On the last day of work before Christmas break, one of our much-loved colleagues was retiring and each of us was asked to provide a couple of book recommendations. Choosing novels was simple enough, after all, I had just finished The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern, but as I sat there, trying to think how […]
I have never viewed myself as much of a Halloween person. I tend to see it as a bother, rather than a seasonal celebration, but this year I missed it. In some ways, I went through the rhythms of the season; a trip to the pumpkin patch, my friend’s – socially distanced – pumpkin carving […]
Robert Galbraith is a fantastic crime writer. Maybe it’s because he’s a she and she’s JK Rowling. Yes, the very same and yes, Harry Potter. Now that’s over with, and in case you were in any doubt – which frankly you might have been if, like me, you ever tried to read Rowling’s The Casual […]
Reading Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid, felt like the best kind of holiday. In a year where enjoying a vacation seems nigh on impossible, this may just be the type of novel that takes you away from yourself and lands you some place truly great. Somewhere where you can take a […]
For a book with a very sweet title, Little Bee really knocks all expectations or preconceived notions, out of the park. My friend, Ms B, had lent the book to me, based on a couple of recommendations I had given her. She had told me little, aside from that it was a really good story […]
I often tell people that the book that really made me the reader I am today is The Secret History by Donna Tartt. What I realized recently is that, for all the times I cite this book and its importance to me, I actually no longer remember the story clearly! Certainly I remember that it […]
This week a friend of mine posted a question to Facebook, asking what the first thing we would like to do is when the quarantine is over might be? I’m notoriously bad about responding to such things, but it did make me think. I know that I want to go out with friends and eat […]
Sometimes I can’t help but pause and wonder whether, as a reader, the books we read find us, rather than vice versa? This idea has been playing around in my brain over the last few days, as I finished two of the loveliest books, both of which provided much needed respite from the pandemic that […]
It took me a couple of months of dallying in front of the top picks table at Bookshop Santa Cruz, before I finally picked up The Great Alone and walked it to the counter. I had been wooed by the cover, tempted by the author, moved by the remote setting and yet, a book about […]
I felt brave buying this book, fearing that it might be ‘worthy’ on the grounds of it having won the Booker Prize. That said, isn’t ‘worthy’ exactly what you should buy when your friend, who is also a reader, gifts you a $30 gift certificate for your favorite bookshop? Something that sits outside your norm, […]
Nutshell Book Reviews 