If you didn’t think that kindergarten politics could be life or death, then you’ve clearly never visited the Pirriwee primary school. This year, the annual trivia fundraiser night ends with ambulances and an accident. Or was it? As an investigation ensues, it becomes apparent that the children at Pirriwee aren’t the only ones not telling…
Category: 8
Everything I Know About Love
In a book that reads like a well-written diary, Alderton lets the reader into the raw, brilliant and broken corners of her life. Beginning in her teens and travelling through to her thirties, Alderton covers love, grief, self-discovery, the perils of MSN Messenger, realities of online dating, and the love of romantic partners and lifelong…
A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal
MI6, counterintelligence during the Cold War, and double agents – all wrapped up in the unbelievable account of Kim Philby’s career. Through his friends– fellow MI6 agent Nicholas Elliot and head of CIA counterintelligence James Jesus Angleton – Philby was able to derail an unbelievable amount of Anglo-American spy operations. Carried through department inquiries and moments of…
The No-Show
A few years ago, I read this endearing, captivating novel called The Flatshare, which I absolutely devoured in the way “easy reading” books allow. When I saw its author, Beth O’Leary, had a new book out, I immediately added it to my list. It’s Valentine’s Day and three women all get stood up. While to some…
Shuggie Bain
I’ll be honest, my main interest in this book came when it won the 2020 Booker Prize and I was curious if it would live up to the hype. Suffice it to say, it did. In an oversimplification, this is a book about longing: longing to be accepted, longing for bigger and better, longing for normalcy, longing for…
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous
“But that act (a son teaching his mother) reversed our hierarchies, and with it our identities, which, in this country, were already tenuous and tethered.” I love the moment where a certain line makes you catch your breath and pause, taking the time to soak in the sentence. Ocean Vuong provides that experience consistently throughout On Earth We’re…
The Thursday Murder Club
I’ve come to realize that I’m too competitive for my own good, and definitely too competitive to read mystery novels. I spend every other page trying to figure out the plot before it’s revealed and find myself distracted while reading because of it. I’m both delighted and disappointed to admit that every time I felt confident…
The Silent Patient
As a kid, I requested both volumes of Sherlock Holmes before I was 11 and read all 99 Nancy Drew books before high school. I consumed mystery novels as though they were my bread and butter. At some point bread and butter became bland and I forgot about my love of suspenseful stories. While not technically a mystery…