Tag Archives: Book reviews

Book Review: Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

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This was a wonderful book, short to read ( 63 pages as an ebook ), and it certainly packed a punch.

Set in a small town in Ireland in 1985, it centres around Bill Furlong, a coal merchant and family man. It’s Christmas week and one morning delivering coal to the local convent he’s confronted by a young woman locked in the coal room. Faced with a plausible explanation by the nuns he leaves, but is troubled. Confronted by his own past, the state of the woman bothers him. His eyes are also opened by the silent complicity of the town turning a blind eye to the goings on at the Convent.

The writing is sublime and the author does a wonderful job of placing us into the gloom of the economic woes of the time, painting a picture of the small town. We are taken into the everyday of Bill’s life as father of five girls and husband to pragmatic Eileen. But more importantly, the reader is also placed into Bill’s dilemma. What should he do? Should he probe further or trust his instincts?

The conversation with Eileen is illuminating.

“Where does thinking get us?” she said. “All thinking does is bring you down.” She was touching the little pearly buttons on her nightdress, agitated. “If you want to get on in life, there’s things you have to ignore, so you can keep on.”

I loved this one and it has certainly stayed with me. I’m not surprised it was shortlisted for the Booker in 2022.

Do yourself a favour and check this one out.

My Reading Year and Book of the Year for 2023

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Like many other readers, I set myself a challenge on Goodreads. For 2023 my goal was 30 books and I surprised myself by reading 41. My goal for 2022 was 24 and I read 35 so it looks like I need to set myself a higher target for 2024.

Here are the stats:

Pages read: 12555

Average book length: 306

Average rating I gave: 4.1 stars

How many books by women?: 31

How many Australian authors?: 27

What was my book of the year?

I had a number of five star reads, and like picking out a favourite child I found it quite difficult to single just one out. But if I really have to then, my vote goes to The Good Wife of Bath by Karen Brooks which only just pipped all the others.

What’s your favourite book for 2023?

A snapshot of the books I read are below. How many of these have you read too?

Until next year…

Happy New Year everyone.

 Book Review: Love Stories by Trent Dalton

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Let me say at the outset that I do love Trent Dalton’s books and actively seek them out. And let me confess that I originally thought this book was fiction until I sought the help of a lovely librarian who pointed it out in the non-fiction section.

Dalton sat down on a busy Brisbane Street at his folding chair and table with a sign inviting passers-by from all walks of life to tell him their love stories. Now, that’s really setting yourself up for a challenge.

This book is a collection of those tales interspersed with Dalton’s observations of people and his questioning about what love really means. It’s a sentimental journey and includes stories of his own family and his love for them.

There are various stories of love lost and love found. Some were incredibly moving and heartfelt making the reader reflect on love in a whole new way. Some stories were inspiring and those from older people where full of wisdom and learning.

I enjoyed reading the many stories and there were times when I wanted to know more. Dalton with his journalistic hat tried to probe further but some stories could never be elaborated on. People protected their privacy and sanitised their own versions and I don’t blame them. Describing love is as emotional as you can get and some stories just bring on tears whether you like it or not.

It’s a gutsy effort to put the stories into a book and Dalton does it well. There was some filler here and there which I could have done without, but overall I liked this one.

In a world where everything seems doom and gloom, it’s good to be reminded about the power of love and never taking the love of those around you for granted.

Book Review: Yellowface by R. F. Kuang

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Yellowface is a contemporary tale of two young women writers. Athena is Asian American and June is white and they forge a friendship spanning their college years until their late twenties.

Athena seemingly has it all, success and acclaim as a writer, a Netflix deal and a stunning apartment. While June with one unsuccessful published book under her belt, is struggling to gain any interest from her agent for a further book.

June is the only one present when Athena dies and takes the opportunity to do something with Athena’s unpublished and unseen manuscript, a first draft about Chinese labourer’s being recruited to the war effort in Europe. She begins reworking it, rewriting, and getting into a publishable state ostensibly as a tribute to her friend. But when the book is published under her new penname which sounds surprisingly Asian, a battle of conscious and guilt begins. Put that together with the fact that she is attacked in social media platforms and questioned about the authenticity of the writing and you have a manic story with themes of cancel culture, jealousy and the ugliness of twitter trolls.

I began reading this novel just as I was launching my own book, Sugar Creek and it probably wasn’t the right book to be reading at the time. The way Yellowface begins would put anyone off writing and looking to publish a book – ever! Kuang is brutal in her portrayal of the publishing industry and from my experience, she’s probably not too far off. Yet it was so fascinating that I couldn’t put it down.

Kuang admirably tackles themes of plagiarism and cultural appropriation, the mob mentality of negative social media and the effect on mental health. But it’s also a touching story of grief, vulnerability and the strength of friendship.

June is not a particularly likeable character but there were times when I was sympathetic despite being pulled into the dilemma of her theft and at other times so judgmental that even I was surprised. That’s what this book does to you as the reader is constantly asking themselves, what would you do?

Check this one out.

Book Review: Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood

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I always like reading a Charlotte Wood novel and I particularly loved The Natural Way of Things for which she won the Stella Prize.

Stone Yard Devotional is a gentle rhythmic story of one woman’s withdrawal from her family, friends and society to live with a group of nuns in a religious community not far from where she grew up. There is no plot or fast-moving action just a contemplative reflection on the people who live there and exploration of the woman’s own guilt and failings about her parents and her part in bullying a young girl called Helen.

There are three significant events that happen while the woman is there. A mouse plague of biblical proportions arrives, the skeletal remains of a nun which is returned for burial with a woman who turns out to be Helen from her childhood.

The writing is as you’d expect, brilliant and I couldn’t help but be transported along this woman’s journey looking for forgiveness.

‘In the night I am drawn from sleep by a deep, thrumming rattle. I switch on my bedside lamp and see that the fly screen over my closed window is crawling with leaping, climbing mice. When the light goes on a shiver goes through the mass, and their scrambling becomes more frenzied.”

The mouse plague made my skin crawl and the mice grow more grotesque in description, the more uncomfortable the woman becomes with her reflections of guilt. It was a relief when the mouse plague ended for the reader and the woman. And that for me is the mark of great writing.

This book won’t be for everyone but it’s not long and I found myself rivetted even though we never really get answers to the question of why she decided to withdraw herself from everything. We contemplate and surmise it but the answer not handed to us.

It’s a thought-provoking personal story of a woman’s journey to find peace, beautifully told.

Book Review: Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen

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I have to say upfront that I have never been much of a fan of Springsteen’s music. His memoir was a book club pick so I probably would never have been inclined to read it.

His memoir traces his roots, his family and his entire career. I can see why he’s such a great song writer. There is no doubt the man can write and he does it well.

“Here we live in the shadow of the steeple, where the holy rubber meets the road, all crookedly blessed in God’s mercy, in the heart- stopping, pants-dropping, race-riot-creating, oddball-hating, soul-shaking, love-and-fear-making, heartbreaking town of Freehold, New Jersey. “

And he paints a vivid picture of the pain of growing up with a father whose mental health issues were misunderstood in a time where music was more than an outlet and could be a career.

I really enjoyed his memories of growing up, the reality of the draft for Vietnam and the roll of the dice as to who went, who didn’t and who never came back. This was a heart-wrenching life-changing part of the chronicle.

Getting to know Springsteen and his family was carefully orchestrated but you can tell he was a driven man with a single-minded purpose of making his music. Business-like and at times clinical Springsteen showed his leadership skills creating a long-lasting legacy to this day.

The misunderstanding and outcry about some of his songs was very interesting and I enjoyed learning about the social issues which drove him to it.

It’s a very long book and at times, I grew bored as Springsteen outlined his music process and history on a repetitive basis. I began skimming and grew tired of it. But I can’t blame him because it’s an important chronicle.

Am I now a fan? Nah. But I enjoyed being introduced to his music in a whole different way. If you love his music this may be the one for you.

Book Review: The Hummingbird Effect by Kate Mildenhall

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I always enjoy a Kate Mildenhall novel and this one was no exception. This is a story told from the points of view of four different women and four different timelines.

We start with Peggy in 1933 in a Melbourne meat works and follow her journey into the workforce, marriage to a meat worker and automation of work and it’s consequences. Then we skip ahead in time to Hilda in an old people’s home in 2020 when the pandemic begins. The third story is set in 2031 about La who is forced to work in a warehouse dealing with automation and robots where work time is clocked to the mini-second.  Fast forward to 2181 where we learn about Maz and Onyx living in a post- apocalyptic world where their work continues to control them.

Each story delves into the everyday lives of work, the environment and how each woman fights to survive. The stories alternate with each other which for some may be off-putting and confusing. Of course, I love an alternate chapter. Its not until the end that we see the connections. And in between, AI is asked for an analysis of what went wrong with humanity.

I really enjoyed this book, what it had to say, the observations of women’s lives and the world they occupy. I particularly enjoyed Peggy’s story which I think stood out as the strongest for me. I warmed quickly to each of the characters who are well drawn by the skilful Mildenhall.

A mix of historical fiction, fantasy and dystopian, it has a lot to say. Easy to read and thought-provoking, I recommend this one.