Bye, Beautiful
Rowden White LibraryCompared to her beautiful sister Marianne, Sandy feels invisible.
Articles tagged with fiction
The Reserve
Rowden White LibraryWhen it comes to fiction, I generally read genre: romance, science fiction, crime, horror, fantasy, and any or all of the above with as many hyphens as you care to add.
Marcovaldo, or, The Seasons in the City
Rowden White LibraryMarcovaldo is a country bumpkin, at least at heart.
Mercy
Rowden White LibraryAndrea, the heroine-narrator is forced to endure endless humiliating assaults and this may be very upsetting territory for a lot of readers.
Nineteen Eighty-Four
Rowden White LibraryThis classic was written in 1948 when the writer worked at the BBC (aka the Ministry of Truth) and endured the housing shortage, ration coupon queuing and Churchillian post-war Britain divided the society into the haves and have-nots.
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
Rowden White LibrarySomething has to be said about Harry Potter; it is nothing short of a phenomenon that books targeted to an audience of pre-pubescent teenagers have such an older fan base.
Legend
Rowden White LibraryLegend is a ripping yarn that introduces the most stalwart and physically imposing character to ever grace the pages of a fantasy novel.
Fingersmith
Rowden White LibraryIt is the England of a Dickens novel: dark and drab, full of misery and hardship.
Oscar and the lady in pink
Rowden White LibraryOscar is ten years old and very sick. He has just undergone a failed bone marrow transplant and things don’t look good.
Peter Pan in Scarlet
Rowden White LibraryPeter Pan in Scarlet might have been called Peter Pan, Queen of the Desert if Geraldine McCaughrean had chosen to target this lovely book, the first official sequel to JM Barrie’s 1906 children’s classic, to a slightly different demographic.
Red Tears
Rowden White LibraryEmily Bowyer’s life is quietly spiralling out of control. She’s in her last year of high school, which is naturally going to be stressful. But Emily’s anxieties are growing all out of proportion.
Secret Scribbled Notebooks
Rowden White LibraryI read the first few paragraphs of Secret Scribbled Notebooks and was instantly transported back to my own teenage diaries
The Feast of the Goat
Rowden White LibraryThe story centres on the attempted assassination of Rafael Trujillo (‘the goat’), dictator of the Dominican Republic from 1930 -1961.
The Far Side of a Kiss
Rowden White LibraryBased on true events, Anne Haverty gives a voice to Sarah Walker, the serving maid who becomes the Romantic obsession of William Hazlitt, author and lodger in the boarding-house of Sarah’s family.
Slammerkin
Rowden White LibraryDrawing inspiration from fragments of the newspapers of the day, Slammerkin traces the downfall of Mary Saunders, born into the grating poverty of the 18th century working classes of seething, stinking London
Oryx and Crake
Rowden White LibraryBack in 1985, Atwood’s dysotopian novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, explored issues such as reproductive freedom, women’s rights, Christian fundamentalism and US military aggression.
The Color Purple
Rowden White LibraryWe are told the story of Celie, a poor black girl in the rural south of America who was raped by the man she thought was her father at the age of fourteen.
The Bell Jar
Rowden White Library“Wherever I sat . . . I would be sitting under the same glass bell jar, stewing in my own sour air.”
Veronika Decides to Die
Rowden White LibraryCoelho’s book really does have the ability to transform your life.
The Powerbook
Rowden White LibraryThe title makes the reference to the technology-driven structure of the story, but the theme is a classical one.
The Remains of the Day
Rowden White LibraryThis is the tale of a stale and stuffy old butler (Stevens) who suddenly finds himself on a motoring holiday (of all things!) at the suggestion of his employer.
Perfume : the story of a murderer
Rowden White LibraryOdours, sweet, seductive, sour, alluring and foul assail your senses from the first to the last pages of this enthralling and unique novel which traces the evil ambitions of the murderer, Jean-Baptise Grenouille from birth to death.
High Fidelity
Rowden White LibraryIf any book will do it, this is the one to get you started reading (and enjoying) fiction again.
1988
Rowden White LibraryThe prequel to Praise, which was recently made into a movie, 1988 is the story of Gordon trying to escape his pitiful existence in Brisbane.
The Monk
Rowden White LibraryMurder, rape, adultery, kidnapping, ambition, abuse of power, religious torment, sexual obsession, sword-fighting and the supernatural – The Monk has it all.
The Handmaid’s Tale
Rowden White LibraryA disturbing and chilling account of a society in which women are prohibited from reading, writing and speaking; where books are banned and biological bonds destroyed.
Black Venus
Rowden White LibraryA collection of short stories based on both real and imagined people.
Ham On Rye
Rowden White LibraryAlthough Post Office is Bukowski’s most famous novel, I think Ham On Rye is the most unforgettable of his books.
