book review | The Reader's Room

Nov 8

Booker shortlist 2024: Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner

Our panel was very mixed on this book and so is the literary community. You can read our short reviews here: Creation Lake. The novel made it onto 2 of our predictions lists (Jen and Lisa correctly predicted it). The Booker judges had this to say about the book…

‘Sadie Smith – not her real name – is an FBI agent turned spy-for-hire, whose latest mission is to infiltrate a commune of eco-activists in rural France. She’s an extraordinary creation: sharp-minded, iron-willed, accustomed to moving fast and breaking things. As she investigates the group, she hacks into emails from their guru, a shadowy eccentric who has withdrawn from modernity into the ancient caves that dot the landscape; he has some beguiling ideas about the role of Neanderthals through history. What’s so electrifying about this novel is the way it knits contemporary politics and power with a deep counter-history of human civilisation. We found the prose thrilling, the ideas exciting, the book as a whole a profound and irresistible page-turner.’

You can read more about the novel and an author interview on the booker prize website: here.

What does our panel think of the odds of this book being this year’s winner? Keep reading to find out

Jul 30

6 Comments

2024 Booker Prize Longlist

It’s finally arrived! The longlist was announced about 10 minutes ago. Lots of leaks this year and looks like they were correct since I had seen half the list leaked.

How did our panel do? I I predicted 3 correctly, falling in the middle of the pack for our panel. I vacillated on Wild Houses since I had read it and thought it was good but not quite good enough to make the list. I was clearly wrong. I have a lot of reading to catch up on since I’ve only read 4 of the books on the list (and am halfway through my 5th thanks to the leaks). I thankfully already have copies of 10 of the books since most of them were on my radar to read for our Booker panel.

Our winners this year were Tracy and Anita who both correctly predicted 5. Lisa predicted 3, and Nicole came in at 2 correct predictions. Now the reading begins! Follow our panel as we make our way through the longlist and post abbreviated reviews for each book. Below is the full list of the longlist books.

Jul 19

2 Comments

This Plague of Souls by Mike McCormack

This Plague of Souls by Mike McCormack
Published: October 26, 2023
Rating: ★★★★
Order it here: This Plague of Souls

Nealon has just been released from prison and arrives to an empty house. Where are his wife and son? Why was Nealon in prison? As Nealon reflects on the past, loss, loneliness, fatherhood, and life’s meaning, his reveries are interrupted by a mysterious caller who appears to have answers to Nealon’s musings. Described as a metaphysical thriller or noir, This Plague of Souls is a follow up (although can be read as a stand alone) book to Solar Bones. But is it worth the read?

Jul 11

7 Comments

Exploring the New York Times 21st Century Book List

If you’re anything like me, you’ve been immersed in the recent New York times feature on the top 100 books of the 21st century. A big thank you to my work colleague and friend, John, who turned me on to it since I had been living under a rock and had missed out on the start of it.

May 6

1 Comment

Long Island by Colm Tóibín

Colm Tóibín is one of my favorite authors and I’ve been fortunate enough to attend several of his readings. Brooklyn was perhaps one of my least favorite of his novels, although I still liked it. Long Island is a sequel to Brooklyn, picking up about 20 years after the first novel ended. As we near Booker season, I was eager to read Tóibín’s latest since his books often make the lists and thanks to Scribner, I received an advanced copy. Did I find it to be Booker worthy? Keep reading to find out.

Apr 30

1 Comment

Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood

I am a huge Margaret Atwood fan and several of her books are among my favorites of all time. So when it came to selecting a book for Women’s History month for my joint reading challenge (my partner and I are reading and discussing a book each month), I immediately thought of this book. I’m late to reviewing it since I wanted to pair the review with the series and it took us over a month to get to the series. I had read Alias Grace when it first came out but didn’t remember too much about it. I tend to gravitate more toward her less conventional (e.g., dystopian, genre bending) books than her straight historical fiction novels. My partner had not read any of her books, and I was a bit tired of some of the other types of genres we had picked in prior months (I needed a serious break from books like Black Leopard, Red Wolf – sorry James). So it was the perfect time for us to read an Atwood novel. Here’s what I thought.

Mar 25

1 Comment

Parade by Rachel Cusk

I’ve been trying to be proactive this year in my selection of novels in preparation for a more informed Booker prediction list. So, I requested, and received, an ARC of Cusk’s latest novel Parade (thank you to Farrer,Straus, and Gioux and net galley).

I have a love-hate relationship with Cusk’s novels. They are brilliant but they also often make me feel like I need an advanced literary degree in order to make it through them. So how did this latest novel stack up for me?

Mar 20

2 Comments

James by Percival Everett

If you have yet to read a novel by Percival Everett, then you are missing out. While Everett has written 19 books over the last 20+ years, I didn’t discover his works until reading The Trees, which was shortlisted (it should have won) for the Booker in 2022. His latest novel, James, came out yesterday and will undoubtedly make its way onto at least one literary award list. I was lucky enough to get an advanced copy and here is what I thought…

Mar 7

3 Comments

Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James

Life has forced me into a reading slump for the last several years and outside of the Booker challenge, I’ve found it increasingly more challenging to find the time or mental energy to read (which is why you’ve mostly seen Book worm post on the blog). Luckily for me, my partner is supporting my effort to read more. For the last several years we have been alternating book picks, reading together, and discussing books. The one upside of long distance relationships is that you need to be creative in finding ways to connect and share things that are important to each of you. For me, that’s reading.

This year we have decided to pick books based on monthly themes (that are pretty broad) to push us to read more widely and diversely. To be clear, we are very different readers. He prefers non-fiction and preferably history and I read mostly literary fiction. In February, it was his turn to pick for black history month and to my surprise he picked a fantasy novel. As a non-fiction reader, fantasy is pretty much on the other extreme of the spectrum from his usual genres. His choice was Marlon James’ Black Leopard, Red Wolf. So how did this pick pan out?

Feb 18

2 Comments