12 Edmondstone Street by David Malouf is a memoir/essay which uses his childhood home in Brisbane in the 1930s and 1940s to gently observe the way the beliefs and experiences of a family’s past shape a child's view of and relationship with the world as an adult. Room by room, down to the space beneath … Continue reading One Minute Book Review – 12 Edmondstone Street by David Malouf
One Minute Book Review – The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan
The Spinning Heart is set in a small town in Ireland during the immediate aftermath of the Irish economic recession. The novel comprises twenty-one chapters, each a monologue by a different character, each capable of standing alone. The first chapter centres on Bobby Mahon whose story is revealed in bits and pieces through every other … Continue reading One Minute Book Review – The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan
My Reading – January 2017
The Victorian Chaise-longue by Marghanita Laski Doc by Mary Doria Russell The Bertie Project by Alexander McCall Smith (many spoilers)
One Minute Book Review – Doc by Mary Doria Russell
I am generally not a reader of American fiction set in the Old West; however, this review of Doc piqued my interest. This is a thoroughly researched engaging novel where even the minor characters, most of whom are based on real people, are well drawn and multifaceted with small vignettes rounding out their characters. The … Continue reading One Minute Book Review – Doc by Mary Doria Russell
One Minute Book Review – Endless Night by Agatha Christie
Endless Night by Agatha Christie is a standalone novel first published in 1967. The narrator is Michael Rogers, a young working class man with grand dreams and ambitions. He meets Ellie Guteman, a lonely but wealthy young woman, in Gypsy’s Acre, a scenic ruin with stunning views which appears to have a curse hanging over … Continue reading One Minute Book Review – Endless Night by Agatha Christie
One Minute Book Review – The Beauty and the Sorrow by Peter Englund
The Beauty and the Sorrow is subtitled 'an intimate history of the First World War' and comprises a collection of letters and diary entries from twenty people who lived through the First World War. The diaries and letters are interspersed with narrative which traces the war, year by year. The individuals followed come from a … Continue reading One Minute Book Review – The Beauty and the Sorrow by Peter Englund
One Minute Book Review – The Criminal Conversation of Mrs Norton by Diane Atkinson
The starting point of The Criminal Conversation of Mrs Norton by Diane Atkinson is the legal case brought by George Norton against William Lamb, Lord Melbourne, in 1836 for compensation for illegal use of his property, Norton’s wife Caroline. Norton was, in essence, suing Melbourne for adultery. Norton lost the case, Melbourne remained as Prime … Continue reading One Minute Book Review – The Criminal Conversation of Mrs Norton by Diane Atkinson
And Then Mine Enemy by Alison Stuart
This is the latest swashbuckling 17th century historical romance from the pen of Alison Stuart - the first book in a two book series (FEATHERS IN THE WIND) spanning the years of the English Civil War from 1642- 1645. AND THEN MINE ENEMY A family ripped apart in a country divided by war . . … Continue reading And Then Mine Enemy by Alison Stuart
My Reading for 2016
This year I have done reasonably well with the number and spread of books I have read - mainly historical fiction, some classic fiction, a few non-fiction and some literary fiction including a handful definitely outside my comfort zone. This list, naturally, does not include the number I have started but not finished which were … Continue reading My Reading for 2016
My Reading – December 2016
A Bluestocking in Patagonia by Anne Whitehead Habits of the House by Fay Weldon By the Sword by Alison Stuart
