Book Clubs
Book Clubs
A great leveller in the intellectual world is the book club, not least as it is an experience in reading outside of English teachers. Here you can see some of the reviews of books I have read recently from some of my favourite book clubs.
Guest Post – An English Literature Workshop with Myself, Age 14
Today's post is an Oxbridge student's reflection on what she would say to her 14-year-old self. It captures the earnest position of the profound thinker in British culture. Read more of Shreya Manna's wonderful writing at https://paradiseprose.com/ MISS MANNA: [forced...
The Vegetarian Book Review: Planting Desire and Rooting Order?
The Vegetarian is a dark book that has sat with me for a few weeks now. Conventionally about the descent of a Korean woman into self-harm and mental illness via her change to a vegetarian lifestyle, it defies easy definition. Instead, I think it seeks to challenge...
Book Review: Wonder by RJ Palacio – Collisions of Kindness
This is a young adult story about kindness and identity. Its story can instigate useful conversations in schools and homes about how we treat others, and therefore how we want to be treated. I found some of its presentations of school-life problematic, though. The...
Book Review: Notes from the Jungle: Provocative Teacherspeak
Notes from the Jungle is an engagingly provocative book from a working international headteacher. Quirky and irreverent, it reads like lectures between cafe conversations. It begins with a range of salubrious anecdotes about feckless and petty teachers getting up to...
Book Review: The Damage Done: A Macabre Love Island
The Damage Done is a compelling part of the relatively popular niche of prison experience books. Warren Fellows smuggles drugs across Asia until he is caught and sentenced to 30 years, of which he serves 11 before enjoying a King’s Pardon. Despite claiming to not want...
Book Review: The Hunger: Punctured Horror
Two days ago I purchased ‘The Hunger’ as one of my top (read ‘promoted’) books after a Kindle recommendation. It is based descent into cannibalism of the Donner Party. For some reason, I was expecting a slow psychological horror. The story, therefore, left me more...
Book Review: Othello: Noble Jealousy?
This is my first review of a Shakespearean play. A Shakespearean play a peculiar thing considering that he is experienced by most British through statuary study. Such study is mandatory because Shakespeare is difficult, especially to study on the page. Most people who...
Book Review: Paris in the 20th Century: Lost for a Reason?
Paris in the 20th Century is the long-lost literary artefact of a great sci-fi writer. I was guided to this book by a student for his coursework. As with all good literature students, he has almost read the corpus of Verne's work. It was surprisingly hard to obtain a...
Book Review: Jane Eyre: Virtue at What Cost?
Jane Eyre is a gothic story of love and redemption that is both smart and honest. I found it far more accessible than Wuthering Heights, equally ambitious, and much more moral as well. As a bildungsroman, the first-person narrative reveals a mind defining itself...
Book Review: Heart of Darkness: Nothingness and Making Money
Heart of Darkness is one of my favourite texts despite, or perhaps because of, its absolute ambiguity. Even at university I found it deceptive tricky. Initially part of a book of three novellas, its ambiguity and concept made it unpopular, even with Conrad. I think...
