I resisted reading The Handmaid’s Tale for a long time. I can’t quite put a finger on why. In part it was because of my ignorant understanding that it was some sort of totalitarian chic-lit. In part, I have to also admit there was something I didn’t quite like about Margaret Atwood. Something undefinable about […]
Author Archives: Ms A
April
30
Anatomy of a Scandal by Sarah Vaughan
posted by Ms A
I wasn’t going to review this book. I’m a busy reader with a highbrow rep to protect and it just didn’t seem worthy to me. That said, when I hear that so many people are reading and talking about it, I couldn’t resist throwing my 2 cents in. Apparently, it’s even on the NSW Bar’s […]
April
02
Dunbar by Edward St Aubyn
posted by Ms A
Ok I haven’t been blogging much over the last few months but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been reading. I just haven’t read anything rousing enough to blog about. This book however hit me like a veritable first glass of champagne; going straight to my head and heart and leaving me with a book hangover […]
January
02
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
posted by Ms A
Every good holiday requires a good book. Frankly, it is beyond me why airlines don’t offer book sales with flight reservations. They could easily make recommendations according to destination, demographic and flight length and it would be a whole lot more fun than amazon. Instead of a little shopping basket icon there could be a […]
December
10
The Choke by Sofie Laguna
posted by Ms A
It’s the early 1970’s and a ten-year-old girl is slipping through the cracks. Abandoned by her mother and neglected by her father, she is forced to live with her alcoholic grandfather in a broken-down property near the banks of the Murray River. Surrounded by men, guns and beer – this young girl is far from […]
October
22
Days without End by Sebastian Barry
posted by Ms A
It scares me how many times I walked past this beautiful book. In the days of big publishing houses and even bigger marketing budgets, it is not at all uncommon to get enticed by a cover and find on reading it that the writing doesn’t quite match the hype. The opposite is true with this […]
August
28
New Boy by Tracy Chevalier
posted by Ms A
Ok so I haven’t been posting like Ms K but it doesn’t mean I haven’t been reading and thinking about books. For those of you who have been holding off starting something new until you’ve heard from me (pay attention both of you) I am sorry. All I can say is the wait has been […]
July
06
Exit West by Moshin Hamid
posted by Ms A
I’ve read a lot of books in 2017 but only reviewed half of them. Too many have not been worth reviewing; others I’ve been too lazy to review and then there are those I keep going back to that have been reviewed too many times already. The classics. This book doesn’t fall into any of […]
April
17
Hillbilly Elegy by J D Vance
posted by Ms A
There’s not a single person I know that wouldn’t take something away from this book which probably explains why it’s a number one New York Times Bestseller. Released in late 2016 and timed to perfection, this personal memoir of US businessman J D Vance offers insights into the disintegration of towns and communities in the rust-belt of America. The […]
April
16
Storm and Grace by Kathryn Heyman
posted by Ms A
Not everything is how it presents. Including this book. On the surface, Storm and Grace could be mistaken for a contemporary Mills and Boon, complete with alpha male and remote island setting. But the reality is the exact opposite. In fact, I would go so far as to say that it’s a clever and very deliberate […]
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