Why I was interested in this book To be honest, I am generally skeptical of friends’ book reviews as much as I am of bestseller lists because taste is very subjective and there are lots of popular themes & types of content that I have no interest in reading. However, as I hope you’ve also…
Category: Culture
Book Review: The Secrets of Florence
Why I was interested in this book: Last fall, my family took a lovely vacation to Italy. We started in Rome, took the high-speed train up to Venice and the ended our trip in Florence (with a final flight back out of Rome). In preparation for the trip, my sister and I had found some…
Book Review: The Writer’s Table — Famous Authors and Their Favourite Recipes
Why I was interested in this book The Writer’s Table caught my eye as I wandered through Anthropologie on a sunny Sunday afternoon. I really had no business buying anything that day, let alone a coffee table book, but the book’s concept & design were really captivating. I own quite a few art books that…
Book Review: Hamnet
Why I was interested in this book: I think I had heard of Hamnet, the novel, without making any effort to read it for multiple years. As you may remember, I often avoid modern, trendy novels. But, when the stars aligned for trailers of the film and promotion for the run of the play at…
Book Review: A Time of Gifts
Note: I’ve been on the struggle bus with book reviews for the past month or so—not because I haven’t been reading books. On the contrary, I’ve read quite a few good ones lately and I’ve felt rather guilty about not sharing the wealth. A few years ago, I decided that writing reviews on this blog…
Book Review: One Hundred Years of Solitude
I almost decided not to write a review on Gabriel García Márquez’s Nobel Prize Award-winning novel, One Hundred Years of Solitude. Not because I hated it or couldn’t finish reading—neither was true. More because I wasn’t sure what I would say about it or to whom I would recommend the book. I’m not sure I…
Book Review: Mrs. Dalloway
With this review of Mrs. Dalloway (Virginia Woolf), I have finally completed the pile of books I picked up a few years ago from The Winding Stair bookshop in Dublin (with the exception of a puzzle book). One of the other titles, How Should One Read a Book, also by Woolf, was a great little…
Book Review: The Adventures of Arsène Lupin, Gentleman-Thief
On my trip to New York City this spring, I picked up a pocket-sized edition of Maurice Leblanc’s seminal work, The Adventures of Arsène Lupin, Gentleman-Thief, in the gift shop of the New York Public Library. I was thrilled to find a copy in English because to my own dismay, I have yet been able…
Book Review: Tom Lake
Earlier this year I read The Dutch House by Ann Patchett and absolutely loved the storytelling. You can read my full review here, but my overall description would be that the novel was a poetic ode to family in all its beauty and complexity. The book felt rich. I am always years behind on best-seller…
Book Review: The Nine
I wouldn’t call myself a history buff, but I have always been interested in looking back to learn about the world through the lens of historical documentation. In school, I really loved history assignments, literature reviews, biopics, geography challenges and researching about any topic that brought me back into a previous time. But for some…
