You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey: Crazy Stories about Racism by Amber Ruffin, Lacey Lamar
This is not the easiest to read because of its subject matter, but it’s a must-read. Amber Ruffin is a writer/cast member on Late Night with Seth Meyers show, and Lacey Lamar is her sister who has lived in Nebraska for most of her life. This book chronicles racist things that people have told Lacey, […]
When I learnt that Edgar Allan Poe was one of John Dickson Carr’s literary influences, I felt quite apprehensive about reading The Corpse in the Waxworks. I’m not a fan of Poe, as his stories are way too sinister for my taste. But I was hooked by this novel’s opening (“Bencolin [Carr’s detective] wasn’t wearing […]
In Sri Lanka, where I’m from, our cheese horizon begins and ends with Kraft Cheese. So coming to the US was a definite upgrade for us in cheese enlightenment terms – Colby Jack and Havarti soon became our favorites, and grilled cheese a fixed menu item. Even though our cheese adventures didn’t make us venture […]
This is going to be a short review as I feel this is a book I’ll have to revisit in the future. I have always been keen on reading novels based on the lives of famous writers’ wives, which is why I picked this up even though I’m yet to read any of James Joyce‘s […]
In Hades, Argentina, Thomas Shore is returning to Argentina in 1986 for the first time after he fled the country a decade earlier. He has received a call from Pichuca, the ailing mother of Isabel, Thomas’s first love. Pichuca is in her deathbed, and in her delusions, “over an increasingly scratchy line,” she raises the […]
This delightful novel is for all the linguaphiles out there. The Liar’s Dictionary is about two employees working for Swansby’s New Encyclopaedic Dictionary a century apart. In one plot-line, set in 1899, Peter Winceworth is a lexicographer responsible for working on the letter S. Winceworth is a timid fellow with nothing exciting going on in […]
This book is reminiscent of Lionel Shriver’s We Need to Talk About Kevin. Similar to We Need to Talk About Kevin, The Push is an exploration of “nature versus nurture,” focusing on factious parent-child relationships. Its protagonist, Blythe comes from a family where dysfunctional mother-daughter relationships have been the generational norm. Blythe’s mother, Cecilia had […]
British Library Crime Classics publishes a Christmas anthology each year and curling up with it on Christmas Eve has now become a tradition of mine. But alas, like with many other things in 2020, it didn’t go the way I hoped this Christmas, and I didn’t quite manage to pick this up until a few […]
All the stories in this anthology are set in 1915 on the day of the Women’s Suffrage Parade in New York City. On October 23rd, tens of thousands of women flooded Fifth Avenue clad in white, calling on men to support women’s right to vote. Even though the Women’s Suffrage Movement in the US began […]
I don’t know much about Canada or its history, so this book fascinated me. It’s set in Quebec in the 1990s when they were seeking independence from the rest of Canada for the second time. After the British forces defeated the French Canadians in 1763, the Quebec government switched hands. The British tolerated the Roman […]
This book will make a lovely gift for teenagers, and adults (like myself!) who have not yet read Harari’s original Sapiens. I tried reading Sapiens a while ago and gave it up after the first few chapters as it was too dense for me. So it was a treat to finally read the book that […]
If I were to pick the top three vintage crimes writers I discovered thanks to British Library Crime Classics, Julian Symons would undoubtedly make that list. I loved The Color of Murder which I read a while back, which is more of commentary on the justice system than a whodunit. Similarly, The Progress of a Crime which was inspired […]
It took me over a month to read this in short bursts. Clay and Amanda are two white New Yorkers headed out to the Hamptons for a family vacation with their two teenagers. The house they have rented for a week is located in a secluded corner, undisturbed by the hubbub of city life, making […]
I actually dreaded reading this volume because of its subject matter, but it turned out to be a brilliant read! As one would expect, there are some heartbreaking letters included in this collection, but they are few and far between compared to the heartwarming ones. 🙂 It was also a curious read for me because […]
This historical espionage novel is set during the time of the Protestant Reformation, a tumultuous period in Europe. In England, Queen Elizabeth I has been reigning over a decade. After her coronation, she became the Supreme Governor of the English Protestant Church, yet compared to her half-siblings, she took a lax attitude towards matters related […]
