"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by."
~ Douglas Adams
"Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass."
~ Anton Chekhov
"Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple."
~ Dr. Suess
Wherever you look there are books. Marvellous books on groaning shelves. And the pity of this end of year literary orgy is that you can’t buy everything. What an extraordinary year of fact and fiction there has been. Until three months ago, it seemed that it would be a year of stellar fiction. I still […]
Thank goodness. It’s enough with the book awards for 2017. It’s also enough with the book festivals for 2017. We need a break now that the Booker Prize 2017 has come and gone. Now it’s time for whatever peace we can find as we run down the steep slope towards the end of a turbulent […]
Star Rating: ★★★★☆ 4/5 When Rain Clouds Gather Bessie Head Little Brown, August 2010 (originally published 1968) Online Price: R180 Bessie Head is one of southern Africa’s hidden gems. Like most people I was introduced to her because her books were part of my school’s syllabus – and since then I have long […]
Twenty years ago a distinguished and influential South African publisher rubbed his hands together and said: “Now that we have our freedom I’m looking forward to the great South African novel.” Our Gone With the Wind, our To Kill a Mockingbird, is yet to be written. But what is happening in our vital local book […]
Star Rating: ★★★★☆ 4/5 Purple Hibiscus Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Harper Collins, January 2005 Online Price: R200 When a house is on fire, you run out before the roof collapses on your head. – Aunty Ifeoma Purple Hibiscus is a story told in the first person by Kambili Achike, a 15-year-old girl who is […]
Star Rating: ★★★☆☆ 3/5 What We Lose Zinzi Clemmons Harper Collins, July 2017 Online Price: R246.00 I waited with bated breath for this book. The USA cover art drew me in and the tweets raving about how good it is only served to heighten my curiosity. Critics were quick to call it the […]
A little over a month ago I interviewed Exclusive Books’ CEO Benjamin Trisk. He’s an amusing lunch and dinner partner and sniffs out good wines like a hungry terrier. But it wasn’t the wines or the food that interested me on this occasion. It was literature. Specifically, it was a conversation I’ve been waiting to […]
Star Rating: ★★★★☆ 4/5 Queen Sugar Natalie Baszile Penguin Putnam Inc, January 2015 Online Price: R257.00 Sometimes, you go looking for adventure, all you find is disaster – Queen Sugar I was introduced to Queen Sugar through the hit series on the OWN (Oprah Winfrey Network) channel but reading the book I got more […]
Star Rating: ★★★★☆ 4/5 The Twelve Tribes of Hattie Ayana Mathis Cornerstone, August 2013 Online Price: R185.00 I can’t remember when I read anything that moved me quite this way, besides the work of Toni Morrison. – Oprah Winfrey This book was a gift from a friend, who told me how he adores […]
Star Rating: ★★★☆☆ 3/5 The Reactive Masande Ntshanga Umuzi, September 2014 Online Price: R185 Ten years ago, I helped a handful of men take my little brother’s life. I wasn’t there when it happened, but I told Luthando where to find them. Masande Ntshanga’s debut novel grabs you from the get go. Our […]
