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Tag Archives: fiction
My Favourite Thursday Next Novel: The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde
The Well of Lost Plots in the third installment of the speculative, absurdist Thursday Next Series by Jasper Fforde… Continue reading
Posted in Adventure, British, Contemporary, Fantasy, Fiction, General adult audience, Novel, Speculative Fiction
Tagged absurdist, action, adventure, British, bureaucracy, classics, convoluted plot, fantasy, fiction, greed, humour, Jasper Fforde, literature, memory troubles, novel writing, publishing, quirky, rich setting, satire, shady business practices, society, Thursday Next, well written, Wordplay
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A children’s series that ages with its audience: Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill captures 10 year old life well
Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill is the third in Maud Hart Lovelace’s Betsy-Tacy series. The girls are now 10 years old and the largely standalone chapters of the first two books smoothly transition into larger story arcs … Continue reading
Posted in 10 years and up, 20th Century Children's, 7 years and up, American, Children's, Children's Classic, Children's Classics, Coming of Age/Rites of Passage, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Novel, Uncategorized
Tagged Betsy-Tacy books, childhood, children's classic, early 20th century, fiction, friendship, good out loud, growing up in America, historical, humour, illustrated, imagination, Maud Hart Lovelace, mid-western United States, play, school, semi-autobiographical, siblings, society, starting school
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Would you like world-ending pink topping with that? Lost is a Good Book is a generous second helping of Thursday Next from Jasper Fforde
Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde is the second book in the Thursday Next series. Despite a sudden celebrity for saving Jane Eyre and improving the ending, not every one is happy with what Thursday has done. A … Continue reading
Posted in British, Contemporary, Fantasy, Fiction, General adult audience, Novel, Speculative Fiction
Tagged absurdist, action, adventure, apocalypse, British, bureaucracy, convoluted plot, fantasy, fiction, greed, humour, Jasper Fforde, legal trouble, literature, novel writing, probability, quirky, rich setting, satire, shady business practices, society, supernatural, Thursday Next, vampires, well written, Wordplay
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Mansfield Park: A mature but, for us, challenging novel by Jane Austen
Of all Jane Austen’s heroines, Fanny Price of Mansfield Park is surely the least appealing, the most ‘foreign’ to our age. Unlike Emma’s assertiveness and Lizzy’s humour, Fanny’s combination of self-effacement and moral conviction are at odds with modern core … Continue reading
Posted in 18th Century, British, Classic, Fiction, General adult audience, Novel, Novel of Manners, Young Adult
Tagged adoption, adultery, better than the movie, character-driven, childhood, clergymen, divorce, family, fiction, integrity, Jane Austen, marriage, morality, navy, observant, self-control, upbringings
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Bucketlists and marriages of convenience: The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery uses a bunch of tropes before they were popular
The Blue Castle was L.M. Montgomery’s only book written for adults and my favourite of her non-Anne books. Really the only difference between it and her young adult novels is that the heroine is 29 and unmarried teen pregnancy is … Continue reading
Posted in 20th Century, 20th Century Light Fiction, Canadian, Fiction, General adult audience, Light Fiction, Novel, Romance, Young Adult
Tagged Canada, cats, classic tropes, death, drunkness, family, fiction, individualism, L.M. Montgomery, lighthearted read, marriage of convenience, romance, spinsterhood, teen pregnancy
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Multifaceted Australian crime fiction: The High Commissioner by Jon Cleary
The High Commissioner by Jon Cleary is the first in the Scobie Malone series. Malone, a police detective, is sent to London to bring back the Australian High Commissioner for the decade-old murder of his wife. Malone finds himself in … Continue reading
Posted in 20th Century, 20th Century Light Fiction, Australian, Crime fiction, Fiction, General adult audience, Novel
Tagged 1960s, 20th Century, adventure, Australian, character-driven, crime, endearing protagonist, fiction, first in a series, Jon Cleary, justice, mild romance, Murder, police, politics, Scobie Malone, terrorism, underworld, violence, wartime
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Pleasant, light reading that leaves me with a warm feeling towards my fellow-human beings: The 44 Scotland Street series by Alexander McCall Smith
The 44 Scotland Street series by Alexander McCall Smith is a modern serial novel published daily in the Scotsman and subsequently in book form. It follows a number of characters in Edinburgh as they drink coffee, negotiate childhood with a … Continue reading
Posted in British, Contemporary, General adult audience, Light Fiction, Scottish, Serial Novel
Tagged Alexander McCall Smith, character-driven, child-raising, dogs, fiction, gap year, gentrification, good out loud, growing up, humour, lighthearted read, men and women, mild romance, modern life, music, narcissism, neighbours, poetry, Scotland, Scottish, social class, society, uni student life
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Climbing trees, cutting your own hair and making messes with all the things you find in the kitchen: Maud Hart Lovelace’s second Betsy-Tacy book beautifully captures the experience of being 8 years old
Betsy-Tacy and Tib continues Maud Hart Lovelace’s engaging series of early 20th century American childhood. Betsy, Tacy and their new friend Tib are now 8-year-olds. Life is full of adventures, often with their genesis in Betsy’s fertile imagination. In this … Continue reading
Posted in 20th Century Children's, 5 years and up, American, Children's Classics, Novel
Tagged 5 and up, American, Betsy-Tacy books, childhood, children's classic, early 20th century, fiction, friendship, good out loud, growing up in America, historical, humour, illustrated, imagination, Maud Hart Lovelace, mid-western United States, play, school, semi-autobiographical, siblings, society, starting school, well written
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Our attitudes and experiences of near neighbours haven’t changed all that much in the last 160 years, if Emily Eden’s The Semi-Detached House is any guide
The Semi-Detached House by Emily Eden is a social satire written in the mid-19th century. When young Lady Chester moves into a semi-detached house in the suburbs she anticipates being forced into awkward intimacy with vulgar neighbours, whose daughters will … Continue reading
Posted in 18th Century, British, General adult audience, Novel, Novel of Manners, Victorian
Tagged birds, British, fiction, friendship, having children, humour, mild romance, newly weds, novel of manners, observant, pregnancy, satire, society, some anti-semitism, suburban life, Victorian Era, women
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What would you do if your parent left you and your siblings in the car and never came back? That’s the start of Homecoming, a classic YA novel by Cynthia Voigt
The first in the Tillerman series, Homecoming follows the four Tillerman children after they are abandoned by their mentally ill mother in a car park. When she doesn’t come back they set out to find other relatives several states away. … Continue reading
Posted in 11 years and up, 20th Century YA, Young Adult
Tagged 1980s, adoption, American, boats, camping, character-driven, coming-of-age, courage, family, fiction, hardship, learning difficulties, mental illness, north-eastern United States, overcoming adversity, resourcefulness, siblings, single mothers, survival, Tillerman series, well written, YA classic
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