Andrea's Reviews

I really enjoy Cold War fiction and period piece spy films, so I was thrilled to come across this real-life story of the man who inspired the title character of Le Carré's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Kim Philby worked in British intelligence but was a double agent for the KGB. This is the story of how his duplicitous career came into being and was finally unmasked.

You isn’t just about the magical moment when you first laid eyes on a video game console. It’s about everything that goes into creating a game: fleshing out imaginary universes sentence by sentence and tearing out your hair writing code at 3 in the morning. The magical realism and ☆90s flashbacks☆ made this emotional, introspective look at the development of gaming super enjoyable to read.  —Andrea

Lovely queer Victorian heroines and a series of misunderstandings convoluted enough to rival Shakespeare--Fingersmith has it all! Susan agrees to pose as Maud's maid to steal her substantial inheritance, but develops affection, and then something deeper, for her target. Everything seems to be going according to plan, when sudden disaster strikes and one girl is held captive while the other is dumped into a madhouse. You will read the last hundred pages with bated breath.

How does Donna Tartt keep creating protagonists with whom I identify so deeply, even though I’ve [probably] never stolen a famous painting and then become a drug-addicted furniture swindler? Each sentence is so multifaceted and drenched in feeling that it demands to be dissected, and your heart will be scraped raw by the end. Am I exaggerating? Now that this Pulitzer Prize winner is in paperback, there's no better time to discover The Goldfinch for yourself.

This beautiful guide to classic and popular card games (blackjack, gin rummy) plus lesser-known ones (dou dizhu, suicide) would be an excellent addition to your vacation cabin or board-game nights this summer. Each of the 50 games is presented with rules and variations, with the objective and course of play clearly laid out. You’ll want to read it cover to cover before deciding which game to try first.    

If you still haven’t had enough of the too-cool-for-school snacks unveiled in Momofuku Milk Bar, you can find lots more to love in Milk Bar Life. There are Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Chorizo Burgers, Kitchen Sink Quiche with Red Onion Jam, Fruity Pebble Meringues with Passion Fruit Curd (OMG), and many more. As sleek, eye catching, and appealingly laid out as a hipster zine, this is the ideal cookbook for your next gourmet dinner with a badass twist.

What do a dead Shakespearean actor, a paramedic, a prophet, and the keeper of the last graphic novel on Earth have in common? There’s a deadly superflu, but also dozens of coincidences that unite these narrators in this profound and beautiful tale about what we hold onto at the end of the world. Extraordinarily well plotted and beautifully written; this one will stay with you for a while.

At the end of the 19th century, young James leaves for Oxford and his sister Charlotte stays behind in their country home. Then James finds love unexpectedly—and disappears the next day. Charlotte sets out to find him and must contend with the persuasive and seemingly ageless gentlemen of the Aegolius Club. This dreamy tale pays tribute to epistolary novels like its predecessor Dracula and will appeal to fans of both historical fiction and vampires.