The Steady Read

Your home for book reviews, recommendations, and more

Category: Book Reviews

  • Review: Give a Boy a Gun by Todd Strasser

    Review: Give a Boy a Gun by Todd Strasser

    Across the last few months, I took an interest in the rather significant event that was the April 1999 Columbine Massacre (see here, here, and here). After reading three different books on the topic, I had considered myself done with the whole matter for the meantime… until I discovered Todd Strasser’s Give a Boy a…

  • Review: Columbine: A True Crime Story by Jeff Kass

    Review: Columbine: A True Crime Story by Jeff Kass

    Coming off the heels of my reading of the brief, but factual, The Columbine School Shootings by Jenny MacKay, I figured I may as well immerse myself in a more expansive and exploratory investigation of April 1999’s tragedy. Hence, I sat down and read through Jeff Kass’ 330-page chronology, investigation, and expose piece titled Columbine:…

  • Review: USA National Parks: Lands of Wonder by DK Eyewitness

    Review: USA National Parks: Lands of Wonder by DK Eyewitness

    One of my many lofty dreams in life is to see all—or most—of the United States’ national parks. It is a dream that only seems to grow stronger in desire as I eke further into my twenties, and because of how reoccurring and ever-present it is as of late, I decided to read through all…

  • Review: Normal People by Sally Rooney

    Review: Normal People by Sally Rooney

    Over the last year or so, I have actively been trying to read new authors and pick up a few best-seller books that seem to be universally recommended. Sally Rooney’s Normal People was one such novel that everyone—and I mean everyone—seemed to rank at the top of the must-read lists. Naturally, I was sceptical about…

  • 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 four stars and above here on The Steady Read, which should indicate my fondness for her writing style and handling of stories. However, as this introduction (and the rating above) may allude to,…

  • 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—instead filling…

  • 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 cannot get…

  • 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 somewhat bearable comedic edge shine through in this love letter to video games. Part autobiography, part educational, part review; Fuck Yeah, Video Games…