Reviews of Books
Posted in Fiction - Light, Recommended on Dec 29th, 2009
I think I bought this book based solely on the title. Here is the blurb … Renee is the concierge of a grand Parisian apartment building on the Left Bank. To the residents she is honest, reliable and uncultivated – an ideal concierge. But Renee has a secret. Beneath this conventional facade she is passionate [...]
Posted in Fiction - Light, Recommended on Dec 14th, 2009
I’m a keen L M Montgomery fan – so keen I’ve travelled from Australia to Prince Edward Island. When this book was released I wasn’t entirely convinced I wanted to read it – I had already read The Road to Yesterday which I believed contained all of the stories, but I read a review on [...]
Posted in Recommended, Serious on Dec 12th, 2009
I bought this book years ago while on holiday in Sydney. I was quite keen to read it again when it was suggested at book club. Plus it’s the perfect read in the lead up to the busy Christmas season (short). Here is the stuff from the back … At the staid Marcia Blaine School [...]
Posted in Recommended, Serious on Nov 15th, 2009
I found this book in a second hand book store while on holiday. I do like Elizabeth Taylor novels – such understated, character driven stories. “Spending the holiday with friends, as she has for many years, Camilla finds that their private absorptions – Frances with he painting and Liz with her baby – seem to [...]
Posted in Recommended, Serious on Oct 27th, 2009
I’m a keen Margaret Atwood fan so I couldn’t wait to get my hands on this week. Being slightly more organised that normal, I re-read Oryx and Crake (although I think The Year of the Flood can be read without having first read Oryx and Crake). The way Atwood uses language is breath taking – [...]
Posted in Recommended, Serious on Oct 26th, 2009
I’ve been making an effort to get books from the library and this is one I found while browsing (I was looking for Sarah Waters). It one the 1989 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. I liked this one – Maggie is so annoying. She interferes with the best of intentions and then just makes every thing [...]
Posted in Recommended, Serious on Oct 16th, 2009
My book club chose this book because the author is Western Australian and it was reviewed as being one of the ‘must reads’. It had a lovely visual quality and the writing was simple, but eloquent. Here is the publisher’s blurb … ‘Photography has without doubt made her a seer; she is a woman of [...]
Posted in Fiction - Light, Recommended on Oct 14th, 2009
I bought this book based on a few blog entries. I’m not quite sure what I was expecting. It was a fun, light and entertaining novel, but just a bit strange. This novel is about imagination and group flights of imagination and family ties. It has a definite upper-middle class English feel to it. This novel [...]
Posted in Recommended, Serious on Sep 29th, 2009
This is an enormous novel – difficult to read in bed. It is on the Man Booker 2009 Short List. This is partly why I wanted to read it, but mostly I was interested in the story. Here’s the synopsis from the publisher … Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2009 ‘Lock Cromwell in a [...]
Posted in Fiction - Light, Recommended on Sep 9th, 2009
My reason for selecting this book is slightly odd. I wanted to buy three books from Persephone and so selected this as my third because I had recently watched an adaptation of Ballet Shoes. That being said, I enjoyed this novel. She has a wonderful way of getting inside peoples’ heads. Here is what Persephone [...]