Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding | Book Review
Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding Original Publication Date: 1996 Genres: British Literature, Fiction Source: I purchased this book Goodreads 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 with millions of readers the world…
Heronfield by Dorothy Balchin | Book Review
Heronfield by Dorinda Balchin Original Publication Date: 2012 Genres: Fiction, History, British Literature Source: I purchased this book Goodreads 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 talents to the war effort, only to find…
Frost In May by Antonia White | Book Review
Frost in May by Antonia White Original Publication Date: Originally published in 1933. Republished by Virago Books in 1978. Genres: Fiction, Religion, British Literature Source: I purchased this book Goodreads 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 beeswax and incense; the petty cruelties…
The Greengage Summer by Rumer Godden | Book Review
The Greengage Summer by Rumer Godden Original Publication Date: 1958 Genres: British Literature, Fiction Source: I purchased this book Goodreads 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 daughter Joss. Summer in France The…
Me Before You by Jojo Moyes | Book Review
Me Before You by Jojo Moyes Original Publication Date: 2013 Genres: Fiction, British Literature Source: I purchased this book Goodreads 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 more to her than she expected. When she learns…
