Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

December 17, 2015.Reading time 5 minutes.

Budding designer Lola Nolan doesn’t believe in fashion… she believes in costume. The more expressive the outfit – the more sparkly, more wild – the better. And life is pretty close to perfect for Lola, especially with her hot rocker boyfriend. That is, until the Bell twins, Calliope and Cricket, return to the neighbourhood and […]

Mini-Reviews [1]

December 6, 2015.Reading time 4 minutes.

I usually review every book I read, but over the past few months there have been a few books that I didn’t feel like writing a full review about. It felt kind of weird to not write about them at all, so that’s why today I’m doing a couple of mini-reviews! The Night is Darkening […]

Fun Home by Alison Bechdel

December 4, 2015.Reading time 4 minutes.

Distant and exacting, Bruce Bechdel was an English teacher and director of the town funeral home, which Alison and her family referred to as the Fun Home. It was not until college that Alison, who had recently come out as a lesbian, discovered that her father was also gay. A few weeks after this revelation, […]

Monthly Recap – November

November 29, 2015.Reading time 6 minutes.

Yikes, the end of the year is nearing already! It’s gotten really cold and winter-y here, which means lots of tea, cosy jumpers and blankets. I’m looking forward to Christmas, but I kind of can’t believe we’re almost done with 2015… I know, I know, it’s a cliché, but really, what’s up with time going by […]

Northern Lights (The Golden Compass) by Philip Pullman

November 27, 2015.Reading time 6 minutes.

Twelve-year-old Lyra Belacqua lives unparented and half-wild among the scholars of Jordan College. One day her uncle, Lord Asriel, an experimental theologian and explorer, arrives with terrifying news from the north. Impelled at first by her own curiosity, but soon pursued by appalling dangers, Lyra is drawn into a savage struggle among the armoured bears […]

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

November 12, 2015.Reading time 6 minutes.

Oryx and Crake is at once an unforgettable love story and a compelling vision of the future. Snowman, known as Jimmy before mankind was overwhelmed by a plague, is struggling to survive in a world where he may be the last human, and mourning the loss of his best friend, Crake, and the beautiful and […]

Cress by Marissa Meyer

November 5, 2015.Reading time 6 minutes.

Cress, having risked everything to warn Cinder of Queen Levana’s evil plan, has a slight problem. She’s been imprisoned on a satellite since childhood and has only ever had her netscreens as company. All that screen time has made Cress an excellent hacker. Unfortunately, she’s just received orders from Levana to track down Cinder and […]

Monthly Recap – October

October 30, 2015.Reading time 5 minutes.

And that was October! It’s been a busy month, starting with my birthday and ending with the first two weeks of midterms. I think that’s the reason that I only read two books this month, the second of which I finished yesterday evening. Technically, I finished reading Cress in October as well, but I also included […]

What Makes a Good Review?

October 25, 2015.Reading time 5 minutes.

Lately, I’ve been thinking quite a bit about what makes a book review a good book review. It began when we discussed this topic in my modern literature class, and I felt like I didn’t really agree with the strict rules most people thought a review should adhere to.