Review: The Woman In Black, by Susan Hill

I was still all in a state of innocence, but that innocence, once lost, is lost forever

Review: My Absolute Darling, by Gabriel Tallent

You need to surrender yourself to death before you ever begin, and accept your life as a state of grace

Review: By Grand Central Station I sat Down and Wept, by Elizabeth Smart

Perhaps I am his hope. But then she is his present. And if she is his present, I am not his present. Therefore, I am not

Review: Bend Sister, by Vladimir Nabokov

"Curiosity is insubordination in its purest form" My love/hate relationship with Nabokov continues

Review: Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë

Synopsis: Orphaned into the household of her Aunt Reed at Gateshead, subject to the cruel regime at Lowood charity school, Jane Eyre nonetheless emerges unbroken in spirit and integrity. She takes up the post of governess at Thornfield, falls in love with Mr. Rochester, and discovers the impediment to their lawful marriage in a story …

Review: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland / Through The Looking Glass, by Lewis Carroll

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland: One day, a young girl named Alice is sitting on the riverbank with her sister, when she sees a curious looking white rabbit. She soon after falls into the magical world of Wonderland, where she meets a series of strange creatures. Through the Looking Glass: Nothing is quite what it seems …

Review: Wild Swans – The Daughters of China, by Jung Chang

Synopsis: Through the story of three generations of women - grandmother, mother and daughter - Wild Swans tells nothing less than the whole tumultuous history of China's tragic twentieth century, from sword-bearing warlords to Chairman Mao, from the Manchu Empire to the Cultural Revolution. At times terrifying, at times astonishing, always deeply moving, Wild Swans …

Review: Go Set A Watchman, by Harper Lee

Synopsis: Maycomb, Alabama. Twenty-six-year-old Jean Louise Finch--"Scout"--returns home from New York City to visit her aging father, Atticus. Set against the backdrop of the civil rights tensions and political turmoil that were transforming the South, Jean Louise's homecoming turns bittersweet when she learns disturbing truths about her close-knit family, the town and the people dearest …

Review: To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee

Synopsis: 'Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird.' A lawyer's advice to his children as he defends the real mockingbird of Harper Lee's classic novel - a black man charged with the rape of a white girl. Through the young eyes of …

Review: Stoner – by John Williams

Synopsis: William Stoner enters the University of Missouri at nineteen to study agriculture. A seminar on English literature changes his life, and he never returns to work on his father's farm. Stoner becomes a teacher. He marries the wrong woman. His life is quiet, and after his death his colleagues remember him rarely. Title: Stoner …

Review: A Study in Scarlet – by Arthur Conan Doyle

Synopsis: A dead man is discovered in a bloodstained room in Brixton. The only clues are a wedding ring, a gold watch, a pocket edition of Boccaccio's Decameron, and a word scrawled in blood on the wall. With this investigation begins the partnership of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. Their search for the murderer uncovers …

Review: Twelve Years a Slave – by Solomon Northup

Synopsis: Twelve Years a Slave (1853) is a memoir and slave narrative by Solomon Northup. Northup, a black man who was born free in New York, details his kidnapping in Washington, D.C. and subsequent sale into slavery. After having been kept in bondage for 12 years in Louisiana by various masters, Northup was able to write …

Review: The Picture of Dorian Gray – by Oscar Wilde

Synopsis: Enthralled by his own exquisite portrait, Dorian Gray exchanges his soul for eternal youth and beauty. Influenced by his friend Lord Henry Wotton, he is drawn into a corrupt double life; indulging his desires in secret while remaining a gentleman in the eyes of polite society. Only his portrait bears the traces of his decadence. …

Review: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer – by Mark Twain:

Synopsis: An idyllic snapshot of a boy’s childhood along the banks of the Mississippi River, Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is the author’s work that comes closest to his boyhood experiences of growing up in Hannibal in the 1840s. Mischievous and full of energy, Tom enjoys childish pranks and pastimes with his friends, Huck …

Review: The Color Purple – by Alice Walker

Synopsis: Celie is a poor black woman whose letters tell the story of 20 years of her life, beginning at age 14 when she is being abused and raped by her father and attempting to protect her sister from the same fate, and continuing over the course of her marriage to “Mister,” a brutal man …

Review: Cold Comfort Farm – by Stella Gibbons

Synopsis: When sensible, sophisticated Flora Poste is orphaned at nineteen, she decides her only choice is to descend upon relatives in deepest Sussex. At the aptly-named Cold Comfort Farm, she meets the doomed Starkadders: cousin Judith, heaving with remorse for unspoken wickedness; Amos, preaching fire and damnation; their sons, lustful Seth and despairing Reuben; child …

Review: Animal Farm – by George Orwell

Synopsis: 'All animals are equal - but some are more equal than others' When the downtrodden animals of Manor Farm overthrow their master Mr Jones and take over the farm themselves, they imagine it is the beginning of a life of freedom and equality. But gradually a cunning, ruthless élite among them, masterminded by the …

Review: The Bell Jar – by Sylvia Plath

Synopsis: Esther Greenwood is at college and is fighting two battles, one against her own desire for perfection in all things - grades, boyfriend, looks, career - and the other against remorseless mental illness. As her depression deepens she finds herself encased in it, bell-jarred away from the rest of the world. This is the …

Review: A Russian Affair – by Anton Chekhov

Synopsis: When Gurov sees the lady with the little dog on a windswept promenade, he knows he must have her. But she is different from his other flings - he cannot forget her. Chekhov's stories are of lost love, love at the wrong time and love that can never be.         Title: …

Review: Dracula – by Bram Stoker

Synopsis: When Jonathan Harker visits Transylvania to help Count Dracula with the purchase of a London house, he makes a series of horrific discoveries about his client. Soon afterwards, various bizarre incidents unfold in England: an apparently unmanned ship is wrecked off the coast of Whitby; a young woman discovers strange puncture marks on her …