Category: Book Reviews

Book Reviews

A review of Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

Despite the handicap noted above, I had the delightful experience of having the book “catch” for me on the plane. I don’t know about other readers, but with me this is almost never a gradual process. One minute I am dutifully reading along, wondering if the book at hand is really worth the effort; then all of a sudden I realize that I am immersed in the novel and would not even think of stopping.

A review of 365 Ways to Do Less, Have More, and Feel Good by Pamela Allardice

There are a myriad of self-help books on the market. There are books to help you lose weight, books to help you think more positively; to feel stronger; have better relationships; dress better; use make up better, and anything else you can think of. 365 Ways to Do less, Have More, and Feel Good by Pamela Allardice covers everything, in easily digestible bites – one for each day of the year. Each day corresponds to the calender, making this a good book for New Years resolutions – just resolve to do one good thing for yourself each day of the year.

Taming Your Kitchen: A Review of Donna Hay’s Off the Shelf: Cooking From the Pantry

You know that feeling. It is 5:30pm, everyone is expecting dinner, and you have nothing to cook, no food in the house, and no ideas. Enter Donna Hay, with her bestselling book Off the Shelf. The book contains a range of meals attractive enough for guests, based entirely on simple and readily available cupboard ingredients. If you follow Hay’s advice, and shopping list, you will be prepared for most food situations, including drop in visitors, special occasions, and fast family meals.

Zero decibels Quiet: Simone Lazaroo’s The Australian Fiance

The Australian Fiance is a deeply moving novel. Not so much because of its story, which has moments of intensity, but is primarily, a simple story of love and loss. Rather, it is the exquisite language, the poetic transcendence affected by Lazaroo’s narrative which draws the reader into the character of the Eurasian woman, submerged with her, until we are also nameless, nationless, simultaneously guilty and innocent, soft and hard, lost and found.