For many, Alaska is the last frontier, but for Josie and her two kids it’s the first chance to be free, to explore, to heal. Escaping from a series of emotionally damaging events, Josie takes Paul (age 8) and Anna (age 5) on a spur of the moment adventure into Alaska in a recreational vehicle…
Category: Book Reviews
Storm in a Teacup
When looking at two eggs – shell and all – how can you tell which one is hard boiled and which isn’t? This, among other everyday phenomena, is a mystery that Helen Czerski unpacks in Storm in a Teacup, using the laws of physics to explain our daily life. If you’re thinking, “my brain hasn’t worked…
Big Little Lies
If you didn’t think that kindergarten politics could be life or death, then you’ve clearly never visited the Pirriwee primary school. This year, the annual trivia fundraiser night ends with ambulances and an accident. Or was it? As an investigation ensues, it becomes apparent that the children at Pirriwee aren’t the only ones not telling…
Crying in H-Mart
*Tear Warning* Given the title, it shouldn’t be a shock that this is a memoir that pulls at your heart. Michelle Zauner is a founding member of a band called Japanese Breakfast (she’s Korean, that’s a big part of the book so don’t get confused), but before she found success in music, she was an…
The Boys in the Boat
I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve always thought rowing was a fairly straight-forward sport (pun intended), but I have far more appreciation for it, and the individuals who participate in it, having read this book. Brown takes the reader on a journey from Seattle to Berlin for an incredible feat in 1936 I…
Everything I Know About Love
In a book that reads like a well-written diary, Alderton lets the reader into the raw, brilliant and broken corners of her life. Beginning in her teens and travelling through to her thirties, Alderton covers love, grief, self-discovery, the perils of MSN Messenger, realities of online dating, and the love of romantic partners and lifelong…
How Lucky
Daniel lives in Athens, Georgia. He works as a social media manager for a regional airline, mainly dealing with irate football fans on game weekends. He has a loving mother who gives him his space and a best friend who comes over daily. He’s also in a wheelchair. Daniel has a good routine going, a routine that…
A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal
MI6, counterintelligence during the Cold War, and double agents – all wrapped up in the unbelievable account of Kim Philby’s career. Through his friends– fellow MI6 agent Nicholas Elliot and head of CIA counterintelligence James Jesus Angleton – Philby was able to derail an unbelievable amount of Anglo-American spy operations. Carried through department inquiries and moments of…
Scabby Queen
Clio Campbell is a force to be reckoned with. Her curly red hair makes a visual impact on her audience and her lilting voice, while beautiful in a song, carries indignant vitriol when campaigning for the causes she cares about. And then, days before her 51st birthday, it all stops. Scabby Queen unpacks the story of Clio’s…
Motherwell
Motherwell, for readers not in Scotland, is a town outside of Glasgow that was structured around the steel and iron industry until the late-80s/90s when strikes and the closure of Ravenscraig Steelworks caused massive unemployment. The late Deborah Orr’s memoir is a reflective account of the ways the town shaped her parents’ lives and, in…