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Ellen Allen Writes

Avid reader. Wild swimmer. Indie Author of The Sham. Collector of writing titbits (http://www.ellenallen.co) and all things bookish...

203 BOOKS

Currently reading

The Sham - Ellen Allen

The Sham

Ellen Allen

Recently added

When Breath Becomes Air - Paul Kalanithi, Abraham Verghese

The Girls: A Novel - Emma Cline

The Interestings: A Novel - Meg Wolitzer

Today

December

21

The Sham - Ellen Allen

The Sham

Ellen Allen

December 2016

29

read

When Breath Becomes Air - Paul Kalanithi, Abraham Verghese

The Girls: A Novel - Emma Cline

The Interestings: A Novel - Meg Wolitzer

The Luminaries - Eleanor Catton

reviewed: When Breath Becomes Air; over-hyped and way too sentimental

I had been wanting to read Paul Kalanithi's memoir for a while, having read a rave review in the New York Times; he was an es...

When Breath Becomes Air - Paul Kalanithi, Abraham Verghese

reviewed: The Girls; superb teen angst with a splash of murder

I first came across author Emma Cline in the Paris Review of Books in summer 2013 when I found her story Marion. The opening ...

The Girls: A Novel - Emma Cline

May 2016

08

reviewed: The Luminaries; sooo long but worth it

My god, I made it. Eleanor Catton’s Booker Prize-winning first novel is not for the faint-hearted. It is long. And I mean lon...

The Luminaries - Eleanor Catton

January 2016

22

reviewed: The Interestings; vivid, evocative and really bloody good

I hadn’t heard of Meg Wolitzer but when I read some of the reviews in The New York Times and The Telegraph, I discovered she ...

The Interestings: A Novel - Meg Wolitzer

December 2015

31

read and rated

Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides

reviewed: Middlesex; riveting book about gender but still way too long

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (who wrote The Virgin Suicides) is a really interesting book about gender; what it really mean...

Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides

read and rated

The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared - Jonas Jonasson

reviewed: The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out Of The Window And Disappeared; a long-winded unfunny dose of Forrest Gump

So I get that The Hundred-Year-Old Man by Jonas Jonasson is meant to be a satire on politics and politicians throughout the 2...

The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared - Jonas Jonasson

October 2015

21

reviewed: Slade House; a bit bonkers, quite scary and oh so well written

I found Slade House by chance on netgalley and didn’t know what to expect (I haven’t read any of David Mitchell’s other books...

Slade House: A Novel - David Mitchell

read and rated

Slade House: A Novel - David Mitchell

finished reading:

Slade House: A Novel - David Mitchell

Slade House: A Novel David Mitchell

October 2015

15

reviewed: My Heart and Other Black Holes; a great YA issues novel

There are lots of brilliant YA books about suicide (All The Bright Places, Thirteen Reasons Why, Wintergirls, etc) – if a boo...

My Heart and Other Black Holes - Jasmine Warga

finished reading:

My Heart and Other Black Holes - Jasmine Warga

My Heart and Other Black Holes Jasmine Warga

started reading:

My Heart and Other Black Holes - Jasmine Warga

My Heart and Other Black Holes Jasmine Warga

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