The Fireman by Joe Hill is a brick of a book (in size) about a post apocalyptic near future where the world and its occupants are literally under fire by a disease called Dragonscale. This contagion causes people to get scale-like markings on their bodies and fiery symptoms like literally smoking before dying by self combustion. However, some sufferers find a way of managing their fiery symptoms and even controlling them. Continue reading
How does Kristin Hannah do it? I start one of her books and I think “this is okay”, then I get a few chapters in and I’m hooked. It happens every time! Fly Away is the third book I’ve read by Kristin Hannah and I got through it in a day. It just totally drew me in and I had to keep on reading. And like The Nightingale and The Great Alone, this book also made me teary. Kristin Hannah just knows how to play on all my emotions. Continue reading
Five Years From Now by Paige Toon was a very moving read. When I picked this up I thought the name Paige Toon seemed familiar but I’ve never read any of her books before. Then I realised her very first book Lucy in the Sky was just about to be released as I was leaving my first publishing job at Simon & Schuster Australia to head over to the UK to live and work.
It Ends With Us is my first Colleen Hoover book and it won’t be my last. I picked this one up based on all the reader love out there for it and overall it was a fast, fantastic read. It tells the story of Lily who meets handsome neurosurgeon Ryle just after the death of her father.
When Life Gives You Lululemons by Lauren Weisberger is an entertaining, easy to digest read. It’s the third book by Weisberger to feature the character Emily Charlton (you might remember her as Miranda Priestley’s prickly first assistant from The Devil Wears Prada). In this book Emily finds herself in the upscale suburb of Greenwich where the mums throw sex toy parties, get designer vaginas after giving birth and run around in Lululemon activewear.
Emily is in Greenwich visiting an old friend, Miriam, who used to be a high-flying New York lawyer but is now a stay-at-home-mum of three and trying to navigate the outrageous waters of Greenwich. Continue reading
Why did I wait so long to read this wonderful book? I had seen The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah being raved about for years and for some reason I never read it. It was only when I visited my parents’ place and saw this book on their shelf that I finally decided to give it a go. Even then it sat in my to be read pile for ages, alone and unloved, until I picked it up recently and started reading. And then I couldn’t stop until I had read it all. Continue reading
Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan is a book I wanted to read for a long time but never quite got around to reading. Then I heard about the movie coming out in a few months based on the book–and that was all the encouragement I needed to finally pick this up. I’m so glad that I did! It was FUN from start to finish and so enjoyable to read.
Like the title suggests, it’s a book about fabulously wealthy Asians. Most of the action takes place in Singapore and follows the lives of three very wealthy, interconnected families–the Youngs, the Shangs and the T’Siens. Into their lives comes Rachel Chu, a New York college professor who has no idea that her boyfriend of two years, Nick Young, is seriously wealthy and connected back home. Plus he is one of Asia’s most eligible bachelors and has a meddlesome mother who will do anything to stop Rachel and Nick becoming a permanent item. Nick invites Rachel to Singapore for the wedding of his best friend (in what will be the wedding of the year) and Rachel has no idea what she’s about to walk into. Continue reading
Circe by Madeline Miller was a book that I gobbled up in a few days. I tried to pace myself but I just couldn’t. The magnificent writing, the story, the characters and settings all just flowed so beautifully and made this such a pleasant reading experience.
Without giving too much away, Circe tells the story of the nymph Circe (fancy that), daughter to the sun god, Helios. She is one of his many children and is considered ugly and weak-voiced compared to all the other gods. She is laughed at and ignored by her family, until the day she discovers an ability to transform gods and people using herb lore and witchcraft.
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