• Book Reviews

    Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding (1996) | Book Review

    Bridget Jones Diary book cover

    Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding Genres: British Literature, Fiction Original Publication Date: 1996 Source: I purchased this book Goodreads Find the Author: Facebook, Goodreads, Amazon Bridget Jones’s Diary is the devastatingly self-aware, laugh-out-loud account of a year in the life of a thirty-something Singleton on a permanently doomed quest for self-improvement. Bridget resolves to: reduce the circumference of each thigh by 1.5 inches, visit the gym three times a week not just to buy a sandwich, form a functional relationship with a responsible adult and learn to program the VCR. With a blend of flighty charm, existential gloom, and endearing self-deprecation, Bridget Jones’s Diary has touched a raw nerve…

  • Book Reviews,  Resistance

    Heronfield by Dorothy Balchin (2012) | Book Review

    HeronfieldBookCover

    Heronfield by Dorinda Balchin Genres: British Literature, Fiction, History Original Publication Date: 2012 Source: I purchased this book Goodreads Find the Author: Website, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, Amazon Heronfield. Amidst the bombs and bullets, the fear and confusion, it is sometimes the battles within our hearts that leave the deepest scars. Experience a sweeping saga set in war-torn Europe during the desperate years of the Second World War. At its heart is a cast of characters who draw us into their lives from the defeat of Dunkirk to the final victory: Tony, a young man barely in his twenties who experiences the horror of Britain’s first defeat and offers his unique…

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    Frost In May by Antonia White | Book Review

    Frost In May Book Cover

    Frost in May by Antonia White Genres: British Literature, Fiction, Religion Original Publication Date: Originally published in 1933. Republished by Virago Books in 1978. Source: I purchased this book Goodreads Find the Author: Website, Goodreads, Amazon In Frost in May, Nanda Gray, the daughter of a Catholic convert, is nine when she is sent to the Convent of Five Wounds. Quick-witted, resilient and eager to please, she accepts this closed world where, with all the enthusiasm of the outsider, her desires and passions become only those the school permits. Her only deviation from total obedience is the passionate friendships she makes. Convent life is perfectly captured – the smell of…

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    The Greengage Summer by Rumer Godden | Book Review

    Greengage Summer book cover

    The Greengage Summer by Rumer Godden Genres: British Literature, Fiction Original Publication Date: 1958 Source: I purchased this book Goodreads Find the Author: Website, Goodreads, Amazon Rumer Godden’s wonderfully evocative novel The Greengage Summer is set in the champagne country of France during that “hot French August” sometime during the 1920s. Mrs. Grey brings her five young children to a hotel in the French countryside for the summer. But when she is struck down by a sudden illness and hospitalized, the siblings are left to fend for themselves. They soon meet a charming Englishman, Eliot. Eliot’s interest becomes more and more focused on the eldest of the Grey children, sixteen-year-old…

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    Me Before You by Jojo Moyes | Book Review

    Me Before You book cover

    Me Before You by Jojo Moyes Genres: Fiction, British Literature Original Publication Date: 2013 Source: I purchased this book Goodreads Find the Author: Website, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, Amazon, Instagram Louisa Clark is an ordinary girl living an exceedingly ordinary life—steady boyfriend, close family—who has barely been farther afield than their tiny village. She takes a badly needed job working for Will Traynor, who is wheelchair-bound after an accident. Will has always lived a huge life—big deals, extreme sports, worldwide travel—and now he’s pretty sure he cannot live the way he is. Will is acerbic, moody, and bossy—but Lou refuses to treat him with kid gloves, and soon his happiness means…