Book Review: The Half-Life of Valery K, Natasha Pulley

In 1963, in a Siberian prison, former nuclear specialist Valery Kolkhanov has mastered what it takes to survive: the right connections to the guards for access to food and cigarettes, the right pair of warm boots, and the right attitude toward the small pleasures of life so he won't go insane. But one day, all… Continue reading Book Review: The Half-Life of Valery K, Natasha Pulley

Top Ten Tuesday: Comfort Reads

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Previous Top Ten Tuesday Topics April 5:ย YA Books I Think Will Become… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: Comfort Reads

Book Review: Sorrow and Bliss, Meg Mason

Everyone tells Martha Friel she is clever and beautiful, a brilliant writer who has been loved every day of her adult life by one man, her husband Patrick. A gift, her mother once said, not everybody gets.So why is everything broken? Why is Martha - on the edge of 40 - friendless, practically jobless and… Continue reading Book Review: Sorrow and Bliss, Meg Mason

Top Ten Tuesday: Book Quote Freebie

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Previous Top Ten Tuesday Topics April 5:ย YA Books I Think Will Become… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: Book Quote Freebie

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Was SO EXCITED to Get, but Still Havenโ€™t Read

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Previous Top Ten Tuesday Topics April 5:ย YA Books I Think Will Become… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Was SO EXCITED to Get, but Still Havenโ€™t Read

Book Review: The Hate U Give, Angie Thomas

Sixteen-year-old Starr lives in two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she was born and raised and her posh high school in the suburbs. The uneasy balance between them is shattered when Starr is the only witness to the fatal shooting of her unarmed best friend, Khalil, by a police officer. Now what Starr says could… Continue reading Book Review: The Hate U Give, Angie Thomas

Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Characters

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Previous Top Ten Tuesday Topics March 15: Books On My Spring 2022… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Characters

Book Review: Build Your House Around My Body, Violet Kupersmith

1986: The teenage daughter of a wealthy Vietnamese family gets lost in an abandoned rubber plantation while fleeing her angry father, and is forever changed by the experience. 2011: Twenty-five years later, a young, unhappy Vietnamese-American disappears from her new home in Saigon without a trace.The fates of both women are inescapably linked, bound together by past generations, by ghosts and ancestors, by the history of possessed bodies and… Continue reading Book Review: Build Your House Around My Body, Violet Kupersmith

Top Ten Tuesday: One-Word Reviews for the Last Ten Books I Read

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Previous Top Ten Tuesday Topics March 15: Books On My Spring 2022… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: One-Word Reviews for the Last Ten Books I Read

Book Review: The Code of the Woosters, P. G. Wodehouse

Aunt Dahlia has tasked Bertie with purloining an antique cow creamer from Totleigh Towers. In order to do so, Jeeves hatches a scheme whereby Bertie must charm the droopy and altogether unappealing Madeline and face the wrath of would-be dictator Roderick Spode. Though the prospect fills him with dread, when duty calls, Bertie will answer,… Continue reading Book Review: The Code of the Woosters, P. G. Wodehouse

Book Review: Careless, Kirsty Capes

At 3.04 p.m. on a hot, sticky day in June, Bess finds out she's pregnant.She could tell her social worker Henry, but he's useless.She should tell her foster mother, Lisa, but she won't understand.She really ought to tell Boy, but she hasn't spoken to him in weeks.Bess knows more than anyone that love doesn't come… Continue reading Book Review: Careless, Kirsty Capes

Top Ten Tuesday: Books with [xxx] On the Cover

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Previous Top Ten Tuesday Topics March 1: Books I Enjoyed, but Have… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: Books with [xxx] On the Cover

Every Day You Play…, Pablo Neruda

Every Day You Play.... Every day you play with the light of the universe. Subtle visitor, you arrive in the flower and the water, You are more than this white head that I hold tightly as a bunch of flowers, every day, between my hands. You are like nobody since I love you. Let me… Continue reading Every Day You Play…, Pablo Neruda

Theatre Review: Henry V, National Theatre Live

It has been a long time since I have been to the theatre live, and the National Theatre Live cinema showing of staged performances are a relatively easy and accessible variant, and last night's offering of Henry V was visually impressive but ultimately a little confused. The evening began with an interview with Kit Harington… Continue reading Theatre Review: Henry V, National Theatre Live

Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Merchandise Iโ€™d Love to Own

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Previous Top Ten Tuesday Topics March 1: Books I Enjoyed, but Have… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Merchandise Iโ€™d Love to Own

Book Review: The Kaiju Preservation Society, John Scalzi

Jamieโ€™s dream was to hit the big time at a New York tech start-up. Jamieโ€™s reality was a humiliating lay-off. Things look beyond grim, until a chance delivery to an old acquaintance. Tom has an urgent vacancy on his team: the pay is great and Jamie has debts โ€“ itโ€™s a no-brainer choice. Yet, once… Continue reading Book Review: The Kaiju Preservation Society, John Scalzi

Book Review: October, October by Katya Balen

October and her dad live in the woods. They know the trees and the rocks and the lake and stars like best friends. They live in the woods and they are wild. And that's the way it is.Until the year October turns eleven. That's the year October rescues a baby owl. It's the year Dad… Continue reading Book Review: October, October by Katya Balen

Top Ten Tuesday: Authors I’ve Not Read Yet, But Who I Want To Read

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Previous Top Ten Tuesday Topics March 1: Books I Enjoyed, but Have… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: Authors I’ve Not Read Yet, But Who I Want To Read

Top Ten Tuesday: Freebie: YA Books I Think Will Become Classics

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Previous Top Ten Tuesday Topics February 1: Books with Character Names In… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: Freebie: YA Books I Think Will Become Classics

‘To His Coy Mistress’ by Andrew Marvell

To His Coy Mistress BY ANDREW MARVELL Had we but world enough and time, This coyness, lady, were no crime. We would sit down, and think which way To walk, and pass our long loveโ€™s day. Thou by the Indian Gangesโ€™ side Shouldst rubies find; I by the tide Of Humber would complain. I would… Continue reading ‘To His Coy Mistress’ by Andrew Marvell

‘The Garden’ by Andrew Marvell

How vainly men themselves amaze To win the palm, the oak, or bays, And their uncessant labours see Crownโ€™d from some single herb or tree, Whose short and narrow verged shade Does prudently their toils upbraid; While all flowโ€™rs and all trees do close To weave the garlands of repose. Fair Quiet, have I found… Continue reading ‘The Garden’ by Andrew Marvell

Top Ten Tuesday: ย 21st Century Books I Think Will Become Classics

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Previous Top Ten Tuesday Topics February 1: Books with Character Names In… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: ย 21st Century Books I Think Will Become Classics

Book Review: The Island Of Missing Trees, Elif Shafak

It is 1974 on the island of Cyprus. Two teenagers, from opposite sides of a divided land, meet at a tavern in the city they both call home. The tavern is the only place that Kostas, who is Greek and Christian, and Defne, who is Turkish and Muslim, can meet, in secret, hidden beneath the… Continue reading Book Review: The Island Of Missing Trees, Elif Shafak

Top Ten Tuesday: Books With an Adjective In the Title

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Previous Top Ten Tuesday Topics February 1: Books with Character Names In… Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday: Books With an Adjective In the Title

Book Review: Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens

After Oliver Twist asks nasty Mr Bumble for more food, he has to flee the workhouse for the streets of London. Here he meets the Artful Dodger, who leads him to Fagin and his gang of pickpockets. When a thieving mission goes wrong, Oliver narrowly avoids prison and finds himself in the care of kind… Continue reading Book Review: Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens