George Orwell – Animal Farm (Book Review)
Opening Line: Mr Jones, of the manor farm, had locked the hen-houses for the night, but was too drunk to remember to shut the pop-holes. Book Cover Blurb: Animal Farm is a satirical allegory on the Russian Revolution. It tells the simple and tragic story of what happens when the oppressed farm rebel to attain freedom […]
Reading for Writing
YOU CAN’T EAT an elephant in one bite. But you can eat it one bite at a time. So begins my quest to complete BBC’s Big Read Top 100 Novels list. The list is a little dated now, publicised in 2003 to find Britain’s best loved book. The top 21 are presented on this page, as […]
John Steinbeck – Of Mice and Men (Book Review)
Opening Line: A few miles south of Soledad, the Salinas River drops in close to the hillside bank and runs deep and green. The water is warm too, for it has slipped twinkling over the yellow sands in the sunlight before reaching the narrow pool. Synopsis: Streetwise George and his big child-like friend Lennie are […]
Louis Sachar – Holes (Book Review)
Opening Lines: There is no lake at Camp Green Lake. There once was a very large lake here, the largest lake in Texas. That was over a hundred years ago. Now it is just a dry, flat wasteland. Synopsis: Stanley Yelnats has bad luck (which is all because of his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather). When Stanley’s bad luck unfairly lands […]
Gabriel Garcia Marquez – Love in the Time of Cholera (Book Review)
Opening Line: It was inevitable: the scent of bitter almonds always reminded him of the fate of unrequited love. Synopsis: Fifty-one years, nine months and four days have passed since Fermina Daza rebuffed hopeless romantic Florentina Ariza‘s impassioned advances and married Dr. Juvenal Urbino instead. During that half-centrury, Florentino has fallen into the arms of […]