The premise of this book, a road trip with your ex crammed in a mini, sounded great. I enjoyed her previous book The flat share and was looking forward to reading this. But it was not as cute and cheerful. I did not connect with the characters until the end, so the first 3/4 of the story was a bit of a slog, but it all pulled together at the end. A contemporary romance that doesn’t shy away from some heavy issues.
This is a love letter to bookshops, and a travel guide, taking us to the world’s most interesting and beautiful bookshops. This would be a wonderful guide were tourism a possibility at the moment, but also makes a lovely alternative while we cannot travel. As well as the details of about specific bookshops around the world, there are also historical details, bookish quotes and fact, and contributions from authors about their favourite bookshops.
The Porpoise is partly a retelling of Shakespeare’s Pericles, but not a strict one. It starts in modern times, moves to the Middles Ages, and to ancient times, and back and forth. I think it best not to ask why, or how it works. All I know, is that I enjoyed the strange, adventurous, meandering, touching story. I just went with it, and it was great.
We meet Cassie just after her Alzheimer’s diagnosis. She decides to travel back home on the Indian Pacific, the same way she travelled to Sydney many years ago. As Cassie takes the journey back we are also taken back through her life as she tries to work out who she is and who she will become. We meet her family and the major events that shaped her life. A gentle story about memories and how we see ourselves through them.
Down Under: Travels in a Sunburned Country, for many reasons, was of particular interest to me. It was a book that was easy to pick up where I last left off. Bill Bryson the author, travelled and fell in love with Australia – hence, I have gained a knowledge of places I would love to visit, history of Australia that I never knew, all entangled with Bill Bryson’s amusing and entertaining sense of humour.
During the current time of isolation, we are all probably thinking of places we can visit, things to do away from home once this COVID-19 is over. By reading “Down Under” you will appreciate that Australian travel provides an experience around every corner, history that you never envisaged, along with scenery that is spectacular and so diverse. Bill Bryson says that “Life doesn’t get much better than this …”
Bill Bryson will have you looking forward to when you are able to take that next flight, train or car travel and see the unique sights of our amazing, beautiful country that we live in – Australia … north, south, east or west – you choose.
I raced through this psychological thriller, where four people look back at a disastrous holiday, telling the tale of what went wrong when two couples, one with a daughter, go on holiday together to Siracusa. It’s an intriguing, compelling, and creepy story about marriage, secrets, perceptions, and Americans abroad.
Mary Stewart’s romantic suspense novels are great for the holidays. A plucky heroine, a dangerous mystery, fabulous scenery and food in the south of France, and all tied up neatly in the end. Written in 1955, there are some slightly jarring elements for the modern reader, but it’s a whole lot of fun.
I think I liked this book mostly because in it, the author does something I would very much like to do; she takes a year off work and regular life, to travel. The title makes it sound like she just floated on the wind, which isn’t true. She had plans for where she was going, but while she was there, she learned to relax and be open to adventure, friendship and love. It’s about a journey to rediscover self, but it isn’t preachy or new agey, neither is it about the destination. It is certainly a dreamy journey that I am glad to have shared.
Three Men in a Boat is a classic I am only just getting to now. It’s that particular sort of British humour -bumbling, self-deprecating and obvious, mixed with a travelogue, nostalgic for the history of the countryside along the Thames. Quaintly amusing, historically interesting (given that it was written in the 1880s and was looking back) and with a marvellous dog called Montmorency, this is a quick, fun read.
This was a little slice of Italy. When food writer Paul arrives in Italy to finish his book and finds his car rental booking nonexistent, he finds himself hiring a bulldozer instead. It is the characters that Paul meets that make this story, more than the fact that he is driving around Italy on a bulldozer. They are quirky and interesting and make for a story that is a little off centre but enjoyable.
rrlreads 