Books

In The Memorial Room

Posted 1:47pm Sunday 22nd September 2013 by Anonymous Bird

Janet Frame has a reputation as a serious New Zealand writer, and a truly successful literary genius. Knowing something of her dramatic personal life – she nearly had a lobotomy due to “psychiatric problems” – I half-expected this novel to be dark, brooding, and Sylvia Plath-esque. Instead, In The Read more...

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Posted 2:39pm Sunday 15th September 2013 by Harriet Hughes

There is something about the glamour of 1920s New York that makes The Great Gatsby a timeless favourite. Fitzgerald’s characters collide from one party to the next in a bubble of “purposeless splendour” where nothing has consequences, and no one loses out. Our narrator, Nick, arrives at West Read more...

Less Than Zero

Posted 1:51pm Sunday 8th September 2013 by Millie Lovelock

Less Than Zero is the first novel by literary brat-pack misanthrope Bret Easton Ellis. The novel details narrator Clay’s return to Los Angeles for Christmas after his first semester away at college. Clay is from a wealthy family, and all of his friends are rich, bored, and saturated with pop and Read more...

Otherness

Posted 3:48pm Sunday 1st September 2013 by Kajsa Louw

Otherness is an anthology of science fiction short stories that is likely to leave its readers impressed by its boldness and originality. The book comprises a collection of 13 stories and is the winner of the LOCUS award for Best Collection of 1995. Notable contributions include “Warm Bodies” and Read more...

Free Will

Posted 4:47pm Sunday 18th August 2013 by Lucy Hunter

Sam Harris explains, in 83 pages, the illogic of free will. Our society functions on the assumption that we all have it: without free will, any claim to justice, morality, personal accomplishment, intimate relationships (and virtually anything else we care about deeply) seems ridiculous. Free will Read more...

The House of the Dead

Posted 2:29pm Sunday 11th August 2013 by Lucy Hunter

Dostoyevsky’s The House of the Dead, published in 1861, explores life and death in the confines of a 19th-century Siberian prison. The book is based on the journal Dostoyevsky wrote while in prison for crimes of political and religious dissent – namely, for his involvement in the Petrashevsky Read more...

Let’s Explore Diabetes With Owls

Posted 3:50pm Sunday 4th August 2013 by Feby Idrus

This entertaining read is the newest collection of short essays from humourist and writer David Sedaris, who burst onto the scene with his second book Me Talk Pretty One Day. As with his previous essay collections, Sedaris’ essays cover his childhood in North Carolina, the state of present-day Read more...

The Violent Bear it Away

Posted 4:45pm Sunday 28th July 2013 by Lucy Hunter

Francis Marion Tarwater was born in the wreck of the car crash that killed his mother and grandmother and drove his father to suicide. Adopted by Rayber, his school-teacher uncle, baby Francis is oblivious to the devastation he was born into. But crazy great-uncle Tarwater decides he need someone to Read more...

Sweet Tooth

Posted 3:59pm Sunday 21st July 2013 by Lucy Hunter

This is the sex issue, so I decided to write about a sexy spy book. It is 1972. Serena Frome is the beautiful daughter of an Anglican bishop, groomed by her much older lover to join the British Secret Services in the patriarchal ranks of MI5. Serena is considered something of a freak of Read more...

The Magic of Reality

Posted 8:23pm Sunday 14th July 2013 by Lucy Hunter

“Reality is everything that exists. That sounds straight forward, doesn’t it? Actually, it isn’t.” Thus begins Dawkins’ introduction to science for young people. I didn’t realise this was a young adults’ book until I started reading it, but, being an eager yet largely ignorant admirer of science, I Read more...