Writing a book review primarily means writing a critical summary of the book, by personally analyzing the contents of the book and ultimately forming an opinion of the work of the writer. Thus, a book review is actually a critical evaluation of the book, which is not only informative, but also useful for readers who intend to read the book.
Writing a book report sounds fairly simple till the time you are actually expected to do one at school by your teacher.
The Heather Blazing by Colm Toibin is an Irish novel set in Dublin and Wexford. Eamon Redmond is a high court judge with political connections and a family history. The book tells his story and describes the conflicts generated by his legal judgments with deep compassion.
Colin Thubron’s Emperor is a highly original attempt to fill in via fiction a significant gap in Eurpean history. Constantine the Great’s conversion to Christianity elevated the religion to official and imperial status, a position it has never lost. Colin Thubron’s book flutters through the ciscumstances of that conversion.
July’s People by Nadine Gordimer examines relations between the black and white races of apartheid South Africa after an urban rebellion has rendered the country ungovernable. A white family’s former houseboy offers his employers safe haven and they must learn a new way of living.
Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini has been showered with priase and attention since it publication. The book deals with Afghanis experience of the turmaoils that have beset their country in recent decades, and this is seen through the lives of a pair of friends who grew up together. It is a deeply moving book.
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini continues the author’s depiction of Afghanistan’s recent history via the experiences of powerless individuals caught up in the tagedy. In this book he charts the lives of two very different women, Mariam and Laila, whose divergent lives intersect for a while.
On Chesil Beach examines attitudes towards sexuality and realtionships at the start of the 1960s. By the end of the decade both of these ideas were described as liberated. Just a few years earlier, people were still very much the children of their age.
It is fifty years since John Braine published Room At The Top, a novel that presents a stark, perhaps cynical view of the British class system. Its frank portrayal of relationships and sex caused a stir at the time. Fifty years later, it is still poignant, and it also reminds us that some things have changed a lot, though not the British class system.
In The Statement Brian Moore’s main character is pursued by a Jewish group wanting to avenge a wartime massacre. The book presents a good read alongside many missed opportunities.