Posted on May 31, 2010 by Booktopia
In Crazy Like Us, Ethan Watters reveals that the most devastating consequence of the spread of American culture has not been its golden arches or bomb craters, but the bulldozing of the human psyche itself: it is in the process of homogenising the way the world goes mad.
Filed under: History, Non Fiction, Popular Science | Tagged: Crazy Like Us, Ethan Watters | Leave a Comment »
Posted on May 28, 2010 by John Purcell, The Booktopia Book Guru
I have the greatest of luxuries – a personal library of over 5000 wonderful books. But I wouldn’t have been able to amass such a delicious collection if I had been forced to pay retail! All of Booktopia’s fiction titles are reduced by at least 10% – everyday, all year round. But we also have [...]
Filed under: Bargains, Fiction | Tagged: Ernest Hemingway | Leave a Comment »
Posted on May 27, 2010 by John Purcell, The Booktopia Book Guru
The Very Thought of You Rosie Alison England, 31st August 1939: the world is on the brink of war. As Hitler prepares to invade Poland, thousands of children are evacuated from London to escape the impending Blitz. Torn from her mother, eight-year-old Anna Sands is relocated with other children to a large Yorkshire estate which [...]
Filed under: Fiction, Literary Prizes, Literature | Tagged: Barbara Kingsolver, Hilary Mantel | 2 Comments »
Posted on May 26, 2010 by John Purcell, The Booktopia Book Guru
The Booktopia Book Guru asks Fiona McGregor author of Indelible Ink Ten Terrifying Questions —————————————- 1. To begin with why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself – where were you born? Raised? Schooled? Sydney. Sydney. Schooled in a convent. 2. What did you want to be when you were twelve, eighteen and [...]
Filed under: Fiction, Literature | Tagged: Ten Terrifying Questions | 1 Comment »
Posted on May 25, 2010 by Booktopia
Beautiful Malice is a novel by Australian author Rebecca James and what a brilliant novel it is. My sister (who had a proof-reading copy) recommended this book to me and I was hooked from the very first page, the very first line even. It is a suspenseful and often thrilling story that doesn’t reveal itself [...]
Filed under: Crime/Thriller, Fiction, Young Adult | Tagged: Beautiful Malice, Rebecca James | 4 Comments »
Posted on May 24, 2010 by John Purcell, The Booktopia Book Guru
One woman, forty-seven men and a three-year-old boy, shipwrecked on a tiny sub-Antarctic island. For seven months they eat albatross and burn penguin skins for fuel, before a passing whaler picks them up. The woman was my great-great-great-grandmother Fanny Wordsworth. She and her son Charlie, my grandfather’s grandfather, were migrating from Scotland to New Zealand. [...]
Filed under: Biography/Memoir, Fiction, Historical Romance, Literature, Non Fiction | Tagged: Sylvie Haisman, This Barren Rock | 3 Comments »
Posted on May 24, 2010 by John Purcell, The Booktopia Book Guru
UPDATE: THE former wife of the Sultan of Brunei has obtained a court injunction stopping distribution of a best-selling book on the murder of Michael McGurk, the Sydney developer, conman and extortionist. SMH. Finally, the true story of that very public murder whose investigation uncovered dark and crooked business dealings reaching into the upper echelons [...]
Filed under: Biography/Memoir, Non Fiction | Tagged: The Fast Life and Sudden Death of Michael McGurk | 3 Comments »
Posted on May 24, 2010 by John Purcell, The Booktopia Book Guru
Everybody said you can’t be a writer, you dropped out of school, you need to go to college, etc. But I followed my dream and ignored everyone. At twelve I was writing unfinished novels. At eighteen I was doing the same thing. And at thirty I was a published author.
Filed under: Author Interview, Fiction, Romance, Writing tips | Tagged: Advice for Writers, Author Interview, Jackie Collins, Ten Terrifying Questions | 1 Comment »
Posted on May 22, 2010 by John Purcell, The Booktopia Book Guru
The Booktopia Book Guru Asks Belinda Murrell author of THE LOCKET OF DREAMS and THE RUBY TALISMAN Ten Terrifying Questions ——————————— 1. To begin with why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself – where were you born? Raised? Schooled? I grew up in quite an unusual family in a huge house full [...]
Filed under: Children's Fiction, Fiction, Historical Romance, Writing tips, Young Adult | Tagged: Ten Terrifying Questions | Leave a Comment »
Posted on May 21, 2010 by John Purcell, The Booktopia Book Guru
Brooklyn is Colm Tóibín’s most beautifully executed novel to date. Like The Heather Blazing (1992) it is an intimate portrait of a sad life, built up steadily from simple descriptive sentences, laid down with precision at a controlled pace. Reading Tóibín is like watching an artist paint one small stroke after another until suddenly the [...]
Filed under: Fiction, Literary Prizes, Literature | Tagged: Colm Toibin | Leave a Comment »
