Book-Reviews

Title: There Are Rivers in the Sky Author: Shafak, Elif Publisher: Knopf Pages: 446 Date Read: 01 December 2025 Bookshelves: read, favorites My Rating (out of 5): ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ It was around this time last year I discovered that Shafak had published another title. I was understandably excited as I knew I had something to look forward to in the next year. To be clear, Shafak is my favourite author alive; a title the author has earned through the quality, style and variety of her works. So, when I picked up Shafak’s latest title halfway into the year as life began asking me difficult questions, it was with a mix of expectation, enthusiasm and the promise of a badly-needed escape. ...

Title: The Keeper of Happy Endings Author: Davis, Barbara Publisher: Lake Union Publishing Pages: 415 Date Read: 08 August 2025 Bookshelves: read My Rating (out of 5): ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ I began this book with understandable enthusiasm and very high expectations after completing the author’s The Echo of Old Books sometime last year. I also began this book as a means to escape my lived reality, which did not help with expectations. In truth, I asked a lot from this book and I am pleased to report that the book held its own despite my heavy expectations. ...

Title: Daughters of Shandong Author: Chung, Eve J. Publisher: Berkley Pages: 400 Date Read: 16 March 2025 Bookshelves: read, favorites My Rating (out of 5): ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A great book about family, gender, trauma and survival. The book was set in 1950s China. And through the eyes of the narrator, Hai, we understand the heartbreaking reality of what it means to be a girl/woman in China at a time of great cultural, geographic and economic flux. ...

Title: When We Cease to Understand the World Author: Labatut, Benjamín Publisher: New York Review Books Pages: 193 Date Read: 21 December 2024 Bookshelves: read My Rating (out of 5): ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ I decided to read this book on the strength of a single excerpt I found randomly on the internet. Humans have been known to risk it all for love, country and iniquity; but I have done similar things in the quest of the perfect paragraph like the one you’re about to read. ...

Title: The Echo of Old Books Author: Davis, Barbara Publisher: Lake Union Publishing Pages: 431 Date Read: 24 November 2024 Bookshelves: read, favorites My Rating (out of 5): ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ I sit by my desk, staring at a blank screen waiting for these words to come. They do not. Not keen to force a review my heart was not yet ready to render, I let go in the hopes that tomorrow would be better. ...

Title: Shōgun (Asian Saga, #1) Author: Clavell, James Publisher: Blackstone Publishing Pages: 1152 Date Read: 18 June 2024 Bookshelves: read, may-return-to My Rating (out of 5): ⭐⭐⭐ This book began with some promise but I found the first few pages quite slow and it didn’t take long for my enthusiasm to start to wane. For a book with over a thousand pages, it was sad to have had these concerns this early into the book and I took it as my cue to discontinue. ...

Title: The Island of Missing Trees Author: Shafak, Elif Publisher: VIKIN Pages: 354 Date Read: 16 April 2024 Bookshelves: read, favorites My Rating (out of 5): ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A dear friend got me this book in in 2021 but i did not get to read it till a few months ago. Why? You ask. Well because I vow to read exactly one Shafak per year. Good authors are in short supply these days so I like to take my time before exhausting the supply of a proven author’s works. ...

Title: The Prodigal Daughter (Kane & Abel, #2) Author: Archer, Jeffrey Publisher: St. Martin’s Paperbacks Pages: 485 Date Read: 10 February 2024 Bookshelves: read My Rating (out of 5): ⭐⭐⭐⭐ The book begins with the details from the first book Kane and Abel, introducing the patriarchs and gave more context to the circumstances that made them sworn enemies. But we know in the first few pages that the story is not about these two men, but rather about Abel’s daughter Florentyna. The story takes us through her formative years, her love for Kane’s son, her other close relationships and how she would leverage these relationships much later in life to propel her to being the leader of the free world. ...

Title: Tomorrow I Become a Woman Author: Odafen, Aiwanose Publisher: Simon Schuster Audio UK Pages: N/A Date Read: 02 December 2023 Bookshelves: read My Rating (out of 5): ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 3.5 stars rounded up It was difficult to love most of the characters in this book as the author made little effort to make the reader understand the motivations behind their actions. The characters lacked a certain complexity I have come to appreciate in works of fiction. It was as though the author aggregated popular stereotypes of how the Nigerian society demands people to be and designed characters solely around these rigid definitions. As a consequence, most of the characters were without nuance and soul. ...

Title: The Son of the House Author: Onyemelukwe-Onuobia, Cheluchi Publisher: Dundurn Press Pages: 288 Date Read: 13 November 2023 Bookshelves: read My Rating (out of 5): ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Very well-written and easy to read. One of my favourite reads of 2023. Loved how the author leveraged fate in this story, as if to remind us of the subtle ways in which we are all connected In case you missed it the first time, this is a very well-written book. I look forward to reading other works by this author.