The Steady Read

Your home for book reviews, recommendations, and more

Category: Book Reviews

  • Review: Ms Ice Sandwich by Mieko Kawakami

    Review: Ms Ice Sandwich by Mieko Kawakami

    Mieko Kawakami is one of my favourite authors, at least regarding works from the twenty-first century. All of her works have scored 4/5 and above here on The Steady Read, which should indicate my fondness for her writing style and handling of stories. However, as this setup may allude to (and the score above), Ms…

  • Review: The Columbine School Shootings by Jenny MacKay

    Review: The Columbine School Shootings by Jenny MacKay

    A few months ago, I read A Mother’s Reckoning by Sue Klebold, mother of Columbine mass shooter Dylan Klebold. Whilst I found her memoir and insight into the tragic events of 20 April 1999, I also found that the author had gone to some lengths to tiptoe around the actual events of the day —…

  • Review: The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami

    Review: The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami

    Murakami is an author who has grown on me. I have many of his acclaimed novels and non-fiction works resting on my bookshelf, but I have yet to read most of them because Murakami is an author that requires you to be in a certain mood — an attentive, glum, and thoughtful one. Because I…

  • Review: Let the Old Dead Make Room for the Young Dead by Milan Kundera

    Review: Let the Old Dead Make Room for the Young Dead by Milan Kundera

    After spotlighting it in a recent Book of the Week post, I was spurred to give Milan Kundera’s Faber Stories release a read. I also learned that the author himself passed in July 2023, which surprised me upon seeing that many of his other works were now forty or fifty years old. Let the Old…

  • Review: Autumn by Ali Smith

    Review: Autumn by Ali Smith

    Writing is hard to spice up, especially when it comes to the way in which a story is told. A typical novel follows a largely chronological telling of a story from a limited amount of perspectives, and that’s that. Ali Smith’s first entry of her Seasonal Quartet of works, Autumn, seeks to challenge how cohesive,…

  • Review: Fuck Yeah, Video Games by Daniel Hardcastle

    Review: Fuck Yeah, Video Games by Daniel Hardcastle

    Most YouTubers, especially those who do let’s plays and gaming content, aren’t highly regarded as great writers. The same is somewhat true of Daniel Hardcastle (of Nerd³ fame), but his passion and comedic edge shine through in this love letter to video games. Part autobiography, part educational, part review; Fuck Yeah, Video Games stands as…

  • Review: Mr Salary by Sally Rooney

    Review: Mr Salary by Sally Rooney

    A very short but impactful read, and my first experience with Sally Rooney’s writing that has left me interested in cracking open my untouched copy of Normal People. Across its short span of less than fifty pages, Mr Salary details the complex and sexually tense relationship between twenty-four-year-old Sukie and her significantly older — as…

  • Review: A Mother’s Reckoning by Sue Klebold

    Review: A Mother’s Reckoning by Sue Klebold

    I’ve been trying to dabble in non-fiction a bit more, and I’ve always had an interest in notable crimes and their aftermath. Regarding school-related crimes and shootings, none is more noteworthy than the 1999 Columbine High School Massacre (often referred to simply as ‘Columbine’). In A Mother’s Reckoning, Sue Klebold, mother of co-shooter Dylan Klebold,…

  • Review: Patriotism by Mishima Yukio

    Review: Patriotism by Mishima Yukio

    Perhaps one of the most tense and disturbing short stories I have ever read, leaving me unsure whether to praise it or regret having ever read it. The story itself follows the suicide of a young Japanese lieutenant, and his even younger wife, at the tail end of February 1936. The premise sounds simple and…

  • Review: The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger

    Review: The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger

    A novel with an attitude, or that’s how it comes across to most readers. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye is widely recognised as a novel that wants to pick apart the superficiality of twentieth century society, but I feel that undermines its appeal. Societal critique is a common facet of many novels, so that’s…