Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty - but to tell the truth I loved it

Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty

I read The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty last year and loved it.  Liane Moriarty has the curious distinction of being a New York Times Bestseller author multiple times but is almost unknown – though that is gradually changing – in Australia.  I really enjoyed The Husband’s Secret, and started Big Little Lies thinking in my cynical way, “oh yeah”, story about school mums set in a fictionalised version of the Northern Beaches in Sydney, a sort of Desperate Housewives at the school gates, but then I just got sucked in, started rooting for the various characters and was engrossed by the whole thing.  I love the fact her books do so well in the US because they are very identifiably set in Sydney and there is a real feel to the setting – but I guess they are universal characters and from a personal perspective I find it so reassuring that if you write great characters and scenes, you can set your book wherever you like and people will want to read it – and that about sums up Liane Moriarty or the two books I’ve read, great stories that you’ll find yourself sneaking off to read another chapter of – always my mark of readability ever since I used to hover round my mother’s  side of the bed, desperate to get my paws on the next chapter of ‘The Famous Five’ that she used to read out aloud to us.

So if you are Australian, go and read, buy, borrow this book – Liane Moriarty deserves to be more well known here – and besides I’ve decided I love her sense of humour and I want her as my new best friend!

Venetia by Georgette Heyer - Bridget Jones without the Angst

Venetia by Georgette Heyer

Where else is a girl going to go when in need of the ultimate relaxation?  Georgette Heyer is the literary equivalent of hot chocolate on a snowy day.  Shut out the social media and harsh electric light of modern day and take yourself to the sofa with a Heyer heroine.  My parents-in-law had a bookcase full of Georgette Heyer’s books in their spare room and a book lying illicitly on the bed, ignoring the shrieks of my children was always my biggest treat.  Georgette Heyer’s Regency rooms, chick lit in flounces, are being republished in new editions by Sourcebooks Casablanca and having borrowed ‘Venetia’ from my local library, I read it with relish before handing it on to my 15 year old, who equally lapped it up.  I do worry about getting her hooked on feisty females who always manage to land the bad, dangerous man with masterful traits who is of course not as bad as he is painted – in Bridget Jones terms, the heroine ends up with a reformed Daniel Cleaver rather than Mark Darcy.  Feminist considerations aside, I do love Georgette Heyer and my spirit always lift when I find someone else who is a fan.

Venetia, is surprise, surprise about one of the afore mentioned feisty female types who is forced to draw upon her own resources and charms when the blackest of black sheeps returns to the neighbourhood in the shape of her next door neighbour, albeit we are talking neighbouring estates rather than two up two downs. 

There used to be a UK advertising slogan, that went along the lines of “if you want a lot of chocolate on your biscuit, join our club” – the biscuit being in this case of course “Club”, and if you want an undemanding enjoyable read, with lots of romance and fun upon the page – then this is an author for you.

Bereft By Chris Womersley - Near Gothic tale of murder and retribution in country NSW

Bereft By Chris Womersley

Just as a footnote, bereft is one of those tricky words that I always have trouble spelling, and this book with its complexity and twisting story deserves the title, aside from the layers of grief and loss that the word conveys.  The book is a haunting, evocative story of a the aftermath of a particularly traumatic murder in 1909.  Twelve year old Sarah Walker was murdered in a tiny remote inland Australian town, ‘the fly-speck town of Flint’, the chief suspect was her older brother, Quinn, who fled the scene upon discovery and to all intents and purposes disappeared off the face of the earth.  Ten years later In the aftermath of the First World War, he returns unannounced to Flint to revenge Sarah and to expose the truth.

He hides in the hills around the town, evading authorities and slipping into his old home to see his dying mother.  In his wanderings he meets Sadie, another twelve year old who has been left adrift by life, and who seems uncannily to channel Sarah’s voice.

This book deservedly did really well for Chris Womersley and it has been a book that has been on my reading radar as a book I wanted to read since it came out so I am really pleased to have read it at last and it was worth the wait. 

Winner ABIA Literary Fiction Book of the Year


Winner of Indie Award for Best Novel


Shortlisted for The Age Book of the Year


Shortlisted for 2011 Miles Franklin Award


Shortlisted for ASL Gold Medal for Literature


Shortlisted for Ned Kelly Award for Fiction


Shortlisted for CWA Gold Dagger


Longlisted for Dublin IMPAC Award


The Best of Friends By Joanna Trollope - Never a good idea to fan old teenage love into life

The Best of Friends By Joanna Trollope

As you can see a bit of a Joanna Trollope binge – and like all binges left me feeling a bit bloated and I wish I hadn’t done that – or in this case hadn’t read Joanna Trollope’s back to back – too much of a good thing.

The Best of Friends is about two couples where a husband and wife from the two different marriages have been best friends since bonding as teenagers.  When Gina’s marriage unravels she turns to her old friend Laurence and his wife Hilary for support – I’m going to put a row of dots here mentally as you can of course guess what happens next – though not necessarily the ending.  I have to say my sympathies are completely with Hilary and I will be treating any longstanding female friend of my husband’s who reappears in emotional need with grave suspicion – but maybe I am just an embittered reader of too many ‘Aga Sagas’.

Much though I do like her ability to conjure up a cocoon of a world I will leave it a bit before hitting another Joanna Trollope.  Like Lisa Genova, she is someone I have heard speak, on a cold, dark, wet (but not stormy) night in the Rye Reading Room in New York State, where she talked about her new novel of the time ‘Brother and Sister’ dealing with adoption and the search for birth parents.  She was another author who was really engaging about both the subject matter and the novel – one of the comments she made that has stayed with me is that usually when she does these talks people want to talk about the book, but when she did this particular tours, there was a large section of the audience who wanted to talk about adoption and finding parents and who would quiz her as if she was an expert, a real demonstration of the emotional dramas swirling for so many people around adoption and birth parentage.

Second Honeymoon By Joanna Trollope - Hush can I hear the patter of large feet on the stairs?

Second Honeymoon By Joanna Trollope

Joanna Trollope is another one of those authors that I pick up with assurance, although I think her first majorly acclaimed novel – the breakthrough book as it were, The Rector’s Wife, was a complete tour de force and perhaps because with that book she almost created a genre of middle class, middle aged women issues (though with men definitely getting a leading role at times) I have never quite found another one of her books or heroines that hits me in the same way as The Rector’s Wife and Anna.

Second Honeymoon looks at the issues of what happens when the last of your children leaves home – we’ll be throwing a large party for sure.  However Edie and her husband Russell find themselves at odds as their last son moves out, Edie feels deprived of purpose and meaning, Russell (more my kind of guy) can’t wait to rekindle time with Edie and a new life.  In the spirit of the times, and economy, it isn’t long before offspring are back with them – now there’s a thought to send chills up the spine.

Joanna Trollope is any easy read for me, but I do find myself getting irritated by characters and wanting to shout at them – perhaps the offspring are too realistically depicted, a worrying thought.

Love Anthony By Lisa Genova - the working of the brain is such a many splendored thing

Love Anthony By Lisa Genova

From brain surgery in my last read, to an exploration of the different ways in which brains are wired in individuals.

I live near a fabulous local bookshop, Pages & Pages in Mosman, run by the aptly named Page family.  Amongst the many book related activities they conduct is a monthly bookclub and a couple of years ago, the American writer Lisa Genova came along to talk to the group about her first book ‘Still Alice’.  She was an inspiring speaker, both on the topic of early onset Alzheimer's,  and on how she effectively self published, self publicised this book before being picked up by a mainstream publisher.   Both ‘Still Alice’, which has just been made into a film and her second book about partial paralysis called ‘Left Neglected’  resonated with me.  I didn’t have quite the same reaction to this book in that I didn't buy into the fictional plot to quite the same extent, but I did enjoy it, and was fascinated by glimpses of the life of an all year dweller on Nantucket.  More than anything, 'Love Anthony' reinforced for me what amazing reservoirs of love are demonstrated by parents of autistic children, or indeed any child who falls outside the expected norms of childhood and society.  Easy to love an engaging toddler who holds out their arms to be picked up and whose face lights up as you walk in the door, harder to love without reserve a child who doesn't respond in the same way.

Lisa Genova has a Ph.D in neuroscience and so writes with an easy familiarity and authority that engages and educates seamlessly, she is someone whose books I would pick up automatically in a bookstore, knowing that it is going to be a worthwhile read.  

Do No Harm - Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery. The brain as you have never thought of it

Do No Harm – Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery

By Henry Marsh

First up, I thought this book was fabulous, thought provoking, moving and all those good blurb words that it thoroughly deserved, but it should also come with a government health warning.  Husband keeled over reading the description of brain surgery in Saturday by Ian McEwan and I would be wary of handing over this book to him as I would anticipate he would hit the ground within seconds of reading the opening sentence, “I often have to cut into the brain and it is something I hate doing.”

Henry Marsh looks back over his career as a Neurosurgeon and in a series of individual chapters highlights the other side of surgery, the part the patient never sees, the discussions, analysis, involvement, detachment and skill of the surgeons.  I found his accounts mesmerising, he is very hard on himself, and includes many examples of where things go wrong and the surgery results in distress or tragedy for the patient, there is far less of the work he and his fellow surgeons do every day to transform lives and restore hope.  Having had quite a lot to do with surgeons over the past couple of years, it certainly gave me some ideas about questions to ask before surgery, but it also made me realise the off load there is for a patient, or patient’s relative, in putting your trust in the doctors – and correspondingly what a burden it is for them in shouldering that trust and faith and expectation of a positive outcome.

I wouldn't say the NHS and changes over the last 20 years in public health in the UK get much of a positive write up from Henry Marsh and anecdotes of his run ins with senior management did make me laugh, albeit it with a note of hysteria in my laughter, and I think this book should be compulsory reading for all NHS management.

Do No Harm is a book that will stay on my shelves and I know I will come back to it in future years for a refresher of Henry Marsh's humanity and honesty.

The Second Time Around by Mary Higgins Clark - down time suspense for calm ladies

The Second Time Around by Mary Higgins Clark

Okay, let’s get it out there, I’m a great Mary Higgins Clark fan.  Her books are a comfort read for me, and there is a soothing calm to reading one of her novels. Regardless of which of her books you are reading there’s always a feisty heroine, generally with Irish blood and auburn hair, who always manages to ferret out the truth, whilst the eligible man she has met along the way, gallops to the rescue at the last moment – and I love them.  The plot cracks along and I am gripped – this is definitely a secret in the bath book – chocolate on the side for evenings when I just want a bit of escapism and not too much brain work.

Not That Kind of Girl - makes me feel my age

Not That Kind of Girl by Lena Dunham

This was a Christmas present from my 20 year old daughter who absolutely loved it.  I was thus very well disposed to Lena Dunham and laughed, laughed quite a lot in fact when reading my way through this collection of essays dealing with the themes of Love & Sex, Body, Friendship, Work and Big Picture, but I didn’t have that immediate sense of connection that I have say when I read Nora Ephron where I go “I want you as my friend, you are speaking directly to me, so in fact we are friends already.” 

I think part of the lack of connect as it were is that Lena Dunham is 28 and actually the person I felt the most empathy with, and curiosity about, was her mother – maybe it’s because I am that stage of dealing with challenging teenagers time of life – though not possibly as challenging as Lena sounds as if she might have been and I mean challenging in the nicest possible, intelligent, pushing the boundaries, imaginative, but frankly exhausting kind of way.

I finished the book with great respect for the way in which Lena Dunham is happy to share any experience that strikes her as worthy – aside from making me laugh some bits made me squirm, but that’s where the bravery of revelation comes in I guess- most of us sweep those kind of things under our mental carpets – she puts it centre stage and whips its clothes off, as a reader I was shouting ‘Bravo’ whilst covering my eyes with my hands and peeping out.

The Tree of Hands by Ruth Rendell - age does not wither these books

The Tree of Hands by Ruth Rendell

I have been reading Ruth Rendell all my adult life – as with many of my favourite authors, I came to her via my mother, to whom I also owe a lifetime allegiance to P.D. James, Lynne Reid Banks and Alison Lurie. 

I read and re-read Ruth Rendell with such pleasure.  She never wastes words but creates a completely believable cast of characters who move in and out of each other’s lives, weaving a plot and story that captivates.

This is probably a third reading for me of ‘The Tree of Hands’, I’d forgotten some of the details of the ending, but the main thrust of the story of the loss and replacement of a child came back to me as soon as I started the novel again, but Ruth Rendell is such a skilful writer that it doesn’t matter how many times you hear the story, you are still carried away by the words.  I think one of the things I admire most about her as a writer is that she creates characters that you feel you have met, I always feel that they are floating at the edge of my subconscious, that woman in the dry cleaners or the doctor I sat next to at a party, and you get sucked into their world so that every action and decision that they take seems completely rational and understandable.

To call ‘The Tree of Hands’ a crime novel is to sell it short, it is more of an exploration of people’s lives, how they get into messes,  how disaster occurs and how people cope with the spreading repercussions.

'When the Night Comes' By Favel Parrett - Evoking the beauty of snow and ice

BOOK NUMBER 2

This was a book from my Christmas present list as I had really enjoyed Favel Parrett's first book 'Past the Shallows'.  ‘When the Night Comes’ came out of an Antarctic Arts Fellowship Favel Parrett was awarded that enabled her to travel down to Antarctica.  The book is a story of a ship, the Danish Antarctic supply vessel, the Nella Dan, the sea and an island, Tasmania.  The rhythmic, lyrical nature of Favel Parrett’s writing eases you into the feel of waves and weather, seagulls slicing through the sky and grey and blue days and the white of snow petrels disappearing as they fly across the ice.  

I was going to write that Favell Parrett is a young Australian author, and then I looked up her age and whilst she is young by my advanced standards, I was surprised that she is actually 36 as her writing has an innocence and freshness that made me think that she was in her twenties.

I really enjoyed the book, which is the story not just of a young Australian girl, Isla and a Danish seaman, Bo, but of life aboard an ocean going working ship and a really stunning evocation of the landscape of Antarctica – now added to my wish list of places to go.  I gave the book to Simon, my husband, as generally anything to do with the sea hits the spot so far as he is concerned, (‘Another Great Day at Sea’ by Geoff Dyer about life on a US aircraft carrier was a standout winner last year on his reading list).   He is isn’t as gripped as I was by ‘When the Night Comes’ and asked somewhat plaintively “When does something happen?”, a fair question given his preference is for a gun, car chase and sex to appear in the first chapter of most books, and the honest answer is not much happens at all – but it does show a book doesn’t have to be packed with action to be beautiful.

The Glass Palace by Amitav Ghosh - a great start to a year of books

2015 BOOK NUMBER 1

One of my husband’s friends gave her this book as a present, but only after he had finished reading it, and given one of my definitions of a good book is that once you pick it up, that’s it, you’re hooked, I decided to add it to my reading list.  The good news is that I’m with Wayde, (the husband)  this one, I loved it and became bad tempered when the needs of daily life interrupted my pursuit of the pages.

‘The Glass Palace’ is set in Burma, India and Malaysia.  It opens with the overthrow of the Burmese monarchy by the British in 1885 and follows the fortunes of Rajkumar, an Indian boy living on his wits and street smarts, who witnesses the downfall of King Thebaw and the looting of the Glass Palace from which the novel takes its name.  The Glass Palace is the story of Rajkumar and his family dynasty that spreads across South East Asia over the following years.

There are so many interweaving themes it is hard to isolate any one; romance, drama, family saga, a story of the power and might of colonialism and the downfall of that concept told from the perspective of those whose countries were seized and annexed.   Patriotism and loyalty and the notion of country and nationality are explored, although Amitav Ghosh doesn’t try to provide glib answers, his characters wrestle their way through life and moral dilemmas.

My mother was a child of the British Empire, born in Colombo, and then evacuated with her mother to South Africa as a toddler, with her younger brother being christened as a week old baby on the quayside before they left, and I found the parts of the book that dealt with Malaysia and the rubber plantations during the 1930s and 1940s particularly intriguing, as it carried echos for me of my grandmother’s stories of life in Ceylon pre and post World War II.  In many ways that was what I found the charm of The Glass Palace, it was like listening to your grandmother’s stories, filled with drama and excitement, with information and anecdote scattered through a narrative populated by a cast of inter-related characters so that like all good family dramatic recounts, you find yourself saying “Hang on, didn’t he marry her sister?”

‘The Glass Palace’ was definitely a good start to the year of books – and one that gave me a different perspective on colonisation and the British Empire.

And in the beginning - Mark Zuckerberg and me

Mark Zuckerberg has declared that 2015 is going to be the Year of Books so far as he is concerned, and as I am always one to jump on a bandwagon, particularly a wagon pulled by a billionaire of our times, this has prompted me to start a reading diary of the year.

The words ‘reading diary’ conjure up Kindergarten homework and the meticulous recording of pages completed, however as the title of this blog suggests I am a book in the bath, chocolate to hand and preferably a glass of wine somewhere nearby, rather than a rigid recorder of pages read.

I am a reader, perhaps more than anything else that defines me.  Our house overflows with books, I brush my teeth whilst reading and if I can get away with it do the washing up with book to side.  My key criteria for anywhere we live is that it has to be walking distance from somewhere I can get a decent coffee and in close proximity to a library and a bookstore – banks, bakers and butchers and the other mundane necessities of life can wait their turn in the pecking order.

My tastes go across most genres from Sci-Fi to RomCom, classic to trash.  The only genre I tend to avoid is horror as I prefer to be able to sleep at night without worrying too much about what is about to emerge from behind the curtain.  If I don’t have a book on the go, I feel twitchy and bereft, however I am a great believer in the charms of re-reading and will happily re-read Agatha Christies with complete recall of plot, just for the sheer pleasure of entering the cosily familiar world of Poirot or Miss Marple.

The majority of my friends are readers too, and we always end up in “What are you reading at the moment?”  discussions and I love discovering new authors – so as I go through the year, please let me know what you are reading, what you are loving, and what you are throwing across the room - or out of the bath.