Catching up on recent reads

Due to major life-changing disruptions, reading has been haphazard. Loaded down with Responsibilities, Legalities, Obligations, I've tended to favour reading of the Very Light-hearted variety, starting with


The Ivy Chronicles - Karen Quinn
A very enjoyable story - woman loses high powered corporate job, husband and luxury NY apartment, creates a new role for herself as private school admissions adviser in a cut-throat competitive world where rich parents will go to any length to give their children a headstart in life. Humorous, eye-opening, and a heart-warmer too.


Fat, Forty and Fired - Nigel Marsh
Another humorous memoir about an advertising agency MD who takes a year off. Very entertaining, quite insightful and sensitive. Laugh Out Loud material.


Time of my Life - Allison Winn Scotch
About second chances. The protagonist, in a picture perfect life, a baby daughter and lacklustre marriage, finds herself 7 years back in time with a former boyfriend, with the knowledge of her future and the chance to change her past. Complex choices.


The Help - Kathryn Stockett
I enjoyed this in audiobook, and was transported to a different world by the wonderful voices of the narrators, such a vividly created world, set in Jackson, in the American South, during a time of racial division and social awakening when a young white woman and a few black maids dared to risk all in a secret daring project. I would recommend the audiobook version which brings the characters and era so much to life.


Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman
I love Neil Gaiman's books. So rich, strange, captivating. Fairy tales for adults. My introduction to him was Fragile Things which I fell in love with, and recently I enjoyed in audiobook "A Study in Emerald" and now "Neverwhere". Neverwhere is about Richard Mayhew, a standard young man working in the financial corporate world in London who rescues a wounded woman one day and finds his world as he knew it disappearing. He discovers a dark shadowy world, London Below, where he helps the woman named Door to find who murdered her family and embarks upon an adventure that changes him irrevocably. Neil Gaiman narrates this audiobook himself, and is brilliant! He brings it so much to life, and I was brought to tears of laughter and sadness.


Gifts of Unknown Things - Lyall Watson
Humbling to know that it's been 33 years since this book was first published, and yet it's as fascinating and relevant as ever, marrying science with mystery, quantum physics with mysticism so beautifully and poetically. The author's own experiences on a small volcanic island in Indonesia become the tapestry on which he weaves scientific inquiry with magic.


And I've temporarily given up on Fall on Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald, To Say Nothing of the Dog (great title!) by Connie Willis and Snow by Orhan Pamuk. They all share one thing in common - great promise but too heavy going and bogged down in detail for me at this stage of my life.

The lost recipe for happiness - Barbara O'Neal

Another sensual book about love and food. I must be on a theme. Very enjoyable, a love story with food, ghosts, pain, redemption. It has the dark vein of pain from the heroine's past, to add spice to an otherwise reasonably predictable love story. I loved it anyway, and the food recipes sound delicious.

A Thousand Days in Venice - Marlena de Blasi

I finally got around to reading this book which has sat on my shelf for years. I imagined it'd be some idealised romantic story and was pleasantly surprised to find that it's romantic but not in the usual sense. It's very real, with a sensual appreciation of life's abundance. The writer's gorgeousness comes through in her whimsical, creative way, the way she creates beauty out of circumstances which might otherwise be considered challenging, and engages with the people and her environment to make memorable food and special occasions.

The Marrying Game - Kate Saunders

A light hearted and funny read about four beautiful sisters who take matters into their own hands when faced with the loss of their beloved dilapidated family home, and decide to marry money.Written in an intelligent wry style and quite enjoyable, though three-quarters of the way into the book I thought it sort of took off at a tangent when the oldest sister behaves uncharacteristically, but it all comes together again satisfactorily.

Code Name God - Mani Bhaumik

Just finished this audiobook. Fascinating - dirt poor Indian boy became a scientist and invented the laser technology that made LASIK surgery possible. He found that fame and fortune could not provide him with happiness and began to go back to his roots to search for a deeper meaning. As he digs deeper he finds that the science he's so immersed in brings him back to spirituality. I found his scientific explanations very accessible.

Man Drought - Bernard Salt

Ah, all is now clear. Good strategies advocated here - steal from other age brackets if you're a woman above your mid-30s as the drought is worst between your mid 30s to early 60s! Here's the Amazon blurb "Why are there so many single women in their 30s? What's an OFFAL? In this entertaining and insightful book, social commentator Bernard Salt answers these and many other pressing questions about contemporary Australia. Drawing on current census data and his own research, he presents a quirky, enlightening tour of the world we live in."

The Twilight Saga - Stephenie Meyer

I only bought this out of curiousity at the "publishing phenomenon". Then it sat on my bedside table for awhile as I wasn't sure I wanted to read a vampire book for young women. But when I finally started it, I was hooked from the first page. Which woman, young or old, would not be enthralled by these heady elements - a superhuman super-attractive good vampire in love with you and you with him; both of you stricken with heart-stopping romantic and sexual tension; a would-be lover who's cool, collected, strong, passionate, self-disciplined, loving, responsible, old-fashionedly considerate? Plus the ever-present danger element? Perfectly delicious!

So, it was natural to get on the emotional rollercoaster ride with the other 3 books in the saga New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn, devouring one after the other, trying to stretch them out as much as possible.. (though the sexual tension does get ridiculously protracted into book 3 with no let up - due to the old-fashioned values of this sexy vampire! Hint - There's resolution in Book 4 - read to find out why.) Lots of excitement throughout and exciting thrills including werewolves and other vampires, but the best thing is the down to earth, wry and funny self-deprecating style of the heroine.

The Conjuror's Bird - Martin Davies

Lyrical,historical setting - a present day search for a mysterious lost bird, with an achingly sad ill-fated love story in the distant past as its backdrop. Interesting historical details of renowned naturalist Joseph Banks on his voyage of discoveries, and an elusive woman who haunts his heart.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson

I loved this book, captivated by the storyline, Swedish setting and the unusual protagonist Salander, a young antisocial girl with a brilliant untrained mind and delinquent tendencies, and her equally unusual relationship with journalist Mikael Blomvist as they solve a sinister disappearance in the past, somehow connected to the present. The pace starts rather slow but builds up to unputdownable.

The History of Love - Nicole Krauss

A reviewer described it as hauntingly beautiful. I suppose you could say that. The ending is a little cryptic which made me turn a few pages back to see if I'd missed something. Still, I enjoyed the 2 main characters, the octogenarian Leo Gursky and the young teenager Alma Singer, somehow connected by the book History of Love that Leo had written as a young man, and whose heroine Alma was named after.

Free Food for Millionaires - Min Jin Lee

Got this book from Kinokuniya while visiting Sydney - love that bookshop with its mind boggling range and imported titles I never see in the run of the mill bookshops. I found this book interesting in its exploration of race, class, money etc, about a Korean girl from a working class immigrant family. She has been well educated through scholarships and acquired expensive habits, but is ambivalent about success, career, love. She has a wealthy mentor in a highly successful Korean businesswoman but again is highly ambivalent in this relationship. I found her ambivalence, self-sabotage and stubbornness irritating, but the story was an interesting read anyway.

Mantras and Misdemeanours - Vanessa Walker

An Australian journalist leaves her job to pursue her Buddhist spiritual journey and spend a year in McLeod Ganj, the Tibetan outpost in India. She finds herself falling in love with a disrobed Tibetan monk, conscious of the cliche as so many Western women are pairing off with Tibetan ex-monks, but in the process discovering a gentle and rewarding love and observing the beauty and contradictions of life there.

The Thirteenth Tale - Diane Setterfield

A tale with perverted characters and gothic tones . A few chapters in I almost gave it away, but persisted and was rewarded with a rich tale and an interesting twist. A young woman is hired to be the biographer of a famous and enigmatic author whose past is shrouded in mistruths and mystery and is slowly drawn in as the story unfolds.

Sugar Babe - Holly Hill

By an Australian woman in Sydney who, after giving up her job at her wealthy boyfriend's request and being subsequently dumped, decided to place an ad for a sugar daddy. Her adventures thereafter certainly don't give any hope for anyone looking for a sugardaddy. Interesting but not memorable.

My Stroke of Insight - Jill Bolte Taylor

Bought this while visiting Pauline in the US, a fascinating book about a brain scientist who recorded her insights while undergoing a major stroke, and her discovery of the bliss she experienced when her left brain haemorrhaged and her right brain became dominant.

The Book of Secrets - Robert J Petro

An engaging story of how a young man achieves success in his life - a teaching fable more interesting than the usual.

The Wishing Year - Noelle Oxenhandler

As soon as I saw it in Borders, I had to buy it. A beautifully written, gently paced book about wishing and its outcome in one year of the author's life, how different people in her life realise their wishes, and her resistance to applying her wishing in a materialistic way - and how she slowly moves past this resistance. It was a nurturing read, each night I looked forward to moving into its gentle rhythm.

Possession - AS Byatt

Read this whilst visiting my sister Pauline in USA. Slow reading, very densely packed literary style and not quite a light holiday read, but great characterisation and a moving story. A modern love story intertwining with a historical one. I found myself relating to Roland and Maud's solitude. Maud's sensitivity to her charismatic ex who crowded her touched a chord in me. Exquisite is a good word one reviewer used.

The Devil Wears Prada - Lauren Weisberger

Another of my necessary mindless light reads. It's been sitting on the shelf for many many months, so it was time. Seeing as the movie has also come & gone. Quite painful to read about the protagonist's trials with a dragon/devil of a boss in a job "a million girls would die for". Interesting peek into the fashion publishing world.

The Stranger House - Reginald Hill

Hugely satisfying. I've only read one other of his books -- Singing the Sadness, starring Joe Sixsmith. I've never read any of his famous Dalziel and Pascoe ones. This doesn't feature any of his usual characters, so has a novel-like flavour. Very mysterious, gothic, atmospheric - the past and present intertwining in complex twists and turns. To paraphrase an Amazon review "Aussie math whiz Samantha Flood has fiery red hair and a fierce determination to learn the truth about her paternal grandmother, an orphan shipped from her native England to Australia under suspicious circumstances. Sober Spaniard Miguel Madero, an ex-priest who experiences ghostly visions is researching English Catholics during the Reformation.. Samantha and Mig, an unlikely duo, are drawn to one another as each discovers secrets simmering beneath the surface of Illthwaite's deceptively serene facade."

In A Sunburned Country - Bill Bryson

Read this months ago, but forgot to record it. I've been listening to a lot of audiobooks by Bill Bryson recently, but this is the only one I read in print. It's one his best - well researched, interesting and quirky bits of history and trivia, and very funny! Here's an amazing thing so close to home and I'd never heard of it ".. southwest Gippsland, home of the world's largest earthworms (up to 12 feet in length)." And I loved his description of John Howard..

If You Could See Me Now - Cecelia Ahern

The whimsy was a bit too light and fluffy for me, although I did enjoy A Place Called Here, another whimsical book by this author. At times I couldn't help feeling like I was reading a children's book. The story idea is interesting - Luke's invisible friend becomes visible to his aunt, 35 yr old Elizabeth who doesn't realise that others can't see this person. A romantic interest develops. A few feel good scenarios, but I couldn't get into them.

Deceived - Sarah Smith with Kate Snell

A harrowing and incredible true story about a young woman who lost 10 years of her life on the run, hiding in poverty and terror from her would-be killers, thinking the man who'd taken her away was a British secret agent protecting her from IRA terrorists. One naturally wonders how the people involved could so gullibly have given away their trust and so much money, but reading this helps you understand the mechanics of brainwashing, fear, and the charisma of a con man.

The Last Chinese Chef - Nicole Mones

I prefer the Australian book cover art (not the one shown here) -it evokes the delicacy and poetry of the food and love written about so beautifully in the book. The book is a captivating journey into food - the layers of meaning, history and literary allusions there are in the Chinese-Chinese food that the protaganist an American food writer begins to fall in love with, so different to the American-Chinese food she has known, and the life she has known.

Deja Vu - Susan Fraser

A debut by an Australian author married to a French man, like in the story. I thought of The Time Traveller's Wife when I first saw this, but it's quite different. The couple have found themselves with their current awareness but in the bodies & circumstances of their past about 14 years back, when they first met, retracing past events with new and painful revelations and with the benefit of hindsight & foresight, possibly with a different outcome. It's quite evocative. I enjoyed it.

What the Dead Know - Laura Lippman

My first Laura Lippman experience, and not disappointed. After fleeing a car accident, a middle-aged woman with no ID is questioned by police and hints that she is the younger of two sisters, Heather and Sunny Bethany, who disappeared decades ago. She knows both too much and not enough about the case, leading Baltimore police on wild goose chases. The narrative tracks back & forth in time, with suspenseful little glimpses into the mystery of what really happened.

Too many to remember...

It's been awhile and the books I've read in the meantime have blurred in memory. A few I remember:
A Certain Chemistry by Mil Millington
This was my light read but it turned out to be a slightly disturbing and funny look at rampant adulterous behaviour and its consequences when the protagonist who's ghostwriting for a TV soapstar begins an uncontrollable affair with her.

Four Souls by Louise Erdrich
Hard to describe - in part beautiful, haunting, slapstick, wise, mystifying. About a native American woman who goes in search of the lumber baron who stripped her land.

Handbags and Gladrags by Maggie Alderson
Another chick lit type and another look behind the scenes of the fashion world. I found it interesting for the latter reason, though the writing and story line was engaging too.

Castle in the Air by Diana Wynne Jones
A children's story by the same author as the book which Hayao Miyazaki based "Howl's Moving Castle" which I so fell in love with for its amazing animation, story and style. Since then I bought the other 14 Hayao Miyazaki movies on DVD too. This book is meant to be a sequel to Howl's Moving Castle, but there is only a very passing reference to Wizard Howl & Sophie towards the end. A nice children's story. Not a patch on Howl though.

Utopian Dreams by Tobias Jones
Explores alternative communities - like the better known Damanhur in Italy, and also a few unknown (to me) ones. I skim read this. Partly because the library return date was overdue, partly because I only found bits interesting.

Drowning Ruth by Christina Schwartz
A tragic atmospheric read about hidden secrets of the past and love.

Two Lipsticks and a Lover - Helena Frith Powell

A book I read months ago and forgot to list. A lightly diverting book exploring the secret of the French woman's style, by a young English woman who moved to South of France with her husband for a lifestyle change. I only remember fragments now - of the French woman's obsession with expensive lingerie, of eating well but lightly, of the importance of dressing well both in and out of the home, etc.

Excursion to Tindari - Andrea Camilleri

My introduction to the Inspector Montalbano series, translated from Italian, set in Sicily. Wry and dark humour, with a funny and interesting protagonist who loves food and is a deep thinker. Entertaining.

A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini

Finally I get around to reading this much talked about book, whilst the author's previous "The Kite Runner" still sits on my shelves unread. I didn't cry the buckets of tears that my friends did, but it's certainly a heart-tuggingly sad story set in Afghanistan's war-torn history. Often, reading such books, I just get angry at the senseless human cost of war and subjugation of women. Ah well.

An Instinct for the Kill - Antonella Gambotto

A series of interviews from this Australian journalist. Uncompromisingly revealing, no punches pulled, riveting interviews of various famous and infamous personalities. She is merciless in shining her spotlight and digging out intimate details - I would be rather nervous of being her interview subject. She is equally ruthless, affectionate, respectful, personal, intimate. A great read.

Picture Perfect - Jodi Picoult

An earlier book by this author. A woman loses her memory and is claimed by her husband, a famous handsome film star whom she doesn't remember, bringing her back to a larger than life existence of luxury. Interesting storyline which drew me to read the book, but not as compelling as Jodi Picoult's later books.

Man of My Dreams - Curtis Sittenfeld

Another great recommendation by Nancy Pearl of Book Lust. I thought it might be just chick lit, but a few pages in I realized it is a very special book with depth, honesty and defintely no glib lines. Such perceptive, honest, unvarnished writing with incredibly sharp observations of human behaviour and nature, in this young girl's journey in love and life. I wished I'd bought the book instead of borrowing it from the library.

The Interpretation of Murder - Jed Rubenfeld

I almost always prefer Australian cover art to the US ones - the latter doesn't do justice to the tone of the book. The Australian cover for this book is more representative of the atmospheric style of the book, set in 1909 when Dr Freud & Dr Jung visit New York. It weaves a murder of a young socialite in with psychological intricacies during a time when psychology was new and viewed with awe and suspicion. It's very well written and I thoroughly enjoyed the literary and philosophical style and the historical detail.

Pomegranate Soup - Marsha Mehran

A heartwarming story of 3 sisters from Iran who make a new life in a provincial Irish town, escaping ghosts of the past and cooking up a magical treat of exotic food. It was a light read, not engrossing but gently nurturing.

Mr Perfect - Linda Howard

An unusual combination of hot romance and murder thriller with equal weight to both -deliciously raunchy in one, and chillingly thrilling in the other. A light but engaging read.

Shantaram - Gregory David Roberts

Overwhelming, enveloping, fascinating, amazing - I never wanted its 900+ pages to end. True story of an Australian ex criminal, jail escapee; who goes on to even more amazing adventures in richly textured India and Bombay's underworld; who falls in love with a woman, with a country and its people. There is so much passion and humanity in this person, I felt that Australia couldn't contain him once he'd experienced India like this. The book's blurb does say he's now living in India. After this immersive mind-blowing book, other books I'm now reading seem insipid...

A Place Called Here - Cecilia Ahern

Something a little different - about a place where lost things end up, and a heroine whose childhood obsession with finding lost things becomes a career and which takes her to the one place she finds her answers. Put like this it doesn't sound that enticing, but once I allowed myself to suspend my idea of "reality" and let this whimsical story pull me in, it was quite magical and in a way a personal journey. Lost things have always bugged me. I could so relate to the heroine's childhood self who overturned her house and refused to rest until she found the missing object.

Hotel Heaven - Matthew Brace

Some fascinating peeks into how the select few are accomodated. While the writing was informative and reasonably entertaining, I found it rather choppy, as if it was written in short interrupted bursts. Only once, running over several pages, did the flow carry me from luxury safari in Africa to luxury desert in South America. Took me months to complete this, whilst I read other books in tandem. Still, worth a read.

Discovering the Body - Mary Howard

Two years on, after the day she discovered the murdered body of her friend, Linda re-explores her memory of what happened and starts to see what she missed the first time round. Deftly and almost sparsely written, it draws one in to final illumination of the mystery and of the relationships.

Special Topics in Calamity Physics - Marisha Pessl

What a trip! In the voice of a hugely well read and brainy teenage prodigy, this story is a thriller, murder mystery and exploration of the special relationship between a teenage girl and her father. It took me a few pages to get into the rather erudite habit of the protaganist in quoting book titles to illustrate various situations. Soon I started to laugh at the droll wit. The relationships are complex and engaging - between father and daughter, between protagonist and her mentor, between protaganist and friends; the end of the book haunted me for days. I started reading it in Melbourne, finished it in Singapore. Couldn't leave it behind.

Suspect - Michael Robotham

On a Michael Robotham library book binge, read The Night Ferry (see earlier entry), Suspect and Lost. My favourite is Suspect, his first one. I enjoy Robotham's characters who are deep and real, and emotionally complex. His first book Suspect features Joe McLoughlin the psychologist who becomes a major suspect in the murder of a woman who turns out to have once been his client, the second book features Detective Inspector Vincent Ruiz whom we met in the first book. The third book features Alisha Barba, Inspector Ruiz's protegee whom we met in the second book. This device creates a sort of continuity between the books without it being a series.

Marley & Me - John Grogan

Such a well written, funny, heartwarming book without a dull moment. I laughed out loud, and cried lots of tears, and still find myself thinking about Marley, that goofy irrepressible dog which the author has described so well, faults and all. This book was a surprise to me; it was more than just a dog story, it was about love, commitment, family, and unconditional love, told in a touching and engaging style that lingers in my heart.

The Night Ferry - Michael Robotham

An easy entertaining read about international human trafficking, with enough emotional content to lift it beyond a run of the mill thriller. For me, a new author - an interview of him in Good Reading Magazine interested me enough to read his books.

Three Dog Night - Peter Goldsworthy

I've read one other book by this author called Honk if you're Jesus, but in this one his style has acquired depth and angst. Martin and wife Lucy,both psychiatrists,who have come back from England after Martin's long absence from Australia, meet Martin's long time friend -a once brilliant surgeon who has changed from the person he knew. A complex relationship triangle develops. It's disturbing, mysterious, in a setting of Aboriginal initiations and dreamtime, a journey back to the desert, obsession, jealousy. I found the writing captivating, with phrases like "Early afternoon now, the air hazy with dust and pollen, air plankton stirred from the bottom of the deep, blue sky."

False Green Promise - Ron Hedleysmith

This detailed and moving book based on a true life story, chronicles the protagonist's journey as a teenager from 1950s England to Australia, as a young hopeful going to work on the land with the ultimate goal of owning his own farm. It alternates between first person and third person narrative, which effectively creates a moving account of the protagonist's physical and emotional journey, his trials, hopes, disappointments, and understandings about the way his life evolves. It's also fascinating for the historical perspective of what Australia was like from an individual's point of view. The evocative narration and the optimism and philosophical depth of the narrator touched me deeply, set within the bleakness of his early Australian experiences and later tragedies. It wasn't a book I could read quickly, like I normally do, it is dense with detail which is often interesting and engaging. There was only one section where I got bogged down a little by the detail, but throughout I felt a strong empathy for the protagonist's travails and his lost dreams. It ends up being incredibly uplifting and redemptive as he reaches some profound realisations about what his life has led up to.

Hotel Babylon - Imogen Edwards-Jones, Anonymous

More inside peeks - this time into the hotel industry. 24 hours at a fictional 5-star hotel, based on true events. Lots of little scandalous bits of gossip, intrigue, and petty bits. I "read" this in audiobook - the narrator was skilled in his characterisations and accents, which made for an enjoyable listen. But I thought Fashion Babylon more interesting. Hotel Babylon seemed more gossipy and frivolous. Still, interesting enough as light reading.