I recently listened to the audiobook of Liane Moriarty’s Big Little Lies, and it was wonderful. First, I love Australian accents, and I could happily listen to the narrator all day. Second, the book is just so dang well written . The relationships between all the characters is just wonderfully depicted, and I love how distinct the narrators’ three voices are. After finishing this, I had to immediately go out and get more of Moriarty’s books.
After the girl is gone
One the first page of the first chapter a girl goes missing, barely fifteen and somebody’s daughter. And pretty. Asian with round, blue eyes. We meet the family at the breakfast table where she is, uncharacteristically, missing. The father is already halfway to work. And something about the chapter made me think; why is it that we are so obsessed with the gone girl. Why do we trace her life in those left behind?
A very satisfying sequel to a book I really love
Disclaimer! St. Martin’s Press gave me an ARC of this through NetGalley in return for a fair and honest review. Ten years have passed since the events of Garden Spells. Claire Waverly has put her catering business on hold and branched out with boiled candy. The lemon verbena can soothe any throat or heartache, the rose candies can make you recall lost love and the lavender makes you calm and happy. After a feature article in a high-profile magazine made demand for her candy explode, […]
In Our Family Portrait, We Look Pretty Happy
First things first: The Lives of Others is a very good book. It is skilfully written, the imagery is vivid and the portrayals are, as far as I can tell from my limited experience with Indian culture, realistic and poignant. It is also, at times, an infuriating and frustrating read. Make no mistake: this is not a story about a quirky but essentially kind-hearted Indian Addams Family. If you’re looking for something to cheer you up, look elsewhere. The Lives of Others focuses on the […]
Ben Joe: Doesn’t Know Whether to Scratch His Watch or Wind His Butt
This is the first book that I have read by Anne Tyler: I picked it up on a whim having never heard of her because I came across many of her novels at a book sale and reviews of her work seemed good. I was not terribly impressed by this one, but after finding out this was her first novel, and she wrote it at 22 I may give her another whirl. Ben Joe is the only son in a house filled with women: mom, […]
Hamlet. But with dogs. And not as good.
I just now realized that I never reviewed this book that I finished at the beginning of September so this review is under some serious mental cobwebs. Suffice it to say if I had been fired up about the novel, I would have reviewed it at the time. Edgar, born mute, lives with his family on their farm breeding and raising dogs. It’s not an easy life, but it is a good one. When his estranged uncle returns and his father dies tragically, Edgar’s world […]