Books – Uptown Oracle https://www.uptownoracle.com Living Your Bookish Life ✨ Tue, 18 Aug 2026 21:28:48 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1 https://i0.wp.com/www.uptownoracle.com/755/2021/05/cropped-Uptown-Oracle-Logo-File-NOTAG.png?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1 Books – Uptown Oracle https://www.uptownoracle.com 32 32 117146186 The Artist by Lucy Steeds Review 🎨 Art, Ambition and the Women Left Outside the Frame https://www.uptownoracle.com/the-artist-lucy-steeds/ https://www.uptownoracle.com/the-artist-lucy-steeds/#respond Wed, 19 Aug 2026 18:00:00 +0000 https://www.uptownoracle.com/?p=37376 Behind every celebrated artist lies a constructed mythology: the reclusive genius, the uncompromising vision, the life sacrificed in pursuit of art. But who cooks his meals, cleans his studio and quietly absorbs the consequences of that so-called genius?

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]]> https://www.uptownoracle.com/the-artist-lucy-steeds/feed/ 0 37376 Holy Terrors by Margaret Owen 🪙 A Dark Fairytale Finale That Sticks the Landing https://www.uptownoracle.com/holy-terrors-margaret-owen/ Wed, 05 Aug 2026 18:00:00 +0000 https://www.uptownoracle.com/?p=35920 Endings are hard especially when a series is built on sharp wit, morally messy characters, and a world that feels equal parts whimsical and dangerous. Holy Terrors, the final instalment in Margaret Owen’s Little Thieves trilogy, had a lot to live up to… and thankfully, it delivers. Blending murder mystery, magic, and character-driven chaos, this […]

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]]> 35920 Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor 🤔 Ambitious, Layered, but Ultimately Frustrating https://www.uptownoracle.com/death-of-the-author-nnedi-okorafor/ Wed, 29 Jul 2026 18:00:00 +0000 https://www.uptownoracle.com/?p=35857 Death of the Author sets out to be bold with a multi-layered narrative exploring authorship, fame, identity, and the blurred lines between creator and creation. With a novel-within-a-novel structure and a protagonist navigating sudden literary success, it promises something sharp, introspective, and genre-bending. What it delivers is certainly ambitious… but for me, it didn’t quite […]

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]]> 35857 The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter 🩸 Dark, Gothic Fairy Tales That Transform the ClassicsThe Bloody Chamber https://www.uptownoracle.com/the-bloody-chamber-angela-carter/ Wed, 22 Jul 2026 18:00:00 +0000 https://www.uptownoracle.com/?p=36571 Fairy tales have always been darker than many of us remember. Long before Disney softened their edges, these stories were filled with violence, desire, betrayal, and death. Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber embraces those darker roots, retelling familiar tales through a feminist Gothic lens that is sensual, unsettling, and richly symbolic. Originally published in 1979, […]

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]]> 36571 Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys 🌊 A Haunting Reimagining of the Woman in the Attic https://www.uptownoracle.com/wide-sargasso-sea-jean-rhys/ Wed, 15 Jul 2026 18:00:00 +0000 https://www.uptownoracle.com/?p=36570 Few novels have inspired as much literary discussion as Wide Sargasso Sea. First published in 1966, Jean Rhys’ novel reimagines the life of Bertha Mason, the infamous “madwoman in the attic” from Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, giving her a history, a voice, and an identity of her own. Set against the backdrop of post-emancipation Jamaica, […]

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]]> 36570 Assassin’s Fate by Robin Hobb 👀 A Perfect Conclusion to Fitz’s Journey https://www.uptownoracle.com/assassins-fate-robin-hobb/ Wed, 08 Jul 2026 18:00:00 +0000 https://www.uptownoracle.com/?p=36569 Assassin’s Fate is the final novel in Robin Hobb‘s Realm of the Elderlings, bringing together threads that have been woven through multiple trilogies, continents, prophecies, dragons, liveships, and decades of storytelling. It is both the conclusion to the Fitz and the Fool trilogy and the culmination of FitzChivalry Farseer’s entire life story. The result is […]

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]]> 36569 Fool’s Quest by Robin Hobb ⚔️ A Desperate Search, Old Wounds, and the Cost of Love https://www.uptownoracle.com/fools-quest-robin-hobb/ Wed, 01 Jul 2026 18:00:00 +0000 https://www.uptownoracle.com/?p=35325 If Fool’s Assassin was the calm before the storm, Fool’s Quest is the storm itself. The second book in Robin Hobb‘s Fitz and the Fool trilogy picks up in the aftermath of a devastating loss, sending FitzChivalry Farseer on one of the most personal journeys of his life. Gone are the quiet domestic comforts of […]

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]]> 35325 Fool’s Assassin by Robin Hobb ✨ A Quiet Return to Fitz and the Calm Before the Storm https://www.uptownoracle.com/fools-assassin-robin-hobb/ Wed, 24 Jun 2026 18:00:00 +0000 https://www.uptownoracle.com/?p=35323 Fifteen years have passed since readers last walked beside Fitz, and for perhaps the first time in his life, he has something resembling peace. He has a home, a family, responsibilities that don’t involve assassinations or saving kingdoms, and a future that seems stable. But this is Robin Hobb. And if there’s one thing Realm […]

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]]> 35323 Our Infinite Fates by Laura Steven 💞 A Devastating Love Story About Choosing Each Other Again and Again https://www.uptownoracle.com/our-infinite-fates-laura-steven/ Wed, 17 Jun 2026 18:00:00 +0000 https://www.uptownoracle.com/?p=35349 What if you knew how your story ended? What if you spent lifetime after lifetime trying to change it? Laura Steven’s Our Infinite Fates takes a premise that had been living in the author’s mind since 2009 and transforms it into one of the most emotionally devastating fantasy romances I’ve read. Inspired by themes of […]

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]]> 35349 Turner & Constable: Rivals and Originals Review 🖼️ A Beautiful Companion to Tate Britain’s Landmark Exhibition https://www.uptownoracle.com/turner-constable-rivals-and-originals/ Fri, 12 Jun 2026 18:00:00 +0000 https://www.uptownoracle.com/?p=36341 Published to accompany Tate Britain's major exhibition celebrating the 250th anniversary of the births of J.M.W. Turner and John Constable, Turner & Constable: Rivals and Originals offers the opportunity to explore two of Britain's most influential landscape painters side by side.

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