Category Archives: Book Reviews

Book Review The Hundred-Foot Journey

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The Hundred-Foot Journey by Richard C. Morais

Summary

The Hundred-foot Journey is the story of Hassan Haji, a boy from Mumbai who embarks, along with his boisterous family, on a picaresque journey first to London and then across Europe, before they ultimately open a restaurant opposite a famous chef, Madame Mallory, in the remote French village of Lumiere. A culinary war ensues, pitting Hassan’s Mumbai-toughened father against the imperious Michelin-starred cordon bleu, until Madame Mallory realizes that Hassan is a cook with natural talents far superior to her own.

Full of eccentric characters, hilarious cultural mishaps, vivid settings and delicious meals described in rich, sensuous detail, Hassan’s charming account lays bare the inner workings of the elite world of French haute cuisine, and provides a life-affirming and poignant coming-of-age tale.

Comments

This novel follows young Indian boy Hassan Haji from his early life in India with his rather eccentric family, to London, across Europe and finally to France in pursuit of fame and fortune in the world of haute cuisine. Told in the first person, it is full of interesting characters and very detailed descriptions of his hard working life as a chef. It vividly describes every aspect of both Indian and French restaurants and, of course, the food.

The turning point in Hassan’s career occurs when Madame Mallory, a cantankerous chef who tries to drive their family out of business when they open an Indian restaurant directly opposite her high class French restaurant, ends the “war” between them and offers Hassan a job. He takes “The One Hundred Foot Journey” across the road and begins the hard work as her apprentice. After several years he moves to Paris and eventually opens his own restaurant and becomes well known and respected. His skill and hard work earn him the great honour of three Michelin stars.

An interesting coming of age tale with a journalistic insight into the life of a chef in the top echelons of haute cuisine.

6/10

Read by Dundas Readers Book Club

Book Review Scrublands

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Scrublands by Chris Hammer

Summary

In an isolated country town brought to its knees by endless drought, a charismatic and dedicated young priest calmly opens fire on his congregation, killing five parishioners before being shot dead himself.A year later, troubled journalist Martin Scarsden arrives in Riversend to write a feature on the anniversary of the tragedy. But the stories he hears from the locals about the priest and incidents leading up to the shooting don’t fit with the accepted version of events his own newspaper reported in an award-winning investigation. Martin

can’t ignore his doubts, nor the urgings of some locals to unearth the real reason behind the priest’s deadly rampage.Just as Martin believes he is making headway, a shocking new development rocks the town, which becomes the biggest story in Australia. The media descends on Riversend and Martin is now the one in the spotlight. His reasons for investigating the shooting have suddenly become very personal.Wrestling with his own demons, Martin finds himself risking everything to discover a truth that becomes darker and more complex with every twist. But there are powerful forces determined to stop him, and he has no idea how far they will go to make sure the town’s secrets stay buried.

Comments

For the most part, we enjoyed this book.  It had us engaged from the first chapter.  A priest in a rural community, is seen welcoming his parishioners before his Sunday services, enters the church to don his robes, he returns five minutes later, holding a hunting rifle. Killing five people, one of whom he was just seen greeting with a warm smile and a friendly handshake.  What could they have been discussing?

Scrublands is well written, and we liked the small insight into how the media, and in a particular a newspaper journalist works.  We loved the side characters and all their backstories, from single mum, Manadalay Blonde, to town recluse, Codger Harris.  However, it seemed to lose it’s way a little towards the end.  There seemed to be a lot going on in a small, rural town.  

Overall, we liked Scrublands and look forward to reading the next book in this series, Silver.

7.5/10

Read by Cultcha Club Book Club  

Book Review The Lost Man

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The Lost Man by Jane Harper

Summary

The man lay still in the centre of a dusty grave under a monstrous sky.Two brothers meet at the stockman’s grave, a landmark so old, no one can remember who is buried there. But today, the scant shadow it casts was the last hope for their middle brother, Cameron.Something had been troubling him. Did Cameron choose to walk to his death? Because if he didn’t, the isolation of the outback leaves few suspects…For readers who loved The Dry and Force of Nature, Jane Harper has once again created a powerful story of suspense, set against a dazzling landscape.

Comments

A well written and suspenseful mystery. The protagonist, Nathan, is the
eldest of three sons in a family on a vast and isolated cattle station
in far outback Queensland. When the body of the second son, Cameron, is
found near the grave of a stock man, three generations of the
family and three workers are aware that someone knows more than they are
admitting. Was Cameron really the upstanding family man and successful
property manager he seemed to be? The history of this family is slowly revealed as the story progresses. The author captured the sense of isolation as well as the atmosphere of the Australian outback.                                                                                                               We all enjoyed this well-paced story which keeps you guessing until the very end.

Read by Dundas Readers

Book Review A Man Called Ove

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A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

Summary

At first sight, Ove is almost certainly the grumpiest man you will ever meet. He thinks himself surrounded by idiots –  neighbours who can’t reverse a trailer properly, joggers, shop assistants who talk in code, and the perpetrators of the vicious coup d’etat that ousted him as Chairman of the Residents’ Association. He will persist in making his daily inspection rounds of the local streets.But isn’t it rare, these days, to find such old-fashioned clarity of belief and deed? Such unswerving conviction about what the world should be, and a lifelong dedication to making it just so?In the end, you will see, there is something about Ove that is quite irresistible…

Comments

A Man Called Ove was loved by each member of our book club. At its heart it is an unconventional love story that gradually reveals itself and enfolds you in its beautifully crafted characters. Ove is perceived as a ‘grumpy old man’, routine driven, friendless, mourning the loss of his wife. When a family moves into his community they have an immediate impact on his life and the true, caring Ove emerges. This is a story where one sentence can make you cry and laugh at the same time. It is tragic but hopeful and humourous.

We recommend it – MJ Readers

Book Review The Hand That Feeds You

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The hand that feeds you by A.J. Rich

Summary

I trusted you. This is how you repay me.

Morgan’s life is settled – she is completing her thesis on victim psychology and newly engaged to Bennett, a man more possessive than those she has dated in the past, but also more chivalrous and passionate.

But she returns from class one day to find Bennett savagely killed, and her dogs – a Great Pyrenees, and two pit bulls she was fostering – circling the body, covered in blood. Everything she holds dear in life is taken away from her in an instant.

Devastated and traumatised, Morgan tries to locate Bennett’s parents to tell them about their son’s death. Only then does she begin to discover layer after layer of deceit. Bennett is not the man she thought he was. And she is not the only woman now in immense danger …

Comments

This story is a collaboration between two women studying the links between victims and perpetrators with an emphasis on ‘pathological altruism’. The events are based on incidents in the life of a friend who died of cancer. The narrator, Morgan, returns home to find that her boyfriend has been killed and ripped to pieces by all or one of her three dogs. If this sounds horrific, it sets the tone of the book. An endless and complex tale peppered with violence and peopled by mostly unlikeable characters and their dogs. We all thought this to be a salacious and implausible story.

4/10 Read by Dundas Readers