Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise by Ruth Reichl

This book takes the form of a memoir, sort of. Each chapter tells the story of researching a restaurant and finishes with a review, or a recipe. The author was the restaurant critic for the New York Times and, in this book, spend a significant amount of time disguising herself in order to get a [...]

Eva Moves the Furniture by Margot Livesy

Eva doesn’t, in fact, move the furniture. Her “companions” do. They are sprit guides, ghosts, or something of that nature who are with her from when she is small throughout her life. They appear when she least expects them and sometimes change the course of her life. They appear when she begs them to and [...]

The Three Day Rule by Josie Lloyd and Emlyn Rees

This is typical chick lit – relationships, parenting, family, turmoil, a few dramatic twists. All with an easy-to-read style that doesn’t tax the brain. Its probably slightly better than the average chick lit, but only just. The storyline was good but uber-predictable. I wonder how you write a novel with another person ? The two [...]

Grace Notes by Bernard MacLaverty

I enjoyed the beginning of this book far more than the ending. It begins with a woman going home to her father’s funeral and her story unravels in reverse from there. The interactions with her mother interested me far more than the previous parts of her story, which filled in the gaps, but didn’t seem [...]

Life’s Work : on becoming a mother by Rachel Cusk

The author seems to have a terrible time with motherhood. The book is full of realisations and insights but most of them are negative. She can’t find a way to balance the person she was with the all-consuming motherhood. She despairs of ever being able to leave her child. Of her child sleeping, of anyone [...]

Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson

I got this book from the library, as I do with many of the books I read. Someone had underline passages in this book, in pen, and made occasional comments in the margins. I don’t understand that. I really don’t. I have an attitude of reverence to books. Most of my friends and family would [...]

Midwives by Chris Bohjalian

I really enjoyed this book. Its the story of a midwife who delivers a baby in an entirely unusual way and ends up being charged and going to trial for manslaughter. The story is told by her daughter and there are hints of the after effects of the trial and how their lives end up, [...]

Mr Muo’s Travelling Couch by Dai Sijie

I liked this book but I didn’t love it. Its the story of a psychoanalyst, trained in France, who returns to China. He gets caught up in the plight of his high school love, who is in prison and the judge, who wants an unusual bribe to set her free. In the course of satisfying [...]