Frankenstein – The Modern Prometheus
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is a gothic tale of classic romanticism, the creature is inherently good. It is society that turns Frankenstein's creature to evil.
The Bullet Trick
The Bullet Trick is a crime thriller that begins in a seedy club in a Soho. The narrative cuts back and forth from a cabaret in Berlin, Glasgow and London
The Oxford Murders
In The Oxford Murders, an unnamed narrator from Buenos Aires wins a scholarship to study algebraic topology at Oxford.
Esther Waters
Esther Waters by George Moore, published in 1894, is a novel about making difficult choices. Or, as perhaps, hedging your bets
Paint it Black
Janet Fitch's Paint It Black is aptly named. Josie's is one of the hardest drinking and drugging women I've met in fiction in a while.
The Moon and Sixpence
I read The Moon and Sixpence by W. Somerset Maugham - loosely based on the painter Paul Gauguin - with interest. Then my feelings changed
The Flanders Panel
The Flanders Panel, by Arturo Perez-Reverte, is about art conservator uncovering an inscription hidden for nearly five centuries
A Woman in Berlin: Eight Weeks in the Conquered City
You'd never call A Woman in Berlin: Eight Weeks in the Conquered City light summer reading
Daphne
Daphne, the latest novel by British writer Justine Picardie, artfully begs the question: Where would we be without our literary forbears
Antony & Cleopatra
Antony & Cleopatra is fast-paced, almost suspenseful (even though, it being a Shakespearean tragedy, we know how the major players will meet their end).
The Fairy Tales
The Fairy Tales are also appropriate, despite their darker elements, for children who have perhaps overindulged on the sugar-coated Disney versions
The Adventures of Frog and Toad
Arnold Lobel's Frog and Toad Are Friends, published in 1970, is the first in a series of four books about these two famous friends
The Moonstone
The Moonstone is a very long tale about a precious gem stolen from the brow of a Hindu deity that wreaks havoc on an English family
Blaming
Blaming by Elizabeth Taylor is the story of an unlikely friendship that forms between Amy, an Englishwoman, and Martha, an American