It feels odd to say that a book that left me so saddened and troubled was a favorite, but it’s the case with author Florence Knapp’s debut, The Names. This is an alternate realities story about an infant boy whose mother, Cora, in three scenarios, chooses a different name for him. The story follows the boy, his mother, and his older sister through the three lives they would ... Read More...
Serial Killers: Mini-Reviews
Happy Halloween Eve! I thought I’d pre-game tomorrow night’s creepy mood by sharing two reviews of novels about serial killers. You know, the kind of books you want to read with the lights on. In the middle of the day. And not alone. Marie Tierney’s Deadly Animals is set in a small town near Birmingham, England. Ava is a teenage girl with a troubled family, ... Read More...
Katabasis by R.F. Kuang
I’ve read and enjoyed both of R.F. Kuang’s adult novels (Babel, Yellowface) so was looking forward to her latest, Katabasis. A Greek word meaning “going down or descending” this chunky novel is about Alice Law, an American student getting her graduate degree in Magick from Cambridge. The title refers to Alice’s descent into Hell to retrieve the soul of her academic advisor, the ... Read More...
The Secret Book Society
It’s 1895 in England and women are kept firmly in their established roles as wives, mothers, and arbiters of society. Deviation from these roles or even a desire for something more could lead to a woman being institutionalized by her guardian “for her own safety”. A guardian was the male in her life be it father, husband, or brother. These female problems were often thought to ... Read More...
Guilty by Definition: A Novel
A love of words, academia, and mystery are all that’s needed to fall in love with Susie Dent’s novel, Guilty by Definition. Editors of the Clarendon English Dictionary start receiving cryptic letters hinting at a mystery and the recovery of a possible item of great significance. The letters indicate the timeline coincides with the disappearance of one of the dictionary’s ... Read More...
Starter Villain
Hello, lovely readers! You may have noticed that The Gilmore Guide to Books doesn’t look the way it usually does. Instead of brief excerpts of the books I’ve reviewed, the landing page now contains the full review for every book. It is clunky and not how I like things to look. Sadly, it’s been almost ten years since I’ve had to dive into the code that makes this blog work so my ... Read More...
- 1
- 2
- 3
- …
- 211
- Next Page »
