There is something very satisfying when I recommend a title to my book-loving (and book-blogging) 24 year old and she loves it as much as did. This is such a book, so regardless of where you sit on the age spectrum, The Lessons is one to note. And because we are now chortling toward Christmas […]
October
25
The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan
posted by Ms A
A mother lets her 8-year-old girl walk three blocks home from school by herself. A neighbour sees, calls the police and she taken away to the School for Good Mothers. If, after 12 months of correctional training, she hasn’t met the state’s standards of what makes a good mother, she will lose her parenting rights […]
September
26
The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell
posted by Ms A
I feel like I’ve just spent the last 10 days wrapped in a priceless Italian tapestry. A heavy but lavish carpet of Dukes, Duchesses, frescos and treachery. Set in Italy the mid 1500’s, the story is based on Robert Browning’s poem about the short life and marriage of the 16-year-old Duchess of Ferrara. Married […]
September
15
Case Study by Graeme Macrae Burnet
posted by Ms A
I don’t know if I’ve just finished a book of fact or fiction but I do know that that’s exactly what Graeme Macrae Burnet intended. It’s London in the 60’s and a quirky young woman makes an appointment with the charismatic yet unqualified psychotherapist of the day, Collins Braithwaite. She wants to see him because […]
July
04
Horse by Geraldine Brooks
posted by Ms A
Geraldine Brooks’ first novel, Year of Wonders, remains one of my favourite books of all time. She has written plenty of other rippers too, including March and People of The Book. Horse is her latest, and I’ve just finished it at warp speed with the smile of a happy reader on my face from beginning […]
May
28
An Odyssey – A Father, Son and an Epic by Daniel Mendelsohn
posted by Ms A
Did you know that the word “odyssey” derives from Odysseus, the central character of Homer’s epic Greek poem? Or that the word mentor derives from the character “Mentor” who Odysseus chose to watch over his infant son during the many years he was away? Before you worry, no I didn’t read Homer’s Odyssey (or pay […]
May
27
The Furies by Mandy Beaumont
posted by Ms K
If, for some strange reason, you happen to see me in real life and you think I look decidedly like someone who has been dragged through a hedge backwards, I haven’t. I’ve just read The Furies. This book is ferocious and in the words of Elvis Presley, I am all shook up, still, having finished […]
April
01
My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh
posted by Ms K
Cute title but there’s a word missing because this one’s much more My INDULGENT Year of Rest and Relaxation. And it is kind of a trick title because I’m anything but relaxed having read it. There were a lot of ‘are you kidding me’ faces pulled as I ploughed on, but the most important bit […]
March
27
Catch Us the Foxes by Nicola West
posted by Ms K
Well hi there Readheads, long time no blog. It’s been quite the year already right, so while my dedication to reading hasn’t suffered, my time to blog about it has. Tell me, is it June already because for the love of Rapid Antigen Tests, it sure feels like it. Anyhoo, I’ve been seeing this on […]
March
05
The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller
posted by Ms A
No one else is awake when Elle goes for a swim in the pond below her family’s holiday cabin in Cape Cod. As she swims, she reflects on the night before, when she had hot sex with her childhood crush against the back wall, while her husband, mother and children chatted away inside. A pretty […]
Readhead 