Top Stories
Stories in BookClub that you’ll love, handpicked by our team.
How to Read the Novels of Charles Dickens
As many of you might recall, I have embarked on a journey to read all of the works of Dickens. Partly, I took this challenge on because he is my mother's favourite author. My mum is the person who got me into reading and remains my best reading buddy.
By Sam H Arnold8 months ago in BookClub
Touching Style
Yesterday, I did something laughably mundane. I got a haircut. During the worst of the pandemic, this was by no means as trivial a matter as it ordinarily had been. A catalogue of almost invisibly routine phenomena was lit up with fresh strangeness by that crisis. Other humans were feverishly wiping down their groceries with bleach or replacing their masks between sips of iced coffee. It was a time of fear, confusion and anxiety.
By D. J. Reddall8 months ago in BookClub
Rachel Reviews: To review or not to review?
It's been a strange week for this writer for many reasons, most of them requiring me to draw on emotional reserves that, for the most part, remain slumbering deep in my inner recesses, never needed in the charmed life I lead.
By Rachel Deeming8 months ago in BookClub
Review of 'Threads That Bind’
Debut author Kika Hatzopoulou has woven a mesmerizing story in Threads That Bind, a fantasy-mystery hybrid inspired by Greek mythology set in a world where the children of the gods inherit their powers. With no shortage of romance or complex family dynamics, this fast-paced tale exploring fate versus free will is sure to draw readers in from the start.
By Cyn's Workshop8 months ago in BookClub
The Woman In Me
I preordered this book the moment it was available. The Woman In Me is a great book that is full of raw and honest accounts. Over the years I have started to appreciate Britney even more. Britney needed this book to heal. Even if the book may be ghost-written, I felt her voice is present. This is the book that so many wanted to read after she had been silenced for so long. As a child and teenager, I had no idea how vilified Britney was. A childhood star that had been used and abused in every single way. The people who should have taken care of her exploited her.
By Chloe Gilholy8 months ago in BookClub
Holiday Pen Pal
The holidays are coming and it’s tough. This will be my second holiday season without my husband. Only last year it all happened so quickly after he died, I didn’t even have the time to think about it. I was overwhelmed with grief and simply didn’t care to please others with my presence. But now it’s been a year since Andrew’s death and I feel like some people expect me to move on, and join the festivities.
By Martyna Dearing9 months ago in BookClub
Do You Really Want to Read That?
I seem to have missed something very important. You have noticed that my other pieces this week have been stories about the shenanigans – a wonderful word, I think – in both Canada and the United States with the Speakers of our respective Houses (ours was chosen after a quick vote; the one down south does not really exist yet, and may not exist for quite some time). I commented to a reader of my piece on how the Republican Party seems to be akin to a pack of dogs that are just on the edge of becoming feral. This is fair. My other work involved poetry, a short story, but also, I decided to repost two particular pieces about this week’s other big news: the Nobel Prizes. Physics, Chemistry and Medicine have been covered so far, and this article will be published after the prize for Literature is handed out on Thursday…unless there is another delay as there was in the year that Bob Dylan became a laureate. Anything is possible (Jon Fosse anyone?)
By Kendall Defoe 9 months ago in BookClub
THIS IS NOT WHAT JANE WANTED. Content Warning.
It must be hard trying to adapt an unfinished book into a series television show. Especially an unfinished book with only 11 chapters. But Sanditon (2019), I would like to believe, truly tried their hardest to make the most out of what Austen started more than 200 years ago.
By Lauren Writes Austen9 months ago in BookClub
The not so Tragic, Greek Tragedy in Review
This is a review of Go the Distance by Jen Calinita, in the Twisted Tales Series. If you are familiar with the series then you know that each story will have a question that hints at what the implied twist for the Twisted Tale will be. For this story, the question is What if Meg had to become a Greek god?
By Donna Fox (HKB)9 months ago in BookClub
Banking and slavery in the 18th-19th Century
In the book "The Devils Half Acre", by Kristen Green, she highlights the practice of utilizing slaves as a means of collateral for the purpose of banking. I must say that I never before thought of people being a means of asset ascertainment to loans from a banking institution, neighbors and friends.
By Novel Allen10 months ago in BookClub
Book Review: The Phoenix King by Aparna Verma
In a kingdom where flames hold magic and the desert hides secrets, an ancient prophecy comes for an assassin, a princess, and a king. But none are ready to face destiny—and the choices they make could burn the world. “If we carry the burdens of our fathers, we’ll never know what it means to be free.” For Elena Aadya Ravence, fire is yearning. She longs to feel worthy of her Phoenix god, of her ancestors who transformed the barren dunes of Sayon into a thriving kingdom. But though she knows the ways and wiles of the desert better than she knows her own skin, the secrets of the Eternal Flame elude her. And without them, she’ll never be accepted as queen. For Leo Malhari Ravence, fire is control. He is not ready to give up his crown—there’s still too much work to be done to ensure his legacy remains untarnished, his family protected. But power comes with a price, and he’ll wage war with the heavens themselves to keep from paying it. For Yassen Knight, fire is redemption. He dreams of shedding his past as one of Sayon’s most deadly assassins, of laying to rest the ghosts of those he has lost. If joining the court of flame and serving the royal Ravence family—the very people he once swore to eliminate—will earn him that, he’ll do it no matter what they ask of him. But the Phoenix watches over all and the fire has a will of its own. It will come for all three, will come for Sayon itself….and they must either find a way to withstand the blaze or burn to ash.
By Marie Sinadjan10 months ago in BookClub