Aveyard, Victoria (2017) King's Cage. Harper. In the third instalment of Aveyard's Red Queen series we find our heroine Mare Barrow a prisoner, without her lightening, living at the mercy of a king she once loved. As Mare bears the weight of the Silent Stone the rebellion continues, blood vs blood, ability vs ability, allegiances tested on every… Continue reading March Picks
Tag: Good reads
February Picks
Coben, Harlan (2016) Home. Dutton. Ten years after a high profile kidnapping of two six year old boys, one boy returns home. Sports Attorney, Myron Bolitar, is called in when his friend Win spots one of the boys in London. Win is related to the mother of one of the boys so he has a… Continue reading February Picks
January Picks
Cranston, Bryan (2016) A life in parts. Scribner. In this engaging memoir Bryan Cranston explores the many parts he has played in his life - from abandoned son, paperboy, farmhand, dockhand, jobbing actor to gifted storyteller and much lauded "star". He has applied life's learnings to shaping his craft and building a career. In the account of his most memorable role,… Continue reading January Picks
Best Picks 2015
As an eclectic reader I read whatever takes my fancy. The following are my personal top 10 picks of 2015: 1. Wilder, Laura Ingalls (2014) Pioneer Girl: The annotated autobiography. South Dakota Historical Society Press. Pioneer Girl was the foundation for Wilder’s fictional world. This volume inclusive of primary sources provides new insights into Wilder’s life and times. Remarkable. March Picks 2015. 2. Tyler, Anne… Continue reading Best Picks 2015
November Picks
Xinran (2015) Buy me the Sky: The remarkable truth of China's one-child generation. Rider. The first generation of Chinese children raised under China's one-child policy has reached adulthood. In her interviews with young people Xinran found a generation adrift. Her observations paint a poignant portrait of one-and-onlies adjusting to independence and loneliness, cultural and political shift, western influence, and the dynamics of… Continue reading November Picks
September-October Picks
De Goldi, Kate (2015) From the Cutting Room of Barney Kettle. Longacre. 12-year-old Barney Kettle was a 'megalomaniac' when it came to filmmaking. Global fame was his ultimate goal. He had already made four 15-minute films, with his sister Ren, when one summer holidays he began a documentary of life in High Street, the street where he lived. The story is… Continue reading September-October Picks
August Picks
Barrows, Annie (2015) The Truth According to Us. Doubleday. Macedonia's sesquincentennial is to be celebrated with the publication of the town's history. In a hot summer in 1938 disinherited debutant, Miss Layla Beck, is given the task of recording the seemingly unremarkable story of the West Virginian town. Then Layla mets the eccentric and seductive Romeyns whose lives are bound up… Continue reading August Picks
July Picks
Fuller, Alexandra (2015) Leaving Before the Rains Come. Penguin. In this latest instalment of Alexandra Fuller's memoir she looks back to her African youth to understand the disintegration of her marriage. Alexandra recalls her courtship in Zambia as she struggles to come to terms with her life in Wyoming, and the pragmatism of her husband. She hankers for the fatalistic and… Continue reading July Picks
June Picks
Clough, Tina (2015) Running towards danger. Vanguard Press. Karen witnesses the murder of her flatmate and within days she becomes a target. To evade the killer she criss-crosses New Zealand, changes her name and appearance, and settles in a small Hawkes Bay community. But, when she becomes the reluctant hero in a river rescue her… Continue reading June Picks
May Picks
De Los Santos, Marisa (2015) The Precious One. William Morrow. Seventeen years after being "ditched" by her father Taisy Cleary is summoned to her father's home. In all this time Taisy has seen Wilson and his new family, wife Caro and their daughter Willow, once. Taisy is forced to deal with the memories and fallout from their… Continue reading May Picks
7:30 Bookclub 