Books

The Monogram Murders

Posted 2:02pm Sunday 16th August 2015 by Bridget Vosburgh

Sophie Hannah’s The Monogram Murders is a murder mystery starring Agatha Christie’s most famous detective, Hercule Poirot. Poirot is dining at a coffee house when a woman enters in an obvious state of panic. Poirot asks what is troubling her, and she tells him that she is about to be Read more...

On Immunity: An Inoculation

Posted 1:37pm Sunday 9th August 2015 by Bridget Vosburgh

On Immunity: An Inoculation, by Eula Biss, is the author’s personal meditation on  vaccinations and the web of subjects she connects to them, including disease, safety, motherhood and social responsibility. Biss looks at the metaphors and legends of immunity, the social ramifications of Read more...

Foreign Gods, Inc.

Posted 2:47pm Sunday 2nd August 2015 by Bridget Vosburgh

The protagonist of Foreign Gods, Inc. — a novel of magical realism by Okey Ndibe — is Ike Uzondu, a Nigerian living in New York who is unable to get the high-paying work he is qualified for, due to his accent. Instead, he works as a taxi driver. When his green-card-driven marriage ends Read more...

A Vision of Fire: Book One of the Earthend Saga

Posted 2:15pm Sunday 26th July 2015 by Bridget Vosburgh

AVision of Fire: Book One of the Earthend Saga is a science-fiction thriller by Gillian Anderson and Jeff Rovin. As a sticker on the front aggressively proclaims, Gillian Anderson is the actor who played Dana Scully in The X-Files. After an attempt is made on India’s ambassador to the United Read more...

The Goddess of Buttercups and Daisies

Posted 1:31pm Sunday 19th July 2015 by Bridget Vosburgh

Martin Millar’s novel, The Goddess of Buttercups and Daisies, is set in Athens, 421 BC. During this time, the city-state of Athens is at war with Sparta, and has been for ten years. The playwright Aristophanes wants to put on a comedy called Peace for the Dionysia Festival, as his entry in a Read more...

Selfish, Shallow, and Self-Absorbed: Sixteen Writers on the Decision Not to Have Kids

Posted 2:25pm Sunday 12th July 2015 by Bridget Vosburgh

Selfish, Shallow, and Self-Absorbed: Sixteen Writers on the Decision Not to Have Kids is a collection of sixteen personal essays written by professional writers about one particular decision that perfect strangers often feel they have a say in: choosing not to have children. This choice should not Read more...

Sparrow Hill Road

Posted 1:53pm Sunday 5th July 2015 by Bridget Vosburgh

Sparrow Hill Road, by Seanan McGuire, is an urban fantasy story with horror elements. The narrator, Rose, died in the 1950s, murdered when she was just sixteen, and went on to become an urban legend to the living and a guide into the afterlife for the dead and dying. Bobby Cross, the undead man who Read more...

Hades

Posted 12:59pm Sunday 24th May 2015 by Bridget Vosburgh

Hades is Candice Fox’s first novel. Fox tells the story of homicide detective Frank Bennett, who has just been professionally partnered with Eden Archer, a woman who has some serious secrets. The novel is set in Australia and alternates between Frank and Eden’s investigation of a killer Read more...

The Kraken King

Posted 1:40pm Sunday 17th May 2015 by Bridget Vosburgh

For those hiding under a rock, steampunk is a subgenre of science fiction that incorporates steam-powered devices with Victorian design. The Kraken King, by Meljean Brooks, is a steampunk romance novel, and for once it had all the fun adventure, cool technology and body horror that people always Read more...

Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs

Posted 1:47pm Sunday 10th May 2015 by Bridget Vosburgh

In Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs, Johann Hari covers the bizarre origins of the drug war, the horrific state of the drug war today, what is most likely to be the actual cause of drug addiction, and the few places where people are finding better ways to deal with the Read more...