Nobel Prize Winner Patrick Modiano

Posted on 22 October 2014 by admin

Sometimes it might surprise us that an author isn’t that well known wins a Nobel Literature Prize. Patrick Modiano is well known in France but not a wider world outside of his own country. Having said this the excuse for us not having any of his titles in English, is because there was hardly any English translation to be seen in Australia’s market. However we’re sure the publishers will act soon and we’re going to buy Modiano’s titles ASAP.

The Swedish Academy awarded Modiano “for the art of memory with which he has evoked the most ungraspable human destinies and uncovered the life-world of the occupation.” Modiano has written more than 20 novels and several screenplays.

We’re sure once we read the author’s book we’ll get know Modiano more. More info go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Modiano.

The Man Booker Prize Winner

Posted on 15 October 2014 by admin

Congratulations Richard Flanagan.

WINNER of the 2104 Man Book Prize for ‘The Narrow Road to the Deep North’

What would you do if you saw the love of your life, whom you thought dead for a quarter of a century, walking towards you? Richard Flanagan’s story, of Dorrigo Evans, an Australian doctor haunted by a love affair with his uncle’s wife, journeys from the caves of Tasmanian trappers in the early twentieth century to a crumbling pre-war beachside hotel; from a Thai jungle prison to a Japanese snow festival; from the Changi gallows to a chance meeting of lovers on the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Taking its title from 17th-century haiku poet Basho’s travel journal, The Narrow Road To The Deep North is about the impossibility of love. At its heart is one day in a Japanese slave labour camp in August 1943. As the day builds to its horrific climax, Dorrigo Evans battles and fails in his quest to save the lives of his fellow POWs, a man is killed for no reason, and a love story unfolds.

The Rosie Effect by Graeme Simsion

Posted on 30 September 2014 by admin

The Rosie Effect by Graeme Simsion

Book Summary

Don Tillman and Rosie Jarman are now married and living in New York. Don has been teaching while Rosie completes her second year at Columbia Medical School. Just as Don is about to announce that Gene, his philandering best friend from Australia, is coming to stay, Rosie drops a bombshell: she’s pregnant.

In true Tillman style, Don instantly becomes an expert on all things obstetric. But in between immersing himself in a new research study on parenting and implementing the Standardised Meal System (pregnancy version), Don’s old weaknesses resurface. And while he strives to get the technicalities right, he gets the emotions all wrong, and risks losing Rosie when she needs him most.
Review

The Rosie Effect continues the story of Don and Rosie, now married and living in New York. While I enjoyed ‘The Rosie Project’, I found ‘The Rosie Effect’ BRILLANT!

Don and Rosie are settling into their new life in New York when Don is thrown a curve ball, Rosie announces; “We’re pregnant”.

This is the beginning of a hilarious and delightful story; one which I am sure everyone will find hard to put down.

There are some familiar characters Gene, Don’s best friend and Dave the American who Don met on his trip to New York. All the characters both old and new fitted so well together. Their stories and the way they interacted with Don added those special elements that made this book so AMAZING.

Graeme Simsion’s writing style is very engrossing; you feel like you are actually part of Don’s story. I found it hard to believe Don was not a real person and that I wasn’t his friend sharing his ups and downs.

‘The Rosie Effect’ will make you laugh; be prepared for strange looks if you are reading on the bus or train. You will also hold your breath and hope against hope that Don will triumph.

It would be very hard not to like ‘The Rosie Effect’. Instead I feel people cannot help but be sucked into the vortex that is Don Tillman.

I can already tell that ‘The Rosie Effect’ will be very high up on my list of books that I loved this year.