18th February 2021
A collection of poetry that whispers truths we are too scared to hear. What is the effect of distance? When do “they” or “them” become an “us”? How are we connected? When does it all stop? These are the questions that Samantha Walton answers in her inquest of ecological destruction in Bad Moon. In her ...
2nd February 2021
Man’s Search for Meaning by psychiatrist Viktor Frankl tells of the horrors of the Holocaust and by doing so, reflects on the importance of maintaining a degree of hope in the face of adversity. As Covid-19 deprived people of any control of their lives, many of us sought to regain at least some of it ...
31st January 2021
The story behind the outrage sparked by Florence Given’s feminist memoir. The feminist “self-help” book that brought 22-year-old online influencer and activist Florence Given to fame mid-lockdown, unexpectedly became the centre of a horde of criticism by the end of 2020. Chidera Eggerue (The Slumflower) had previously endorsed Florence’s book with the quote “Florence is ...
26th January 2021
A psychological thriller that hits close to home When lockdown restrictions were brought down last spring, I found myself in a dilemma. I hadn’t read a proper book that wasn’t on my course list in over a year. I had become a lover of tech giants such as Twitter and Instagram, glued to my screen ...
8th January 2021
How can one find in a book the strength to wade against the drag of anxiety and loneliness? An incessant creature of habit, throughout all six years of high school I had one ritual on the run up to the first day of school: re-reading my well-thumbed copy of The Perks of Being a Wallflower ...
30th December 2020
In a Spotify-style Book Wrap, Jordan shares her favourite reads. It would only be right to start by mentioning the first book I read this year, as part of a “50 books for 2020” challenge that I once again failed miserably at. Why Be Happy When You Can Be Normal by Jeanette Winterson is, despite ...
29th December 2020
Alderton’s debut novel is an instant hit to get stuck into as the days get shorter and the nights get darker. When I heard that Dolly Alderton was back on the bookshelves this October, I couldn’t help but get excited. A few years ago, I read her 2018 memoir Everything I Know About Love and ...
24th December 2020
Lucy Dunn reviews this year’s Booker Prize Winner by Scottish-born Douglas Stuart. Starting and ending with a teenage Shuggie living alone, parentless, in a Southside bedsit, Douglas Stuart’s debut novel is raw, gripping, hopeful and devastating. In 1980s Thatcher-era Glasgow, the language is violence and the currency is sex. Not the commonly-portrayed white-collar patriarchy so ...
18th December 2020
Cosy up with one of Reilly’s festive recommendations. With his gravity-defying sleigh, eight flying reindeer, and the world’s most powerful passport, it looks as if St. Nick may be the only one travelling this Christmas. Of course, for those of us stuck at home, the holidays are not necessarily ruined. Many bibliophiles and homebodies have ...
28th November 2020
Basilia Weir recounts her journey from Divergent to a Literature degree. “It must require bravery to be honest all the time.” That’s a quote from the book that changed my life. Goodreads.com says it’s from page 62, if you feel the need to look it up. Though, if you spent enough time on Tumblr in ...
