Reviews (Year-Wise)

2026 | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020-2019


October 2026:


September 2026:

Big - Vashti Harrison - ★★★★.½

August 2026:


July 2026:


June 2026:

Wonderful - Louise Beech - ★★★★.¼

May 2026:


April 2026:

Doubles - Nora Gold - ★★★★ 

March 2026:

Dragon Tales - Dav Pilkey - ★★★★.¼
It's a Mom! - Abby Cooper - ★★★★.½

February 2026:

Skysong - C.A. Wright - ★★★.½

January 2026:




Comments

Post a Comment

Explore more posts from this blog:

A Universe Full of Stories: 50 Extraordinary Tales of the Skies, Stars and Beyond - Angela McAllister - ★★★★.½

Image
AUTHOR: Angela McAllister ILLUSTRATOR: Zanna Goldhawk GENRE: Children's Story Collection PUBLICATION DATE: October 6, 2026 RATING: 4.5 stars. In a Nutshell: A collection of folktales connected to either the sky or a sky/space-related object. Lovely stories from across the world presented with marvellous illustrations. This author never fails to deliver memorable books for children. Definitely recommended. I have been a fan of Angela McAllister’s folktale collections ever since I read ‘A Bedtime Full of Stories’ in 2021. Her collections are always mesmerising and always have the same features: fascinating stories curated from folktales and myths from across the world, theme-based sections, and excellent full-colour illustrations that stay true to the tone of the story. This book is no exception. This time, the stories are, as the tagline indicates, taken from the ‘Skies, stars and beyond.’ The collection has six sections, each based on sky/space-related feature: ‘The Sun’, ‘The Moon...
Read More»

Fruit Fly - Josh Silver - ★★.¾

Image
AUTHOR: Josh Silver GENRE: Contemporary Satirical Thriller PUBLICATION DATE: August 4, 2026 RATING: 2.75 stars. In a Nutshell: A satirical psych thriller offering a dark look at an author who is desperate for success. Somewhat meta in approach. Complex flawed characters. A jerky writing style with too many short sentences and too much rambling. Slow pace and much lengthier than needed. Recommended, as long as you have the patience. Plot Preview: Mallory Maddox had a successful debut novel seven years ago. But since then, she has had a writer’s block. She is desperate for inspiration, so when Leo – a homeless drug addict trading sex for survival – stumbles into her life, she doesn’t hesitate before appropriating his life story for her next work. After all, Leo’s story is important and deserves a wider audience. So what if he himself is unaware of her interest in him. But as the number of secrets multiplies, Mallory is forced to ask some tough questions about how far she can go for her c...
Read More»

A Million Ways: Stories of Motherhood - Various - ★★★.¾

Image
AUTHORS: Various GENRE: Anthology RATING: 3.85 stars. In a Nutshell: Loved this anthology of stories pertaining to mothers and motherhood. You don’t need to be a mother to love it. "There's no way to be a perfect mother and a million ways to be a good one." - Jill Churchill The above quote sets off this anthology of twelve stories, all of which are about mothers. You might assume that such a theme would get repetitive too soon. Yes, there were certain themes in common, primarily connected to love (or the lack thereof.) Regardless, each story still feels distinct from each other in terms of content and hence the book doesn’t get boring. A good short story for me is one that keeps me invested from start to end regardless of its length. And this is what happened to me for most of the stories in this collection. The tales aren’t limited to stories about pregnancy or new motherhood. Rather, we get to see single mothers and stepmothers, dedicated mothers and disgruntled mothers...
Read More»

Closing Ceremonies and Dying Times - Darlene Madott - ★★★.¾

Image
AUTHOR: Darlene Madott GENRE: Short Story Collection PUBLICATION DATE: September 1, 2026 RATING: 3.7 stars. In a Nutshell: A collection of ten stories with one character in common. Bonus content in the form of one essay and one novella. Stories about broken relationships, their consequences, and the challenge of moving on. Focusses more on mature love than young crushes. Literary in approach. The essay and the novella were not right for me, but the stories were quite good. Recommended. This collection contains twelve entries. The first ten are interlinked stories, all featuring a character named Francesca though she isn't always the central character of the narrative. Then there’s one essay documenting the author’s own experience with betrayal and heartbreak, and finally a novella focussing on imminent loss and grief. The first thing that attracted me to this collection was the title. ‘Closing Ceremonies and Dying Times’ is such an intriguing way of labelling a set of stories abou...
Read More»

No Two Persons - Erica Bauermeister - ★★★★.½

Image
AUTHOR: Erica Bauermeister GENRE: Contemporary Fiction. PUBLICATION DATE: May 2, 2023 RATING: 4.5 stars. In a Nutshell: A contemporary composite novel. One plot comprising multiple short stories. Character-oriented. Poignant, mellow, touching. An ode to books and everything bookish. After a long time, I had a soul-satisfying read. Definitely recommended. Plot Preview: 2010. Maine. Twenty-five-year-old Alice has always wanted to be a writer. But as she is inching towards her dream, a family tragedy throws her off her charted course. Her college professor encourages her to pour her emotions into writing. The result is a book that ends up finding its way to multiple people, and in many cases, altering at least a part of their lives directly or indirectly. This is a composite novel, where each chapter comes to us from a specific character’s point of view. We thus get nine stories written in the third-person perspective of various individuals, with the epilogue coming a full circle. One of ...
Read More»