I kept seeing this book pop up on bookish friend’s lists and recommendations. It’s very, very short so I decided to give it a go. It was a lovely little book, but I’m not sure it deserves the level of fawning and adulation I’ve heard some people give it. Still, at 97 pages, you don’t have much to lose by trying it. The book documents the decades long love affair between an American woman (Helene Hanff) and a British bookshop (Marks & Co.). The story […]
I really wish she hadn’t kept addressing her letters to “Daddy”
3.5 stars Jerusha “Judy” Abbott is a Canadian orphan, who at 17 is still living in the orphanage, mainly because they are using her as free help. She is frequently told that she needs to keep her strong opinions and overactive imagination to herself, or nothing will come of her. She dreams of becoming a famous author and when a wealthy benefactor of the orphanage offers to send her to college on a scholarship, she is closer to achieving said dream. She doesn’t know who […]
Finding your way out of the books and into the real world
Disclaimer! I got this from NetGalley in return for a fair and honest review. Samantha Moore has spent most of her life in foster care. Having tried to hold down a job on her own, she reluctantly accepts a scholarship offered by an anonymous benefactor, to Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. The scholarship will only be available as long as she completes her degree, and writes about her progress to the foundation, care of the CEO, who hides behind the name Mr. Knightley. […]
This is what happens when you get overly ambitious about your science projects
I refuse to spoilertag anything in this review, because people, this book is nearly 200 years old. You’ve had ample time to read this book, if anything in my review spoils it for you, on your own head be it. Captain Robert Walton writes letters to his sister Margaret, recounting his journey to the North Pole in a quest for scientific fame. He writes of the strange and charismatic man they rescue in the wilderness, a Victor Frankenstein. Through Walton’s letters, we also get Frankenstein’s […]
I know I’m late, but I really did like it when I finally got round to reading it
Because I read this book a month ago, and the plot is somewhat convoluted, I am resorting to the plot summary from Goodreads to help me explain what the book is about: Bernadette Fox is notorious. To her Microsoft-guru husband, she’s a fiercely opinionated partner; to fellow private-school mothers in Seattle, she’s a disgrace, to design mavens, she’s a revolutionary architect, and to 15-year-old Bee, she’s a best friend, and simply, Mom. Then Bernadette disappears. It began when Bee aced her report card and claimed […]