Category: Fiction & Literature

Book Review: They Do It With Mirrors by Agatha Christie

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Format: Paperback

Pages: 214 pages

Published: 1952

Publisher: Harper

Genre: Fiction, Mystery & Thrillers

Synopsis:

Miss Marple senses danger when she visits a friend living in Stoneygates, a rehabilitation center for delinquents. Her fears are confirmed when someone shoots at the administrator. Although he is not injured, a mysterious visitor is less fortunately shot dead simultaneously in another part of the building.

Pure coincidence? Miss Marple thinks not, and must use all her cunning to solve the riddle of the stranger’s visit … and his murder.

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Book Review: The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry

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Format: Hardcover

Pages: 422 pages

Published: May 27, 2016

Publisher: Custom House

Genre: Fiction, Historical Fiction

 

 

Synopsis:

“Set in Victorian London and an Essex village in the 1890’s, and enlivened by the debates on scientific and medical discovery which defined the era, The Essex Serpent has at its heart the story of two extraordinary people who fall for each other, but not in the usual way.

They are Cora Seaborne and Will Ransome. Cora is a well-to-do London widow who moves to the Essex parish of Aldwinter, and Will is the local vicar. They meet as their village is engulfed by rumours that the mythical Essex Serpent, once said to roam the marshes claiming human lives, has returned. Cora, a keen amateur naturalist is enthralled, convinced the beast may be a real undiscovered species. But Will sees his parishioners’ agitation as a moral panic, a deviation from true faith. Although they can agree on absolutely nothing, as the seasons turn around them in this quiet corner of England, they find themselves inexorably drawn together and torn apart.

Told with exquisite grace and intelligence, this novel is most of all a celebration of love, and the many different guises it can take.”

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Book Review: Persuasion by Jane Austen

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656626Format:  Paperback

Pages: 271 pages

Published: 1817

Publisher: Bantam Classics

Genre: Fiction,Classics

 

 

 

 

Synopsis:

Jane Austen’s last completed novel, Persuasion is a delightful social satire of England’s landed gentry and a moving tale of lovers separated by class distinctions. After years apart, unmarried Anne Elliot, the heroine Jane Austen called “almost too good for me,” encounters the dashing naval officer others persuaded her to reject, as he now courts the rash and younger Louisa Musgrove. Superbly drawn, these characters and those of Anne’s prideful father, Sir Walter, the scheming Mrs. Clay, and the duplicitous William Elliot, heir to Kellynch Hall, become luminously alive—so much so that the poet Tennyson, visiting historic Lyme Regis, where a pivotal scene occurs, exclaimed: “Don’t talk to me of the Duke of Monmouth. Show me the exact spot where Louisa Musgrove fell!”

Tender, almost grave, Persuasion offers a glimpse into Jane Austen’s own heart while it magnificently displays the full maturity of her literary power.

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Book Review: The Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton

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Format:  Paperback

Pages: 410 pages

Published: 1913

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Genre: Fiction & Literature, Classics

 

 

 

Synopsis: 

Edith Wharton’s satiric anatomy of American society in the first decade of the twentieth century appeared in 1913; it both appalled and fascinated its first reviewers, and established her as a major novelist. The Saturday Review wrote that she had ‘assembled as many detestable people as it is possible to pack between the covers of a six-hundred page novel’, but concluded that the book was ‘brilliantly written’, and ‘should be read as a parable’. It follows the career of Undine Spragg, recently arrived in New York from the Midwest and determined to conquer high society. Glamorous, selfish, mercenary, and manipulative, her principal assets are her striking beauty, her tenacity, and her father’s money. With her sights set on an advantageous marriage, Undine pursues her schemes in a world of shifting values, where triumph is swiftly followed by disillusion. Wharton was re-creating an environment she knew intimately, and Undine’s education for social success is chronicled in meticulous detail. The novel superbly captures the world of post-Civil War America, as ruthless in its social ambitions as in its business and politics.

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Three Book Reviews For The Price of One

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Goldie Vance Vol. 1 by by Hope Larson and Brittney Williams

Look out Nancy Drew! Make way for Goldie Vance! If you were a fan of the amateur sleuth like I was when I was a kid, then this series is definitely for you. Goldie Vance’s tenacity and her empowering quest for the truth is a all-round inspiring and a fun adventure to go on. The artwork is amazing! It is very vibrant and retro, a great way to appeal to the younger generation. Another great comic book series that I will definitely be continuing!

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars 

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Book Review: The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

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7439970Format:  Paperback

Pages: 370 pages

Published: 1985

Publisher: Vintage Classics

Genre: Fiction, Women’s Fiction, Science Fiction

 

 

Synopsis:

Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead. She has only one function: to breed. If she deviates, she will, like dissenters, be hanged at the wall or sent out to die slowly of radiation sickness. But even a repressive state cannot obliterate desire – neither Offred’s nor that of the two men on which her future hangs.

I am still in awe of what I have just finished. That is how emotionally impacted I was. The Handmaid’s Tale is the first book I ever read by Atwood. It was always on my TBR list and with the recent hype surrounding it, I decided to pick it up and start reading it. Never has there been a novel that was a politically correct story and provided an emotional impact, at the same time. You read this and you will grapple with the many issues that the novel sprouts out. The Handmaid’s Tale opens doors to what most people are afraid to look inside.  Continue reading “Book Review: The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood” →

Book Review: The Moving Finger by Agatha Christie

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16341Format:  Paperback

Pages: 299 pages

Published: July 1942

Publisher: Harper Collins

Genre: Mystery, Fiction

 

 

Synopsis:

“The placid village of Lymstock seems the perfect place for Jerry Burton to recuperate from his accident under the care of his sister, Joanna. But soon a series of vicious poison-pen letters destroys the village’s quiet charm, eventually causing one recipient to commit suicide. The vicar, the doctor, the servants—all are on the verge of accusing one another when help arrives from an unexpected quarter. The vicar’s houseguest happens to be none other than Jane Marple.”

Agatha Christie always continues to surprise me. Her changing writing style is an interesting take on the mystery novel writing. It means there is never a dull moment in Christie’s books and you never know what to expect in her stories! This book is no different. You’re in for a ride for this book of the series.

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Book Review: The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

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Format:  Hardcover

Pages: 464 pages

Published: February 28, 2017

Publisher: Balzer + Bray

Genre: Young Adult, Fiction

 

 

 

Synopsis:

Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed.

Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr.

But what Starr does or does not say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life.

Powerful, riveting, provoking…there are so many words to describe this great YA book. As a teen librarian, I have to read a lot of YA books and there not many that leaves with a resonated a feeling of empowerment and emotional feeling. This book was one of the realist books I have ever read in the longest time. Inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, this book takes a deep look at the shooting of an unarmed black teenager  by a police officer. It approaches an issue that has deeply affected everyone in this country. And this book does a beautiful job addressing issues that concern young teens of this generation. They will feel a personal connection to both the story it tells and the characters who are of that story.

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Book Review: The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie 

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Format:  Paperback

Pages: 272 pages

Published: February 1942

Publisher: HarperCollins

Genre: Fiction, Mystery & Thriller

 

 

 

Synopsis:

“When the Bantry’s wake up to find the body of a beautiful, young stranger in their library, Dolly Bantry knows there’s only one person to call: her old friend Miss Marple.

Who was the young girl? What was she doing in the library? And is there a connection with another dead girl, whose charred remains are discovered in an abandoned quarry?

Miss Marple must solve the mystery, before tongues start to wag, and the murderer strikes again.”

I love reading Agatha Christie’s novels. For someone who loves reading mystery books, I can’t believe it took this long for me to discover Christie’s great works. This is 5th book by her that I read this year and I have yet to be disappointed.

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Book Review: Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

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Format:  Paperback

Pages: 589 pages

Published: May 14 , 2013

Publisher: Anchor

Genre: Fiction, Women’s Fiction

Synopsis:
“Ifemelu and Obinze are young and in love when they depart military-ruled Nigeria for the West. Beautiful, self-assured Ifemelu heads for America, where despite her academic success, she is forced to grapple with what it means to be black for the first time. Quiet, thoughtful Obinze had hoped to join her, but with post-9/11 America closed to him, he instead plunges into a dangerous, undocumented life in London. Fifteen years later, they reunite in a newly democratic Nigeria, and reignite their passion—for each other and for their homeland. “
As a constant victim of book hype, I  think by now I would have learned my lesson. But alas, I am again here to tell another cautionary tale. Most of my book-lover friends, all the press that it received, pointed Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in the right direction to be another great read on my bookshelf. Unfortunately, this long book was excruciating to go through.

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