The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester is a true story that reads like fiction. Read on for our full review. The Professor and the Madman…
Of Love and Shadows Book Review: Isabel Allende’s memorable novel switches from heart-stopping action to magical moments of reflection.
Rebecca (a Novel) by Daphne du Maurier is the iconic story of a young woman consumed by love and struggling to find her identity, spawning several movie/TV adaptations.
Kerry Greenwood’s everlasting protagonist Phryne Fisher, femme fatale private investigator is a woman who knows what she wants and how to get. She has a taste for the finer things in life, be they food, drink, apparel, cars or men.
What makes such a character all the more appealing is the setting in which we find her – St Kilda, Victoria Australia in the 1920s. She speaks her mind and uses her enviable charms to get away with doing so. She takes a somewhat liberal attitude to the achievement of justice for those causes she takes under her wing. Although Phryne is considered ‘fast’ by many, she has a strong moral code very much ahead of her time. She dotes on her two adopted daughters and is the perfect host to all those that enter her household.
In An Imaginary Life author David Malouf tells a very big story in very few words.
The story is set in the time of the Roman Empire with the protagonist and narrating character the Roman poet Ovid. Ovid had lived a life of mischief and excess prior to his exile in a backwater called Tomis. He does not understand their language, nor do they understand his – he considers the people he lives with ‘natives’ and the tribes that attack the town of Tomis ‘savages’.
In The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, Alan Bradley has conjured up an enchanting little world with charismatic characters that readers will love. Read on for our full review. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie Synopsis…
The Return (2008) is Victoria Hislop’s second novel. Her debut novel, The Island (2005) was included in The Times ‘100 Books That Defined the Noughties’. The Return Synopsis A captivating new novel of family, love, and betrayal set against a…
Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann is moving and impactful literary fiction that lingers long in the memory. Read my full review of this brilliant novel.
When my reviews outstanding hit four I have decided I just have to stop procrastinating on the perfect way to describe my feelings about the books and post my thoughts quickly otherwise I will never keep up with my reading pile! So…
Evocative. Wanting by Richard Flanagan is a story that will move even the most hardened of souls. Flanagan dares to ask the question, what is the difference between a savage and one that is civilized? This is a work of…
BOOK RATING: The Story 4 / 5; The Writing 5 / 5 BOOK DETAILS: David Golder (The Book Depository), David Golder (Amazon) BOOK REVIEW: Absorbing. David Golder, published in France in 1929 was Irene Nemirovsky’s break out novel. In it…
What’s not to love about an inquisitive elderly lady playing Miss Marple? A House To Let, a collaboration between some of the greatest classic British authors Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, Elizabeth Gaskell and Adelaide Anne Proctor, is your quintessential cosy mystery. It comes from a time where deception and intrigue were enough to underpin a compelling story – no blood or murder were necessary.
Charming. Can any of us make a difference to the great events which determine our fate? That is the question Alexander McCall Smith explores in La’s Orchestra Saves the World. The story is set in Britain and told through the eyes of a young woman named Lavender (all her friends call her La).
Disappointing. I try to start each of my reviews with one word that sums up my feelings about the book, and unfortunately in this case that word is not a positive one. If Marsden’s goal was simply to retell the original Hamlet in language more accessible to young adults, he has achieved that. However in my opinion Marsden did not deviate far enough from the original Hamlet to make this retelling that worthwhile.
BOOK RATING: The Story 5 / 5 ; The Writing 5 / 5 BOOK REVIEW Exceptional. Miles Franklin’s My Brilliant Career truly deserves all the accolades it has received over the last century. It was a ground-breaking novel when it was published…
BOOK RATING: The Story 4 / 5 ; The Writing 4 / 5 BOOK REVIEW: Vintage mystery. This little tale by Francis Durbridge was a delightful audiobook to listen to. The narrator Anthony Head does a marvellous job conveying the…
