The Great Passage is the first that I’ve actually read of the many, many “Kindle First” books that I’ve downloaded for free in the past year or so since I became aware of the Amazon program. I can’t ignore the opportunity for a free book, but I’ve been so on top of my library queue and meeting self-imposed reading deadlines that I just haven’t gotten to any of these, which I mostly choose either based on the description being the least irritating of the group […]
A disappointing history of Nancy Drew, my childhood hero.
So aside from this gorgeous Scandinavian fairytale book I used to repeatedly check out from the library as a child*, the Nancy Drew books make up the entirety of my first real literary memories. When you have a bookworm for a child, know that that child will scour your entire house for any book it can find**, and will then proceed to read any and all books indiscriminately. This works out well for the child, generally, but you should know it’s going to happen. That’s […]
A truth universally acknowledged: dating is hard.
I enjoyed this book immensely but I have some issues with the style and also with the ending. Still, I heartily recommend it if you want a light, fun read that tells a story from a point of view many of us are not familiar with: a thirty something Muslim woman who is devout and modern at the same time. Sofia Khan works in publishing. She’s newly single and her sister is getting married. Her parents worry that she will never find a husband and […]
Worthy successor to “The Cuckoo’s Calling” by JK Rowling (aka Robert Galbraith)
This is the second of Galbraith’s “who-dun-its” starring the one-legged private detective Cormoran Strike, and the quality of the writing, the pace of the action, the depth of the characters and the evocative settings are an equal to the first in the series. Galbraith, aka J.K. Rowling, takes us behind the scenes of the vicious back-biting publishing industry, where one particularly unloveable author goes missing and then turns up horribly dead. Our hero Strike is still riding the high of his previous successful and high-profile […]