Hypnotist Ellen O’Farrell’s new love interest has a stalker. She finds it wildly interesting at first, but as times goes on it is less so, until she comes to fully understand the shocking damage stalking can do. At some point when reading this novel you will be shouting at Ellen’s new boyfriend to call the […]
Latest Reviews
The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty
Wow, what a can of worms. This is number five of Moriarty’s stand alone novels, and she’s just so humane and so good. She splays open the minds of women with such a gentle, delicious touch. No one is totally evil and no one entirely good; they’re just doing the best they can. Well worth […]
What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty
This is my favourite of Moriarty’s, along with Big Little Lies. Alice gets a bump on the head during gym class; when she comes to she has lost ten years of her life. Her brain has reset to when she was 29, in love with her husband, about to have their first child. In reality she is […]
Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks
Good historical fiction is rarely so dramatic, but Brooks just about manages to pull this one off. We all imagine the Black Plague of 1666 was brutal but this story of widowed Anna Frith losing her two sons and her village plunging into barely restrained chaos brings it all home. Brooks is not quite as […]
March by Geraldine Brooks
Who hasn’t read Little Women and wondered what the girls’ mother thought of the father, leaving her and three girls to struggle in straightened circumstances while he went off to chaplain the soldiers in the American civil war? March answers that question: the mother was not impressed. This novel is about his journey and it’s fine historical […]
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer
This one reeeks of chick lit with the almost unreadable cursive writing on the cover, but it’s a step above that. A story told in a succession of letters; who would have thought that could make sense? But it does, and it’s a worthwhile story.
The Light Between Oceans by ML Steadman
This one is a book club favourite for a reason. The what would you do storyline is deeply manipulative, but makes for a good discussion if you find it believable. It’s all a bit overwrought for my liking.
The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas
My, so angry. This deeply unpleasant read is populated with characters manifesting varying degrees of rage and resentment towards one another, but it’s also kind of awesome. So close to the bone. Like cyanide, it needs to be taken in small doses.