Tag: 20th century

Book Review: Anne of Green Gables

Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery I liked this book, though this review will get way, way more into it than it would had I read it when I was in its target demographic. If I had read it as a young girl, I would have longed to live on a quaint Canadian island …

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Book Review: Rebecca

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier Sometimes when I want a palette-cleanser from some tepid books, I look through “classics I’ve never read” hoping I’ll find a gem. This is regarded as one of the best books of a greatly-admired author and I figured it would be worth a listen. It was. The first thing I …

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Book Review: The Talented Mr. Ripley

The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith This book is a classic for a reason. Groundbreaking in its time, its protagonist is a clever, amoral man whom we can’t help but root for, even as we despise him. Or maybe I’m speaking for myself. I wanted Tom Ripley to succeed. I shared his paranoia that …

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Book Review: The Remains of the Day

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro This was an extremely depressing but brilliantly performed audiobook that I could not listen to without thinking of Downton Abbey. It alternates between Stephens, the long-time butler of Darlington Hall taking a road trip through England and Stephens thinking about his past and about Miss Kenton, a …

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Book Review: The Haunting of Hill House

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson This book suffers from the fate that befalls a lot of groundbreaking work in that it’s been copied and emulated so much that a modern reader such as myself reading it for the first time finds it dull and almost derivative. It’s not fair to Jackson, of …

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