How entertaining can a novel about a whaling family in a tiny community in Australia be? The answer, I was pleasantly surprised to learn while reading Shirley Barrett’s debut Rush Oh! is very. Mary Davidson, the oldest daughter in a whaling family in New South Wales, chronicles the difficult whaling season of 1908. Drama, misadventure…
Book review: Not Working by Lisa Owens
Many people spend the majority of their waking time working, so you want a job where you’re happy, and challenged, and where you feel like you’re making a difference. But what if your work just isn’t living up to expectations? (If my boss is reading this, I love my job, we’re not talking about me…
Book review: The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra by Vaseem Khan
On the day he retires two things happen to Inspector Chopra. The first is that a young man is found dead, his death dismissed as an accident by Chopra’s colleague. The second is a little more unusual – Chopra gets home to find he has inherited a baby elephant from his uncle. And so begins…
Book review: Sofia Khan is Not Obliged by Ayisha Malik
Sofia Khan has had it with men. She thought she’d found the one, but it turned out he wanted her to move in with his parents (sort of, next door but with a hole connecting the two houses) after they got married, so now Sofia has given up. Or she thinks she has – when…
Best books of 2015
So many books, so little time. Luckily, I did have time to read these 12 brilliant books, my favourites of the year… All Involved by Ryan Gattis This is one of the first 2015 releases I read, way back in September 2014, and it is still without doubt one of the best books of the…
Book review: All the Rage by Courtney Summers
I have struggled and struggled with this review – I started writing it weeks and weeks ago (months actually) and I’ve written and rewritten paragraphs, deleted sentences and whole sections, and given up many a time only to come back a few days or weeks later. Because how do you review such a brilliant and…
A promise to read more ethnically diverse writers
Here’s why I love books – they can take you to different lands, introduce you to different types of people, teach you about things you never knew. Books are diverse, and I love them for it. So I was more than a little embarrassed to discover how undiverse the books I’ve read this year are…
The inner monologue you have when you’re getting a massage
“My back is killing me, and my shoulder. I should get a massage. This is going to great, I deserve a treat. “Massage day tomorrow! Wait, are my legs properly waxed? I should make sure. What if I’ve missed a bit? “What should I wear? I don’t want to look like a slob, but I want…
Book review: The Year of the Runaways by Sunjeev Sahota
Refugee, migrant – two terms that are very politically charged, but how often do we think about the people behind these words? Sunjeev Sahota’s The Year of the Runaways is fiction, but its subject is something that hits the headlines in the real world with alarming regularity, although with little of the nuance displayed in…
Sarah Shaffi 