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.