Published: 20th November 2023 The Night Circus Synopsis: This spell-casting, dreamy novel is centred around a mysterious travelling circus, Le Cirque des Rêves, which only opens at night and is entirely black and white. It becomes an international sensation, delighting all who visit it, and even acquiring a group of fans that call themselves rêveurs. It …
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Published: 10th November 2023 Lessons in Chemistry Synopsis: This hilarious page-turner follows chemist Elizabeth Zott as she deals with the patriarchal society of the 1960s. She is the only female in her team at Hastings Research Institute. When she is forced to resign, she takes on the role of host of a new cooking show, …
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Published: 5th November 2023 A Life’s Music Synopsis: A Life’s Music is a melancholic, lyrical framed narrative. It starts with an initial narrator waiting for a train to Moscow, who is disrupted by music. He meets an old man, Alexeï Berg, playing silent piano, and during the train journey to Moscow he listens as the old …
Published: 19th October 2023 I visited the Cheltenham Literature Festival on Sunday the 15th. It was such a satisfying experience being surrounded by other bookish people. I was able to visit three very different talks, and had such a good time that I wanted to write a blog post on it! I first made a …
Published: 6th October 2023 Do Not Say We Have Nothing Synopsis: Madeleine Thien’s Do Not Say We Have Nothing is a complex and moving historical fiction that largely takes place in revolutionary China, spanning from the first days of Chairman Mao’s ascent, to the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. In 1990, ten-year-old Marie and her mother …
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Published: 15th September 2023 Summary and general non-spoilery thoughts: Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar is a classic Coming-of-age fiction. 19-year-old Esther Greenwood is awarded a one-month paid internship in New York City, and is expected to be having the time of her life there. However, she feels a gap between the expectations of society and …