Books

  I believe it was those pop sages ABBA who once intoned in one of their marvellously-attractive songs that “Love isn’t Easy (But It Sure is Hard Enough)”. A perfect mix of early ’70s folk-pop, Swedish harmonies and life truisms doesn’t feature anywhere in The Book Ninja by Ali Berg Continue Reading

  I love reading books. Losing myself in books, long and short, big and small, has been a passion of time since I can remember but even I have to admit it’s well near impossible to read everything (not that I don’t give it a red hot go!). Riding to Continue Reading

  Jenny Ebert is not even remotely comfortable in her own skin. That much is apparent from the get-go in The Lonely Hearts Cinema Club, the latest book from David M. Barnett (Calling Major Tom) in which the film nerd who won’t accept she’s a film nerd – she loves Continue Reading

  When the cover of a book proclaims it’s Romeo & Juliet meets Mad Max meets X-Men with a little bit of Blade Runner cheering from the headlines” it’s either got a healthy sense of what makes it work so well or its hopelessly derivative and is hoping that bringing Continue Reading

  The Librairie Mollat is an independent bookstore in Bordeaux, France that has had a great deal of fun, so notes Laughing Squid, matching customers and books together in fantastically creative ways. So seamless and imaginative are their efforts that it looks as if book and customer belong perfectly together, Continue Reading

  One of the first things that strikes you within a few words of diving into the wonders of The Hoarder is how exquisitely well Jess Kidd writes. She is that rare talent who can spin the most lusciously poetic of phrases and yet never once lose the kind of Continue Reading

(cover image courtesy Harper Collins)  One of life’s great delights is having your expectations of something completely and utterly challenged and subverted, in the best possible way. Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal is such the latest example of assumptions being made, in this case based on Continue Reading

  Time brings both blessings and curses for mortal creatures such as ourselves. While the ticking of the clock brings a host of wonderful friendships, precious family moments and memories and experiences we often treasure for a lifetime, it can also bring a sizable amount of loss, regret and grief. Continue Reading

  Unfettered modern capitalism, whatever your view of it, and for most people, billionaires and power brokers aside, it’s not a favourable one, is having quite the heyday of late. Governments regularly spruik its multitudinous benefits, throwing around words like “efficiency” and “market-driven” like their confetti at a neverending, privately-funded Continue Reading