Once upon a memory, at the far end of the Mediterranean Sea, there lay an island so beautiful and blue that the many travellers, pilgrims, crusaders and merchants who fell in love with it either wanted never to leave or tried to tow it with hemp ropes all the way back to their own countries. … Continue reading The Island of Missing Trees | Elif Shafak
The Promise | Damon Galgut (2021) Lately I have been struggling with the how, what, when, where and why of blogging. Some minor health issues have been impacting everyday life, work is exhausting me and I never seem to have enough time. But I am still reading! So that's a bright spot. Trying to pull … Continue reading The Promise | Damon Galgut #BookerPrize
It was hard not to feel that Paris was the place. My response to The Paris Bookseller has been complicated. I was keen to read it thanks to the blurb which told me it had a Paris setting, a bookshop and Sylvia Beach. That should have been enough. But it wasn't. The writing was dull … Continue reading The Paris Bookseller | Kerri Maher #USAfiction
Yesterday, I posted a mini review for the fiction titles I read during March. Today we a take a quick peek at the non-fiction. It has been a great reading month. My March book club read was Archie Roach’s Tell Me Why. It was a moving, honest account of his life. Archie Roach is a … Continue reading March Madness 2 #minireviewsnonfiction
This will be my first 2021 recap post. I meant to post this last month, but everything got away from me thanks to work and Covid-19. My book group meets on the second Thursday of every month (except January). Our Christmas meeting does not include a book discussion, but does feature a secret Santa-style book … Continue reading Top Three Books of 2021 #BookGroup
When the Moon rose in the Third Northern Hall I went to the Ninth Vestibule to witness the joining of Three Tides. This is something that happens only every eight years. I'm really not sure how I can write a review for this story that will do the reading experience justice. Piranesi was the book … Continue reading Piranesi | Susanna Clarke #WomensPrize
My dear son James has given me a task for my last years, or months, or whatever time I have left beyond the many years I have lived so far. Sometime in April or May last year, I was given an advance reading copy of Kate Grenville's A Room Made of Leaves. I was very … Continue reading A Room Made of Leaves | Kate Grenville #AWW
Let me tell you the story of a righteous man. First up, what a cover! Isn't it beautiful? My copy of Ariadne is an early proof copy. I've tried to take a photo of it that does it justice, but I failed. So let me describe it - it includes the gold leaf tendrils of … Continue reading Ariadne | Jennifer Saint #GBRfiction
September 1995I wake to find a young woman sitting beside me. She is Asian. Japanese. Chinese. I don't know. Book club throws up some interesting choices. The Butterfly Man by Heather Rose was such a one. I had never heard of Lord Lucan or the mystery surrounding him. Yet when this book was nominated for … Continue reading The Butterfly Man | Heather Rose #AWWfiction
It had stopped raining. Okay, I'm now a Niall Williams convert. This is Happiness is a delight of a book, from start to finish. Full of wonderful, poignant story-telling and rich, humorous characterisation. It is proudly Irish, with glorious descriptions of the weather and the matter-of-fact grimness and poverty of everyday life in County Clare … Continue reading This is Happiness | Niall Williams #IRLfiction
Honeybee by Craig Silvey is my first book club read for 2021. It has taken Silvey over ten years to write this book, after the huge success of his second book, Jasper Jones back in 2009. “I put everything I have into writing Honeybee. It tore me up, but it filled me with joy. I’m enormously … Continue reading Honeybee | Craig Silvey #AUSfiction
I suspect, like me, many of you have heard about the basic premise of this story. The book seems to be everywhere (which is partly why it was selected as our October book club book). It features a fictional town inhabited by African Americans who have light skin, 'lightness, like anything inherited at great … Continue reading The Vanishing Half | Brit Bennett #USAfiction
Many years ago, the year 2000 to be precise [I know this because], I read and loved Simon Winchester's The Surgeon of Crowthorne: A Tale of Murder, Madness and the Love of Words. Curiously and more sensationally, it was retitled The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford … Continue reading The Dictionary of Lost Words | Pip Williams #AWWfiction
Police procedural is not my usual fare, but sometimes book club leads me down a path I wouldn't choose for myself, yet it turns out okay in the end. I very nearly used the 'not enough time' excuse to not read this book, but a recent rainy weekend gave me a chance to check it … Continue reading The Good Turn | Dervla McTiernan #AWW
When one sets out to read a book, you enter into a contract of sorts with the author. You agree to be apart of their world and to go along for the ride. As I've discussed before, we all have our own criteria by which we judge a book and whether we will pick it … Continue reading Where the Crawdads Sing | Delia Owens #USfiction
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