If you have been wanting to read Go Set a Watchman but have hesitated because you have not read To Kill A Mockingbird, please don’t panic. It doesn’t matter. I confess to being one of a handful of people on the planet who hasn’t read To Kill a Mockingbird (I’m a fool I know and not […]
February
01
One Life (My Mother’s Story) by Kate Grenville
posted by Ms A
This is the story of Nance Russell – Kate Grenville’s much adored mother who died in 2002. Grenville wrote this memoir of Nance’s life based on notes, diary entries and letters she found years after her death. She writes “My mother wasn’t the sort of person biographies are usually written about….Just the same, I think […]
January
26
A Guide to Berlin by Gail Jones
posted by Ms K
Fact is, I read this book a couple of months ago now. It has taken me a while to review it because I could argue December happens, Christmas happens, life takes over. You know. But if I am honest, I didn’t know where to start with it. This book has haunted me since I finished it. It’s good, […]
January
22
The Dust that Falls from Dreams by Louis de Bernieres
posted by Ms A
I still remember reading Captain Corelli’s Mandolin and the way it swept my young and sentimental heart away. Poor Louis de Bernieres must feel under so much pressure to match it and people like me are probably not helping. Lucky for him, he is a beautiful storyteller, detailed researcher and a lot of people will adore this book. The […]
January
19
Brave Enough by Cheryl Strayed
posted by Ms K
And how did it become 2016 exactly? I don’t know about you, but I feel like there I was just minding my own business in July 2015 and somehow, in the blink of an eye, I end up here! 2.0.freakin’1.6! So what do you do when you feel life is travelling at the speed of […]
December
27
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
posted by Ms A
This is the first book I have ever read with its own Instagram account. I stumbled on it after I’d finished all 800 pages and got a glimpse into the cult status the novel now has, particularly in the USA. A Little Life is bleak, emotionally demanding fiction but it is also a page turning […]
November
04
The Natural Way of Things by Charlotte Wood
posted by Ms K
Charlotte Wood has done it again. No-one does grit quite like this woman and her new book is a corker….but it is not for the faint of heart so consider yourself warned. Ever heard of dystopian fiction? Embarrassingly, I hadn’t. It means writing about an utterly horrible or degraded society that is generally headed to […]
October
28
Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert
posted by Ms K
BIG MAGIC has made me a stalker of Elizabeth Gilbert. BIG TIME. My adoration for her is not a new thing mind you, but this new book has certainly stepped things up a notch. I have pretty much read everything she has written and published. I’ve watched the Ted Talks, and more. I actually had Eat Pray […]
October
19
A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler
posted by Ms K
I have not read anything by Anne Tyler since The Accidental Tourist, and let me tell you, after finishing this book, I am the emotionally poorer for it apparently. I have been seriously missing out and therefore want to race out and buy everything she has ever written. My bank balance is about to take […]
October
12
Someone by Alice McDermott
posted by Ms K
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 […]
Readhead 