Book

Daniel by Henning Mankell, Harvill/Secker, $32.95 Hans Bengler is a 19th century loser, running away from his purposeless, hopeless life in Sweden. Deep in the Kalahari Desert he finds a young boy who’s survived the massacre of his entire family. With the kindest of intentions he adopts the child, re-names him Daniel, and takes him […]

The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul by Deborah Rodriguez, Bantam Australia, $32.95 Sunny is a Southern gal who’s made herself a home, and a buzzing small business, in the middle of a war zone. Her coffee shop in Kabul, Afghanistan, is a place where men check their weapons at the door, and women support each […]

Vanity Fairby William Makepeace Thackeray With tongue-in-chic and cheeky chutzpuh, Becky Sharp was the Madonna of her day, flaunting tradition and challenging hypocritical sexual mores. And what a survivor. After the nuclear holocaust, all that will be left are a couple of cockroaches and Becky. Okay, she had a few minor faults – snobbery and […]

Emma by Jane Austen I adore Emma because it reminds me of what we should expect from men when it comes to courtship; the gallantry of Mr Weston, the generosity of Frank Churchill, the chivalry and honesty of Mr Knightley and the perseverance of Mr Martin. We should only accept hand-written and delivered invitations (not […]

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll Some of the world’s greatest books were written for children and Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland takes, for me, pride of place in that pantheon. Carroll’s surreal fictional world maybe full of games and riddles and bizarre characters but it is Alice herself with whom we engage – the […]

The Golden Prince by Rebecca Dean, HarperCollins, $32.99 Buttercup blond, blue-eyed 16-year-old Edward VIII – heir to the British throne and love-thwarted subject of novel, The Golden Prince – bears an uncanny physical resemblance to another young prince and heir to the British throne, about to wed in London this Easter. But this is where […]

Separate Beds by Elizabeth Buchan, Penguin UK, $24.95 British author Elizabeth Buchan writes chick-lit for the middle-aged woman which may sound a little grumpy-old-womanish but is actually surprisingly thought-provoking and hugely enjoyable. Separate Beds centres on Annie Nicholson, a 49-year-old health service manager, who hasn’t slept in the same bed as her media exec hubby […]

The Leopard by Jo Nesbo, Harvill Secker, $32.95 Since Swedish author Stieg Larsson and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo smashed the bestseller lists, a new literary sub-genre has developed – “Scandicrime” – with a buzz all of its own. Scandicrime is noir-ish, slightly subversive packed with antiheroes and set in the frozen snow-deadened landscapes […]

Angela Carter’s Book of Wayward Girls & Wicked Women edited by Angela Carter, Virago, $35 A revolutionary and pioneering collection of short stories about mad and bad women, written by women writers, including Angela Carter, this anthology was first published in 1986, just six years before Carter’s premature death at 51. In the preface she […]

Frank: The Making of a Legend by James Kaplan, Sphere, $35 James Kaplan’s 700-page biography of the first 39-years-old of Frank “The Voice” Sinatra (1915 until 1954), packs a colourful, sometimes crude and blue, but entertaining punch, littered with fascinating and dogged detail. Dubbed “scarface” by fellow New Jersey street kids because of facial disfigurements […]