Tag: Book review

Long Island – book review

Long Island, by Colm Tóibín

I didn’t read Tóibín’s Brooklyn before picking up Long Island which was a mistake, because apparently it helps a lot if you already know the characters, and people say Brooklyn is great. So there you go, don’t jump into Long Island unprepped, or you might, like me, find the story missing background depth. Like why did a woman like Eilis marry Tony (and his entire wrap-around Italian/American family) in the first place? And why was she so resigned when a stranger tells her that Tony-the-plumber had plumbed his wife, and he intended to deliver the baby to him when it was born? Interesting premise to begin a book, but what then?

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Earth – book review

Earth, by John Boyne

This post has been moved to Books that don’t make the cut. Sorry, John Boyne fans (of which, sometimes, I am one).

John Boyne’s Earth follows Water which I thought was fabulous. Unfortunately in Earth, Boyne returns to the emotionally dysfunctional narrator style he used in his horrible Ladder to the Sky (again, not one of my recommendations) where charm, gorgeous looks and undeniable talent are a facade over a morally corrupt man. Good writing, but again, not characters I want to spend time with and no lessons to learn here, except to recommend to girls who are raped to never, ever, to press charges or you will suffer truly awful humiliation and the ruin of your life may be revisited on you tenfold.

Can’t recommend this as a good read.

Ripiro Beach–book review

Ripiro Beach, by Caroline Barron

There is so much to enjoy in this book. I felt immediately I was in good hands, with a writer who had the confidence to take her time describing scenes to bring me into her space and letting me settle into the surroundings before moving on to the action. We could be in a park by an Auckland motorway, in a nightclub, or at Ripiro beach, and each scene is painted with a keen sense of observational detail. Here’s a paragraph that really is worth reading twice, just for the pleasure of the writing:

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Home Truths – book review

Home Truths, by Charity Norman

Home Truths is everything I expect from a Charity Norman thriller. It’s compelling and chilling. Also, and this is the frightening thing about many of Charity’s stories, it’s very close to home. It could happen to any of my friends. It could happen to me. And yes, it could happen to you.

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The Bookshop Dectectives, Dead Girl Gone – Book Review

The bookshop Detectives, Dead Girl Gone, by Gareth and Louise Ward

A disclosure before I write this review. I know these guys. They are good friends and their bookshop is my local. I love the shop, I love the staff, and I love them. They are terrifically supportive of local writers. That makes writing an honest review of The Bookshop Detectives either very difficult or absolutely lovely and, (well, you can guess what is coming as I don’t review books I don’t like) this is one hundred percent the latter. It’s terrific.

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Western Lane – book review

Western Lane, by Chetna Maroo

When Gopi’s mother dies our girl is eleven, her two sisters thirteen and fifteen. Pa does his best to bring them up alone, within the London Gujarati community, sure, but with an independent spirit. He’s keen on squash, and has taught his girls to play, but this now becomes obsessional. The dominating Aunt Ranjan suggests that girls need exercise and discipline and he takes this literally; his need to keep control of their adolescence is manifested on the squash court.

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The Ministry of Time – book review

The Ministry of Time, by Kaliane Bradley

Yes, it’s only June, but The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley gets my book of the year so far. It’ll be a hard one to beat. Great premise, excellent characters and the hottest sex I’ve read in years. The chap in question has been dragged out of 1845 into the near future, complete with fabulous side-whiskers, a cheeky dimple, and Victorian social attitudes. Our narrator likes his nose. He had a kind of resplendent excess of feature that made him look hyperreal. She is to be his bridge.

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The Girl From London – book review

The Girl From London, by Olivia Spooner

I started this on a Tuesday night and ended up crying in a café on Thursday morning. I can’t remember when I’ve been so moved by the ending of a story. There is a book within the book. When the former ended a bit too neatly I was a slightly disbelieving, until I realised that actually, well, I’m giving no spoilers, but it’s a war story, after all. I’m not usually known for my tears.

The whole story ties in well with my current interest in stories of those who immigrated to New Zealand down the years, and why they came. Children evacuees from London bombings? I had no idea. Can you imagine sending your children out of a bomb zone, and not to the close countryside, which would be wrenching enough, but through a war-infested sea to an unknown land at the far ends of the earth? And yet people did.

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Love In The Time of Cholera–book review

Love in the time of cholera, by Gabreil Garcia Marquez

Love in the time of Cholera is different to every other book I read and for that, alone, I am glad to have read it. Set across decades around the turn of the 20th Century, amid the plagues, wars and the environmental catastrophes of Caribbean Columbia, the story is of lives full of lusty passion. The thing is, I originally read this book in 1985 when it first came out and I was young and naive. Times have changed and I have changed and in the post ‘me too’ environment ‘Love in the time of Cholera’ feels like a misnomer. ‘Dysfunctional sexual obsession in the time of Cholera’ is more accurate, though not so catchy a title.

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Gracehopper – book review

Gracehopper, by Mandy Hager

I think Gracehopper is a lovely title for this book. Grace was born during an earthquake in Taiwan and her kiwi mother is rescued by the New Zealand authorities and brings her home. The mother has some serious issues and is reluctant to discuss the past. Grace, with obvious Asian parentage, hops around her, wanting to know her own history but reluctant to send her mother over the edge (again). She breathes. Jeet Kun Do is her stability. Energy in. Hold. Spread the peace. Energy in. Hold. Spread the peace. It is a graceful martial art.

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