My book club chose this for the January meeting, and although I hadn’t even started it when the book club met at the beginning of the month I thought I’d give it a try anyway. I do remember seeing very positive mentions of it online last year but never felt the inclination to read it. […]
Told from a variety of point of views, and interspersed with flashbacks this book starts off with an affair that turns into an alleged rape. Sophie is married to James, the man accused in this case. Kate is the prosecuting barrister. One believes him guilty and will do everything to secure a conviction. The other […]
Based on the true story of Grace Marks, an infamous murderer in Canada in the 1840’s, Atwood’s book uses different narrators to tell the story, as well as interspersing the story with extracts from other works. From poems, fiction, newspapers of the time, and other sources. Although this is based on the real story, Atwood has, of course, fictionalised a great deal of the novel.
The two narrators are Grace herself, who tells her story in the first person, past tense, and Simon Jordan, the doctor investigating her claims of insanity or innocence. His parts are told by a third person narrator, and are in the present tense.
translated by Diane Oatley Bees are pretty cool insects. They are also pretty damn important. Insects in general are essential to the world we know, so maybe think twice before spraying those insecticides and getting rid of all the dandelions in your lawn. We need insects1 so we should be paying more attention to their […]
I picked this book up on impulse. I had finished a book the day before and hadn’t yet decided what to read when lunchtime came around. I scanned the library shelves and this was the only one that seemed to appeal, mainly I think, because of the cover. It’s pretty awesome looking. I had seen […]
I can’t remember where I first say mention of The only harmless great thing, and I never noted it down on Mount TBR, so I’m guessing it was sometime during that six month period of incredible internet-woes. I think I read a short story of hers, and then heard about this and pre-orderered it, but […]
I loved this book. Loved it. But I am totally aware that this is not a book that everyone will enjoy. It starts out with Inspector Neith investigating a death in custody. Her method of investigation includes reliving the mind of the deceased. And so we are introduced to Diana Hunter, a woman who refused […]
Eternal Sky; 1 Temur’s family are at war. His cousin and his brother have battled over who will get to be the next Khan. There is death all around him. Temur only survived the battle because he was so gravely wounded others probably thought him dead already and didn’t waste energy killing a dead man. […]
The Amazing Telemachus Family were about to reach dizzying heights of fame and fortune in the 1970s, when a live television magic display went all wrong and they were revealed as nothing but tricksters. Now, two decades on the family are still dealing with the fall-out from what happened then. Only they weren’t tricksters, they […]
First rec’d by Abigail Nussbaum – Strange Horizons When I first read about The Power I was both intrigued and a little put-off by the premise; women suddenly develop the ability to generate electric bolts and use them as a weapon, similar to how electric eels operate. This obviously has serious repercussions in society as […]
Visceral, violent, and awesome. A real page-turner.
Fifteen years ago, Susan Morrow left her first husband Edward Sheffield, an unpublished writer. Now, she’s enduring middle class suburbia as a doctor’s wife, when out of the blue she receives a package containing the manuscript of her ex-husband’s first novel. He writes asking her to read the book; she was always his best critic, […]