Opening sentence: “An autobiography is a book a person writes about his own life and it is usually full of all sorts of boring details.” As today would have been Roald Dahl’s 103rd birthday and it is officially Roald Dahl Day, I thought I’d share my review of his charming memoir, Boy: Tales of Childhood. […]
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What an exquisitely written book! Author Sarah Krasnostein spent four years getting to know Sandra Pankhurst and then wrote The Trauma Cleaner, a biographical account of Sandra’s life that tells her extraordinary story. Born as Peter Collins, Sandra was adopted as a baby, but then treated terribly by her adoptive family. Thrown out of her […]
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Opening sentence: “You’ve got to say this for desperation: it makes you much more open-minded.” Oh I just loved, loved, loved the story of Tiffy and Leon and was a more than a little sad when my walks to and from work were no longer accompanied by them. As I mentioned in a previous post, […]
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Opening sentence: ‘The windows of a spaceship casually frame miracles.’ With this evocative opening sentence, Chris Hadfield begins his unique story. He was an astronaut for 21 years and has been into space three times; the final time for five months aboard the International Space Station, starting in December 2012. Space travel is something that […]
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Opening sentence: “He has a curious way of moving through his rubbish, he leans into it, skimming down the corridors like a fearless biker on a hairpin bend.” I purposely didn’t read anything about the plot of The Hoarder before starting it. I loved the unexpected elements of Jess Kidd’s debut novel, Himself, so wanted to be […]
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Opening sentence: “Bee Larkham’s murder was ice blue crystals with glittery edges and jagged, silver icicles.” If you love a unique protagonist, then you need to give this book a read ASAP. Thirteen-year-old Jasper Wishart has autism, synesthesia (a condition where for every word, sound, object or person, he sees colours – read more about […]
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Opening sentence: “I never thought I was a runner.” I finished reading Eat, Drink, Run last Sunday on the day of the London marathon and seeing as how it’s all about Telegraph journalist Bryony Gordon’s experience running that very race for the first time, that seemed quite serendipitous. (Perhaps randomly as a non-runner, this is […]
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