Within the first 15 pages of Savage Continent by Keith Lowe I learned that by the end of World War II: The Germans had destroyed 93% of Warsaw’s buildings 18-20 million Germans were rendered homeless due to the destruction of their cities 70,000 villages in the USSR were obliterated either by the Germans or by their own troops to avoid providing any supplies or ... Read More...
Fear of Dying: A Novel
It has been so long since I read Fear of Flying that I can’t claim to remember anything about it, except being left with the feeling ‘wow, that is one gutsy author’, writing about sex and relationships in a way I’d never read before. The author was Erica Jong and 40 years after that novel she is back with Fear of Dying, her new fictional take on sex, relationships, and ... Read More...
The Book of Speculation
Debut novelist Erika Swyler does not waste any time before throwing the reader into the deep end of The Book of Speculation. The novel begins with Simon Watson, a librarian with the ability to hold his breath for underwater for almost ten minutes at a time, a skill passed on to him by his mother before she drowned herself when he was seven. Now, he lives alone in the family’s ... Read More...
The Nightingale
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah begins with Viann Mauriac, living comfortably in a small town in the south of France with her husband and daughter. Her younger sister Isabelle is in one of the many boarding schools their father has sent her to. When she is expelled again she goes to live with him in Paris, which he does not want, as he has ignored both young women since their ... Read More...
Brilliant: A Novel
I came across this winter-time review from before I even had this blog (yes, I wrote reviews just for myself) and it brought back such happy memories of this book I decided to go public with it. Happy Friday! Maybe it’s the grey on grey days or simply my misguided decision to try and read War and Peace several weeks ago but in the past week I have felt an intense ... Read More...
The Paris Winter
In The Paris Winter, Maud Heighton is a young British woman in 1910, escaping the conventions that bind by moving to Paris to train as an artist at the renowned Academie LaFond. Unfortunately, unlike a number of her classmates she does not have a family fortune to support her Parisian life and so must find employment to continue to stay in Paris. When a friend finds her a ... Read More...
