The Reader's Room

Read Around the World September 2022: Tonga

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We spent September on the idyllic Pacific islands of Tonga but how did we visit and what did we learn? 

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Lessons by Ian McEwan

Lessons by Ian McEwan
UK Publication: September 2022
Reviewed by: Book Worm
Rating: [★★★]

This ARC was provided by Random House UK (via NetGalley) in exchange for an honest review.

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Lost in Time by A.G.Riddle

Lost in Time by A.G.Riddle
UK Publication: September 2022
Reviewed by: Book Worm
Rating: [★★★★★]

This ARC was provided by Head of Zeus (via NetGalley) in exchange for an honest review.

Two-word review – Mind Blown

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The Skeleton Key by Erin Kelly

The Skeleton Key by Author Erin Kelly
UK Publication: September 2022
Reviewed by: Book Worm
Rating: [★★★★]

This ARC was provided by Hodder & Stoughton (via NetGalley) in exchange for an honest review.

Creepily Dark

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BookWorm Recommends: The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles

The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles
UK Publication: October 2021
Reviewed by: Book Worm
Rating: [★★★★★]

Wow just wow. My first Amor Towles and it won’t be my last

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Booker Shortlist Announcement

The Huntress by Kate Quinn

The Huntress by Kate Quinn
UK Publication: April 2019
Reviewed by: Book Worm
Rating: [★★★]

This ARC was provided by Harper Collins UK (via NetGalley) in exchange for an honest review.

Can justice ever be just black or white?

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Booker 2022 – Shortlist Predictions

Drumroll please ….

Booker Longlist: After Sappho

So our panel rounds out the longlist with After Sappho.

After Sappho – reviewed by panelists Book Worm, Anita and Tracy

Selby Wynn Schwartz is already an award-winning writer, but with After Sappho she joins that select band of authors who have been longlisted for the Booker for their debut novel.

Synopsis from Booker Prize website: 

A joyous reimagining of the lives of a brilliant group of feminists, sapphists, artists and writers from the past, as they battle for control over their lives, for liberation and for justice.

Told in a series of cascading vignettes, featuring a multitude of voices, After Sappho hails the female torchbearers of the late 19th and early 20th century.

WHAT did we want? To begin with, we wanted what half the population had got by just being born.

Sarah Bernhardt – Colette – Eleanora Duse – Lina Poletti – Josephine Baker – Virginia Woolf… these are just a few of the women sharing the pages of a novel as fierce as it is luminous. Lush and poetic, furious and funny – in After Sappho, Selby Wynn Schwartz has created a work that celebrates the women and trailblazers of the past – and also offers hope for our present, and our futures.

Booker Longlist: Glory by NoViolet Bulawayo

Book 12 – reviewed by panelists Book Worm, Anita, Jen, and Tracy.

NoViolet Bulawayo’s debut novel, We Need New Names, was shortlisted for the 2013 Man Booker Prize.

Synopsis from Booker Prize website:

This energetic and exhilarating joyride from NoViolet Bulawayo is the story of an uprising, told by a vivid chorus of animal voices that help us see our human world more clearly. 

A long time ago, in a bountiful land not so far away, the animals lived quite happily. Then the colonisers arrived. After nearly a hundred years, a bloody War of Liberation brought new hope for the animals – along with a new leader: a charismatic horse who commanded the sun and ruled and ruled – and kept on ruling…

Glory tells the story of a country trapped in a cycle as old as time. And yet, as it unveils the myriad tricks required to uphold the illusion of absolute power, it reminds us that the glory of tyranny only lasts as long as its victims are willing to let it.

So what did our panel think? Keep reading to find out.