In 17th century New England, a Native American boy called Caleb from what would later be known as Martha's Vineyard would become one of Harvard's earliest students. This book imagines his story, seen through the eyes of an imagined dear friend Bethia, using as much primary sources as were available to create the story of …
Peter & Max: A Fables Novel – Bill Willingham
Some of you might know of the Fables from the comic books, personally I came across them from the Tell Tale Games adaptation The Wolf Among Us. This novel with illustrations comes from the same world. In this arena, the characters from popular rhymes and fairy stories are characters that have fled their own world, …
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The Heretic’s Daughter – Kathleen Kent
A family story retold by the descendent of one of the victims of the Salem Witch trials, this follows the story of the Carrier family, capturing the social and political milieu which fostered the conditions for witch hunting mania. The language is passionate and evocative, told through the eyes of the ten year old daughter …
Moab Is My Washpot – Stephen Fry
Stephen Fry has a terribly British way of writing, a bit like Bill Bryson, so fans of his TV work with Hugh Laurie or as host on QI know what to expect. His humour is dry, self deprecating, and apologetic for his privileged background. In this book, he writes the memoirs of his early years, until …
Lud-In-The-Mist – Hope Mirrlees
I’d actually never heard of this one before, and came across it randomly from a more hard-core fantasy fan than me. It’s a novel from the 1920’s by a contemporary of Virginia Woolf who amusingly referred to the author as “prickly and perverse…rather conspicuously well dressed” and whom Neil Gaiman champions as a lost author …
Kate Remembered: A Personal Biography by A Scott Berg
From the Pulliter Prize winning biographer, A Scott Berg's aim is to write a personal account of his time as Hepburn's friend and confidante, as well share many of the stories told in the long interview sessions they had during their twenty year long friendship. In a way, it's an odd sort of biography, untraditional …
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The Girl Who Fell From The Sky – Simon Mawer
During World War II, Britain sent spies into Occupied France, many of whom were women. This book tells the story of what that experience would have been like. Marian Sutro has fled to England with her parents and brother, and finds herself selected, as a French speaker, to go undercover to France to assist …
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The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society – Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows
A novel in letters, the sole novel by Mary Ann Shaffer and completed and published posthumously by her relative, Annie Barrows. In tone, it’s very much like the letters between the Mitford sisters, and is by turns funny, delightful, tragic and touching. It follows protagonist Juliet, a writer, who receives a letter from a man …
American Gods – Neil Gaiman
Stephen King meets Terry Pratchett, this book is a bit of a doorstopper, (I read the “authors preferred text” which has some parts added back in, making it a bit longer). Following a man called Shadow, who gets out of prison to find that his wife and best friend have just died, and takes up …
The Confectioner’s Tale – Laura Madeleine
After reading my first Patrick White, I reached for a book with a pretty cover and a romantic storyline. The Confectioners Tale is a sweet story of romance, cake and Paris just before the war, and a university student in England who finds a photograph in her recently deceased Grandfathers things with a note begging …
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