I came across this title by chance, as I was ( how surprising) wandering around The Red Wheelbarrow Bookstore (again). I love spending time here, helping Penelope out and learning about how the bookstore works. You Will Safe Here was among the ARCs she had received, standing quietly on its shelf, patiently waiting for me … Continue reading You Will Be Safe Here, by Damian Barr
By now I should be prepared to be met with sheer brilliance when entering a Hardinge book, yet every time I am caught off guard by the beauty of her works. A Face Like Glass used to be my favourite of hers, when compared to The Lie Tree and A Skinful of Shadows (which I … Continue reading Cuckoo Song, by Frances Hardinge
After having heard -read- about The Night Circus everywhere, I finally got my hands on it and even found my way through my overflowing TBR to open it. The first try, in August, was a false start, though, because at the time, after a long stretch of reading in English, I felt the need to … Continue reading The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern
I don't read short stories very often, but Kat (@redwavereads) was so enthusiastic about this collection that I had to give it a try. At the time, Lucia Berlin was completely unknown to me, which, now that I have read her, seems a real shame. Berlin was incredibly talented. And even this falls short to … Continue reading A Manual For Cleaning Women, by Lucia Berlin
"Now twenty-two, I still burned with rage, grief and confusion at the arduous path of my past." I finished reading Call Me Zebra a week ago but it took some time for the whirling emotions it spurred to sink and settle, for me to pick them up, analyse them and lay them on the screen. … Continue reading Call Me Zebra, by Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi
This novel was everywhere on Instagram, so I got it out of curiosity and after a few weeks waiting on my shelf, I finally picked it up. Time to share my thoughts! Here is the blurb as found on Penguin UK website, my review follows. A Place for Us catches an Indian Muslim family as they … Continue reading A Place for Us, by Fatima Farheen Mirza
This novel was warmly recommended to me by a fellow 'bookstagrammer'. And then the author was very kind to send me a finished copy! And I am very happy he did, because Twelve Nights turned out to be a unique read. So here is the blurb from Penguin Uk website, my review follows. Kay's father … Continue reading Twelve Nights, by Andrew Zurcher
I had heard such rave reviews about this novel by the Nobel Prize winner, that I had to try it myself. Here is the blurb, my review follows. "Here is Kazuo Ishiguro’s profoundly compelling portrait of Stevens, the perfect butler, and of his fading, insular world in post-World War II England. Stevens, at the end … Continue reading The Remains of the Day, by Kazuo Ishiguro
This made for a very special read. First because I had not read anything centring around Chinese Americans before. But it is definitely the writing and the characters that made this book unique. Here is the blurb, my review follows. In 1949 four Chinese women, recent immigrants to San Francisco, meet weekly to play mahjong … Continue reading The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan
Opening a new Hardinge is like coming home. Not that the different worlds she conjures up in each novel look much alike - quite the contrary, her glorious, seemingly boundless imagination allows her to weave unique, striking universes each time. But reading her always means basking in lush prose and bonding with fierce brave heroines. … Continue reading A Skinful of Shadows, by Frances Hardinge
Kemy's bookshelf 