Reading The Tea Lords in close proximity to Lawrence Hill's novel The Book of Negroes raises the question of what stories one prefers to hear told. The Tea Lords chronicles life on an Dutch colonial tea plantation in Java in the 1870s, from the plantation owner's perspective. The Book of
Marguerite Abouet and Clément Oubrerie's Aya de Yopougon 4 Gallimard, 2008 Read: At the table, because I said that I would use my dictionary to look up all the French words that I don't know (of course I always say that, but I never do) Warning: As the fourth book in
Whether it's Alva's job in a summer resort in "Sunday Afternoon" or Edie looking after the kids and doing what needs doing in "How I Met My Husband", Alice Munro captures the twinned knowingness and vulnerability of a girl in her first job. Few other authors (Alissa York would be
It was impulsive: about a week from the end of June, I decided that I was tired of seeing the same old books on my stack, and something had to be done. Oh, poor things. It wasn't their fault. "It's not you, it's me." I said. But I realized, even
This was one of the first Orange Prize nominees that I bought. Last year, two debut novels on the longlist made my personal shortlist. (Anna Peile's and Samantha Hunt's) Serpent's Tail, 2012 I had high hopes for this novel and, in many ways, I was rewarded for my
