Let’s talk about epics. I’m talking big, immersive novels that swallow you up for, say, 500–800 pages, often following people or families across years, decades, even generations. Books so ambitious in scale and detail that they consume years of their authors’ lives and inflict a degree of physical and emotional torment likely to leave them […]
Tag Archives: a must read
September
02
Fruit Fly by Josh Silver
posted by Ms A
Gotta admit, I didn’t know “fruit fly” had a meaning beyond the insect. Apparently, it’s slang for a straight woman who spends a lot of time with gay men—basically a more PC version of “fag hag.” Fruit Fly by Josh Silver tells the story of Mallory, a middle-aged married author (and fruit fly) who sets […]
January
09
All Fours by Miranda July
posted by Ms A
Hold the HRT for this wild and wonderful window into the menopausal mind. In All Fours, a 45-year-old artist, wife and mother is planning a solo road trip from LA to NY for work. With a determination to prove to herself that she’s a steady and reliable person (and not the loose cannon she is […]
April
02
The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese
posted by Ms A
I think I injured my knee reading this book. That’s what happens when you find yourself immersed in a heavy book in the same awkward position for two hours at a stretch, especially when you are over 50. The irony of my reading injury is that the book was recommended to me by a doctor. […]
March
12
Prophet Song by Paul Lynch
posted by Ms A
In his 2023 Booker Prize winning book, Paul Lynch imagines the Republic of Ireland slipping into totalitarianism. Things kick off with a sinister knock on the door and it’s a slow but steady descent from there. The door belongs to Eilish; a scientist, wife, mother of four and primary carer of her elderly father, who […]
March
06
Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver
posted by Ms K
I’m pretty sure I heard people were dancing in the streets when Barbara Kingsolver released her new book. I nearly was. This woman is a legend and remains firmly implanted in my ‘Reading Hall of Fame’ for The Poisonwood Bible because apart from being a great book, it was the first book I read where […]
April
19
Force of Nature by Jane Harper
posted by Ms K
This is the second book by Jane Harper I have read in the past six months. I was going to put a bit more time between reads but I just couldn’t help myself. I loved Harper’s first novel, The Dry, and I’m very happy to report I burned through this one like a raging fever […]
February
25
Braving the Wilderness by Brene Brown
posted by Ms K
Brene Brown, as you may or may not know, is one of the most famous Ted Talk speakers – ever. Her talk on Vulnerability is in the top 5 Ted Talks of all time so that in itself was incentive enough for me to pick up her latest book but also, as a New Years […]
April
29
See What I Have Done by Sarah Schmidt
posted by Ms K
The story of Lizzie Borden has strangely stuck with me through my adult life since watching the movie The Legend of Lizzie Borden starring Elizabeth Montgomery (Samantha in Bewitched) when I was a child. If you don’t know it, Lizzie Borden was tried for murdering her father and step mother in 1892 brutally with an […]
November
07
The Girl With The Lower Back Tattoo by Amy Schumer
posted by Ms K
I hated it when I finished this book. My husband however was thrilled. No longer did he have to lay beside someone in bed who appeared to be having a full-blown seizure in order to stifle hysterical laughter because that was me – night after night after night. Readheads, this book is fantastically funny but if you know anything […]
Readhead 