The Cloud Atlas is one of those highly recommended novels, where ever you turn someone else is raving about it and recommending it. The more a book is recommended the more worried I get that it will disappoint. David Mitchell was even at the Auckland Readers & Writers Festival last year, I know because my [...]
I’ve just returned from my summer holidays and have a huge list of books to review. I completed the Wolves of Mercy Falls Trilogy, read five printed books that were Christmas presents and still managed to swim everyday. Right now I am reading IQ84 – I’m two chapter in and totally intrigued and I also [...]
The Hare with the Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal I only bought this book because it kept coming up on my recommendations list. I didn’t think following the journey of a group of small Japanese ornaments from their purchase in Paris in 1870 to Edmund inheriting them from his Uncle who lived in Japan. [...]
The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul by Deborah Rodriguez In Afghanistan waiting for her lover to return from whatever dangerous mission he is on now Sunny runs a coffee shop. Kabul is not a easy place to run coffee shop – there are bombings, soldiers, rebels and the Afghan culture to negotiate. The coffee shop and [...]
The Help by Kathryn Stockett In Jackson Mississippi 1962 22 year old Skeeter has got herself a job as the domestic agony aunt on the local paper. Knowing nothing about running a household Skeater turns to a local black maid she knows to ask for help. Aibileen and her friend Minny join forces to help [...]
In America by Susan Sontag I have always wanted to read this book so when I saw it at a school fair I was happy to buy it. On the cover it says it won the National Book Award of 2000 and awards mean a good read. The plot is great – a famous Polish [...]
A Thread of Grace by Mary Doria Russell A Thread of Grace is set during WWII and follows a group of Jewish refugees who have fled to southern France and relative protection of the Italian occupied area. Now the Italians have surrendered to the Allies the German army is coming and they must flea over [...]
How I live Now by Meg Rosoff There is no excuse for not reading this book as Penguin has published it under their Penguin Classic imprint so it was cheap. But this is no old musty classic, How I Live Now was written in 2004. It tells the story of fifteen year old Daisy who [...]
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins In this post apocalyptic world two children from each area are sent to fight for their lives as ‘tribute’ in the hunger games. Katniss takes the place of her younger sister and enters the games. Here she must fight and kill in order to return home and have the [...]
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern Two magicians have played a game for decades, each providing a player. This time the game arena is a circus. This is not an ordinary circus, it opens when the sun goes down and closes at dawn – it can only be the circus of dreams. The story conjured [...]
