reviews

The Ultimate Everything-You-Need-to-Know Guide for Weddings Author: Marcy Blum Being engaged took my breath away in multiple stages. First there was the sheer joy of knowing that I’ll spend the rest of my life with the love of my life. There was also the excitement of returned affection and the peaceful stability of having found THE ONE. Then, of course, there was the total glee-fest over the ring (and all the myriad pictures of said ring which thankfully I was not quite vain enough to post on Facebook . . .yet.) And then, the rose-tinteds slipped off a little and [...]

Adulterous husband + boisterous soccer team + crotchety woman in Sweden’s backwaters = Ha?! Author: Fredrik Backman After loving the international sensation of A Man Called Ove, I was keen to pick up the new novel by Swedish author Fredrik Backman. Alas, Britt-Marie Was Here did not quite meet my expectations. Backman seems to be relying on a formula—which, in A Man Called Ove, is exceedingly successful. He takes a curmudgeonly, inflexible older adult who sees the world in black and white, then he throws in a rowdy crowd of new neighbors that cause the older adult to stretch him/herself [...]

“One may smile, and smile, and be a villain” Author: Ian McEwan So, it’s been awhile since you read Hamlet? Not to worry. Crack open Ian McEwan’s Nutshell and the plot will come back to you: Claudius kills his brother, King Hamlet, and seizes the throne as well as his widowed sister-in-law, Gertrude. Meanwhile, Prince Hamlet, son of Gertrude and the king, is out for revenge. Based on a Danish legend known as Amleth, Hamlet is a tale as old as time, but McEwan’s modern interpretation is fresh and unusual. This is largely because the narrator—our Prince Hamlet, if you [...]