Category: Uncategorized

Jane Rogers’ Body Tourists made me think of Kate Mascarenhas’s The Psychology of Time Travel. Both are traditionally male written genres, and the woman’s perspective gives it twists where a male author would be less likely to go. In Kate’s book, she dipped into what time travel would mean to relationships, how would you be…

I was torn between giving this 4 or 5 stars. I loved Station Eleven, Emily’s previous novel – and many of the same ingredients are used in this latest outing, The Glass Hotel. Multiple narratives twisted over numerous timelines, held together with beautifully poetic writing. Emily is expert at weaving threads and foreshadowing plot lines,…

We all think we’re a good judge of people and aren’t easily influenced, but numerous studies have shown this isn’t true. We’re likely to be more patient if the car in front that doesn’t move when a traffic light turns green is executive, and we’re more likely to listen to Ian Botham tell us how…

The End of the Ocean is an interesting book – giving a glimpse of how the world could be after devastating droughts caused by climate change. I did struggle with this book for a couple of reasons. First, it was hugely over-written, especially anything involving sailing. I suspect Maja loves sailing and wanted to incorporate…

Fantastic. 5000 years of history condensed into a 100 pages – not the dates, the changing borders, or the winners and losers, but what history means and how societies evolve. Although written in the 60s, in many ways the topics and conclusions are very current (“Inequality is not only natural and inborn, it grows with…

This is an impressive book. It’s flawed – many chapters could be significantly reduced without damaging the message, the message is often lost amidst rambling anecdotes – but by golly, this is a man who knows how to research. Facts, quotes, conclusions – it’s all here. Kurt Andersen is a journalist by trade, and the…

I’m a bit torn with this book. I read it to the end, and did enjoy it, but the second half was a struggle and I skimmed a fair bit towards the end. The problem is that this is a first person psychological thriller, so you’re close to the thoughts of the antagonist, and those…

I wasn’t aware that “Olive, Again” was a sequel until I came to write this review – I thought the “, Again” was because Olive Kitteridge appears in each chapter of this connected collection of short-stories, sometimes the focus, other times just passing through. I didn’t feel I’d missed anything by not reading the first…

This book doesn’t discuss day-to-day conversations, what I was expecting, but the Big Conversations (used by Sarah throughout the book) – those chats where the outcomes can save marriages, get that promotion, or start a new way of life. The book started slow, a few too many anecdotes from Sarah’s past, but once it kicked…

This book has all the cliches of prison books and films – the framed innocent, the beatings and sexual abuse, corruption and murder – but the most alarming is that this is based on true events over a 100 -year span at Florida’s Dozier School for Boys. Various reforms outlawed certain abuses, but corrupt regimes…