With the winner of the YA Book Prize due to be announced at the end of May, I thought it would be a good time to bring back this topical debate post. Can we grow out of YA books … even award-winning ones? Continue reading Archive Nostalgia: Too Old for YA? Join the Debate!
Les Cirque des Reves, or Circus of Dreams, can only be entered between sunset and sunrise. Until one evening when it will disappear as suddenly as it arrived, only to reappear in another city, another country. The acts are familiar – acrobats, fortune tellers, mirror mazes, illusionists – but not as they have been seen before.
The performers seem to belong to another world, one where the boundaries of reality widen. When dark occurrences begin to blight the circus, an unprecedented force at its centre is finally revealed to them.
Because the circus is not the event – it is only the venue… Continue reading The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern: Fantasy World to Sink Into and Savour
Questioning the Canon is a new feature in which I hope to bring to light lesser-known books about a certain issue, which can be read alongside or instead of infamous ‘classics’.
People are starting to discuss whether the authors we hold up as cultural icons – Shakespeare, Dickens, Wordsworth – should be accompanied by previously marginalised writers. Our idea of what constitutes ‘great literature’ is becoming broader.
This can only be a good thing, as it means more diversity and social representation in what we read! Continue reading Questioning the Canon: Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea
Circe, daughter of Helios, is born with the voice of a mortal without the glow of a god. Shunned by her nymph family, she observes from a distance the gods’ cruelty and greed. When a defiant act of compassion leads to island exile, it is here that Circe finds the freedom to shape a self outside of her divinity.
More than a goddess, she is Circe, witch of Aiaia… Continue reading Circe by Madeline Miller: Entrancing, Empowering Adaptation of Ancient Greek Myth
Happy Easter! Spring is here, the blossom is out and everyone is slowly coming out of their winter stupor… It is the perfect time of year for an uplifting, life-affirming read and no book does this better than Ruth Hogan’s The Keeper of Lost Things! Continue reading Archive Nostalgia: The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan
After years of devastating war between the houses of York and Lancaster, peace is finally restored to England under the reign of King Edward IV. However, with Edward’s bitter and alienated younger brother, Richard, waiting in the wings, it seems that the cycle of vengeance is yet to be broken… Continue reading Theatre Review: Richard III (Headlong Productions)
If holiday snaps and selfies are making you roll your eyes every time you log into social media, turn your feed into a brightening bookish fix by following these diverse pages… Continue reading Top 10 Facebook Pages For A Brightening Bookish Fix
