Category Archives: The Perfect Gift

October 12

Someone by Alice McDermott

If you squint, you may see on the cover of this book to the left, a review by the Sunday Telegraph which simply says ‘A beautiful book’. I wondered about this right up to the last line, and it was then, only then, that I agreed. This is indeed a beautiful book. It is about life of the […]

October 12

The Girl with the Dogs by Anna Funder

If you are in the mood for quality but not quantity, this novella is for you. It is Anna Funder’s latest offering and it runs for just 57 pages. Penguin has published what is essentially a longer short-story (and you know how I feel about those if you have been following Readhead at all!) but […]

August 10

Six Bedrooms by Tegan Bennett Daylight

‘…the past is in us, and not behind us.  Things are never over’  wrote Tim Winton in ‘Aquifier’.   These words are the foreward of this collection of short stories and they set the tone from the get-go as the author promptly transports us back to our high school years.   Yes, those teen experiences –  wonderful and hideous and embarrassing –  are explored in […]

July 19

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante

Lila, Gigliona, Alfonso, Nino, Pasquale, Rino, Carmela and Ada are just some of the children of various ages featured in this book. Throw in their parents; Fernando, Nunzia, Alfredo, Giuseppina, Melina, Donato, Silvio, Manuela, Nicola, Assunta and the evil Don Achille and you pretty much have the village. These are the names of the friends and […]

June 16

The Wonder Lover by Malcolm Knox

This is a man’s book. Actually it is a multi – functional man’s book. First you can read it and marvel at what it tells you about male behaviour; then you can thump the nearest guy across the head with it. Written by Australian author Malcolm Knox (otherwise known for Jamaica, The Life and Summerland), this is a fictional equivalent […]

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 […]