Category Archives: Contemporary

Paul Meets Bernadette by Rosy Lamb

Paul Meets Bernadette by Rosy Lamb is a picture book that is beautifully illustrated with oil paintings. It is the story of Paul, a goldfish, whose life is limited to swimming up and down, left and right, round and round, … Continue reading

Posted in Contemporary Children's, Picture Books, Under 5 years | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Wonder by R.J. Palacio

Wonder by R.J. Palacio is the story of ten-year-old August who likes Star Wars and Halloween and who just wants to be ordinary as he starts attending a regular school for the first time. But August isn’t ordinary and an … Continue reading

Posted in 10 years and up, Coming of Age/Rites of Passage, Contemporary Children's, Family Drama, Novel, Young Adult | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Rules of Summer by Shaun Tan

Rules of Summer by Shaun Tan is a book about… well it took me a while to decide. The first time I read it I thought it was about the experience of a child living in a world of seemingly … Continue reading

Posted in Australian, Contemporary Children's, Picture Books, Under 7 years | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Alone Together by Sherry Turkle

Alone Together is by a psychologist who has spent thirty years researching the effects of technology on human relating. Her findings: we are expecting more of technology and less of each other. The first half of the book is about … Continue reading

Posted in Contemporary, General adult audience, Nonfiction, Social Commentary/Analysis | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Joined-up Life by Andrew Cameron

Joined-up Life provides a Christian framework for ethics. It encourages ethical thinking rather than quick or simplistic answers. It’s readable and thought-provoking. It provides an overview of approaches to ethics before suggesting a framework for considering a topic from the perspectives … Continue reading

Posted in Australian, Christian Ethics, Christian Non-fiction, Contemporary, General adult audience | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is a delightful book set just after WWII and featuring an unlikely group of people who learn to love reading under the Nazi occupation of the British Channel Isles. It is an … Continue reading

Posted in American, Contemporary, Epistolary Novel, Fiction, General adult audience, Historical Fiction, Light Fiction, Novel, War Story | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment