Category Archives: Fiction

April 19, 2024 · 11:04 am

The Dud Avocado – Elaine Dundy

The Dud Avocado – Elaine Dundy

I had this on my Kindle for a long time. I had a couple of attempts but never got past the first chapter. Then I decided I needed to get it read, so I focused – 30 mins every day.

Here’s the blurb …

The Dud Avocado follows the romantic and comedic adventures of a young American who heads overseas to conquer Paris in the late 1950s. Edith Wharton and Henry James wrote about the American girl abroad, but it was Elaine Dundy’s Sally Jay Gorce who told us what she was really thinking.

Charming, sexy, and hilarious, The Dud Avocado gained instant cult status when it was first published and it remains a timeless portrait of a woman hell-bent on living.

“I had to tell someone how much I enjoyed The Dud Avocado. It made me laugh, scream, and guffaw (which, incidentally, is a great name for a law firm).” —Groucho Marx

“A cheerfully uninhibited…variation on the theme of the Innocents Abroad…Miss Dundy comes up with fresh and spirited comedy….Her novel is enormous fun—sparklingly written, genuinely youthful in spirit.” —The Atlantic

This was at times charming, funny and annoying. The final romance was a bit rushed, but otherwise if was a fun, mostly light-hearted romp (and don’t worry you will eventually learn why it’s called The Dud Avocado)

A review (Rachel Cooke wrote the introduction to the edition that I read – it is similar to this review)

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April 16, 2024 · 9:35 am

Birnam Wood – Eleanor Catton

Birnam Wood – Eleanor Catton

I read and enjoyed The Luminaries, but I resisted reading this one for a while. And then I needed a new audio book and noticed it in my husband’s library.

Here’s the blurb …

Five years ago, Mira Bunting founded a guerrilla gardening group: Birnam Wood. An undeclared, unregulated, sometimes-criminal, sometimes-philanthropic gathering of friends, this activist collective plants crops wherever no one will notice: on the sides of roads, in forgotten parks, and neglected backyards. For years, the group has struggled to break even. Then Mira stumbles on an answer, a way to finally set the group up for the long term: a landslide has closed the Korowai Pass, cutting off the town of Thorndike. Natural disaster has created an opportunity, a sizable farm seemingly abandoned.

But Mira is not the only one interested in Thorndike. Robert Lemoine, the enigmatic American billionaire, has snatched it up to build his end-times bunker–or so he tells Mira when he catches her on the property. Intrigued by Mira, Birnam Wood, and their entrepreneurial spirit, he suggests they work this land. But can they trust him? And, as their ideals and ideologies are tested, can they trust each other?

A gripping psychological thriller from the Booker Prize-winning author of The Luminaries, Birnam Wood is Shakespearean in its wit, drama, and immersion in character. A brilliantly constructed consideration of intentions, actions, and consequences, it is an unflinching examination of the human impulse to ensure our own survival.

I really enjoyed this until the last ten minutes and then I hated it. What’s with terrible endings that ruin everything that went before? (Game of Thrones for example). I suspect it has a very ‘literary’ ending and I am alone in disliking it.

A review.

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April 11, 2024 · 11:07 am

Redhead by the Side of the Road – Anne Tyler

Redhead by the Side of the Road – Anne Tyler

I like Anne Tyler. I have read a number of her novels. This one is quite short, more of a novella.

Here’s the blurb …

Micah Mortimer isn’t the most polished person you’ll ever meet. His numerous sisters and in-laws regard him oddly but very fondly, but he has his ways and means of navigating the world. He measures out his days running errands for work – his TECH HERMIT sign cheerily displayed on the roof of his car – maintaining an impeccable cleaning regime and going for runs (7:15, every morning). He is content with the steady balance of his life.

But then the order of things starts to tilt. His woman friend Cassia (he refuses to call anyone in her late thirties a ‘girlfriend’) tells him she’s facing eviction because of a cat. And when a teenager shows up at Micah’s door claiming to be his son, Micah is confronted with another surprise he seems poorly equipped to handle.

Redhead by the Side of the Road is an intimate look into the heart and mind of a man who sometimes finds those around him just out of reach – and a love story about the differences that make us all unique.

This had all of the hall marks of an Anne Tyler novel – A Baltimore setting, a close look at an ordinary person. Micah is a very orderly man – he has a daily cleaning roster and he drives very carefully – and life has taken a bit of a toll on him. He left college early to start up a tech company, but couldn’t work with the investor, and several relationships have failed (and the one with Cass is looking doomed). He is a good man trying to do the right thing, he just doesn’t know sometimes what the right thing to do is.

A review.

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April 10, 2024 · 11:49 am

These Old Shades – Georgette Heyer

These Old Shades – Georgette Heyer

This is the third novel in my read all Heyer’s romance novels in publication order. First was The Black Moth and second Powder and Patch.

This one is still set in the Georgian era – think powdered wigs, high heels, and lots of silk brocade. It has some characters from The Black Moth (the evil Duke of Andover is reformed – somewhat, and he is now the Duke of Avon, so maybe not the same character?).

Here’s the blurb …

The Duke is known for his coldness of manner, his remarkable omniscience, and his debauched lifestyle. Late one evening, he is accosted by a young person dressed in ragged boy’s clothing running away from a brutal rustic guardian. The Duke buys “Leon” and makes the child his page.

Reading the novels in order highlights Heyer’s growth as an author. In my opinion this ‘sequel’ is better than The Black Moth.

I think modern readers will struggle with the age difference (20 plus years) and the fact the heroine is the hero’s ward.

It’s witty, well-researched, and there is a bit of intrigue. A very entertaining read.

A review.

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April 9, 2024 · 3:24 pm

Kind of Sort of Maybe … but Probably Not – Imbi Neeme

Kind of Sort of Maybe … But Probably Not – Imbi Neeme

I bought this from a lovely book store while I was in Melbourne. I wanted a novel to read on the plane.

Here`s the blurb …

A charming, nostalgic, quirky, uplifting novel of people young and old finding their tribe, gaining courage to be themselves and perhaps falling in love, too.

Librarian Phoebe Cotton lives with misophonia. The sound of other people crunching an apple, slurping their tea or snapping chewing gum fills her with a rage that she buries deep within.

Mortified by her ‘Not Quite Right’ brain, she hides away inside 6 Salmon Street, the family home that her formidable grandmother Dorothy has abandoned for a more convivial life at the Western Retreat Retirement Village. But when Phoebe begins receiving mysterious postcards in the mail, she slowly, but surely, finds herself being pulled back out into the world and towards Monty, the sweet postal clerk.

Across town, Suze, a university student with a high distinction in study avoidance, is clinging to the hope that the neglectful J might actually be her boyfriend. When J’s attention turns to Ky, it sets Suze on a path that leads her to 6 Salmon Street and Phoebe Cotton.

Together with Suze and Monty, Phoebe goes on a mission to solve the mystery of the postcards but ends up finding much, much more, including acceptance, strength and love.

This was enjoyable, well-written and interesting. And the characters (the ones you are meant to like) were great. I particularly liked larger than life Charlie. I found it to be uplifting, with all our various quirks we can still find friends, and happiness.

A review.

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April 8, 2024 · 4:55 pm

Audrey’s Gone AWOL – Annie De Monchaux

Audrey’s Gone AWOL – Annie de Monchaux

I read about this in the Open Book newsletter – and it seemed like the perfect novel to take on holiday.

Here’s the blurb …

It’s never too late to reinvent your life

Audrey Lamont has happily devoted herself to family life for the best part of 40 years, but lately she’s become aware that she lost herself somewhere between ‘I do’ and the weekly shop.  
Worse, her academic husband Simon has found time for romance – just not with Audrey.
Feeling invisible to everyone, even herself, she flees to her aunt’s home in rural France.  
While waiting for her sudden absence to spark a change of heart in Simon, Audrey finds solace in the charms of the French countryside and the company of her aged aunt and a cast of eccentric Bretons.  
But soon Audrey discovers going AWOL might do more than save her marriage, it might change her life …  

Audrey’s Gone AWOL is a funny and beautifully observed story about losing yourself, finding yourself, and discovering joy.

I enjoyed it. A book about a mature heroine re-discovering her life after raising a family. And she goes to France and meets a cast of quirky characters (I want it to be made into a film so I can see Lilou’s outfits.). It is easy to read, well-written and has things to say about being a wife and mother (and the differences between how older women are viewed In France and Australia).

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April 3, 2024 · 4:53 pm

North Woods – Daniel Mason

North Woods – Daniel Mason

I kept seeing this novel everywhere and I finally decided to buy a copy.

Here’s the blurb …

When a pair of young lovers abscond from a Puritan colony, little do they know that their humble cabin in the woods will become the home of an extraordinary succession of human and inhuman characters alike. An English soldier, destined for glory, abandons the battlefields of the New World to devote himself to apples. A pair of spinster twins navigate war and famine, envy and desire. A crime reporter unearths a mass grave – only to discover that the ancient trees refuse to give up their secrets. A lovelorn painter, a sinister conman, a stalking panther, a lusty as each inhabitant confronts the wonder and mystery around them, they begin to realize that the dark, raucous, beautiful past is very much alive.

In his transcendent fourth novel, Pulitzer Prize finalist Daniel Mason delivers a magisterial and highly inventive tale brimming with love and madness, humor and hope. Following the cycles of history, nature and even language, North Woods shows the myriad, magical ways in which we’re connected to our environment, to history and to each other. It is not just an unforgettable novel about buried secrets and inevitable fates, but a way of looking at the world.

This novel has an interesting premise and structure. First, it’s about a place. We meet all of the people who live in this place over time. From the very first white settlers to sometime in the near future. Second, all of the various accounts are told in different ways; a written history for posterity, ballads, almanacs, medical notes, letters to a friend, etc. I found it compelling (maybe not the ballads), but all of the other sections were well-written and moved the story along. It is also a bit mystical – there’s hauntings. It also has an environmental message; we see the forest slowly destroyed by various pests and diseases, and then global warming is the last nail in the coffin for several trees.

A review.

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April 2, 2024 · 3:25 pm

Spook Street – Mick Herron

Spook Street – Mick Herron

I listened to this one in preparation for the next TV series.

Here’s the blurb …

What happens when an old spook loses his mind? Does the Service have a retirement home for those who know too many secrets but don’t remember they’re secret? Or does someone take care of the senile spy for good? These are the questions River Cartwright must ask when his grandfather, a Cold War–era operative, starts to forget to wear pants and begins to suspect everyone in his life has been sent by the Service to watch him.

But River has other things to worry about. A bomb goes off in the middle of a busy shopping center and kills forty innocent civilians. The agents of Slough House have to figure out who is behind this act of terror before the situation escalates

Something happens very early in the novel, which made me think I might be done with the Slow Horses novels, but I pushed on, and it was fine. High body count, but would you expect anything else?

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March 25, 2024 · 4:18 pm

Good Material – Dolly Alderton

Good Material – Dolly Alderton

I listened to the Audible version of this.

Here’s the blurb …

From the bestselling author of Ghosts and Everything I Know About Love: a story of heartbreak and friendship and how to survive both.

Andy’s story wasn’t meant to turn out this way. Living out of a suitcase in his best friends’ spare room, waiting for his career as a stand-up comedian to finally take off, he struggles to process the life-ruining end of his relationship with the only woman he’s ever truly loved.

As he tries to solve the seemingly unsolvable mystery of his broken relationship, he contends with career catastrophe, social media paranoia, a rapidly dwindling friendship group and the growing suspicion that, at 35, he really should have figured this all out by now.

Andy has a lot to learn, not least his ex-girlfriend’s side of the story.

Warm, wise, funny and achingly relatable, Dolly Alderton’s highly-anticipated second novel is about the mystery of what draws us together – and what pulls us apart – the pain of really growing up, and the stories we tell about our lives.

At first it reminded me of High Fidelity (all that moaning), but it grew on me. We have the break up from two different points of view – Andy for the first two thirds and then Jen for the last third. I enjoyed Jen’s section, Andy’s not so much. Mainly because he was annoying not anything to do with the writing. All of the action is happening at the end of 2019 and I couldn’t help but wonder what would happen to them in 2020? Andy was planning on taking a show to Edinburgh (was that even possible during the pandemic) and Jen quit her job and was going to travel (also not very likely).

A review.

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March 21, 2024 · 7:15 pm

The Other Bridget – Rachael Johns

The Other Bridget – Rachael Johns

This is my first novel by Rachael Johns. I haven’t read anything else because I thought she wrote outback or bush romance, which is not my thing. However, the blurb for this one appealed to me.

Here is the blurb …

A feelgood romantic comedy by Australia’s bestselling romance writer, ideal for fans of Emily Henry and Marian Keyes.

Named after a famous fictional character, librarian Bridget Jones was raised on a remote cattle station, with only her mother’s romance novels for company. Now living alone in Fremantle, Bridget is a hopeless romantic. She also believes that anyone who doesn’t like reading just hasn’t met the right book yet, and that connecting books to their readers is her superpower. If only her love life was that easy.

When handsome Italian barista Fabio progresses from flirting with love hearts on her coffee foam to joining the book club she runs at her library, Bridget prays her romance ‘curse’ won’t ruin things. But it’s the attention of her cranky neighbour Sully that seems to be the major obstacle in her life. Why is he going to so much effort to get under her skin?

With the help of her close friends and the colourful characters who frequent her library, Bridget decides to put both men to the test by finding just the right books to capture their very different hearts. She soon discovers that not all romances start with a meet-cute, but they might just end in happily ever after…

Written by Australia’s most beloved romance writer, The Other Bridget is a delightfully uplifting book about books, and a gorgeous celebration of the power and pleasure of romance novels throughout the ages.

There is so much to like about this novel. It is set in Fremantle (it is always nice to read about local places), it’s about reading and working in a library. There are a lot of book recommendations that I wish I had made a note of as I was reading (or if there was a book list at the end of the book along with the book club questions). It’s the classic ‘enemy to lovers’ trope (think Pride and Prejudice), which is one of my favourites. That and ‘friends to lovers’ (think Emma). It is witty, but with some depth.

A review.

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