Category: Historical Literature & Fiction

Book review by Dinh.

Read summary here.

Review:

To be honest, I have not heard of Bernadine Evaristo’s book Girl, Woman, Other that won the Booker Prize 2019. One of our readers recommended it and we took a look.

The book’s jacket blurb piqued our interest – themes of identity intersected with black British women set in Britain! That’s right up my alley!

Going in and not knowing what to expect, I was surprised how much I ended up enjoying it.

Here’s what I loved about the book and why you should check it out:

Book review by Dinh.

Review:

I was very keen on reading The Book Woman Of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson after reading the blurb on the back. I have never heard about the blue-skinned people of Kentucky nor Roosevelt’s Kentucky Pack Horse Library program and was intrigued!

My interest was also piqued by the controversy surrounding The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek and Jojo Moyes’ book The Giver of Stars. Some claiming that there was ‘plagiarism’ going on. I am not sure what all the fuss was about but facts are that Moyes book came out only five months after Richardson’s. Both books are set in Kentucky and about the Pack Horse Librarians. The story line between the two books are not at all similar.

Book review by Dinh.

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Review:

The cover of Next Year In Havana by Chanel Cleeton is just beautiful! Who wouldn’t want to read a book with such an enticing book cover?

I read some great reviews on Next Year In Havana and was excited to see if it lived up to its hype.

Although I enjoyed the book – it was good but not great – I thought that it was a fluffy romance with an interesting setting. (Cuba.)

Book review by Dinh.

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Review:

Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell got our attention because its title name is interchangeable with Hamlet, which is a play written by William Shakespeare. I’m not a big Shakespeare fan but I’m familiar with the play Hamlet.

We chose to read Hamnet partly because Maggie O’Farrell is a new author to us and also because it’s an historical fiction about Shakespeare’s family.

Book review by Dinh.

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Review:

If you have never read any of Khaled Hosseini’s books, please do so now! His 2003 debut novel The Kite Runner was a fantastic book and was a five stars read! We were curious to see if his subsequent book, A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007) was just as good.

My expectations were set high since I loved Hosseini’s first book.

So, was A Thousand Splendid Suns good as his first book? The bottom line is, it’s was just as good!

Here’s why A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini gets a 5 out of 5 stars from me.

Book review by Dinh.

Read synopsis here.

Review:

I love reading books that are set in different countries and show the values and cultures of that country. A Burning, a debut novel by Megha Majumdar piqued my interest because it is set in modern India.

Going in, I thought the book would be depressing, as books that I have read set in India are usually sad. There’s always the issue of poverty which shows the unfairness of life. Other than it being sad, I had no other expectations.

So I was pleasantly surprised by how much I loved this book. Yes it was sad, but the story line was interesting and the author did a great job in weaving a tale that made me think.

Book review by Dinh

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Review:

I always look forward to reading a book about different traditions and cultures. Etaf Rum’s debut novel A Woman Is No Man hits that mark with a story about three generations of Palestinian- American women.

There’s been a lot of praises for this book so I was eager to see if they were correct.

Was it worthy of all the praises? Most definitely yes! You know it’s a really good book when it gives you all the feels. Emotionally I bounce between sad and mad. Regardless, my heart was squeezed throughout this book. It was a gut wrenching book!

Book review by Dinh.

Read synopsis here.

Review:

I do so love reading about women who have made an impact in the world! Their contributions to the world are not always well known and it’s refreshing to discover historical women and see them in a different perspective.

A few years back I read Enchantress of Numbers by Jennifer Chiaverini which was an interesting read on the unrecognized accomplishments of Ada Byron King, who is considered to be the first computer programmer.

Review by Dinh.

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Review:

I have been wanting to read a book that moves you and leave you satisfied at the end of it. I have found it in The Story of Arthur Truluv by Elizabeth Berg.

The Story of Arthur Truluv (2017) is the first novel in the Mason series. There are two more books to follow, A Night of Miracles (2018), and The Confession Club (2019).