5 Stars Archives - The Owlery Reader

Review: Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge

Adapted from the viral blog post of the same name, Reni Eddo-Lodge’s Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race uncovers the often unmentioned history of race in Britain, and how relations stand today. She explores the issue from all angles, and this award-winning book has sparked conversations on what it means to be a person of colour in the UK in the twenty-first century. This is a topic which too often goes unspoken of and is relegated to history, but Reni Eddo-Lodge uses her work to show that an open dialogue on race is still incredibly important, now more so than ever.

5 Stars Reviews

Review: Nothing is Okay by Rachel Wiley

Nothing is Okay is Rachel Wiley’s second full-length poetry collection, in which she tackles issues such as race, queerness, fatness, and feminism. It is at once a celebration of the self and a critique of society, asking us to reconsider the ways in which we treat ourselves and others.

5 Stars Reviews

Review: The Strange Bird by Jeff VanderMeer

The Strange Bird sees Jeff VanderMeer return to the world that spawned Borne, crafting a novella from the point of view of a piece of Company biotech. The story follows its eponymous bird, who escapes from the laboratory in which she was built. Once in the outside world, she cannot connect with other wildlife and struggles to know which humans she can trust in a landscape destroyed by technology and the people that created it.

5 Stars Reviews

Review: The Truants by Kate Weinberg

Kate Weinberg’s debut novel, The Truants, pulls dark academia out of the elite and picturesque colleges of America and plunges it into a Brutalist-style university found in the east of England. Jess Walker begins her undergraduate degree enthralled by her enigmatic professor, Lorna Clay, whose class on the master storyteller Agatha Christie sets the scene for the rest of the novel and its mysteries. The Truants is a story about stories, but in particular, it’s about the reliability of our storytellers. Just how much of what they’re telling us is the truth?

5 Stars Reviews

Review: Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane

In the 1980s, two rookie cops move their blossoming families to the small town of Gillam, just north of New York City. Francis Gleeson and his wife, Lena, try to welcome their new neighbours, Brian and Anne Stanhope, but they receive a frosty reception from Anne. As their families grow side by side, inevitably intertwining, their quiet suburban lives hurtle towards an act that will change all of them forever. Spanning four decades, Ask Again Yes examines relationships of all kinds; marriage, friendship, parent-child relationships. It considers how each of those relationships are tested and how powerful forgiveness can be.

5 Stars Reviews

Review: The Other Half of Augusta Hope by Joanna Glen

Augusta Hope has never really felt like she belonged, especially not in her small, boring, English town. Too inquisitive for her down-to-earth parents, Augusta clings to the bond she has with her twin sister, Julia, despite them being complete opposites. Half a world away, Parfait is living the small African country of Burundi, dreaming of a better life for himself and his siblings, not all of whom have survived the horrific war that has torn apart his country. A terrible tragedy leaves Augusta even more lost than before, and she sets out on a journey to find out where it is she’s supposed to be.

5 Stars Reviews

Review: Text Me When You Get Home by Kayleen Schaefer

Kayleen Schaefer’s debut takes a personal and sociological look at the way friendships between women have developed throughout history, to become more nuanced and intimate than ever. Drawing on personal experience and interviews with friends, celebrities, writers, and historians, Schaefer renders a touching account of the importance of friendship in strengthening and supporting our life experiences.

5 Stars Reviews

Review: Notorious RGB by Irin Carmon & Shana Knizhnik

Ruth Bader Ginsburg was only the second woman to sit on the Supreme Court bench, nominated in 1993. Initially considered a moderate, RBG has now become an internet phenomenon as her lawyerly prowess has impressed and inspired thousands of young feminists. Borne out of the original Tumblr blog of the same name, Notorious RBG uses interviews with family, friends, clerks and Ginsburg herself to draw an honest, intimate, and entertaining portrait of a Justice that has devoted her career to making the world a better place.

5 Stars Reviews

Review: Dark Pines by Will Dean

Will Dean’s debut novel elevates the Scandi noir genre with an interesting protagonist, plenty of suspense, and a shocking conclusion.

5 Stars Reviews

Review: All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

Marie-Laure is twelve years old when the Germans occupy Paris, forcing her and her father to flee to the home of her great-uncle Etienne on the coast. Marie-Laure has been blind since she was six, so her father quickly sets to learning the town and building Marie-Laure a miniature replica so that she can find her way around – not that he allows her to leave the house, for fear of her safety. But her father is hiding a secret, and a valuable one at that. Over in Germany, the young orphan Werner is building and repairing radios and catches the attention of the military. He’s immediately enlisted and begins on a path that eventually collides with that of Marie-Laure, and changes their lives forever.