I am a Suzie Miller tragic. I love her plays and have seen two fabulous ones of late. RBG (about Ruth Bader Ginsberg, US Supreme Court Justice and gender equality ‘shero’) and Jail Baby. Both brilliant! Prima Facie, the one woman play, was made famous when Jodie Comer (Killing Eve) headlined in it in London’s […]
April
25
Until August by Gabriel Garcia Márquez
posted by Ms A
Gabriel Garcia Márquez, the Colombian, Nobel Prize winning author of Love in the Time of Cholera and One Hundred Years of Solitude, died in Mexico City in 2014. He had started work on Until August many years before but, with the onset of dementia, decided it wasn’t worthy of publishing and asked that it be […]
April
18
Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar
posted by Ms A
Kids, this is a complex one. A quote on the front cover promises “Elegant, dizzying, playful” but I think “Dark and difficult” would have been more apt. With themes of suicide, addiction, racial tension and grief, it is not exactly a breezy, crowd-pleaser, but please read on if you dare. Martyr! tells the story of […]
April
02
The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese
posted by Ms A
I think I injured my knee reading this book. That’s what happens when you find yourself immersed in a heavy book in the same awkward position for two hours at a stretch, especially when you are over 50. The irony of my reading injury is that the book was recommended to me by a doctor. […]
March
27
Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood
posted by Ms K
The extraordinary skill of Charlotte Wood is to craft her writing to accent and mimic the landscape and backdrop of her stories. Stone Yard Devotional is sparsely and dryly written but it’s deeply rich….like the harsh, barren Australian outback which is also home to breathtaking, raw beauty. Does that make sense, or have I drunk […]
March
12
Prophet Song by Paul Lynch
posted by Ms A
In his 2023 Booker Prize winning book, Paul Lynch imagines the Republic of Ireland slipping into totalitarianism. Things kick off with a sinister knock on the door and it’s a slow but steady descent from there. The door belongs to Eilish; a scientist, wife, mother of four and primary carer of her elderly father, who […]
February
20
Calypso by David Sedaris
posted by Ms A
How I wish I was related to David Sedaris. In my imagination, he would inch up to me at family dinners just to hear my latest story and pick me for conspiratorial bitch sessions under the table. In this book (written in 2018) David Sedaris walks the oh so precious path between laugh out loud […]
January
02
Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers
posted by Ms K
Well happy 2024 Readheads. Let’s get to it. It is holiday time and if you are looking for a goodie to dive into, look no further. This book might be called Small Pleasures but it was a humungous pleasure to read. It’s the sort of book you can’t wait to get home too and I loved every […]
November
05
Cold Enough for Snow by Jessica Au
posted by Ms K
So, the end of the year is coming way too fast, and you can hardly find a second to breathe BUT you’re desperate to read a good book but when, how? Readheads, here is your answer. Cold Enough for Snow is a quietly powerful and beautiful novella about a mother and daughter holidaying in Japan […]
October
06
The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff
posted by Ms A
This novel is nothing short of a masterpiece. Pouring over it, made me want to read, review and even yearn to write. Alas, few could write like Lauren Groff. It’s winter in the early 1600’s, and a young servant girl escapes the unspeakable conditions of a colonial settlement in the Americas into the wild. This […]
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