Book Reviews

Courtnii Reads

Book Reviews | Book Recommendations | Reading Challenges.

8 min read

All About Love by Bell Hooks | Book Review and Quotes

"All too often women believe it is a sign of commitment, an expression of love, to endure unkindness or cruelty, to forgive and forget....

5 min read

The World of Yesterday by Stefan Zweig | Book Review

"I have nothing more of my past with me than what I have retained in my mind." "For I look upon memory not as an element which...

2 min read

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy | Book Review

"We all think we only have to be knocked a little bit off course and we've lost everything, but it's only the start of something new and...

3 min read

The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls | Book Review

“You should never hate anyone, even your worst enemies. Everyone has something good about them. You have to find the redeeming quality...

4 min read

Born a Crime by Trevor Noah | Book Review

“We tell people to follow their dreams, but you can only dream of what you can imagine, and, depending on where you come from, your...

2 min read

Milkman by Anna Burns | Book Review

This is a uniquely structured novel set in an unnamed city during the Troubles in Northern Ireland. The story is narrated by an...

2 min read

Claire of the Sea Light by Edwidge Danticat | Book Review

Through intertwining narratives, the author paints a vivid portrait of the lives of the residents of a seaside town in Haiti. The story...

1 min read

Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie | Book Review

“Everything else you can live around, but not death. Death you have to live through.” This story revolves around three siblings: Isma,...

3 min read

A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving | Book Review

“When someone you love dies, and you're not expecting it, you don't lose her all at once; you lose her in pieces over a long time—the way...

1 min read

In Order to Live by Yeonmi Park | Book Review

“I inhaled books like other people breathe oxygen. I didn't just read for knowledge or pleasure, I read to live.” In Order to Live is a...

2 min read

Just Kids by Patti Smith | Book Review

"No one expected me. Everything awaited me." Just Kids is a memoir that recounts Patti Smith's relationship with the artist Robert...

2 min read

The Palace of Dreams by Ismail Kadare | Book Review

“Every passion or wicked thought, every affliction or crime, every rebellion or catastrophe necessarily casts its shadow before it long...

1 min read

Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk | Book Review

“At the time, my life just seemed too complete, and maybe we have to break everything to make something better out of ourselves.” This...

2 min read

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley | Book Review

“Words can be like X-rays if you use them properly – they’ll go through anything. You read and you’re pierced.” Brave New World is a...

2 min read

The Wonder by Emma Donoghue | Book Review

“A fast didn't go fast; it was the slowest thing there was. Fast meant a door shut fast, firmly. A fastness, a fortress. To fast was to...

2 min read

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess | Book Review

“Is it better for a man to have chosen evil than to have good imposed upon him?” A Clockwork Orange is a novel that is set in a dystopian...

1 min read

Jamilia by Chingiz Aitmatov | Book Review

“I was astounded at the passion and fire of the melody itself. I could not describe it then, nor can I now. Was it just his voice or...

1 min read

Acts of Desperation by Megan Nolan | Book Review

“I made mistakes like this all the time, seeking affirmation from the very worst people, so that what I must have been after deep down...

2 min read

The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Moshin Hamid | Book Review

“...status, as in any traditional, class-conscious society, declines more slowly than wealth.” The Reluctant Fundamentalist is a story...

2 min read

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga | Book Review

“See, the poor dream all their lives of getting enough to eat and looking like the rich. And what do the rich dream of?? Losing weight...