Nonfiction

Rape and genocide

This is such an important book to read, but it hardly needs any warning that it is not bedtime reading. Christina Lamb is a British investigative journalist who travels to many parts of the conflict-ridden world we live in, recording...

A chronicle of familial mental illness

At first, the Galvins of Hidden Valley Road, Colorado, seemed to be like any other family, albeit an unusually large one — Don and Mimi Galvin had 10 boys followed by 2 girls. This was exactly what they wanted. “The...

Code of Silence

The title of this book comes from the IRA’s mantra that all its cadres are taught that when captured and questioned, they are to stonewall, to say nothing. It also is at the heart of one of the many stories...

Hens and Weans

Shuggie Bain, winner of the 2020 Booker Prize, deserves all its accolades. To successfully distill real life into fiction is something only highly gifted novelists can achieve, and that this was written by a debutant, is eye opening. It is...

Upstairs, Downstairs in the White House

Brower has collected stories from the staff who serve within the White House for this book, spanning 5 decades, 10 administrations, and from all ranks, from butlers, maids, chefs, florists, doormen – and also from former first ladies, and first...

Shallow Inspection

~ The Year of Living Danishly: Uncovering the Secrets of the World’s Happiest Country. By Helen Russell ~ This is one of those rather unsatisfying books where your interest in the topic or content keeps you reading, but where the...

Contrasting Cultures

~ Names for the Sea: Strangers in Iceland. By Sarah Moss ~ I have so enjoyed all of Moss’ fiction that I bought her non-fiction book without hesitation. And I have not been disappointed. Her careful, thoughtful, skilful writing in...

Daawat-e-Ishq: For the Love of Food & Films

Call it a sign of the times. After weeks of baking and cooking, I’ve now moved on to…reading cookbooks. Browsing my collection, Indian cookbooks mostly found on bookstore bargain tables over some 20-30 years, of course, I had to start...

ISIS Women

Guest House for Young Widows, by Azadeh Moaveni The title is not apt, regretfully, for all its intriguing promise, because the guest house for widows actually only plays a very tiny part in this quite lengthy volume. The guest house...

Life Passages

Good Boy. My Life in Seven Dogs. by Jennifer Finney Boylan What a charming notion, to trace one’s life through the dogs in one’s past. The title of Jennifer Finney Boylan’s novel is immediately captivating to a dog-lover. Within two...