The book is worth reading for its philosophical insights and the beauty of its prose alone, but the very fact that a correspondence like this can take place is also meritous and powerful. In these times of fundamentalist ignorance and…
Category: Non fiction reviews
A review of Favourite Food by Jill Dupleix
The book celebrates traditional and classic recipes from around the world: “food that links us to the generations past; that has a sense of time and place; that has a reason to be; that gives us a sense of the…
A Review of Writer’s Guide by Irina Dunn
While the book suffers from trying to cover too much and therefore being a jack of all trades and master of none, there is still plenty of material here for both the beginner and the experienced writer, much of it…
A Review of Belinda Jeffery’s Tried-and-True Recipes
This isn’t really a book to read. The prose is brief, although it is friendly and warm. However, these are recipes which really do seem to work. Aside from a fairly regular use of smoked paprika, which really does add…
A Review of Successful Nonfiction by Dan Poynter
Successful Nonfiction is a much quicker, and simpler read than Poynter’s other writing books. Rather than the detailed and specific instructions that his other writing books contain, Successful Nonfiction is a series of 109 “soundbites,” or inspirational tips for writers, each a couple…
A Review of Huey’s Greatest Hits by Iain Hewitson
This nicely presented book isn’t really about innovation though, or even about impressing your friends, and a quick glance on the top ten most requested recipes at the start of the book will show that its the classics like “Warm…
A Review of The Plot Thickens by Noah Lukeman
The book is so well written–so tight and polished–that it provides a perfect example of its own principles. Lukeman’s prose is so lucid that it manages to render even complex concepts like “transcendency” clear, and provides practical ways of incorporating…
How to Write Damn Good Fiction by James Frey
How to Write Damn Good Fiction is not a writing book for beginners. It doesn’t cover the basics of characterisation, plotting, dialogue, grammar or novel construction. What it does cover is the difference between writing that is mediocre and writing that…
A Review of Platypus by Ann Moyal
Moyal writes clearly and arranges difficult material with crisp authority. This is a perspicacious book. Moyal cares about her subject and has used it to express more than a simple chapter of zoology. She sees the platypus within a very…
A Review of Buongiorno by Norman Kolpas
Buongiorno is full of easy and delicious meals that make for a lovely family brekkie on the weekend, or something special and different for guests who like being entertained in the am (if you have young kids, its a lot more…