My Best Books for 2024

I did away with ‘top tens’ a few years ago, and instead I finish the reading year with a recap of the books that are still speaking to me (less about four and five-star ratings, more about what has stuck). Continue reading →

Best Book Covers of 2024

I’ve started work on the 2024 List of Lists and in doing so, I came across a list by Print Mag – the 2024 100 Best Book Covers.

Don’t judge, but I totally judge a book by its cover! After all, the cover is a book’s ‘elevator pitch’, right? Continue reading →

Things That Are Making Me Happy This Week

01. Edinburgh Book Festival (beamed all the way to me in Melbourne) – Colm Tóibín, interviewed by Caoilinn Hughes. I love how much Colm laughed at Caoilinn’s questions. He was a great sport, especially when she opened with describing him as “…Costco’s hottest product – from the aisle between the shovels and the underwear… it’s either a very, very good book or a very, very bad book.” She then continued with a five-minute rundown of his stellar career, and when she got to the end, Colm dead-panned, “Thanks for that lovely introduction Caoilinn, although you left out quite a lot…”
Continue reading →

The Alternatives by Caoilinn Hughes

This book. This magnificent book.

The Alternatives by Caoilinn Hughes is the story of the Flattery sisters, who were plunged prematurely into adulthood when their parents died in tragic circumstances.

Various relatives moved in and out, looking after them in shifts. This angered and confused the girls, who resisted management, who preferred unsupervised sadness. Continue reading →

Things That Are Making Me Happy This Week

01. Dinner at Hazel. Hard to pick a highlight because everything was delicious, but… the bite-sized crab hash (above); the trout with salted cucumber and horseradish; the beef with charred carrots; and the radicchio, orange and ricotta salad… would eat all of those things again in a heartbeat. Continue reading →