Category Archives: Book Club Fodder

Love or hate them, you’ll chew the fat over these books for hours.

November 02

Hot Milk by Deborah Levy

Long listed for the Man Booker Prize 2016, many in the know predicted this book would win. But it wasn’t Deborah’s year again (she has been nominated twice) so perhaps she is indeed sipping on hot milk rather than champagne. I read this one a little while ago, drawn more to the lovely cover than […]

October 16

His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet

To paraphrase Orson Wells’ famous line about art, I don’t know anything about books but I know what I like and His Bloody Project is it. Not just because it’s a page turning thriller or because of its brooding premise, but because it’s so original, so authentic and so intelligently crafted. This novel is based on the true […]

October 08

Commonwealth by Anne Patchett

Having read this book, it’s decided. Anne Patchett has earned a seat at my ‘in-my-dreams dinner party’. You know the one?  The dinner party you’d host if you could invite anyone living or dead – the legends, those you love, have crushes on, wish desperately were your friends.  That one. She’d be joined by Lily […]

September 12

The Girls by Emma Cline

Here is one author to keep your eyes on, Readheads. Emma Cline has written a beauty with The Girls and while not the easiest of reads or most fun, it is certainly a damn fine one.   My heart broke a little with each page and not because it is super sad in the traditional […]

September 05

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

This book is going to be big. Selected for Oprah Winfrey’s Book Club, put on Barack Obama’s summer reading list, profiled in Time Magazine and The New Yorker, its  scheduled September release was brought forward to August just to meet anticipated demand. Beyond the hype, The Underground Railroad has substance and if it isn’t on […]

August 29

Dinner with Edward by Isabel Vincent

This review may actually read like a visit to the counsellor so I apologise at the get-go. Reason being, Dinner with Edward brought up so many wonderful memories for me about people I loved dearly, who are now gone, and it made me think about why they left such a powerful impression on my life.  It made me remember every […]

June 09

People Who Knew Me by Kim Hooper

This is such a clever book I found it hard to put down which, I must say, was a little surprising.  I did not expect to like it as much as I did but I happily ripped through it in a weekend and for those of us who love to read, you know what a […]

June 01

The Nest by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney

Siblings come with an innate sense of fairness. It starts with ice cream but extends to everything from who gets the most time with Grandma, help with homework, pocket money or lifts to school. Dammit in my household, I get in trouble for misallocating the length of my hugs. Now I’m no mathematician but surely sibling management […]

May 24

The Secret Chord by Geraldine Brooks

The Secret Chord is my golden trifecta of books. First up, it’s a historical novel which is my absolute undoing – the older the better and it doesn’t get too much older than the tale of David and Goliath, right? (Well, maybe – but then I’d be reviewing  The Bible).  It is a grandiose tale that sweeps you along […]

May 04

Fever At Dawn by Peter Gardos

I was not prepared for how much I would love this book. So quiet and unassuming, I shudder to think how easily I could have missed it. Peter Gardos (who is actually a Hungarian filmmaker) tells the true story of how his parents met and found love at the end of WWII. To be fair, […]