Find by Audience Age:
Find by Vintage
Find by Genre:
Category Archives: 20th Century
The most enjoyable ‘collected letters’ I’ve ever read: 84, Charing Cross Road (and the Duchess of Bloomsbury street)
From 1950 to 1970, an American scriptwriter, Helene Hanff, embarked on self-education by book with the aid of some British secondhand booksellers. 84, Charing Cross Road is a collection of the letters which passed primarily between Hanff and the shop’s … Continue reading
Posted in 20th Century, American, British, Diary, General adult audience, Letters
Tagged American, books, British, criticism, epistolary, friendship, literary criticism, literature, rationing, trans-Atlantic, travel
Leave a comment
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 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
Leave a comment
Deadly lizards, delinquent boys, a sinister warden and a whole lot of HOLES feature in Louis Sachar’s acclaimed YA novel
When Stanley Yelnats gets caught holding a celebrity’s stolen sneakers which have just fallen on him out of the sky, he knows that it’s because of the family curse acquired by his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather. Stanley is sent to Camp Green Lake, … Continue reading
Posted in 10 years and up, 20th Century, 20th Century YA, Adventure, American, Coming of Age/Rites of Passage, Family Drama, Fiction, Light Fiction, Novel, YA Classic, Young Adult
Tagged boys, camping, friendship, good out loud, growing up, hardship, history, overcoming adversity, resourcefulness, summer camp, survival, Texas, well written
Leave a comment
A powerful book about growing up and making sense of the world that I first read while I was growing up: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
I first read Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird in year 10 and it was the first really decent book I got to read for high school english (the junior syllabus really wasn’t inspiring – in year 8 we had … Continue reading
Posted in 20th Century, 20th Century Literature, American, Classic, Coming of Age/Rites of Passage, Fiction, General adult audience, Novel, Uncategorized, YA Classic, Young Adult
Tagged American South, childhood, fear, growing up, growing up in America, injustice, power, race, racism
Leave a comment
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
Leave a comment
A nuanced exploration of family dynamics, moral identity and cross-cultural perceptions: Where Angels Fear to Tread by E.M. Forster
The basic storyline of E.M. Forster’s Where Angels Fear to Tread revolves around the child of a mixed marriage and the various characters’ feelings, motives and actions regarding it. Yet this storyline is the vehicle for exploring the struggle between … Continue reading
Posted in 20th Century, 20th Century Literature, British, Classic, Family Drama, Fiction, General adult audience, Novel
Tagged character-driven, child-raising, classic, cross-cultural marriage, culture, drama, E.M. Forster, ethics, external viewpoint, family, observant, thought-provoking, well written
Leave a comment
The Sydney Opera House and the murder and narrative of Helga’s Web by Jon Cleary: Equally impressively constructed!
Helga’s Web is the second book in the Scobie Malone series (it stands alone but has key characters in common with The High Commissioner). During the building of the Sydney Opera House, a woman’s body is found in one of … Continue reading
Posted in 20th Century, Australian, Crime fiction, General adult audience, Novel
Tagged 1960s, Australian history, class, gender, intricate, Jon Cleary, justice, Murder, Plot-driven, police, politics, rich setting, Scobie Malone, society, Sydney, well written
Leave a comment
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
Leave a comment
Perelandra by C.S. Lewis: A Christian novel that grips thoughts, feelings and will
I found Out of the Silent Planet slow to get into but ultimately intriguing, enjoyable and thought provoking. In contrast, Perelandra, the second in C.S. Lewis’s Cosmic Trilogy, gets quickly into the action, was mesmerizing, suspenseful and thrilling by turns, … Continue reading