The inky darkness of winter is descending and Halloween is casting forth it’s spooky shadows which makes it an excellent time to talk about the gothic novel. This is the genre that bursts at the seams with atmosphere and creepiness, oozes with impending doom and drips with the mournful shrieks of the wretched. In short, these are the books which beg to be read in the oft cheerless gloom of the colder months. At the very heart of the gothic novel lies a world shrouded in doubt, particularly with regard to the spiritual and supernatural. These books toy with the…
Category: <span>READING</span>
~A Place For Us Fatima Farheen Mirza Finally, a book that checked all my boxes for a fabulous read. And what an astonishing debut novel. It’s a book about family and the myriad betrayals, misconceptions and misunderstandings that take place over the years and fracture the whole into little pieces. It starts at the wedding of Hadia, the eldest daughter of Rafiq and Layla and older sister to Huda and Amar. Amar has returned for his sister’s nuptials after abruptly leaving the family three years prior. From here the book does what I love above all else…meanders slowly back and forth…
I think it’s safe to say that afternoon tea is generally regarded as one of the most English of afternoon past times. Anna, the seventh Duchess of Bedford gets credit for adding such a delightful addition to the day back in 1840 after she got rather peckish in the late afternoon before an eight o’ clock dinner. It was only a matter of time before she started inviting all of her peckish friends to join her and by the 1920’s, afternoon tea had turned into a full-blown affair, frequently with dancing in posh hotels. It makes one want to swoon…
There’s something about summer that brings out the bartender in me. I suppose it must be the allure of sitting outside and enjoying the balmy evening air to the accompaniment of a little jazz, the twinkle of fairy lights and nibbles. Oh, and the fireflies. Never get tired of watching the fireflies in the summer. I consider them payment for the humdity. Anyway, here’s a round up of a few cocktail books I have on hand at home and given that it’s wedding season I also think they’d make a great gift with a bottle of premium liquor… and maybe…
~The Woman in the Window A.J.Finn Well, imagine…a thriller that actually thrills and doesn’t induce you to lob it in the bin. This book seemed to get so many great reviews that I found myself unable to pass it up. And it’s really good…but only if you like slow atmospheric reads and not ones that are heavy on action and drama. The book jacket refers to it as a “sophisticated novel of psychological suspense that recalls the best of Hitchcock” and that’s exactly what it is. Anna Fox lives alone in her NYC brownstone and is completely unable to venture outside and…
By Its Cover is a series of posts wherein I read a book based solely on my love of the cover. No reading the jacket, no checking reviews! I just could not stay away from this book with its crazy and colourful concoction on the cover (alliteration wholly unintentional). It smacks of a sci-fi futuristic setting, so there’s that. But I still couldn’t resist giving it a go. It looks a little like a bird of paradise that has bloomed but then decides to just keep on going… in whatever direction it fancies in the moment. I did have to read…
By Its Cover is a series of posts wherein I read a book based solely on my love of the cover. No reading the jacket, no checking reviews! Based on the true story of Judge Joseph Crater, a New York Supreme Court judge who one summer night in 1930 gets into a cab and is never seen again. At the time his disappearance created a media firestorm and to this day, nobody knows what happened to him. In Ariel Lawhon’s book Crater’s story belongs to his wife Stella, their maid Maria and Ritzi, Crater’s rumoured showgirl mistress, all of whom have…
~Lincoln in the Bardo George Saunders I imagined this to be a long dense novel, one which I would have to slog my way through while convincing myself I was enjoying it. So I was a little surprised to find it to be a mere 330 pages or so, many of which have very little in the way of writing on them, which makes it a surprisingly quick read for such a literary novel. It is breathtakingly original and while — strange — once you get into it, it is both poignant and wildly funny. I love books which take a…
I stumbled upon this Penguin Random House post recently, lured in of course, by the desire to see if their list in any way echoes my own. Not that I have a real, written down list of such books, but there is one floating endlessly around in my head. I’ll be adding these books to this list. ++War and Peace Leo Tolstoy Ah, yes, War and Peace. Surely this book wears the crown as the classic book that everyone has been meaning to read. The granddaddy of the must-read nobility. How many people floating around in the universe have had…
By Its Cover is a series of posts wherein I read a book based solely on my love of the cover. No reading the jacket, no checking reviews! Just look at that cover. It cracks me up every time I see it. If those boys aren’t English then I’m the Queen of Sheba! I found this book in a used bookstore drawn instantly by those rascally faces and the title that seemed so appropriate. This just had to be a novel set in England. And indeed it is — Birmingham of the 1970’s. It is framed by opening and closing pages…