of the book, but I haven’t watched it and I am glad I read the book first).

…

Read More Read More