books

The day after reading Zululand Gold, we set off to visit Hilltop Camp and Mpila Camp in Hluhluwe / Imfolozi Game Reserve Zululand. This recent read added another dimension to our trip. This sequel to Zululand Snow proved to be equally enjoyable. The three main protagonists undertake an adventure in search of the fabled Kruger millions. Ian Tennant weaves elements …

I was given a copy of Zululand Snow to read and review.  The category YA (Young Adult) can be restrictive, these days brilliant books of mass appeal such as Lord of the Flies, To Kill a Mockingbird and even Catcher in the Rye would fall into this category and below the radar of some adult readers, simply because the central …

How can I review An Equal Music by Vikram Seth?  I can’t use words like ‘lovely’.  I can’t pin it down, it is “a lark ascending”, dropping a silver chain from an outer realm to earth.   It left me not with a song in my heart but with stillness beyond silence.  I believe that joy is seeking out, absorbing and …

I have mixed feelings about the book The Glass Ocean, by Lori Baker. The poetic prose is haunting. The writing feels more like art than fiction. I did not like the first person voice which Lori Baker chose to tell the story. The narrator is the daughter, who tells the history of her parents, a large portion of their story …

Encountering echos of a theme or thought, feels like reinforcement.  Layers being put in place, creating a pattern and a sense of order.  It seems significant when a visible thread links chance encounters.  Once I came across 3 different references to Socrates and his bowl of hemlock in about as many days, if I were superstitious I would probably have …

That feeling of anticipation, like an orange in your hand before the juice is extracted.  That’s rather how I felt on spying a copy of Love May Fail in my goodie bag at a book bloggers event.  My recent introduction to Matthew Quick, through The Silver Linings Playbook, left me wanting more.  I didn’t read Love May Fail immediately, savouring …

I feel a measure of apprehension when given a review copy of a book which falls outside of my usual range of choice.  Keys of Yama by TLB Kruger fell into this category.  However we all know that good things happen when we step outside our comfort zone. At times while reading Keys of Yama, I was reminded of Sophie’s World, …

Remember the Fiat Palio Ad, the one where the owner gets uppity when his car is described as nice?  Well I’ve come to a point where there is a space for nice.  Nice is comforting, and … well, nice.  I’ve just read Odd One Out by Lissa Evans, and it was nice.  Reviews on the cover used words like “hilarious” …

Reading Saving Grace by Jane Green was rather a rollercoaster.  I enjoyed it, then I was annoyed, I was interested in the characters, then I didn’t give a darn,  I liked one aspect of the ending and not another, and so on.   Frequently I had the same feeling as when watching a movie where the good guy enters a house …

Jani Confidential is a fascinating memoir by one of South Africa’s most (in)famous columnists, Jani Allan.  Her story is captivating.  Hers is a tragedy of near Shakespearian proportion, a tale of dazzling potential wasted and lost for decades.  It is a deftly drawn portrait of South Africa in the 1980’s.  It tells of wealth, power and betrayal.  These elements make it a …