Tag Archives: reading

September 21

All that I Am by Anna Funder

Reading this book, against the current global political backdrop, hits you in all the places. In one breath you think how far we have come as people. In the next breath, you’re winded by your despair. It is chilling when you really let yourself go to places where the horrors of war and treachery are […]

July 03

The Long Walk by Stephen King

Last month, I took a break from contemporary, literary fiction for a dose of dystopian horror in form of vintage Stephen King. Yes, this book snob read a Stephen King book…and loved every page of it. The Long Walk was not the first of Stephen King’s novels to be published, but it was the first […]

April 24

Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner

Crying in H Mart is a memoir and does exactly what the title says, but it had me Crying in K Mart. If you pick this one up (and I hope you do), grab a box of tissues when you check out because if you’ve lost someone you dearly, dearly loved, your wee heart will […]

March 17

The Safekeep by Yael Van Der Wouden

I fell in love with this book the moment I saw it. A small, dusty pink hardback, perched elegantly on the shelf at Glee Books. I took my copy to the counter and the cashier gave me a knowing nod as if I had stumbled onto Chanel at the local Vinnies. I walked home clutching […]

January 09

All Fours by Miranda July

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 […]

September 25

The Bee Sting by Paul Murray

Books about car dealers don’t often feature in the Booker Prize. In fact, I think this might be a first. Australian author, Peter Carey (himself the son of a car dealer) wrote two cracking books featuring car dealers but neither of them made it to the literary podium like The Bee Sting. In this case, […]

April 02

The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese

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

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 […]

October 06

The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff

This novel is nothing short of a masterpiece. Pouring over it, made me want to read, review and even yearn to write.  Alas, few could write like Lauren Groff. It’s winter in the early 1600’s, and a young servant girl escapes the unspeakable conditions of a colonial settlement in the Americas into the wild.  This […]

March 06

Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver

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 […]