Everyone has a limit - what they can and can't read or watch - mostly due to their personal experiences in life and how they are triggered by fiction. I avoid disaster movies. And, until now I did not realise I was avoiding books like The Leaves by Jacqueline Rule. I don't mind a harrowing … Continue reading I prefer to read about serial killers
Author: Kathryn Gossow
Myth & Omens in a Flooded Dystopia
O'breht's newest book The Morningside is described as dystopian, and it feels like a world that could be just a decade or two away. In this near future where food is scarce and rising water levels have consumed city blocks, people search for signs and omens to signal everything will go back to normal - … Continue reading Myth & Omens in a Flooded Dystopia
Abridged is better (I can’t believe I am saying that)
I was both surprised and rattled to find the Audible version of Lionel Shriver's The Post Birthday World was abridged! What! After a decade of listening to books, I had never come across an abridged version. I don't want an abridged anything. Give me the real deal. Luckily there is a return policy. I purchased … Continue reading Abridged is better (I can’t believe I am saying that)
Capitalism versus Gardeners: A Tragedy
Eleanor Catton's Birnam Wood proved more divisive in the Pocket Bookclub than I envisaged. I always read NZ fiction when visiting my in-laws 'back home.' On our Christmas visit, I bought The Axeman's Carnival by Catherine Chidgey which proved a perfect holiday read for me. (I subsequently heard her speak at the Brisbane Writer's Festival … Continue reading Capitalism versus Gardeners: A Tragedy
Stone Yard Devotional
Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood is not a plot-driven book, though some 'things' happen. Essentially, a woman who does not believe in God joins a reclusive monastery. Through a collection of her memories and journal-like reflections, the reader gently tip-toes around and through a series of deep questions listed within the back cover blurb. … Continue reading Stone Yard Devotional
The Joy & Guilt of Bingeing and Keeping
I binged this book in a one-day listen. I had other things to do on this Sunday. I was torn between the joy of a page-turner and the guilt of 'not being productive'. On theme with the book, I simultaneously listened and cleaned out my filing cabinet, and boxed up a pile of stuff I … Continue reading The Joy & Guilt of Bingeing and Keeping
Bewildering and Bewitching
After Kafka on the Shore was released, Haruki Murakami's publishers offered readers the opportunity to ask the author questions about the book - like what on earth does it all mean? There were 8000 questions and he answered 1200 of them (which is no mean feat in itself!). Murakami says "Kafka on the Shore contains several … Continue reading Bewildering and Bewitching
Pocket Bookclub 2023
The Pocket Bookclub celebrates the year's end with the usual wine, cheese, food, and swimming. Each member votes for their favourite and less favourite read of the year. January: Some people liked this, it has green dots, though I was somewhat ambivalent. The Silence of Water, Sharron Booth Cunttail: The Bloody Silence March: remembering when … Continue reading Pocket Bookclub 2023
Short and Careful
You can read Cold Enough for Snow by Jessica Au in one sitting. Then you might have to read it again. It is short, carefully worded, and elusive. A daughter and her mother are meeting in Japan for a short holiday, the daughter hopes to build their relationship, but as the title suggests there is … Continue reading Short and Careful
Don’t invite me to this dinner
I quite like unlikeable characters but I may have met my match with these despicable people. In The Dinner by Herman Koch, we have a narrator, somewhat sympathetic, who slowly emerges as unreliable and less and less likeable, as do the people around him. The more you learn, the more bitter the taste in your … Continue reading Don’t invite me to this dinner