Saturday share....

Its the weekend and I was able to relax and read the Saturday paper after lunch, catching up on the weeks news and checking out the weekend book reviews...these two caught my eye and I thought I'd share them here. Both were reviewed favourably and I shall be asking for them at my library...

Lovesong by Alex Miller

"Alex Miller writes with intelligence, finesse and is strong on character. His latest novel Lovesong, is essentially a love story. One that is filtered through the imagination of the ageing writer we meet in the opening pages. Ken claims he has retired from writing and is going to do what retired people do...travel and enjoy themselves and sleep-in in the mornings. Then he meets someone who has a story too good to ignore. That love story is the main course of Miller's novel, but we get to meet Ken and his adult daughter at various points and, in these brief encounters, find little gems on the business of writing stories. 'Writing' he tells us, 'is a conversation'."

Paula Green, NZ Herald Canvas magazine.

Good to a Fault by Marina Endicott

Absorbed in her own failings, Clara Purdy crashes her life into a sharp left turn, taking the young family in the other car along with her. When bruises on the mother, Lorraine, prove to be late-stage cancer, Clara - against all habit and comfort - moves the three children and their terrible grandmother into her own house. Clara then has to cope with the consequences: exhaustion, fury, hilarity, and unexpected love. But she must question her own motives. Is she acting out of true goodness, or out of guilt? Most shamefully, has she taken over simply because she wants the baby for her own? This compassionate, funny, and fiercely intelligent novel looks at life and death through decidedly suburban reading glasses: being good, being at fault, and finding some balance on the precipice. fishpond.co.nz

"The novel is so satisfyingly contoured on a number of levels, through dark and light, joy and pain, wit and seriousness."
Paula Green, NZ Herald Canvas Magazine



Also, a nice suprise in the mailbox this morning. I had completely forgotten when I signed up to the Thriller and Suspense challenge hosted by Book Chick City that all the participants would receive a free ARC of either Random by Craig Robertson or Venom by Joan Brady courtesy of publisher SIMON & SCHUSTER UK. Thank you very much to the publishers for sending all the way down here to NZ and of course to our lovely hostess over at Book Chick City for organising a lovely giveaway.