She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan
I felt like a bit of a dumb-arse after picking up She Who Became the Sun. I don’t know if it was just me stumbling around blindly perhaps, but it took me a good long time to realise that the this book was a reimagining of the Ming Dynasty’s rise to power. The ebook version of the book didn’t have a blurb on the back cover, true, and that might have helped. But it did have a map of north east of China on one […]
Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev
Cbr14bingo New This is a new translation by Nicolas Paternak Slater and Maya Slater, and it is a novel about the clash of old and new ideas If you have been meaning to read one of the great Russian novels but are put off by the length of those written by Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky, I’d like to suggest that you take a look at the works of Ivan Turgenev. A contemporary of those two illustrious writers and brilliant in his own right, Turgenev covers similar […]
The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz
CBR14Bingo – New — This is both a newish book and an author new to me. We begin with Jacob Finch Bonner, a character we are told early on who decided that he wanted to be a great writer long before he knew anything about voice or writing or books or anything. The Finch in his name is an affectation, taken from his love for To Kill a Mockingbird. Now 10 years into his writing career, he’s published two novels, one moderately successfully, and […]
The Maker of Swans by Paraic O'Donnell
What looks like a recipe for potential nonsense is actually a truly surprising and unique thriller! Paraic O’Donnell follows up the Victorian spiritualism of The House on Vesper Sands with another historical mystery, but where I was expecting (and hoping for, honestly) a continuation of the former, The Maker of Swans jumps head-first into the 20th Century and dares the reader to catch up. A butler tries his damndest to keep his employer safe, sane, and sober- but the draws of the Jazz Age have the […]
