Book reviews for book clubs & suggestions for good reads.
I only review the books I have enjoyed, and specifically, books that I think make great book club reads. To appear on my pages they need to pass the “so what” test, they need to have characters and stories that are complicated and real and they need to be based on topics that feed into larger conversations. Good reads for book club evenings, in fact.
Books for men’s book clubs, try Suggestions for a bloke’s book club. Books I might have loved but didn’t are here: Books that don’t make the cut. You might love them. Tell me if I’m wrong.
(PS. No one has paid to appear on these pages. Unfortunately).
Book review:
The Fraud, by Zadie Smith
Huge story, about appropriation, slavery, femininsim. Almost terrific, but just missed the mark, for me.
Book review:
Absolutely and Forever, by Rose Tremain
Britain in the sixties, a lover who goes to Paris, an infatuated girl. Love love love.
Book review:
Whatever Love Means, by David Baddiel
Love that is about as cold as when Charles said it. Mixed. Very bloke centric.
Book review:
Lola in the Mirror, by Trent Dalton
Back to his Boy Swallows Universe best. Bleak and gutsy and hopeful. Loved it.
Book review:
Water, by John Boyne
A woman arrives on an island off the coast of Ireland with chopped hair and a new name and takes a remote house. Good start!
Book review:
Bird Life, by Anna Smaill
A exploration of the friendship between two women in Tokyo (one a kiwi, one Japanese) with strange psychosis. Interesting.
Book review:
The Seventh Son, by Sebastian Faulks
Elegant writing, good characters, clever plot, interesting subject. Yay.
Book review:
Ingenious Pain, by Andrew Miller
After feeling nothing physically or emotionally all his life, James Dyer, renowed surgeon, suddenly becomes human and goes mad. Weird.
Book review:
The Bone Tree, by Airana Ngarewa
Alcoholism, violence, and total family dysfunction, as a young Māori boy keeps the authorities from taking his brother into care.
Book review:
Light Keeping, by Adrienne Jansen
Very kiwi story about a family, tragically missing the middle generation, living together in a lighthouse.
Book review:
English Passengers, by Matthew Kneale
The horrors of early Tasmanian colonialism from lots of viewpoints, some pretty clichéd.
Book review:
Americanah, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Being foreign, being black, being a strong and independent woman. Good reading.
Book review:
Tom Lake, by Ann Patchett
A satisfying story about a wild love, a secure love, and the love between a mother and her daughters.
Book review:
Yellowface, by Rebecca Kuang
Racism, tokenism and appropriation in US publishing, though a bit of a clunky satire.
Book review:
We were liars, by e lockhart
Young love and friendships, free range rich kids, misjudgements, beautiful prose, magic book.
Book review:
Everything is Beautiful and Everything Hurts, by Josie Shapiro.
The pain and satisfaction of long running. Well written and racy (in the literal sense).
Book review:
This Other Eden by Paul Harding
As historically rich, juicy and satisfying as the apple on the cover. Poignant poverty.
Book review:
Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson
Are you interested in the superficial lives of indolent, rich New Yorkers? This is for you.
Book review:
Lioness, by Emily Perkins
Rich Wellington rich families with all the usual complications: children, ageing, white-lies that go bad, temptation
Book review:
Pet, by Catherine Chidgey
NZ noir at it’s best.
Book review:
Empire City by John E Martin
Hey! Here’s a gift for every Wellingtonian. Easy.
Book review:
Polaroid Nights, by Lizze Harwood
So why are the girls out all night in the bars and not going home? A Me Too story.
Book review:
Pearl in a Whirl, written by Catherine Robertson, illustrated by Fifi Colston.
What a great combination. Sweet!
Book review:
The Witching Tide, by Margaret Meyer
Yeah, if you like men torturing witches, nah if you like a meaningful story.
Book review:
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, by Gabrielle Zevin
Young, talented author. This setting not really my thing, but eager for her next book.
Book review:
Atlas, the Story of Pa Salt, by Lucinda Riley’s son
Might as well, you’ve read the others.
Book review:
By the Green of Spring, by Paddy Richardson
Sequel to Through the Lonesome Dark. Good NZ historical fiction. Read them both.
Book review:
Landed, by Sue McCauley
A coming-of-age for the older woman. Terrific character study.
Book review:
Grand, by Noelle McCarthy
I’ll be grand, girl, I’ve great faith altogether. Growing up with alcohol in Ireland and the haunting repercussions.
Book review:
The Summer Book, by Tove Jansson
A girl and her grandmother, slightly wild, on a tiny island on the Finnish coast. Elegant, soft writing, in the best sense.
Book review:
Poor People with Money, by Dominic Hoey
Young Monday Wooldridge is an Auckland kid in over her head and on the run. Cracking story. Read it.
Book review:
The Lighthouse, by Christopher Parker
Good for younger readers, perhaps.
Book review:
Iris and Me, by Philippa Werry
Intelligent young adult fiction about the tenacious NZ author Robin Hyde.
Book review:
Getting Lost, by Annie Ernaux
An otherwise intelligent woman’s affair with a Russian diplomat. Very French.
Book review:
The Anomaly, by Hervé Le Tellier
A plane lands through a storm. A few months later, the exact plane lands again. Exciting stuff.
Book review:
Liberation Day, by George Saunders
I think many of us would want to liberate ourselves from the future Saunders predicts in these stories. But what an imagination!
Book review:
Birnam Wood, by Eleanor Catton
Other than the dowdy cover, dear reader, how was the book?
Book review:
Small Things Like These, by Claire Keegan
A perfect long short-story about doing the right thing, set in Ireland in the 1980s. The morality of Bill Furlong is exquisitely simple.
Book review:
Lessons, by Ian McEwan
A Englishman’s lifetime from WW2 fallout to Covid; politics and life intertwined. What do life’s lessons do to us?
Book review:
Kawai – For Such a Time As This, by Monty Soutar
The time is now. A good base on which to hang your assumptions.
Book review:
The Axeman’s Carnival, by Catherine Chidgey
When a magpie starts ‘parroting’, better watch your language. Hilarious, until it’s not. Fave book of 2022.
Book review:
Demon Copperhead, by Barbara Kingsolver
Kingsolver channels Dickens in a brilliant coming of age story about a Hillbilly boy who doesn’t give up.
Book review:
The Marriage Portrait, by Maggie O’Farrell
Magnificent and horrifying. Florentine Dukes and dynastic misadventures. Pet tigers and dresses like fortresses of silk. The 1550s–not strong on women’s rights. Watch your back.
Book review:
Through the Lonesome Dark, by Paddy Richardson
NZ West Coast 100 years ago: real, breathing characters with passions and choices limited by sex, nationality, circumstance. I loved it.
Book review:
The Fish, by Lloyd Jones
An off-the-rails daughter living in a caravan gives birth to a fish. Jones explores difficult family relationships and is confrontational in a very interesting way. Read it.
Book review:
The Paper Palace, by Miranda Cowley Heller
Love triangle in a Cape Cod holiday house. Wonderful setting, flawed story (read the blog) but still damn good reading.
Book review:
Still Life, by Sarah Winman
English Abroad. A group of disparate characters (intellectual, wordly, sensual, lost, garrulous etc) find a home in Florence at the end of the war. There’s art. Great writing, contrived plot. Ditch the parrot.
Book review:
The Reindeer Hunters, by Lars Mytting
Sequel to The Bell in the Lake. Terrific turn-of-the-century (19th) Norwegian stories.
Book review:
Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout
An all consuming book, one of a few in the life of Lucy Barton, New Yorker. Tainted childhoods, buried pasts – these things haunt generations.
Book review:
A fish in the Swim of the World, by Ben Brown
Tobacco farming, rural kiwi living, pa life, stories. Very Ben Brown, absolute magic.
Book review:
The Promise, by Damon Galgut
Booker Prize winner. Great writing. Bit joyless.
Book review:
Mrs Jewell and the Wreck of the General Grant, by Cristina Sanders
Disclosure: this is me. Bit weird to review my own book, so her are some others’ reviews for this one.
Book review:
Under a Big Sky, by Tim Saunders
Get back down on the farm and hang out with the dogs, sheep and Saunders gang.
Book review:
Three Women and a Boat, by Anne Youngson
If you’re after lazy hours this will relax you. Otherwise read something racier.
Book review:
Piranesi, by Susanna Clarke
A graceful psychological thriller about a charming man in a labyrinth. Cool.
Book review:
Greta & Valdin, by Rebecca K Reilly
Refreshing story about a funny, academic, mixed international kiwi family. Terrific.
Book review:
Sorrow and Bliss, by Meg Mason
Lively and intelligent dysfunctional woman.
Book review:
Slow Down, You’re Here, by Brannavan Gnanalingam
Where? Nowhere you’ll want to be, believe me.
Book review:
Catching the Current, by Jenny Pattrick
Strong backlist to read after you’ve loved Harbouring.
Book review:
Down From Upland, by Murdoch Stephens
Hang out with a very modern Kelburn family.
Book review:
Worse Things Happen at Sea, by John McCrystal
Love a good shipwreck? Here’s 23 stories of misery, mishap and mystery. What a treat!
Book review:
Violet Black, by Eileen Merriman
A young girl survives M-fever and a boy walks into her head. Their telepathic powers are chillingly exploited for espionage.
Book review:
All the light we cannot see, by Anthony Doerr
A blind French girl and the other a partly radicalised Nazi youth eventually meet. Superb.
Book review:
Harbouring, by Jenny Pattrick
A Welsh family and a young Māori woman add layers to Jerningham’s story of colonial 1940s Wellington.
Book review:
Why we sleep, by Matthew Walker
Do we need to know this? Not sure if it helps to know how essential it is not to be an insomniac. Ooops.
Book review:
Remember Me, by Charity Norman
A girl goes missing in the hills and a man loses himself to Alzheimers and slowly these two disappearances come together.
Book review:
small bodies of water, by Nina Mingya Powles
Poetic and unstructured stories of water, woven together beautifully.
Book review:
The Telling Time, by P. J. McKay
A Dalmatian girl’s immigration to New Zealand, and consequences.
Book review:
The Lincoln Highway, by Amon Towles
Classic 1950s roadie across America.
Book review:
The New Ships, by Kate Duigan
Mid-life crisis in Wellington and elsewhere.
Book review:
Waitapu, by Helen Waaka
Authentic small town stories, very elegant writing.
Book review:
Loop Tracks, by Sue Orr
Like meeting friends from childhood and having a yarn about life. It’s complicated.
Book review:
The Seven Sisters, by Lucinda Riley
Sure, why not? Embrace the superlatives and enjoy the plot(s). The first of seven books.
Book review:
Hokitika Town, by Charlotte Randall
Read every Charlotte Randall you can get your hands on. All brilliant.
Book review:
Blindsight, by Maurice Gee
Classic NZ lit and well worth a read. Families, ay.
Book review:
The Tomo, by Mary-anne Scott
YA for young heros who love dogs and adventures.
Book review:
She is not your rehab, by Matt and Sarah Brown.
An uplifting combination of barbering and korero. Two people spearheading such change..
Book review:
Entanglement, by Brian Walpert.
Clever and complicated look at time-travel without being pretentious, lots to unpick and a joy to read.
Book review:
The Animals in that Country, by Laura Jean McKay
A brilliant and intriguing book. Don’t read the blurb about talking animals. Take a leap of faith and dive in. It’s really good.
Book review:
Beautiful World where are you, by Sally Rooney
A bit of a yeah, nah from me.
Book review:
Master and Commander, by Patrick O’Brian.
Story of how bloody silly men built expensive ships and blew them up. Plus ça change…
Book review:
This Thing of Darkness, by Harry Thompson.
I’ve pasted my Best Book Ever on this one. For meatiness, immersion, characterisation, research, story telling, and adventure. WOW.
Book review:
Light Perpetual, by Frances Spufford.
Golden Hill was a hard act to follow, but light Perpetual comes close.
Book review:
The Milkman, by Anna Burns
Too hard the first time around. Loved it the second. Some books are like that.
Book review:
Ribbons of Grace, by Maxine Alterio
Evocative and transporting NZ historical fiction.
Book review:
The Rose Code by Kate Quinn
Bletchley Park without Alan Turing. A long story of the women code-breakers.
Book review:
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
What does to mean to have black skin? Interesting story about the prejudice of colour.
Book review:
The Secrets of Strangers by Charity Norman
Well set up, nail-biting hostage drama where you end up feeling sorry for everyone (almost)
Book review:
A Room Made of Leaves by Kate Grenville.
Love love love Kate Grenville. The hell hole of Colonial Australia. A bastard and a strong, clever woman. Whooo hoo.
Book review:
Shackleton’s Endurance by Joanna Grochowicz
Man up, you big snowflake, and go south until the ice cracks and your reindeer sleeping bag moults. Bloody crazy adventure and all true.
Book review:
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler
Despite being a story seeped in truth about some pretty fucked up family experiments, this is a book of wry humour. Good reading.
Book review:
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
Good conversation starter but bit of a frustrating book.
Book review:
The Salt Path by Raynor Winn
Don’t judge the homeless. Two lovebirds walking through a crisis. And they keep walking. Wonderful story.
Book review:
This Pakeha Life by Alison Jones
Such a intelligent read, balanced and honest. “What is a pakeha?” doesn’t have to be a loaded question. It defines a relationship.
Book review:
Flight Behaviour by Barbara Kingsolver
Monarch butterflies arrive on the mountain, climate change sending them off-course, and open a woman’s life to possibilities.
Book review:
All Our Shimmering Skies by Trent Dalton
Overblown and succulent. Strangely (and deliberately) fable-y. A bit too lush? It’s Trent Dalton, he’s worth the investment.
Book review:
The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave
1617, a sea voyage, a Norwegian Island, a storm and a village of women surviving without men. Burn the witches.
Book review:
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Biafra’s rise and fall through the eyes of her people. Important and fascinating.
Book review:
The Book of Two Ways by Jodi Picoult
Steady Brian or flashy Wyatt? We learn about Egyptology while Dawn supposedly chooses her way.
Book review:
Let Go My Hand by Edward Doxs
Funny and erudite story of three brothers on a roadie taking dad to Dignitas. Loved it.
Book review:
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
Good read, dubious subject matter of multiple choice lives following a suicide attempt. Hmm.
Book review:
State Highway One by Sam Coley
Unsettling, spooky story of an entitled boy on a bender down the length of New Zealand.
Book review:
Love by Roddy Doyle
If your idea of a good time is getting blind drunk in a Dublin pub, go with Roddy Doyle.
Book review:
The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams
A good, slow burner of a read for a rainy holiday. If you only read one book a year, perhaps not this one.
Book review:
The Bright Side of My Condition by Charlotte Randall
Robinson Crusoe kept his madness at bay. These fellons don’t manage it.
Book review:
Glass Houses by Karen Phillips
Well written NZ stories for middle aged women. Full of real life, told with compassion.
Book review:
The Tally Stick by Carl Nixon
Mystery, crime, survival, coming of age, set in remote NZ bush. One for the hammock.
Book review:
Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stewart
A modern day version of Growing up in the Gorbals. The sad side of Glasgow. Booker Prize winner.
Book review:
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo
The lives of twelve British black women, their friends and experiences, remarkably told with clarity and wit. Cool book.
Book review:
Pure by Andrew Miller
A pre-revolutionary Parisian necropolis is leaking centuries of effluent onto the streets. Jean-Baptiste is sent to clean it up. Go wallow.
Book review:
Happiness by Aminattta Forna
A psychologist from Ghana and biologist from Chicago meet on Waterloo Bridge and slowly, via foxes and a lost child, come together.
Book review:
This Farming Life by Tim Saunders
A poet farmer and a farm that’s been in the the family five generations. This is NZ. Terrific.
Book review:
Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
A story about Shakespeare’s family and spooky wife. Lyrical. Not enough bard.
Book review:
The Silence of Snow and a Trio of Sophies, by Eileen Merriman
Two fast paced compulsive reads, one YA one adult. Read anything by Merriman.
Book review:
No Friend but the Mountain, by Behrouz Boochani
True story of how this remarkable man comes to be living in New Zealand. Difficult, essential reading.
Book review:
The Telegram, by Philippa Werry
YA fiction bicycling through small town NZ during WWI delivering news. Mostly bad. Well told history for young readers.
Book review:
The Dickens Boy, by Tom Keneally
Loved this. Charles Dicken’s youngest son goes to Australia. Very well told.
Book review:
Hell Ship, by Michael Veitch
Lots of detail on colonial immigration and not enough of the high sea. More non-fiction than fiction. But fascinating.
Book review:
The Bell in the Lake, by Lars Mytting
Norway, 1880. So cold you need to wrap yourself in a blanket to read it.
Book review:
Jerningham, by Cristina Sanders
Bit weird to review my own book, so here’s one from the outside.
Book review:
Tidelands, by Philippa Gregory
Good if you’re a Gregory fan. Probably not if you’re not.
Book review:
American Dirt, Jeanine Cummins
Harsh reality of of woman and her son fleeing from a Mexican gangster
Book review:
Pachinko, by Min Jin Lee
Why did Koreans emigrate to Japan and what happened to them when they got there? Be transported
Book review:
Lenny’s book of everything, by Karen Foxlee
Loved this story of a girl whose brother doesn’t stop growing. Harrowing and funny.
Book review:
Where the Crawdads Sing, by Delia Owens
Ma’s gone wearin’ her gator shoes. It’s a sho’-nuff mess. Jump into the mud marsh. Brilliant book.
Book review:
Dear Vincent, by Mandy Hager
A beautiful and uplifting book about depression and suicide for young adult readers, with Van Gogh as a muse.
Book review:
Auē, by Becky Manawatu
Gusty story of an orphaned boy and a family growing up in NZ’s gang culture. Frightening, real, lovable (in parts). Very readable.
Book review:
Spearo, by Mary-anne Scott
Fascinating book about the art of spearfishing (among other things) for teens. If I’d read this before seeing Jaws I would have been a Spearo
Book review:
The Dutch House, by Ann Patchett
A house and family, but the essence of this is a boy’s regard for his sister. It’s fabulous
Book review:
Damascus, by Christos Tsiolkas
A horrible book that revels in inhumanity. It prompted thoughts on the growth of empathy.
Book review:
Singing the Trail, by John McCrystal
The best reference book ever. Old NZ maps, meticulously researched and beautifully presented.
Book review:
Sapiens, by Yuval Noah Harari
A textbook for the modern age, explaining our story. Read it, talk about it, find your own conclusions.
Book review:
The Music Shop, Sweet and fey. If that’s your style, here’s your book.
Book review:
Washington Black, by Esi Edugyan
A boy breaks out of slavery, but it’s not quite that simple.
Book review:
Before We Were Yours, by Lisa Wingate.
Half of this book was excellent. Holiday more than book club.
Book review:
The Adventures of Tupaia, by Meredith & Tait. Tupaia’s story, an important part of history, is well told here. Share with your youngsters.
Book review:
Call me Evie, by J P Pomare.
A clever thriller, chilling but never gratuitous, with more twists than a remote country road.
Book review:
Cook’s Cook, by Gavin Bishop
The cook who cooked for Captain Cook, a sophisticated cartoon style children’s history.
Book review:
Boy Swallows Universe, by Trent Dalton
Three words for a story. Hitler Invades Poland. Oswald Kills Kennedy. Man Conquers Moon. Boy Swallows Universe
Book review:
Taking the Long Road to Cairo, by Ann Balcombe. Sail the high seas, face house arrest in apartheid era South Africa, hitch from Cape to Cairo. I wish I’d had this courage.
Book review:
See you in September, by Charity Norman
A cold hitch-hiker accepts a lift with a welcoming bunch of hippies and chills out with them for a few days. It’s NZ, right? Hardly sinister…
Book review:
Less, by Andrew Sean Greer
A charming, gay, middle-aged man’s Eat, Pray Love journey of recovery. Less self-indulgent and beautifully written.
Book review:
Everyone Brave is Forgiven, Chris Cleave
Whip smart English story of four young English people in WW2. Cleave is a genius.
Book review:
Attraction, Ruby Porter
A stylish read about complicated young women on a roadie. Very kiwi.
Book review:
An Officer and a Spy, Robert Harris
If you’re going to read a spy thriller, might as well make it a true one, or what’s the point?
Book review:
Lincoln in the Bardo, George Sanders
Weird, in a Booker prize-winning way. Odd format, not much plot, lots of character. For brainy people, probably.
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 | Book review: This Mortal Boy, by Fiona Kidman 1950s New Zealand with Teddy boys, bodgies, widgies, and heartless sexual promiscuity, when we hanged a delinquent youth. For shame. More… |
 | Book review: Birds Without Wings, by Louis de Bernières The end of the Ottoman Empire and the long plunge to the bottom of human suffering as a village’s inhabitants face the horrors of war. More… |
 | Book review: Evie’s War, by Anna Mackenzie A young New Zealand woman lands in England on the eve of World War One and describes her war in poignant diary entries. Thoughtful YA reading and adult, too. More… |
 | Book review: Gone to Pegasus by Tess Redgrave Votes for women, the power of music and women’s friendships, early lunatics and colonial Dunedin. More… |
 | Book review: Smuggler’s Wife series, by Deborah Challinor Colonial yarns where a beautiful girl meets a handsome captain, impeccably researched and very exciting. More swash buckle than bodice rip. More… |
 | Book review: Unsheltered, by Barbara Kingsolver What does it mean, to be unsheltered? If everything crumbles down and we are open to the sky? Scary stuff, classic Kingsolver. More… |
 | Book review: Educated, by Tara Westover She’s a Cambridge PhD and the writing snap-crackles, but she tells the story of a young, uneducated and abused girl from rural Idaho. Her childhood and coming of age. More… |
 | Book review: Elizabeth and her German garden, by Elizabeth Von Arnim. E.Van A is a cousin of Katherine Mansfield, with a similar gorgeous clarity of prose. Light on plot but good flowers, this is a charming book about enjoying a garden. More… |
 | Book review: Elizabeth is missing, by Emma Healey. A sharp psychological thriller where the chief investigator is sliding into dementia and needs to make sense of herself to solve the mystery. More… |
 | Book review: A Gentleman in Moscow, by Amor Towles. Love the recent BBC adaptation of War & Peace? Very different, but strangely familiar. More… |
 | Book review: The Sea, by John Banville. Facing a quiet afternoon with no expectations of wild adventure? Find poignancy here. More… |
 | Book review: The Road, by Cormac McCarthy. Dystopic, hopeless. What happened. What happened? Bleak writing to match a grim snapshot of a future. More… |
 | Book review: Mr Peacock’s Possessions, by Lydia Syson. In 1879 Mr Peacock takes his struggling colonial family to a very remote Pacific Island to build a good life. Spoiler – things doesn’t quite go as planned. More… |
 | Book review: The Naturalist, by Thom Conroy. Ernst Dieffenbach goes to New Zealand in 1839, is an outsider, misses home, is torn. Based on fact. A serious man. We needed more like him. More… |
 | Book review: The Captive Wife, by Fiona Kidman. Early whaling days of NZ and Sydney. What happens to the wife taken captive by Maori? What if she doesn’t want to be rescued? Based on a true story. More… |
 | Book review: The Eight Mountains, by Paulo Cognetti. Good read for blokes. About friendships and fathers and the Alpine equivalent of a man shed. More … |
 | Book review: Decline & Fall on Savage Street, by Fiona Farrell. A story told from the point of view of a house, down the centuries. Read as a series of linked short stories. More… |
 | Book reveiw: Mr Allbones’ Ferrets, by Fiona Farrell. Two for Farrell because NZ historical fiction is just so good and she’s a terrific story teller. Learn all about ferrets. More… |
 | Book review: Golden Hill, by Francis Spufford. This is a romp around colonial New York. It’s wild and a lot of fun. Until you realise what the cheque is for. More… |
 | Book review: Sticking with pigs, by Mary-anne Scott. Got teenage boys? Read this book! A great story of a boy’s first pig hunt, tight writing, ripping yarn. More… |
 | Book review: Chappy, by Patricia Grace. A story about losing your roots and finding them again, and realising, perhaps, you fit in differently now. More… |
 | Book review: Potiki, by Patricia Grace. A New Zealand classic. The developers come to town and exploitation is in the air. Lots to discuss in this one. More… |
 | Book review: The Boy Behind the Curtain, by Tim Winton. Short stories from Tim Winton’s life: cars, religion, life swiping you sideways, environmentalism. More… |
 | Book review: Heloise, by Mandy Hager Just gorgeous. A love affair between two brilliant, medieval French scholars. Shame they didn’t have a Me-Too movement then. Lots to discuss here. More… |
 | Book review: The Sellout, by Paul Beatty. This one’s different. Sarcastic, racist, black American humour, fast past and cracking with cringe. More… |
 | Book review: The Necessary Angel, by C. K. Stead. Complicated love affairs of a kiwi in Paris, rather sophisticated, a book for smarties. More… |
 | Book review: Knowledge of Angels, by Jill Paton Walsh. One of my favourite books of all time. A wolf child must dis-prove innate knowledge of God to save a life. Wonderfully imaginative and deep topics. More… |
 | Book review: The Colour, by Rose Tremain If you emigrate, best if you like the bloke you go with. And what happens when you find gold? More… |
 | Book review: Lilac Girls, by Martha Hall Kelly. A horrible book about women in war. Not enjoyable in any way, but should be discussed. More… |
| Book review: The Sea, by John Banville. Won the Man Booker in 2015. But should it have? More… |
 | Book review: The Wish Child, by Catherine Chidgey. Sieglinde’s father cuts words out of books, like “love”, and “truth”. It’s WW2, a world gone mad. More… |
 | Book review: Not Forgetting the Whale, by John Ironmonger. Read this one. You won’t regret it. Lightly written but big issues of a rather British Armageddon. More… |
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