I could argue that I have done reasonably well with my reading this year having finished fifty books but I feel, in some ways, that I have cheated. Nine of those books are children's books and all but one of them less than 200 pages long. These were Tove Jansson's Moomin series which I would … Continue reading 2020 – A Year of Reading
Fiction
Book Review – The Women in Black by Madeleine St John
The Women in Black is a delightful book set at the end of the 1950s in the Ladies Cocktail Frocks section on the second floor of F G Goode’s Department Store in Sydney (loosely based on David Jones). The story centres around the lives of the black-frocked sales assistants working there – Patty, Mrs Williams, … Continue reading Book Review – The Women in Black by Madeleine St John
One Minute Book Review – Grief is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter
Grief is the Thing with Feathers is a slim almost surreal novel which through prose, dialogue and poetry traces the grieving of a father and two young sons coming to terms with the death of their wife and mother. Their life in chaos, Crow arrives in the middle of the night and takes on the … Continue reading One Minute Book Review – Grief is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter
One Minute Book Review – Nutshell by Ian McEwan
Nutshell by Ian McEwan is a tale of murder and deceit told by an unborn child near to term. This is no ordinary child - he is well read and erudite with a strong grasp of world politics, his understanding drawn, no doubt, from his mother’s avid podcast listening. He has an understanding of familial … Continue reading One Minute Book Review – Nutshell by Ian McEwan
Opening lines
Lately, there have been a number of lists floating around the web of great opening lines from literature. One the basis of these single sentences most people would want to read further. Here I have put together the opening one or two lines of a dozen of my favourite books. While most of them do … Continue reading Opening lines
Catherine Meyrick 