On a desolate island miles from civilization, a man finds himself faced with an impossible choice. The man is Tom, a stoic, principled veteran, recently returned to Australia after serving in World War I. He’s damaged goods, carrying a heavy load of guilt for being one of the few to actually make it home from the war, alive and physically unscathed. He finds a job that speaks to his solitary tendencies as a lighthouse keeper on Janus Rock, an isolated island about half a day’s […]
To sleep, perchance to dream
Night Beach (4.5 stars) is about a one very simple thing. A girl surfer-slash-artist has a crush on a boy surfer who sees her — sometimes. But it’s also about a few other very complicated, possibly unreal things, which make this book overall very hard to define. Abbie likes Kane; this much is clear. In fact, she’s obsessed with him, in that painfully teenage way that grovels for the tiniest morsel of acknowledgement and acceptance. This kid, Kane, is a few years older, stays in […]
The Not So Honorable Phryne Fisher
Reviews #12 through 16. Flying Too High (#2), Murder on the Ballarat Train (#3), Death at Victoria Dock (#4), The Green Mill Murder (#5), and Blood and Circuses (#6). The link for this post is for a collection of the first three stories featuring Miss Fisher. The first one (Cocaine Blues) I read last year, so it’s not included in this review. The official blurb for this book is thus: Meet Phryne Fisher, the 1920s’ most elegant and irrepressible sleuth, in her first three adventures […]
This book almost turned me into a rabid frothmonster.
I’m not usually one for books about mommies and gossip and the plight of the suburban housewife, but I am highly susceptible to books everyone seems to love. So I gave in (like I always do). Actually, let’s not even play around and call it “giving in.” I’m a curious bastard. If you get me curious, I’m gonna follow through. And I’m so glad I was curious about this book, because I really ended up loving it. Here is where I would normally give you […]