Tag Archives: book review

https://www.instagram.com/p/BTvqlUeAeae/?taken-by=sulaskimmingstones How strange that I closed the last page of The Deathly Hallows, the final Harry Potter book to see posts on Facebook and Twitter celebrating 20 years of Harry Potter.  Just over 20 years ago my older children wanted to enter the world of Harry Potter.  I was not sure if I should endorse this as many Christian friends …

At the Kids Emporium Bloggers breakfast, Pamela Power was one of the speakers.  I loved her humour and frank manner.  After jumping a few technological mental block hurdles I bought her e-book MS Conception (also available in paper) on Takealot. Modern motherhood is cloaked in misconceptions.  Social media generally projects motherhood in rose tinted hues.  Most mothers present the painted face of …

The Zone of Interest is a beautifully written, terrible book. On Goodreads I gave it 5 stars (and I’m mean with those stars) but I cannot recommend that anyone near or dear read it. At a book lovers gathering I was given the book on condition that I read it. It took over a year to meet the challenge, after …

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 …

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 …