Monthly Archives: July 2012

What book made you a ‘reader’?

Posted by Kate W in Stuff and Nonsense and tagged with , , ,

I was recently asked what’s my favourite book. A really, really hard question. I don’t have one favourite – I have lots that I like for different reasons. A cop-out? Perhaps. So I rephrased the ‘favourite’ question for the person who asked me and said “I may not be able to tell you my single favourite book but I can tell you the book that made me a ‘reader’.”

Yes, there is one book that dominates my early reading memories. It’s a book that was read aloud to me and a book that I then read alone. It’s the first book I was caught reading under the covers with a torch. And without question, it’s the book that made me love, love, love reading.

That book is Milly-Molly-Mandy Stories by Joyce Lankester Brisley. Continue reading →

‘Domestic Violets’ by Matthew Norman

Posted by Kate W in Fiction and tagged with , , ,

Warning: don’t read this book after you’ve had abdominal surgery. I laughed so much that I feared I’d undo my surgeon’s handiwork.

My first thought when I began reading Matthew Norman’s debut novel, Domestic Violets, was ‘surely he’s not an American’ – the style of humour was altogether too cutting, too sarcastic and too dry – much more like what I’d expect from an Australian or British author. Needless to say, I liked it. Very much (and yes, Norman is American). Continue reading →

Top Ten Tuesday – Setting the Scene

Posted by Kate W in Fiction and tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature created and hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Each week a new ‘top ten’ challenge is posted – anyone can join in. This week’s topic is ‘Top Ten Most Vivid Worlds/Settings In Books’. It made me really think about books that have been memorable because of the setting. Here’s my ecclectic list: Continue reading →

‘One Fifth Avenue’ by Candace Bushnell

Posted by Kate W in Fiction and tagged with , , , ,

Remember when chick-lit became a ‘thing’? You’d walk into a bookstore and the new release stand would be a sea of hot pink book covers featuring stylised handbags or stilettos. I read more than my fair share in those first, heady days of Jennifer Weiner, Marion Keyes and a million more. In fact, so similar were all the covers, titles and storylines that on more than one occasion I would be a few chapters into a book before I realised that I had in fact already read it.

Since my nineties chick-lit binge, I’ve become far more discerning about what chick-lit I read. I tend to stick to the authors that I know, who also happen to be the authors that have stuck around. Candace Bushnell is one of them.

When we all fell in love with Sex and the City, we also raced out and bought the book. The book is very, very different from the television series – I enjoyed it as a stand alone read and put SJP et al out of my mind. Bushnell joined my list of chick-lit authors to read. Continue reading →

‘In One Person’ by John Irving

Posted by Kate W in Fiction and tagged with , , ,

The problem with really, really loving a particular author is that you start each new book of theirs with high expectations – you assume you’ll love it. And then you don’t and the experience is in fact worse than just reading an average book by any other author.

So you can see where this is heading… I love John Irving. There’s been some wobbly moments – The Fourth Hand and Until I Find You didn’t do much for me but all was redeemed with Last Night in Twisted River, a story that left me reeling. Alas, I’ve hit another Irving rough patch.

Irving’s latest release, In One Person, is the story of Billy Abbott and his life as a ‘sexual suspect’. Billy is bi-sexual and over the course of 450 pages, we meet the characters and witness the events that shape him from childhood to old age. Continue reading →

Top Ten Tuesday – ‘Lad Lit’ for readers who love Nick Hornby

Posted by Kate W in Fiction and tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

lad-lit dick-lit

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature created and hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Each week a new ‘top ten’ challenge is posted – anyone can join in. This week’s topic is a ‘read alike’ – in other words, pick a book and then suggest ten similar books that readers might also enjoy.

The book I have selected is Nick Hornby’s About a Boy. Hornby is perhaps the godfather of ‘lad lit’ (also known as ‘dick-lit’) – whilst I don’t ever imagine my husband would be tempted by my bookshelf full of Candace Bushnell, Sophie Kinsella and Jennifer Weiner, I often stray into ‘lad lit’ – basically they’re still stories about relationships (from a male perspective) and they’re usually very funny. So the same as chick-lit, without the hot pink cover!

If you haven’t read any Nick Hornby, start with that (and no, seeing the movie of About a Boy starring Hugh Grant doesn’t count). Here are ten more lad-lit titles to check out: Continue reading →

‘The Boy Under the Table’ by Nicole Trope

Posted by Kate W in Fiction and tagged with , , ,

“People never really got beyond the concept of an eye for an eye. Especially when someone took your child.”

This quote is toward the end of Nicole Trope’s recently released The Boy Under the Table. It’s true, isn’t it?

The story begins with Tina, a young woman escaping her past on the streets of Kings Cross. On a cold night in the middle of winter she breaks all her own rules when she agrees to go home with a customer. What she finds in his house will change her life forever. Meanwhile, in rural New South Wales, Sarah and Doug are trapped in limbo, struggling to come to terms with the ‘loss’ of their son, Lockie, abducted at the Sydney Easter Show.

I wasn’t sure about reading this book. Since having my own children, I find topics such as child abduction particularly hard to stomach. Indeed, I read much of The Boy Under the Table with a ball of soggy tissues in my hand. Continue reading →

Sample sale

Posted by Kate W in Stuff and Nonsense

One of the features I love about my Kindle (but fail to utilise as often as I should) is the ‘sample’. Yes, Amazon will give you a chapter or two for free.

I’ve got dozens of samples sitting on my Kindle and I think it’s decision time – I need to put in some hard yards reading samples and then either commit or ditch.

Some Kindle users I know ALWAYS get the sample before buying the book. I should do this too. I suspect that I don’t simply because once I start a book, I always finish it (the exceptions I could count on one hand).

I’ll fess up – I have 46 samples – books in the transit lounge of my life. I’m going to start reading and will report back on how many I went on to buy and how many I trashed. While I’m at, I’ll tally up the money I would have spent ‘buying before trying’.

Top Ten Tuesday – Australian Modern Literature

Posted by Kate W in Fiction and tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature created and hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Each week a new ‘top ten’ challenge is posted – anyone can join in. This week’s topic is a ‘freebie‘ – book bloggers can go crazy on their pet topic.

I tossed around a few ideas for a theme – I love all things Art Deco and 1920s and I’m also always drawn to stories set in New York or New England – strong possibilities for my top ten. However, from my observation, most of the bloggers participating in Top Ten Tuesday live in the US so I figured this week’s ‘freebie’ was the perfect opportunity to wave the flag for some talented Australian authors (with a particular focus on books that have been published in recent years). Here’s my top ten: Continue reading →