Pleasant reading: Mr Rosenblum’s List, by Natasha Solomons, has a cover prefiguring a novel of the sensibility of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society. And so it proves to be. After WWII, German refugee Jack Rosenblum begins compiling a list, his all-encompassing guide to assimilating in Britain. Battling prejudice and his past-obsessed wife, he [...]
Also posted in Science Fiction |
Very little light reading on the go at the moment: The Face on Your Plate: The Truth About Food by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, a companion read to Jonathan Safran Foer’s masterpiece Eating Food I’ve been hanging out for Michael Lewis’s latest, The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine Unlike many, I didn’t grow besotted with Yann Martel’s [...]
A couple of books sourced in strange ways and all the more enjoyable as a result: I can recommend the first three books in a quartet by a South African author, John van de Ruit, in the vein of the Adrian Mole diaries: Spud; Spud – The Madness Continues; and Spud – Learning to Fly. [...]
Also posted in Nonfiction |
Very different offerings: Tom Keneally has to be the most prolific Australian author alive, with over three dozen books to his credit. Sometimes his novels lack spark but his latest, The People’s Train, dealing with a fascinating episode of Australian history but also the 20th century’s pivotal event, shines with style and verve. Working off [...]
Strong writers’ voices make all the difference: The debut novel by Australian-born Evie Wyld, After the Fire, a Still Small Voice, tackles the cascading effect of violence, the violence of men at war, through generations. Wyld is an evocative, sure-footed stylist, and her portrait of two Australians, one a Vietnam war soldier, the other an [...]
The Miles Franklin Award shortlist (announcement), of which I’ve read the first: Peter Temple’s Truth (one of my Top 10 book of 2009) Alex Miller’s Lovesong Sonya Hartnett’s Butterfly The Bath Fugues by Brian Castro Craig Silvey’s Jasper Jones The Book of Emmett by Deborah Forster
As usual this shortlist is a mix of the famous and wonderfully obscure. I’ve read the first three and considered the fourth: Marilynne Robinson’s Home (one of my Best Books of 2009) Joseph O’Neill’s Netherland (excellent) The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery (excellent, see my review) The Believers by Zoë Heller The Twin [...]
Hot on the tails of the debut shortlist, here’s the main event (I’ve read the first book and the next two have been on my reading list at various times): A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver The Very Thought of You by Rosie Alison [...]
Here’s the Orange Award for New Writers shortlist for this year. I’m reading the first one right now: After The Fire, A Still Small Voice by Evie Wyld The Book of Fires by Jane Borodale Irene Sabatini’s The Boy Next Door
Not one of my key competitions for sourcing books, nonetheless this year’s winners, announced a week ago, are of interest. Solo by Indian author Rana Dasgupta won best book, while Siddon Rock by Glenda Guest (Australian!) won best first book.