Category Archives: Grab it Now

The books that you can’t put down, can’t stop talking about, can’t stop thinking about. The books that leave book hangovers.

May 03

The Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks – Guest Review by Ms D

Behold, there’s a book that covers everything: rampant disease, death, suicide, murder, torture, grief, greed, lust, sex, sorcery, devil worship, flagellation, crazed mobs, cruel parenting, and that old chestnut: religion. In her first foray into historical fiction, Australian foreign correspondent, Geraldine Brooks (who has witnessed her share of horrific war zones), addresses an ethical dilemma. […]

March 25

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

I learnt a new word courtesy of this book. Unputdownable. I didn’t make it up – someone else did – one of the book’s reviewers who clearly loved this book as much as I did.  To say I was like a rabid dog reading it, is an understatement. I couldn’t stop myself.  It’s simply unputdownable. I don’t think I […]

February 25

The Mountain Between Us by Charles Martin

If you are in the mood for a page turner then I have found your next read. Written by Charles Martin (who also wrote Where the River Ends), this is a story of two people left clinging for their lives on a mountain in the middle of winter. Through their struggle for survival they learn […]

February 11

Wild by Cheryl Strayed

Cheryl Strayed took on a new name the day she divorced her husband.    Strayed came to her and it stuck…….. “It’s layered definitions spoke directly to my life and also struck a poetic chord:  to wander from the proper path, to deviate from the direct course, to be lost, to become wild, to be without […]

January 06

Daring and Disruptive by Lisa Messenger

True to this book’s title, it indeed did prove Disruptive. I picked it up one rainy Sunday to scan the first page and four hours later, there I still was…… Do you know Lisa Messenger?  Do you know the magazine Renegade Collective?  Well, it was her brainchild so once you have finished reading this, I […]

December 02

The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan

We would like to thank guest reviewer Jason Downing for this post today.  As a long term fan of Richard Flanagan, he was always the perfect person to review this important book…… I should disclose up front that I came to this book as a fan of Richard Flanagan’s writing. I loved Gould’s Book of […]

September 08

The Children Act by Ian McEwan

I have been in a reading rut. I know how bad that sounds coming from the co-founder of a book blog, but the good news is that thanks to this little winner from well known English novelist Ian McEwan, I think I am out.  Thank you to Ms K for carrying the load for Readhead during this […]

September 01

The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd

Boy,  I’m late to the party with this one. The Invention of Wings is everywhere – it has been instagrammed to an inch of it’s life and folk who don’t even like to read are you-tubing their love for it. It has been patiently waiting by my bed for months but I kept skipping over it and choosing […]

June 11

Psychos by Babe Walker

How do you follow on from Ms A’s beautiful post on A Fine Balance?  I had severe review envy but being the generous soul that she is, Ms A gave me a clue to what we should review next by mentioning ‘first world problems’ and there is no better book to showcase this phenomena than Babe Walker’s latest. […]

May 26

A Fine Balance by Rohinton Minstry

Sometimes with books it is all about the timing and this my friends, is the book you read when you are renovating a house. Not to make light of this masterful novel that details the horrific realities of life in India in the 1970’s, but I did wonder if the expression “first world problem” was coined by someone who had just put […]