Category Books
Cat Stories: Tobermory by Saki
I haven’t read stories by Saki before, so Tobermory is my first. In Tobermory, Lady Blemley has invited Mr. Cornelius Appin for a house-party. Lady Blemley doesn’t personally know Appin – someone had told her he is a clever man, so that’s is how he ended up getting invited. But at the party, his cleverness […]
Goodbye, Vitamin by Rachel Khong
Rachel Khong’s debut novel Goodbye, Vitamin tells the story of the thirty-year-old Ruth who is back at her parents’ home after avoiding them for ages. Ruth’s father, a well-known history professor, is suffering from Alzheimer’s, and upon her mother’s request, Ruth decides to stay with them for a year to help take care of her […]
Cat Stories: An Old Woman and Her Cat by Doris Lessing
It was impossible for me to read An Old Woman and Her Cat without tearing up. I love Doris Lessing’s writing, but this is hands down one of the saddest stories I’ve ever read. The story’s old woman is Hetty. Hetty’s husband had died when he was middle-aged, and their four children – grownups by […]
Moonrise: The Golden Age of Lunar Adventures by Mike Ashley
At the beginning of this year, The British Library launched its Science Fiction Classics series. I love their Crime Classics series – it has tremendously helped me in discovering authors previously known to me – and given that I’m a newbie to SciFi genre (I have only read The Time Machine, Dark Matter, and The […]
Cat Stories: Lillian by Damon Runyon
Lillian is a brilliant story taken from Damon Runyon’s Guys and Dolls and Other Writings. According to Wikipedia, Damon Runyon is an American journalist “best known for his short stories celebrating the world of Broadway in New York City that grew out of the Prohibition era.” I’ve not heard of Damon Runyon before, but he […]
Early Work by Andrew Martin
Andrew Martin’s debut Early Work follows the story of Peter, a twenty-something wannabe writer. The novel begins when Peter meets Leslie, another aspiring writer at a party. Peter instantly becomes taken with Leslie despite having a long-term girlfriend, and Leslie who has temporarily moved to Virginia to take a break from her fiancé doesn’t try […]
Cat Stories: I See You, Bianca by Maeve Brennan
Next up in Cat Stories is I See You, Bianca taken from Maeve Brennan’s collection, The Rose Garden. Bianca is Nicholas cat. Although Bianca is not as playful as Pink in Alice Adams’ The Islands, she is quite lovable in her own way. For starters, Bianca takes her grooming very seriously – not even a […]
Circe by Madeline Miller
I’m a big fan of Madeline Miller’s The Song of Achilles, which is so far my favorite out of all the Women’s Prize for Fiction winners. So I was very excited when Miller’s second novel, Circe came out in April. Circe, a goddess of sorcery in Greek mythology, is the daughter of Helios, the solar […]
Cat Stories: The Islands by Alice Adams
A new short story collection to start the new month! 🙂 After rummaging through my Everyman’s Library Pocket Classics Series pile, I picked Cat Stories curated by Diana Secker Tesdell (who also put together Love Stories), as I adore cats. I owned cats growing up, although unfortunately, our current apartment policy doesn’t allow pets. So […]
The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn
I was a bit afraid of reading The Woman in the Window at first. Most reviewers had said The Woman in the Window is something between The Girl on the Train and The Woman in Cabin 10 – two thrillers I didn’t enjoy much – so I didn’t have high hopes for it. But when […]
Tea with Mr. Rochester by Frances Towers: The Golden Rose
The Golden Rose, the final story in Tea with Mr. Rochester, is about Emily’s Aunt Essie. Emily is quite fond of her aunt, but ever since the arrival of Julia, Emily’s stepmother, Essie has been hardly invited to the Manor. Julia “a parrot-tulip, an elegant but gaudy creature with a variety of selves” don’t think […]
Caged by Ellison Cooper
Caged, Ellison Cooper’s debut, begins when two police officers Mike and Wilson get called to check out a strong stench coming from an abandoned house in Washington DC. When they arrive at the place, they realize they had been there exactly twelve days ago to respond to a 911 call – a girl had called […]
Tea with Mr. Rochester by Frances Towers: Lucinda
Lucinda, the shortest story in the collection, is another tale with a supernatural vibe. In fact, Lucinda is the family phantom at Paigles where the Quarles lives. Now Mrs. Quarles, mother of Venetia, Theodora, Clare, Duncan, and Lewis is not very happy about her children’s fascination with Lucinda. She thinks her children are “possessed” by […]
Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue
I won Behold the Dreamers in a giveaway lovely Nikki hosted last year but hadn’t got around reading it. With the crisis of child separation at borders making headlines in the US, I realized now is the best time for me to read it. Behold the Dreamers, which takes a close look at immigrants and […]
Tea with Mr. Rochester by Frances Towers: The Chosen and the Rejected
Another fascinating story! In The Chosen and the Rejected, Lucy Hillier and Florence Greg are two women who have been friends since childhood. Now both of them are at a stage in life where they have “found themselves in the predicament of having no niche in life to fill.” So when Lucy suggests that they […]
