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
Category: Book Fix
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
Young Mungo: Not for the faint-hearted
The first pages of Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart will fill you with dread. Peril drips from every word, the two men with 'slitted eyes' itchy to be leaving 'hands ferreting inside their trouser pockets as they peeled their ball sacks from their thighs'. Mungo looks up at his mother waving from their tenement window. … Continue reading Young Mungo: Not for the faint-hearted
Are you a wolf or a fox?
Anonymous viciously murdered women are strewn throughout Evie Wyld's The Bass Rock. The characters are unnamed as they would be in a fairy tale; the girl, the master, the footman... “It’s just a feeling I have all the time that I’m walking in and out of these deaths and I should at least notice. I … Continue reading Are you a wolf or a fox?
Women who drink: feminism and alcohol
It never occurred to me that women were the first brewers of beer. Yet, so obvious. They were the bakers of the bread and the stokers of the fire, the homemakers. Beer was an integral part of the families' diets. Women were making alcohol all over the world. Then men realised there was money and … Continue reading Women who drink: feminism and alcohol