Book cover for review: images shows a young Chinese girl in red holding a steaming bowl of liquid, in which there is the image of a landscape with a river, bridge, and traditional Chinese building. On either side of the girl is a blue Chinese dragon, wreathed in clouds. Down the edges on the sides are different dishes. At the top of the image, the title 'Chinese Menu' is written in gold.
Book Reviews

Chinese Menu: The History, Myths, and Legends Behind Your Favourite Foods | Book Review

By Grace Lin (pub. Little, Brown and Company, 2023)

Almost all dishes on a Chinese menu have a story behind them. In a way, the menu at your Chinese restaurant is the table of contents for a feast of stories.

And this book is that feast.

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Covers for book recommendations January 2026
Book Reviews

Monthly Book Recommendations: January 2026

Welcome to our monthly book recommendations, and it’s our first post for 2026! Depending on where you are in the country, the weather has been pretty grim, so we believe the best thing to do is settle in with some fantastic reads. Here’s the ones that got us through January!

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Covers for book recommendations November 2025
Book Reviews

Monthly Book Recommendations: November 2025

Welcome to our monthly book recommendations, and our final recs post for 2025! Last month was “Non-Fiction November”, but you know us – we couldn’t just stop there! So here’s some fantastic books that cover all sorts of facts and stories in their own way, that we think would all make perfect gifts for this holiday season.

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Covers for book recommendations October 2025
Book Reviews

Monthly Book Recommendations: October 2025

Welcome to our monthly book recommendations post for October! We had a spooktacular time last month reading some hair-raising tales of fact and fiction. It may no longer be October, but don’t let that stop you checking out below what books we enjoyed last month!

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Covers for book recommendations May 2025
Book Reviews

Monthly Book Recommendations: May 2025

Welcome to our monthly book recommendations post for May! Who knows what the weather might do next, which is why it’s always best to have a book (or three!) to hand. Check out what we were reading over the previous month below, and see what you want to add to your TBR pile!

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Songs for Ghosts book cover for review - image shows a young Japanese woman in a kimono holding a biwa. She has a blue filter over her. The landscape around her is puffy like clouds, a pale pink colour, with large blue flowers growing from it. White butterflies fill the red sky above.
Book Reviews

Songs for Ghosts | YA Book Review

By Clara Kumagai (Zephyr, 2025)

‘Who are you?’ I burst out. ‘How did you—’

She raised her head slowly. Her hair was long and dark and straight, half-covering her face, a pale oval. Her lips moved, but I couldn’t hear what she said. Benny quietened. Her eyes were like mine.

There was a noise from another room – my room – and I half-turned towards the sound, then remembered, caught myself and whirled back to the crib. There was nobody there, no woman, nothing. Only Benny, blinking his eyes, clenching and unclenching his little hands.

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Book Reviews

Our Top 5 Books of 2024

We read some absolutely fantastic books over the past year, and we’ve enjoyed sharing them all with you! Some books didn’t make it into our recommended lists however (there were some crackers released at the end of the year!), and they were some of the best – so here we’re sharing with you our top 5 books from 2024.

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Book recommendations covers for Oct 2024
Book Reviews

Monthly Book Recommendations: October 2024

Welcome to our monthly book recommendations post for October! There are still a few spooky titles in our list from last month, but we were also looking forward to non-fiction November.

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Non-fiction summer review round-up book covers
Book Reviews

Illustrated Non-Fiction Summer 2022 | Review

This summer we’ve been diving into some fantastic and gorgeously illustrated non-fiction books, from recent and ancient history, to nature and cultures. We’ve picked some of our favourites to share with you in our short non-fiction review round-up!

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