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Ailsa
The book that I first remember reading by myself was Enid Blyton’s Five Go to Treasure Island which I found on a dusty bookshelf in my grandmother’s island home one summer when I was six. It was an old hardback copy, over an inch thick and I was enthralled, updating my friends daily on the story. Nothing much has changed; I am still obsessed with literature.

The Idea of Perfection

The Idea of Perfection is set in Karakarook, a small Australian town deep in the outback of New South Wales. Two incomers arrive in the town with very different purposes--one has c…
Ailsa

Antonia Lively Breaks the Silence

Antonia Lively Breaks the Silence is the debut novel of David Samuel Levinson. It's set in a small college town in upstate New York in the nineties. This is an accomplished book with believabl…
Ailsa

The Casual Vacancy

The Casual Vacancy is J.K. Rowling's first book for adults. After seven Harry Potter books full of magic and mystery, at first glance she seems to have turned to the most pedestrian of English to…
Ailsa

The People of Forever are not Afraid

The People of Forever are not Afraid by young Israeli novelist Shani Boianjiu is a harsh, gritty novel. It follows three young women as they leave high school in Israel and begin their compulsory…
Ailsa

Honor

Honor by Turkish writer Elif Shafak is one of the most gripping and well-written books I've had the pleasure to read. The story spans three time periods and takes place in two very different loca…
Ailsa

Mo Said She Was Quirky

James Kelman's Mo Said She Was Quirky follows the life and thoughts of one woman, a croupier in a casino, through just over 24 hours. Helen has a young daughter and lives in a tiny London flat with he…
Ailsa

Estates: An Intimate History

Lynsey Hanley's Estates: An Intimate History is an eye-opening book about the history of social housing in Britain and how it is treated today.  Hanley explains how these government bui…
Ailsa

Ten White Geese

Ten White Geese by Dutch novelist Gerbrand Bakker is set deep in the picturesque Welsh countryside in the shadow of Mount Snowdon.  A woman arrives from Europe to rent the house of a recentl…
Ailsa

How Should a Person Be?

Sheila Heti's How Should a Person Be? is quite unlike any other book I've ever read. It's a fusion of meta-fiction and autobiography in which Heti uses a wide range of writing styles; play s…
Ailsa

The Forgotten Queen

D.L Bogdan's The Forgotten Queen tells the little known story of Margaret Tudor, elder sister of King Henry VIII. Margaret is married as a young girl to James IV, King of Scotland to keep…
Ailsa

Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town

Pompeii - 'a city frozen in time', that's what I learned at school and saw no reason to question. That is until I picked up Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town by renowned Cambridge historian …
Ailsa

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry is the debut novel from award-winning radio playwright Rachel Joyce. It's the story of Harold, a recently retired quiet man from South of England. On receivi…
Ailsa
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