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“…The strutting demagogue, with his insane shouting, had fixed his eyes on them, and he was coming…” This line, in chapter eleven of Alexander McCall Smith’s latest novel, terrified me. Why? Who was this demagogue with his eyes set on the innocents of country England during the second world war? Hitler, of course. And in…Read More
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Known throughout the United States as ‘The Money Lady’, Suze Orman is the author of nine best selling books on the subject. Named by Time Magazine in 2008 as one of the ’100 Most Influentional People’ in the world, Orman is the host of her own TV show on CNBC, a popular motivational speaker, and…Read More
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It’s just so glorious to read a magical story that’s not steeped in the stereotypical fairies, wizards, goblins or mysteriously shifting worlds that appear in the blink of an eye or through some unseeming earthly portal. Since Enid Blyton sent us on Wishing Chair and Magic Faraway Tree adventures and CS Lewis penned his superlative…Read More
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The dreamlike opening of Cicada Summer was a little painful to read. Having lost my mother far too many years ago, it was a little heartbreaking to realise, within moments of opening this junior fiction novel, that its young lead character was motherless. Moments into the dreamlike sequence, Eloise – an artistic, thoughtful and observant…Read More
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It’s been a very long time since I’ve read a young fiction novel. So long, in fact, that when I finished reading Angel Cake by British author Cathy Cassidy, I felt thirteen again. Really. It was like stepping back in time, feeling all those adolescent emotions once more. It also felt wonderful to be reminded…Read More
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The first thing that happened when I started reading The Help was that a teensy bit of voice escaped from my lips. A vocal gasp. The second thing that happened was an ear-to-ear grin, followed closely by a batch of freshly sprung tears. And all this within the first two pages. The ensuing saga wrapped…Read More
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When it comes to purveyors of fashion, women fall into two distinct groups – the ‘shoe princess’ and the much less flattering title of ‘bag lady’. As a bag lady (lover of handbags), I have never really understood the obsession with high-heeled shoes – they pinch, they blister, they lame – which begs the question,…Read More
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Ever Clever Eva by Andrew Fusek Peter is the latest in The White Wolves series of books, published by A&C Black, London, are a brilliant collection of readers featuring three styles of story – Myths, Legends and Traditional Stories, Stories from Different Cultures, and Playscripts. This book by prolific author Andrew Fusek Peters falls into…Read More
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Tim Winton’s latest novel, Breath, takes its first gasping breath in a fast-moving scene, flush with speed and emotion, and loaded with question marks. Written in the first-person, present-tense – which gives rapid movement to any written work – this first glimpse into Breath is… well, breathtaking. From there, the story rapidly slows into retro…Read More
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Ah, La Dolce Vita. The sweet life of a successful author. Erica Bauermeister’s first fiction novel, The School of Essential Ingredients, may still be fresh on the shelves but this tantalising novel has already been translated into Italian, under the title La Scuola degli Ingredienti Segreti. What a glorious excuse to jet off to Northern…Read More
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