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A First Look At 'Out of Chaos' By Jon Wilson
Most world history is written from one vantage point and then generalised outward, the West explaining the world to itself. Out of Chaos, Jon Wilson's new book out on August 27th, is the first text I have read that genuinely resists that gravitational pull.
Daniela Denyer Malo
Aug 274 min read


A First Look At How To Make A Woman
This book is a coming of age novel of the very best kind, filled with the sorrows and joys, the ups and downs of life.
Daniela Denyer Malo
Aug 193 min read


Reading Between The Lines: Eight Detectives By Alex Pavesi
There are plenty of books that promise to reinvent the murder mystery genre. Few actually do. Eight Detectives by Alex Pavesi (2020) is one of the rare exceptions: a novel that doesn't simply tell a mystery but examines why mysteries work in the first place.
Daniela Denyer Malo
Aug 175 min read


Everything I Read In July, Ranked (And What It Taught Me About My Reading Taste)
Every month, I tell myself I won't become overly ambitious with my reading plans. And every month… I fail.
July was supposed to be the month I tackled a mountain of books that had been sitting on my TBR cart for months. Romance, fantasy, mystery, literary fiction, political science… I somehow convinced myself I could comfortably fit all of them into one month.
Daniela Denyer Malo
Aug 178 min read


“Writing Life”– In Conversation With Rebecca Walker
Writer and activist Rebecca Walker visited Bush House to discuss memoir-writing and expressions of identity and belonging with KCL students.
India De Rocha Humberstone
Aug 24 min read


The Rise of Booktok: How Does Social Media Change The Way We Read?
A few months ago, I was up late, doom scrolling in bed only to be hit with this sudden sense of panic. Sarah J. Maas had just announced that the next book in the ACOTAR series would be released in October 2026. This was not ideal. I had seven other books from her Throne of Glass series to read before I could even tackle the Crescent City series, which was apparently essential to my understanding of the next ACOTAR book. So, I sat there glumly and calculated how many pages I w
Amber Mann
Jul 313 min read


From Dublin to Delhi: The Afterlives of James Joyce’s Ulysses
Photo by Shanai Tanwar Yesterday I found the soul of Delhi in London. As I gathered alongside hundreds of Indian students and allies in Aldwych to protest the recent hunger strikes asking for education reform and government accountability in Delhi’s Jantar Mantar, the energy was palpable. Under the greenery, surrounded by Urdu poetry and chanting “Inquilab Zindabad,” I could have sworn the homeland had manifested itself in this colonial capital this evening. Which is funny
Shanai Tanwar
Jul 263 min read


Reading Between The Lines: The Wedding People
Photo by Daniela Denyer Malo The Wedding People by Alison Espach, a fiction novel published in 2024, has become increasingly popular in reader circles this year and with good reason too. Marketed as a chick-lit romance, readers expect a funny, light-hearted, whirlwind romance type of book, yet what awaits within the pages is so much more. Beginning with an unexpected premise, our main character’s first proper interaction reveals the most unexpected backstory and motivations –
Daniela Denyer Malo
Jul 184 min read


Wanting What Hurts in Half His Age
"Three teenage girls" by justmakeit is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0. Jennette McCurdy’s Half His Age has received mixed reviews since its release at the end of January, but, for me, that ambivalence is part of what makes it so compelling. Her unsettling sensibility creates a rich character study, drawing the reader into the narrative. At the centre of the novel is Waldo, whose rebellious inner dialogue cuts through every relationship she navigates: her boy-crazy mother, tra
Luiza Helena Britton
May 272 min read


Absurdist Realism, Queerness, and Doppelgängers in ‘As If’: In Conversation with Isabel Waidner
Isabel Waidner, photographed by Suzie Howell I have often wondered what I would do if I met my clone. How different would our lives be, when we would essentially be the same person? Would we be interchangeable, or are there things about myself and my life that are so unique that they couldn’t be replicated? What makes a person’s life theirs ?Isabel Waidner tackles these questions with their distinctive brilliance in their newest novel ‘As If’. Two men (Korine and Lewis) meet
Dan Ramos Lay
Apr 611 min read
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