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The Library Is Open

A blog about books and writing, through rainbow-tinted glasses. Every book gets a gay rating.

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      • Contemporary
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Review: The Light Years by Elizabeth Jane Howard

The Light Years is the perfect novel for a society sleep-walking towards disaster.

1930s, Classics, England, Fiction, Historical, World War II

Review: The Shadow King by Maaza Mengiste

An ambitious novel about war and memory.

1930s, Ethiopia, Fiction, Historical, Italy, Novel, War

Review: Fifth Sun by Camilla Townsend

The Fifth Sun is a fascinating, scholarly and moving portrayal of a people surviving colonisation.

Aztecs, History, Mexico, Nonfiction

Review: Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart

A tale of despair, illness and poverty that captures the swooping highs and devastating lows of life.

Contemporary, gay, Glasgow, Man Booker prize, Novel, queer, Scotland

Review: The Portrait Of A Lady by Henry James

A novel that does what it says, painting a portrait of an ambitious and charming young woman as she seeks to experience all life has to offer.

America, Classics, England, Henry James, Italy

The best books I’ve read 2020

The books that have had the biggest impact on me this year.

Argentina, Australian, Classics, Contemporary, End of year review, Environment, Fiction, Indigenous writers, Nonfiction, Novel, Year in review

Review: A Couple Of Things Before The End by Sean O’Beirne

These stories are about traditional Aussie men, all at sea in their emotions.

Australian, Climate change, Contemporary, Short stories, Spec-fic, Speculative

Review: The Adventures Of China Iron by Gabriela Cabezón Cámara (translated by Fiona Mackintosh and Iona Macintyre)

Lesbians! Cowboys! Argentina!

Argentina, Contemporary, Fiction, Historical, Indigenous Americans, LGBTIQ, Man Booker International, Novel, queer, Translation

Review: The Discomfort of Evening by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld (translated by Michele Hutchison)

This is a novel that does what it says: a truly discomforting tale of death and grief set in a grim twilight world.

Contemporary, Fiction, Man Booker International, Netherlands, Novel, Translation

Review: A Treacherous Country by K. M. Kruimink

A strange and misty novel set in colonial Van Diemen’s Land.

Australian, Fiction, Historical, Novel, Tasmania

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