What makes a human? Is it bone, flesh, or muscle? The brain and central nervous system? Or is it the words we think, speak or put down on paper? Strange Bodies is an unusual thriller with a literary bent that verges on unsettling at times. Dr Nicholas Slopen has been dead for a year. So when he turns up at the door of an old girlfriend, looking and sounding different but otherwise identical, she doesn’t bat an eyelid. Perhaps it was a case of mistaken […]
A poignant tale of motherhood and finding your place in the world.
Part morality tale, part metaphor and part poetic fable, The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly is a short novella that was a bestseller in the author’s native Korea. It tells the story of the short but hard fought life of a small hen and her struggle to find her place and purpose in the world. Naming herself Sprout, she has one goal initially – to break free from her battery cage and raise an egg of her own. She is left for dead by […]
A nostalgic meditation on friendship, drifting apart, and what drives people to create video games.
YOU is a contemplative and finely crafted novel where every page bleeds with love for the medium and old acquaintances. Russell and his childhood friends Darren, Lisa and Simon were four very different kids brought together by a love of roleplaying games and programming. While his friends went on to form one of the most successful gaming companies in the industry, Russell instead spent his post-degree life drifting through various unfulfilling jobs. 1994 rolls along, and he finds himself winding up with a job at […]
A charming and enjoyable romp through the world of books and Google (oddly enough.)
Mr Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore is a rare thing – a book with one foot in the past and one in the future. It manages to toe the line between a call-to-arms for an open and free digital archive of books, and a celebration of more traditional bookshops and authentic crinkly tomes. It’s the tale of a young designer called Clay who accepts a job at a small bookshop and slowly ends up falling headfirst into a strange conspiracy replete with black-robed acolytes, a mysterious code […]
Golden Boy
I’ve been recommending Golden Boy to everyone lately but I’ve had a tough time coming up with a review that can do justice to the book. Here goes…. Golden Boy is about Max, an intersex teenager in present day England. When Max is taken advantage of by a childhood friend, he begins to question who he is and what intersexuality actually means for him. In addition, his parents, both trying to do the best for Max, weigh in with opposing opinions. There’s also Max’s love […]
Great vampire premise, bad vampire execution
This was the second selection of my brunch book club, not my usual fair, but I was excited to read a bit of Young Adult fiction because my life as of late has been busy so at least I could get another book read under my belt. I’m a big vampire fan so I went into this cautiously optimistic. So many vampire tales have let me down tremendously (I’m looking at you, Twilight) so I didn’t get my hopes up, but went into this looking […]
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