Bookstoker Young Readers
I Hate Reading
A mischievously meta read
The Dark Lady
Inspired adventure gloriously evokes Shakespeare’s London
Welcome to Bookstoker!
We’re here to help you find that book that you can’t put down, the book you’ll push on all your friends, the book that’ll change your life.
We read literary fiction, non-fiction, classics and children’s books, all genres and styles embraced in our aim to share the love. You’ll also find fabulous Bookstagrams and literary news.
A world of bookish delights!
Kirstin and Julie
Top 100 Book Blogs
Netgalley Member
Review by Jane
Mr Peacock’s Possessions
Trouble in paradise
In the late 1800s – a time of exploration and colonisation – a family of settlers departs from New Zealand for a remote volcanic island they have been told is uninhabited but fertile. Mr and Mrs Peacock and their six children hope to build a new home, grow crops, tend animals, and tame the wild place known as ‘Blackbird Island’. Their idyllic little corner of Eden turns out to be anything but, and when one of the children goes missing dark secrets from the past emerge and threaten to destroy them all. Mr Peacock’s Possessions by Lydia Syson is a wonderfully compelling book. Highly recommended.
Review by Julie
Invisible Women
An eye-opener
You don’t need to be paranoid to suspect the world is skewed towards men – mainly white men. Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez demonstrate, with data, the ways in which it is and some of her research should come as a surprise to even the most well-informed feminists. From what qualifies as deductible work expenses, the way streets are cleared of snow, the design of playgrounds to medical research, women remain invisible. An eye-opener.
Review by Kirsten Murray
The Swimming Pool Season
The perfect novel to dip in to
With summer right around the corner and the recent reopening of swimming pools, I thought that it was a fitting time to reread a favourite book of mine, The Swimming Pool Season by Rose Tremain. The novel focusses on British expats Larry and Miriam Kendal, who have made the quaint and quiet French hamlet of Pomerac their new home. Their move to sunnier climes from Oxford follows the collapse of Larry’s swimming pool empire, Aquazure, but their adjustment to life abroad has been bumpier than anticipated. When Miriam is urgently called to attend to her ailing mother, Leni, back in England, we discover the intricate details of their lives, where unrequited desires, frustration and “what if” questions run amok.
Review by Julie
The Underground Railroad
American slavery with a twist – one of my best reads this year
At the beginning, The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead feels like a typical American slave novel (think Beloved, The Polished Hoe, 12 Years a Slave and Roots) with horrifying details of physical and sexual abuse and a particularly evil plantation owner. Whitehead has a surprise in store for us, though, and that’s what makes this novel so original and intriguing.
News by Julie
An insight into the Israel-Palestinian conflict
Apeirogon by Colum McCann sheds light on the devastating ongoing conflict, from both sides of the divide. It’s the true story of two men whose young daughters are killed; one by a suicide bomber, the other by an Israeli soldier. After being hit by the same devastating loss, Bassam Aramin and Rami Elhanan become friends and decide to take their message of reconciliation and forgiveness out to the world. An original, clever and deeply moving read. Read our full review here.
Review by Julie
We Run the Tides
Addictive coming-of-age story
Remember being thirteen? Or rather not? We Run the Tides by Vendela Vida will take you back to your teens the way Sally Rooney took you back to your first love in Normal People. The insecurities, dramas, hopes, lies, friendships, crushes, embarrassments; Vida reminds us what a roller-coaster of emotions puberty is through the story of headstrong Eulabee and her best friend, the bewitchingly beautiful and charismatic Maria Fabiola. Addictive reading.
Bookstoker Young Readers
Weirdo
Because life’s too short not to be a weirdo
Bone Music
Sage advice for ‘the weird, passionate, troubled, loving young.’
Show Us Who You Are
A fabulously inventive thriller championing neurodiversity
Bookstoker’s Best Nautical Novels
The North Water
Behold this book!
The Devil and the Dark Water
Pure unadulterated entertainment
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet
If you read one book this year, let this be it
The Prophets of Eternal Fjord
Compulsively readable novel about arctic hell hole
Rush Oh!
Tender and Humourous Coming of Age in 19th C Australian Whaling community
News by Julie
Exterminate All the Brutes as TV-series
One of the more harrowing books reviewed on this blog is Sven Lindqvist’s Exterminate All the Brutes, a history-cum-travel book which investigates the dark history of European colonialism and brutal extermination of indigenous peoples. It’s a very worthwhile read, described by the director of the TV-series as an ‘incredible explosion’. Raoul Peck’s Exterminate All the Brutes, inspired by Lindkqvist’s book, will air from 1st May on HBO in the US and Sky Documentaries and NOW in the UK. Reviews of the film are divided but the book remains good!
