allmyprettybooks-new

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles Reviewed by Amanda Kennedy on April 1st, 2017 Published by Penguin “After all, what can a first impression tell us about someone we’ve just met for a minute in the lobby of a hotel? For that matter, what can a first impression tell us about anyone? Why, no more than a chord can tell us about Beethoven, or a brushstroke about Botticelli. By their very nature, human beings are so capricious, so complex, so delightfully contradictory, that they deserve not only our consideration, but our reconsideration—and our unwavering determination to withhold our opinion until we have engaged with them in every possible setting at every possible hour.” The year is 1922 and there are no longer ruling classes in Moscow. Only Comrades. Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov has been sentenced to House arrest at the famed Moscow Hotel Metropol. Once of the landed elite, he is forced to shun his former privilege to spend the remainder of his days in a tiny box room in the serva...

The Shadow Land by Elizabeth Kostova Reviewed by Amanda Kennedy on 15th February, 2017 Years after the loss of her older brother, Jack, Alexandra Boyd travels to Bulgaria to teach English in homage to her beloved sibling. Soon after arriving in the elegant capital, Sophia, Alexandra stops to help an elderly woman and her companions, only to find one of the party's bags has been mixed up with her own. This is not ordinary luggage: she discovers an ornately carved wooden box engraved with a name: Stoyan Lazarov and realises this is a treasured funeral urn. Alexandra sets out to reunite the urn with the family, and finds an unusual companion in her taxi driver, Bobby, whose Bulgarian name she is unable to pronounce. This is not so simple a task as she first hopes: Alexandra and Bobby unwittingly travel the country in search of the Lazarov family, learning long the way of Stovan's life as a musician and as a member of a communist labour camp; the brutality of political disse...

One of Us is Ling by Karen McManus Reviewed by Amanda Kennedy on March 1st, 2017 Published by Delacorte Press We're just entering the second quarter of 2017 and I already know that One of Us is Lying will become a standout book of the year. Described as a cross between The Breakfast Club and Pretty Little Liars , this YA thriller focuses on a group of 5 high school students, strangers to each other at the start of the narrative, attending an after-school detention. By the end, these students know each other much more intimately... But only four of them emerge from the detention alive. I loved this book from start to finish. The characters were so well fleshed out, their narratives believable, though of course with so many twists and turns we cannot fathom the big reveal until it is presented to us. And what a twist it was! I have read many mystery/thriller stories, though can honestly say One of us is Lying  really kept me guessing! Make sure you read this book, no matter what you...

Over on Goodreads, there appears a trend for defining books of this genre as "twist-lit". Think of novels like Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train in which a defining twist turns everything you had believed on it's head. This is exactly what He Said She Said did for me. It is the thriller I have waited to read for a long, long time. I came to read this quite by accident while browsing through ARCs on Netgalley. Featured among the "most requested titles" it was described as domestic noir: a novel featuring a central storyline of a brutal attack and it's aftermath for the two key witnesses. But it is so very much more than that. It is a tour-de-force of impending dread, a psychological joyride through the nuances of truth, trust and control. The story is told through the eyes of the two central protagonists, Laura and her boyfriend Kit, They are students at first, helping to run a tea stall at a festival in Lizard Point in Devon at the time of the solar ec...

In recent weeks, I have read some wonderful titles published by Gaunt Books, home of English translations of popular French works. When browsing the ARCs over on Netgalley I as intrigued by the title, Hell's Gate and requested permission to read. At the time, I was unsure whether this would be a horror/supernatural title, but bore in mind my enjoyment of previously published titled from Gaunt. To my pleasant surprise, I soon discovered that Hell's Gate is not of the horror genre, Instead, I would suggest this closer to the magical realism genre: a study in grief and revenge in which a grieving father follows in the footsteps of Dante in a journey to Hell. Neapolitan taxi driver Matteo is consumed with despair when his son, Pippo, gets caught in the crossfire of gang warfare on his way to school. His wife, Gabriella, plunges into the depths of grief and asks Matteo to either bring her son back, or collect the head of the man who murdered him. A mysterious photograph arrives wi...

Subscription boxes have increased in popularity recently. We are tempted by monthly deliveries of geek merchandise, toiletries and even tea! Just a few months ago, I attempted to discover whether there were any literary subscription boxes to tempt my interest. There were many U.S. based services, but seemingly few in the U.K (at least, none of which piqued my interest). In retrospect, I probably wasn't looking hard enough, or perhaps I didn't Google using the ideal search terms... More recently I discovered a few via the #bookbox tag on Instagram and renewed my search. This time I was able to track down rather a lot, 18 in fact, which serve a wide variety of interests to suit any bookish subscriber who would prefer a more local delivery. In this post, I present 18 great British book subscription services. Please let us know your favourites, or if there are any services I have missed, in the comments section below. Tea and Book Club by Bookishly The Bookishly team are book lover...

This June, the publisher Vintage will release a set of 20 "Vintage Minis: short, compelling titles on big subjects collected from the world's greatest writers. Each Vintage Mini will comprise of a complete reading experience and will be around 100 pages long. The titles are to be published in A-Format (the size of most mass-market paperbacks) and will feature a range of fiction, non-fiction and essays. The cover designs for the series are minimalist but vibrant; a different designer was chosen for each edition. Priced at just £3.50 each, they are sure to please readers who would like to broaden their reading habits with a short dose and perhaps inspire exploration into lengthier works from Vintage's back catalogue. Here are each of the titles, which will be available in bookstores from June 1st, 2017: Desire by Haruki Murakami Love by Jeanette Winterson Babies by Anne Enright Language by Xiaolu Guo Motherhood by Helen Simpson Fatherhood by Karl Ove Knausgaard Summer by Lau...