Ok, 2020 was a year of complete you-can’t-make-this-sh*t-up crazy, but for me – truth be told – it wasn’t that bad. Actually it was pretty nice. There was alot to be happy about and then, ta da, I scored a cherry on the cake moment because I beat Ms A to this beauty so hoorah […]
January
16
How Much of These Hills Is Gold by C Pam Zhang
posted by Ms A
I can’t keep up with Obama, but frankly, who, besides Michelle, can? Every year, he publishes a list of his top 10 reads and every year, I head knowingly to the bookshop to scoop them up. I could just walk in with the list but no, instead I choose 3 or 4 and wander up […]
January
15
Honeybee by Craig Silvey
posted by Ms K
One of the great things I guess about a new year shut-down across greater Sydney was I felt zero guilt laying in bed all day, listening to the rain, reading. I did it twice and I felt a million dollars. This sort of caper should be done more often I thought (New Years resolution #1). […]
January
07
Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
posted by Ms A
Everything about this book seems light and breezy. What, with its throwaway title, cute cover and offbeat dialogue, you’d expect to find it atop a discount pile at an airport bookshop, not on the Booker prize longlist. But maybe that’s the point. Such a Fun Age is about racism and class, told through the story […]
December
11
Best young reader picks by Miss L (aged 11)
posted by Ms K
Stuck for great Christmas book ideas for young book lovers? Worry no more and say hello to Miss L, the most delightful, voracious reader who just happens to be 11. AND she has started her own bath-bomb business too that supports wild life causes because, well, like I say, she’s pretty incredible (@bloom.seventh). 11! I […]
December
06
Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
posted by Ms A
Your Christmas reading list is sorted. After months of disappointing starts, I’ve finally found a book that I can recommend with all my heart. Shuggie Bain is a once in a generation novel that tells the simple story of a son’s devotion to his alcoholic mother. Set in Glasgow in the 1980s, where the mines […]
November
23
Phosphorescence by Julia Baird
posted by Ms K
I am just going to leave this line here and let’s gaze up on it together because goodness knows we need a breather…. Maybe it’s just that we’re all made of stardust. I don’t know what it is about this statement, but it calms me so deeply so I hope that may be true for […]
November
09
Islands by Peggy Frew
posted by Ms K
If I were stuck on a deserted island, this is a book I definitely would not want with me. I am sorry to say Readheads, this one really wasn’t for me. Perhaps I am on an island with this review and am alone in my dislike of the story however, I doubt it. The way […]
October
11
A Room Made of Leaves by Kate Grenville
posted by Ms A
Few authors get me to the bookshop faster than Kate Grenville. After The Secret River and The Lieutenant (which every single Australian needs to read if they haven’t already), all other authors can take a ticket. This time, Grenville shares the story of Elizabeth Macarthur, wife of British officer and renowned pastoralist of early colonial Sydney, John Macarthur, the […]
September
27
Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld
posted by Ms K
This one teased me in book shop windows but it took me a hot second to realise Rodham was fiction and not, in fact, a biography. Talk about judging a book by its cover. Readheads, this is one of the cleverest stories I have read for a very long time and the question on the […]
