Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern Reviewed by Megan Kelly The Night Circus seems to be one of those novels that slipped under some radars but thankfully not everyone’s. I finally gave into friends and reliable reviews lauding this book and kicked myself for not having read it the week it came out. Morgenstern’s first novel [...]

The Gathering Night by Margaret Elphinstone (368 pages) Reviewed by A W Donovan I have always loved historical novels and found The Gathering Night gripping and a joy to read. It is set in the Mesolithic era, approx. 8000 yrs ago , and describes the lives of hunter gatherers. The story unfolds through the voices [...]

Full Frontal Feminism: A Young Woman’s Guide to Why Feminism Matters Despite Jessica Valenti’s book “Full Frontal Feminism: A Young Women’s Guide to Why Feminism Matters” being aimed at young American women, I – a fourteen year old Brit at the time- was inspired by it and, as corny as this may sound, it changed [...]

Short stories are something that I’ve always struggled with, and I don’t think I’m alone! Short stories are often considered a difficult genre, both for readers to fully engage with, and for publishers to promote. Often I can feel a bit ‘cheated’ by a short story – I end up getting so attached to the [...]

The Women’s Room, first published in 1977, has come to be one of the most important and influential works of fiction of the twentieth century. The book follows the life of a young woman, Mira, from adolescence to middle age, and chronicles her experiences, and the experiences of her friends and piers. The book exposes [...]

For months I had been gazing covetously at the posters advertising Jackie Kay’s latest offering, while immersed in some heavy theory at uni. Having not had a minute to read anything pleasurable all term, my first foray back into the world of non-academic writing was an exciting prospect, and having read and loved Jackie Kay’s [...]

When I read this book for the first time, it left me absolutely lost. Actually, I am not quite sure if that circumstance has changed since then, at least my view on the stories changes every time I pick up the book. I became addicted to the mysterious atmosphere that is created in every single [...]

We are delighted to have this fantastic review this month. Honeypears has prepared this absolutely wonderful graphic review. Click here to see the complete review

Home by Marilynne Robinson My friend and fellow book lover recently lent me a book called Home by Marilynne Robinson. ‘Go on read it, you’ll love it’ she said. ‘Not much happens but it’s beautiful and amazing’. We don’t meet up very often, but every time we do we always chat about what we’ve been [...]

I have begun at the wrong end of Maya Angelou’s six-part autobiography. I had read excerpts from the first book, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, but, for no reason in particular, never managed to read it in its entirety, or any of the four books that led to this final installment. So it [...]

As Emma Donoghue’s tenth novel, Room (2010), was received with such glowing critical acclaim, it seems the perfect time to become acquainted with this potent Irish-born writer. Hood, 1997 winner of the American Library Association’s Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Book Award for Literature, is Donoghue’s second novel, and my first encounter with her writing.  The [...]

Reviewed by Jean Gibson Sometimes I find it difficult to choose a book. There seem to be so many out there on the shelves or piled up 3 for 2 in bookshops. However I didn’t have any difficulty  choosing ”The Long Song” by Andrea Levy as the book I want to write about here. It’s [...]

By Pauline Wood I had not heard of Amalie Skram (a Norwegian writer who lived from 1846-1905) until I borrowed a novel by her from the Glasgow Women’s Library. ‘Betrayed’ is a short novel written in 1892 in which she describes the marriage of a young girl of 17 to an older man, an account [...]

In launching the Women On The Shelf collaboration between the3rdi magazine and Glasgow Women’s Library it seemed only fair that I should introduce the concept and write the first review. The project asks women from all walks of life to discuss a book which means something special to them. It doesn’t have to be drawn [...]

We are delighted to announce a brand new partnership with Glasgow Women’s Library. (GWL) Glasgow Women’s Library was established in 1991. It grew out of the women’s arts-orientated project, Women in Profile (1987), to ensure the visibility of women in the programming of the Glasgow, European City of Culture year (1990). Since the thousands of [...]