1642. The Puritan colony of Massachussetts Bay. A young woman gives birth. The problem? She has not seen her husband in nearly two years and no one knows if he is still alive. So Hester Prynne stands, her child in her arms and a red A emblazoned on her chest, determined never to utter the father’s name.
Once upon a time, there were some teachers, two exasperated parents, a child psychologist, and an unexpected book recommendation.
A Roald Dahl classic about a grisly old grunion with a mouth like a puckered up dog's bottom, and one little boy's revenge.
My dad and I have a game in which we look at a book (we’re allowed to touch it and sniff it too) and can tell you when it was published. My worst estimate was twenty years out one time but, on the whole, we can date it well within a decade. It’s a great party trick but anyone can do it with the right knowledge and a little practice. To help you out, here are five ways to tell the age of a book just by looking at it.
Joe the normal soon becomes Joe the Barbarian when he finds himself summoned to Muddle Earth and expected to be a brave hero. He has been summoned by Randalf the Wise, Muddle Earth’s leading Wizard (*only wizard) to slay ogres, wrestle dragons, and bravely confront villains.
Ten books and a novella (so far) this year. Here's what I've been reading, but have I kept to my resolution to read better?
Reading is a joy. We read to learn, to relax, and to escape but we only have a limited amount of time. It can be so easy to feel guilty about abandoning a book part-way through but there are legitimate reasons to do so.
Someone keeps leaving cups of tea all over Maud’s house. And for some reason her cupboards are full of tinned peaches. It’s all very strange but she’s struggling to remember. One thing is certain though, her friend Elizabeth is missing and no matter what anyone says, Maud is going to find her.
Born in rural Shropshire around the time of Waterloo, Prue Sarn is a strong, independent soul, cursed by her hare lip never to be accepted nor loved. But this curse is her 'precious bane'.
For some reason, relationships between characters seem more powerful when they aren't the sole focus of the novel. Perhaps because there's more to life than romance, who knows? Whatever the case, these subplots are often overlooked in favour of the obvious. So, since it's February, here are five underrated romances in fiction.
