Struggling to find a good book?

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Struggling to find a good book?

Visit our archive where you’ll find more that 400 reviewed books, all hand-picked by our picky reviewers. We only recommend books we really, really like so rest assured you won’t be wasting your time. Craving something funny? Go to our ‘In the mood for…’ tab in the menu bar on our homepage. There you’ll also find our best long and short reads, thrilling books, challenging and light reads. In our ‘Review’ tab you’ll find our reviews sorted by category, fiction, non-fiction, classics, American literature etc. If you still can’t find anything, send us an email ([email protected]) and we’ll try to help.

Books set in New York City

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Books set in New York City

Having spent the better part of my 20s living in New York City, I have a huge soft spot for this iconic place. I crave books that bring back the noises, the buzz, the beauty, the people and the grittiness of the city.  Here’s a selection of some of the very best ones.

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This summer’s must read books

So now that the summer holidays are in sight, what will you be reading? The good news is that while we’ve all been locked up at home, some fabulous books have been published. We just haven’t been able to see them displayed in our local bookshops. So here they are, our favourite books over the past few dark months which we can guarantee will brighten up your summer.

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The Cabin in the Mountains by Robert Ferguson

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The Cabin in the Mountains

Pining for the fjords

With the onset of COVID-19, Norwegians found themselves suffering from a peculiar kind of cabin fever. Cabin-owners across the nation were no longer allowed to stay at holiday houses outside their home municipality, something that led Norwegians closer to civil disobedience than they had ever ventured before. This obsessive attachment to our holiday homes is explained well in The Cabin in the Mountains by Robert Ferguson. Enamoured with Norwegian culture, the English writer has lived in Norway since the 1980s, and is well equipped to present his compatriots with the many curious aspects of his adopted home country.

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Books for boys

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Books for Boys

‘A boy won’t read shark books forever’- Jon Scieszka, author and founder of GuysRead.com.

We all know that children are made bookworms on the laps of their parents but how do we sustain that momentum, particularly with the classic ‘reluctant boy reader’? The key seems to be to avoid parental dictatorship. It may be a bitter pill to swallow but they’re often not interested in what you read when you were twelve! With this in mind, we’ve selected a lovely mix of books for boys. Here’s hoping they find their very own book magic.

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The Notebook by Agota Kristof

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The Notebook

A book to shock

Wow…is all I can say about The Notebook by Agota Kristof. This is one of the more disquieting books I’ve read but it’s also impossible to put down. It’s the notebook of two nameless young twin brothers somewhere in Eastern Europe, sometime at the end of the Second World War. Calmly and unsentimentally, the boys tell us what war does to people. It’s not a pretty story but it leaves an indelible impression.

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Dreaming of going to Greece?

Seems like travelling this summer is going to have to happen mostly in your head, so to help we’ve collected a list of books that will transport you to your favourite holiday destinations. Our first stop is Greece…Italy, Spain and France to follow!

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Surge by Jay Bernard

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Surge

An important and fearless poetry collection

Surge by Jay Bernard is a poetry book composed of many different voices. At times confidential, at others longing, prophetic or lyrical, it weaves together the voices of the past, allowing the dead and forgotten to speak to the present. Through it all we hear the clear voice of Bernard, fearless, tender and unflinching.

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Between the World and Me

An eye-opener

The terrible killing of George Floyd in America has reminded me of Ta-Neshisi Coates’ stirring Between the World and Me which I reviewed a few years ago. A must read.

Once in a blue moon you come across a book that changes your perspective. Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates’ open letter to his 15-year-old son about race relations in America, is such a book. An eye-opening account of what it’s really like to grow up as an African American in America’s poorest neighbourhoods and a book that – at the risk of sounding patronising – everyone ‘should’ read.

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