We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson is a short, fiction book, which I bought from a charity shop because it was a Penguin Modern Classic. The book is dark and interesting and strange. Mary Katharine or Merricat, 18, lives with her…
Utopia by Thomas More is one of those books I wanted to read for a while, I had it on the bookshelves, but kept postponing for some reason. I think seeing his painting on the wall of Oriel Hall made me want to read it…
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad – and Other Tales – is a short Oxford Classic. There are four stories in the book and it’s just above 200 pages, it is well worth reading. The author’s description is that he was a Polish born in…
My Ántonia by Willa Cather is the final novel in the Great Plains trilogy, a book published over 100 years ago, a classic. This can be read as a stand alone novel even if it’s part of a trilogy. The story takes place at the…
The Plague by Albert Camus is a modern classic and, after reading it, I can easily understand why. It is a beautifully written book, not very long either. The location for the book is Oran, a coastal town in North Africa, where Camus lived for…
Animal Farm by George Orwell is a historically accurate depiction of the Soviet regime under Stalin. I gave it a very well deserved 5 stars! Its subtitle is a fairy story, which is ironic and interesting at the same time. The book was banned during…
Selected Tales by Jacob Grimm, Wilhelm Grimm translated by Joyce Crick got 3 stars from me. It’s very simple why: 1 for the horrifying content + 5 for importance and translation, in average is a solid 3. I was amazed to see it described as…
I recently bought Victorian Fairy Tales by Michael Newton because I thought it would be a nice book to relax before going to bed. Well, some of the parts in these tales were a bit dreadful, but overall the stories were nice. Michael Newton edited…
Today is International Women’s Day and, to mark this occasion, I’ve decided to review The Blazing World and Other Writings by Margaret Cavendish. She is a fascinating, intelligent woman, highly educated. Lady Margaret published under her own name, something quite unusual for an upper class…