Hewett observes and writes about those things which others tend to ignore, and allows the close, and very quiet perspective he takes to reveal its own meaning, without judgement or fanfare. This is an easy to read, and tenderly chosen…
Category: Book Reviews
Book Reviews
A review of Everyman’s Rules for Scientific Living by Carrie Tiffany
The novel is set amidst the heat, drought and plagues of Wycheproof, a real country Victorian town around 290 miles north west of Melbourne. Robert and Jean work together to apply Robert’s stringent and certain rules for scientific living to…
A review of Murder in Memoriam by Didier Daeninckx
Murder in Memoriam is a police procedural that is entertaining, suspenseful and thought-provoking. There is a clandestine feel to much of the story, a sense that there are espionage agencies working in the shadows, and it is similar to Michael…
A review of 100 Bullets: First Shot, Last Call by Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso
Brian Azzarello’s story is top-notch and is written with a street dialogue that even Elmore Leonard might envy. Eduardo Risso’s artwork is evocative and vivid. He can paint a bleak cityscape of housing projects and basketball courts, move from the…
A review of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
The latest Harry Potter book is over 650 pages but it gets interesting right from the first page, and flies by. You’ll be sad when it’s finished, not only because sad things happen, but because you won’t want to leave…
A review of Last Night by James Salter
James Salter is an extraordinary writer and I envy those who are coming to him for the first time. His stories could be said to “explore character”, but that would be too pat and too simple; rather, they reveal soul.…
A review of This Blinding Absence of Light by Tahar Ben Jelloun
Jelloun’s prose is vivid and alive, whether he is describing the stench of death (“Death has a smell. A mixture of brackish water, vinegar, and pus. It’s sharp, harsh.”) or the shock of seeing your own face in a mirror…
A review of The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana
The relationship between the opening of the novel and the ending of it are interwoven powerfully. The theme of what makes a person unique, the relationship between human identity, language, the cultural versus the personal memory, and even the relationship…
A review of Tracings by Carolyn Howard-Johnson
These are ordinary days, and ordinary recollections, make extraordinary by the power of Howard-Johnson’s observation and the tension between sensation and hindsight. Peppered with imagery that is heady and evocative, this is poetry both historical and psychological. Reviewed by Magdalena…
A review of River Cafe Two Easy by Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers
When recipes depend so heavily on the quality of one or two main ingredients, the ingredient must be perfect. Anything less than 70% chocolate (forget about compounds) will render your Chocolate vanilla truffles decidedly inedible, as will using lentils which…