I was afraid this book might be a little “sappy” for me. I like emotional reads but rarely read the kind of books described as “heartwarming”, and this book about a friendship between a dying teenager and an elderly woman fit that bill. But it came highly recommended by Modern Mrs. Darcy’s Best Books of Summer 2022,…
Stuart has written a second pull-your-heart-out-and-stomp-all-over-it book, one that did not disappoint for a minute, even considering how much I loved Shuggie Bain. Stuart manages to write about very ugly things so beautifully. These two books are similar in a lot of ways, so if I can criticize anything it’s that Stuart isn’t breaking new…
This is a novella you won’t want to put down once you start. It’s about a couple of historic days in Edinburgh in 1566. Mary, Queen of Scots is in her castle at Holyrood and though she is beloved by her people, the kingdom is rife with religious conflicts and nobles scheming to take power.…
You’ll have heard of this book because of the awards it won in 2020, including the Booker Prize. This story of a young boy growing up with an alcoholic mother in 1980s Glasgow is worth the read. It’s dark, but once I finished it, I missed the characters. By the time you finish it, Shuggie…
This was a really interesting novel about a real-life serial killer in Scotland in the 1950’s. I say interesting because it wasn’t quite like anything else I’ve read. It’s not a mystery or a thriller, or a true crime novel. It’s a little closer to Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, although I hesitate to compare…
When I’m reading a novel about a historical figure, I want the book to be factual enough that I get a good sense of who the person was. I also want it to have an interesting story. And finally, if I admire the person, I don’t want it to be a story that makes me…
If you’re interested in detailed historical fiction about Scotland, this is a great book. The Spider and the Stone tells the story of the years between 1296 and 1330, known as the Scottish Wars for Independence. You’ve heard of William Wallace if you’ve seen the movie Braveheart, although there were a number of historical inaccuracies…
This is not a review exactly, since I don’t like to write reviews mid-series. Instead I’m just going to gush. Diana Gabaldon’s books are amazing. They are so long and involved, you feel like you know these characters intimately. She writes with a level of detail that makes you feel you’re right there. It’s the…
This turned out to be a difficult book to review, because it was so amazing. I think it won’t be for everyone, but it’s one of my favorite books of the year, easy. Thanks first to Giraffe Days and publisher Hogarth, New York for giving away a copy of this book. The Panopticon is the…
I liked Gillespie and I, I just didn’t love it as much as I expected to. It takes place in turn of the century Scotland and revolves around an artist, Ned Gillespie, and his family. The story is told by Harriet Baxter, a single, well-off woman who meets the Gillespies and becomes their close friend. …
Every once in a while, I get a craving for a romance novel (this is me trying not to be defensive about what I read). If I’m going to read a romance novel, what better than a good Scottish Highlander romance? That seems to be the big thing right now – blame Diana Gabaldon, maybe,…
The Winter Sea popped up on Amazon as a recommendation because I like Diana Gabaldon’s books. And since I’m always looking for something half as good as Outlander, it was worth a try. It’s a historical novel, written from the perspective of a modern day writer, Carrie McLelland. Carrie is writing a novel set in…
The Book Stop 