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“The Angel’s Game” by Carlos Ruiz Zafon – Cutting a Deal with the Devil

August 30, 2023

“The Angel's Game” by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (Header image)

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

Short Summary

Carlos Ruiz Zafon has single-handedly put his beloved city of Barcelona on the map as the perfect setting for mysteries basking in the eternal lights of art, history, and literature. The Cemetery of Forgotten Books is, without a doubt, the series which best exemplifies the author’s adoration of his hometown as well as his literary prowess. In the second novel, titled The Angel’s Game, he takes us back in time to the 1920s and 1930s to meet a young pulp fiction writer whose life is about to change for both the worst, and the best.

“The Half Moon” by Mary Beth Keane – The Surprises of Midlife

July 13, 2023

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

Short Summary

Mary Beth Keane writes the sort of fiction which digs a little deeper than your typical thrillers and mysteries, often exploring some of the greyer areas in our lives. In The Half Moon, she tells us the story of Malcolm and Jess Gephardt, a couple faced with a rather uncertain future, one where their dreams and life aspirations might be extinguished for good.

“All the Broken Places” by John Boyne – Daughter of Sin

July 7, 2023March 1, 2023

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

Short Summary

John Boyne has dealt with a wide variety of topics and ideas over the course of his twenty-plus novels, and in All the Broken Places he takes us into the life of a ninety-one year-old woman with a giant problem. She has a dark past she wishes to hide, one relating to Nazi Germany, but one night she witnesses a violent argument between her new neighbours, one which threatens to expose the history she so carefully protected for decades.

“Reminders of Him” by Colleen Hoover – The Price of One Mistake

July 19, 2023December 18, 2022

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

Short Summary

Colleen Hoover has the habit of taking her readers along to explore some of the more difficult-yet-meaningful aspects of human existence, as she does once again in Reminders of Him. The story follows Kenna Rowan, a young mother having just served a five-year prison sentence, coming back home in an attempt to reconnect with her four-year-old daughter, despite everyone intent on shutting her out.

“Killing Commendatore” by Haruki Murakami – Ideas and Metaphors Manifested

November 10, 2022

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

Short Summary

Haruki Murakami is no stranger to exploring the slices of reality which exist somewhere between truth and imagination, to the point where I suspect he came out from one of them. In his recent novel, Killing Commendatore, he tells the story of an unnamed portrait painter who, upon finding a magnificent painting in an attic, embarks on a strange journey of self-discovery, one which blurs the thin line between fiction and reality and shows him a world hidden in plain sight.

“Our Missing Hearts” by Celeste Ng – A Mother’s Unbreakable Bond

October 26, 2022

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

Short Summary

Celeste Ng is an author who uses her voice not only to entertain, but to also lead a personal fight against the discrimination and injustice still suffered by Americans of Asian descent. In her latest novel, Our Missing Hearts, she tells the story of a twelve-year-old boy going out on a quest to find his missing mother, a Chinese-American poet, amidst a country gripped by national fervour and excessive patriotism.

“Lessons” by Ian McEwan – Controlling Destiny

October 13, 2022October 5, 2022

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

Short Summary

Ian McEwan has the valuable talent of pushing his readers to reflect on the more profound topics in life, and in his latest novel, Lessons, it feels as if, in a way, he meditates on his own path through the history of the 20th and early 21st centuries. The novels follows the story of Roland Baines, eleven years of age at the end of WWII, as he marches forward through the tumultuous years ahead, all while trying to search for answers deep in his own family history.

“Alejandro’s Lie” by Bob Van Laerhoven – Ballad of a Broken Soul

August 14, 2023June 22, 2022

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

Short Summary

Bob Van Laerhoven is the type of author whose works tend to defy traditional classification, more often than not merging elements from a number of different genres. In Alejandro’s Lie he tells a story part Noir, part historical fiction, and part human drama, following the story of the titular Alejandro, a broken musician desperately searching for meaning while living in a fictitious South-American dictatorship.

“The Shadow of the Wind” by Carlos Ruiz Zafon – Erasing an Existence

October 23, 2023February 16, 2022

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

Short Summary

Carlos Ruiz Zafon, though he is sadly no longer with us, retains his title of the most successful contemporary Spanish author for good reason, his stories carrying the reader to places few authors could imagine. In The Shadow of the Wind, the first entry in The Cemetery of Forgotten Books series, Zafon tells the story of a young bookshop owner’s son in post-war Barcelona as he tries to unravel the tragic fate of Julian Carax, an author whose works someone has been systematically destroying.

“When We Cease to Understand the World” by Benjamin Labatut – The Burden of Discovery

January 23, 2022

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

Short Summary

Benjamin Labatut is quickly proving himself a unique author defying traditional classification, a notion he reinforced most recently when he published his third novel, When We Cease to Understand the World. In short, it’s a fictional examination following the lives of numerous real-life scientists and mathematicians, with an emphasis on the earth-shattering discoveries they’ve made and the repercussions those have had on the world, both beneficial and destructive.

“Morningside Heights” by Joshua Henkin – The Frailty of Plans

September 26, 2021September 26, 2021

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

Joshua Henkin has sought to tackle the types of questions which have no concrete answers across his numerous works, and he continues his streak with his most recent novel, Morningside Heights. It follows the story of Ohio-born Pru Steiner, who arrives in New York in 1976 and gets married shortly after. Thirty years later, her life controlled by her husband’s illness, Pru has a chance encounter which leads her on an unexpected and unpredictable path.

“Illusions” by Richard Bach – Become Your Own Messiah

August 15, 2021July 4, 2021

Estimated reading time: 9 minutes

Richard Bach is without the shadow of a doubt one of the most original and inspiring authors of the twentieth century, somewhat ironic considering his self-professed disdain for writing. In Illusions and Illusions II he tells a tale starring himself, one where he meets Donald Shimoda, a self-professed messiah capable of elevating Richard’s world to new and unseen heights.

“Jonathan Livingston Seagull” by Richard Bach – The Dormant Explorer Within

June 26, 2023May 28, 2021

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

Short Summary

Richard Bach is one of the few authors whose works continue to stand the test of time, with his classic Jonathan Livingston Seagull still being as current as back when it was written. A tale of inspiration, it follows the titular seagull as he learns the art of flight and finds his own way through life, despite his peers’ lack of approval.

“Transcendent Kingdom” by Yaa Gyasi – The Fate-Scorched Family

August 15, 2021October 16, 2020

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

Yaa Gyasi has stunned the world more than once since her recent arrival on the literary scene, and Transcendent Kingdom is her latest effort to draw on her unique life experiences to write a novel. The story follows Gifty, a sixth-year PhD candidate in neuroscience whose brother passed from a heroin overdose and whose suicidal mother basically lives in her bed. Struggling to find answers in both science and faith, Gifty sees there are no easy paths open to her.

“It All Comes Back to You” by Beth Duke – Enjoying the Simpler Revelations

April 16, 2022August 27, 2020

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

Short Summary

Beth Duke has found two years ago the kind of breakthrough any budding author could wish for, when her novel, It All Comes Back to You, became a celebrated bestseller. In it, we are told the story of Ronni, a practical nurse and aspiring writer, whose old patient, Violet, recently passed away. In the process, she left Ronni with a challenge: she must publish Violet’s life in a book within a year, standing to inherit a grand fortune.

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