Published by Henry Holt & Co. / Simon & Schuster, 2007, 496 pages.Review by RIshad Patell Reading this book as an Indian who grew up in the nineteen eighties and who had been fed a version of Indian independence through text books and what was taught in school, it is interesting to look at this …
Continue reading Indian Summer— The Secret History of the End of an Empire: Alex von Tunzelmann
Published by Doubleday / Thorndike / Black Swan, 2015, 416 pages. Rachel takes the train to and from London, like any other commuter. The train always stops at the same signal, opposite a house with a young couple. She is fascinated by them, this perfect couple, whom she calls Jess and Jason (who are, in …
Published by Random House / Picador, 2016, 832 pages. This beautiful book was described to me as both the ‘gay novel of the decade’ and ‘a story of 4 men and their journey through life’, descriptions that I found both confusing and frustrating the deeper I got into the story. To me, the story of …
Published by Douglas Gibbons Books / Vintage, 2012, 336 pages. Review by Thomas Peak and Susanne Gjonnes Why do we read? To think, to experience and most of all to feel. Perhaps. Munroe’s final collection of short stories Dear Life achieves all of this in abundance. With characteristic subtleness, a refined and homely style, the …
Published by Titan Books, 1986, 414 pages. It is 1985, and Richard Nixon is into his fifth term as president of the United States. The superheroes (the watchmen), who have been helping the country, are outlawed. They are now in hiding, retired or secretly working for the US government. One night in October, a watchman, …
Continue reading Watchmen: written by Alan Moore and drawn by Dave Gibbons
I found this 2013 article on the University of Cambridge website. Four writers—Sarah Burton, Trevor Byrne, Malachi McIntosh and Helen Taylor—talk about how reading and writing shaped their childhood, the power of fiction, what makes good literature. Here are some extracts from their their thoughts on the power of fiction: Sarah Burton: "The power of …
Translated from Spanish by Edith GrossmanPublished by Farrar Straus & Giroux / Faber & Faber, 2007, 376 pages. Original version published in 2006. Review by Susanne Karine Gjonnes Do you believe in endless, unconditional love? The answer to this question is likely to shape one’s opinion of The Bad Girl. Mario Vargas Llosa is a …
Continue reading The Bad Girl (Travesuras de la niña mala): Mario Vargas Llosa
Series published by Sphere. Monks and murder in the Middle Ages—an irresistible formula! Maybe it's the mixing of piety and nefarious doings that makes it so attractive. And a reason why this is one of my favourite crime series. It is set in Cambridge in the 14th century, and the detective is Matthew Bartholomew, a young physician …
Continue reading The Matthew Bartholomew Chronicles: Susanna Gregory
Translated from French by C. K. Scott Moncrieff and Terence KilmartinPublished by Penguin, 2003, 496 pages. Original version published in 1913. Marcel Proust had always struck me as the quintessential snob’s choice; pretentious, devoid of action and inundating readers with impenetrable vocab. All of these concerns proved spot-on as I laboured my way through endless …
Continue reading In Search of Lost Time; Volume 1: The Way by Swanns (Books 1 & 2): Marcel Proust
An article from the New Yorker by Ceridwen Dovey about bibliotherapy, healing through books, something readers have known about for a long time. "Bibliotherapy is a very broad term for the ancient practice of encouraging reading for therapeutic effect. "The first use of the term is usually dated to a jaunty 1916 article in The …
Continue reading What Readers Have Known All Along: Reading Can Make You Happier
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