Henry James created characters able to embody his concern for elegance, intelligence, morality, and social ritual; and his work attains intellectual and spiritual dimension of a high degree—and his style, thoughtful, textured, teasing, can be complex to the point of profound obscurity, requiring attention, consideration, and deep understanding. The drama is increased for all that.
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A review of The Natural Way of Things by Charlotte Wood
The Natural Way of Things is an easy book to read but a hard one to digest. It holds up a mirror that shows an ugly reflection of the relationship between capitalism and misogyny that once glimpsed cannot be unseen. Though it’s disturbing, The Natural Way of Things is also powerful, beautiful, and utterly important.
A review of How to Be a Writer by John Birmingham and Use Your Words by Catherine Deveny
In How to Be a Writer, he is free with the swearing and the sexual metaphors, but also with solid advice about tackling writerly problems and going about making a living out of writing. The first part of the book deals with issues such as finding your voice as a writer, the need to specialise in the ever-changing world of publishing, getting a routine established (just not one like Hunter S Thompson’s, too much cocaine), and using technology to your advantage.
A review of Behind Closed Doors by B.A Paris
The chapters alternate between Present and Past. Sometimes an event occurs in the “present” which leaves us puzzled, but it is explained in one of the next “Past” chapters. One never gets lost in these time shifts, thanks to the chapter labelling, but one is often confused. By keeping us uncertain, author E.A. Paris is making us experience something of what Grace is going through.
A review of Coinman an Untold Conspiracy by Pawan Mishra
Mishra explores the banality of archetypical life in a nimble manner, raising questions about the nature of reality, and perception. Pawan Mishra has accomplished an exceptional, fascinating, and, at times entertaining book which also points the reader toward a moral lesson without doing so in a ‘preachy’ manner.
A review of The Book of Speculation by Erika Swyler
However, this is a book that once opened cannot be put down till the last satisfying page. Erika Swylers elegant style shines through in a way that will leave the reader longing for the release of her second novel. If it is anything like this one, Erika is destined for the best-seller lists.
An interview with Shannon Baker
The author of Stripped Bare talks about her setting in Nebraska Sandhills, some of the most surprising things she found in her research for the book, what fascinates her about writing, her typical workday, her other books, her upcoming project and lots more.
A review of Undying: A Love Story by Michel Faber
Faber’s grief is like a river that runs through the book, sometimes coming across as confused, sad, and angry, but never maudlin. Instead, grief becomes the starting point for a celebration of life. It’s not just Eva, and the many aspects of her life and death that are discovered through this work. It’s also about what it means to live in the face of such an inevitable and untimely death.
A review of The Three Books of Shama by Benjamin Kwakye
The Three Books is caught in the urge to distinguish without distinguishing. Just as its narrator has “the perception that neither blames nor absolves,” the story itself is sculpted in a way to avoid specificity: a nameless Democratic President is “accused” of being muslim and struggles against a Republican-controlled Congress to appoint a Justice
A review of The Ghosts of Malhado by H J Ralles
Ralles offers sources including books, maps, plats and photos, articles and websites she used as part of the research for this book. I enjoyed meeting Alex, Julieann and their friends and acquaintances, formed nice mental pictures of the situations and settings as I read, and thoroughly enjoyed the fast paced narrative woven around an old story regarding the particular setting of San Luis Treasure Island, Texas.