David Lurie is a man who has, at fifty two, sorted his life and his sexuality out nicely. He has a tidy job teaching poetry at the Technical University of Cape Town, a once a week visit to a discrete…
Category: Book Reviews
Book Reviews
A Review of Spice Notes by Ian Hemphill
Hemphill knows his stuff. He grew up on a herb and spice farm and has been involved in growing, using, packaging and marketing herbs and spices for most of his life, hence the nickname “Herbie” which has been with him…
A Review of The Self-Publishing Manual by Dan Poynter
A Review of The Self-Publishing Manual by Dan Poynter Overall, this is a very useful guide, and if it errs on the side of Poynter’s considerable enthusiasm and confidence in the face of what is a fairly daunting task for…
A Review of Hindustan Contessa by Jane Watson
Part of the tension in the book is created by the fact that we glimpse all of the action through Tillie’s diary – a kind of mini-summation first person narrative. The different threads of the story are revealed separately in…
A Review of Eat First –You Don’t Know What They’ll Give You
The memoir was written as a book of remembrance for the author’s parents and for her daughter. Its readers will react to it in many ways. First it is a family document. It depicts the immigrant experience, specifically a Jewish…
A Review of Iain Pears’ The Dream of Scipio
Pears is a powerful historian and his research is impeccable. The links between the three stories are handled well, and it is very interesting to watch a similar drama simultaneously playing itself out in very different contexts, albeit on the…
A Review of Wayward Brahmin by Harbhajan Singh Sandhu
Sandhu is a born storyteller with a well-appointed if not always well controlled vocabulary and a sharp tongue. His book tells the story of the Brahmin professor who leaves his native land for the United States and sexual liberation. …
A Review of The Healthy Kitchen by Dr Andrew Weil and Rosie Daley
The nutritional advice provided is sound, and not all at extreme, and the recipes are simple, healthy and very tasty. The Healthy Kitchen is definitely more of a cookbook than a diet book, but if you are inspired by the many tidbits…
A Review of Maya by Jostein Gaarder
It is a pity that Jostein Gaarder isn’t a better writer. His concepts are so good, and his themes so compelling, that, in this hands of a better fiction writer, he could produce excellent work. As it is, his books…
A review of Dorothy Porter’s Other Worlds
Reviewed by Magdalena Ball Other Worlds by Dorothy Porter Picador, Aug 2001 RRP $A$25.00 ISBN: 0330362860 Writing about good poetry is like trying to describe wine: the heavy full mouth astringency leaving a warm sweetness after swallowing. Poetry is as…