Writers Write Book Review

by Joyce Carol Oates (Fourth Estate) R316, 00 ISBN 978-0-00-738818-0 Joyce Carol Oates is the recipient of many English Awards. Her husband, Ray was also involved with English. It seemed like a communion of great minds.  Until Joyce Carol Oates drove her very fit husband to the…

by SA Partridge (Human and Rousseau) ISBN 978-0-7981-5544-1 Jenna is sweet sixteen and never been kissed. She is moody and dramatic and gets her only solace from the adventures of her online persona Dark Poppy. Her family is a mess. Her crush started dating the popular…

by Robin Hobb (Harper Voyager) ISBN 9780007376094 Just because a person likes a book, it does not mean it is a good book. Now I like this book and I like Robin Hobb. I have read her last five books and continued to read them…

by Michael Robotham (Sphere) ISBN: 978-1-84744-221-5 In his seventh fiction production, Michael Robotham reacquaints us with Vincent Ruiz, a worn, imperfect but likeable retired London police detective, and Joe O’Laughlin, a perceptive psychologist. He introduces us to cast of other characters that ultimately collide after…

by Lolo Houbein (Jacana) ISBN 9781770099111 This is the most useful and most beautiful book of the year. For experienced gardeners it is full of practical tips, but for people aspiring to grow their own vegetables, like me, it is a godsend! Houbein takes you…

by James Clelland (Jacana) ISBN 978-1-77009-925-8 James Clelland is the recipient of the EU Literary Award in 2010. He certainly is a compelling new voice in South African fiction. In this story his fiction is based on some truth. You cannot help laughing at what…

 by Ellen Banda-Aaku (Penguin Books) ISBN 978-0-14-352753-4 Patterns of thinking and emotional behaviour seem to persist through generations. Pumpkin, a nine-year-old girl, is living in Lusaka. We are led through her torrid journey and the way she perceives it. Her mother a seemingly respectable and…

by Nicholas Hogg (Corsair) ISBN 9781849016476 ‘I never understood why men went to war, why men would die in the corner of a muddy field…until I saw her at the wedding.’ Sam Taylor has escaped a childhood hell by the grace of his intelligence, his…

by Lisa Jackson (Hodder & Stoughton) ISBN: 978 1 444 71341 1 Lisa Jackson is the author of twelve spine-chillers, with suitably creepy titles like Chosen to Die and Fatal Burn.  Devious, her new novel, opens with a gruesome taste of things to come –…

 by Sherrilyn Kenyon (Piatkus) ISBN 978 0 7499 5473 4 This book is badly written. I don’t say that often. No, wait that is not true. The point is, with most books, it is the boring plot coupled with the bad writing. This book is…