Two Books: “It’s me, Anna” by Elbie Lötter & “Dead Before Dying” by Deon Meyer

I have recently read two books, both by South African authors, that I would like to share. Both books were originally written and published in Afrikaans, so if you can speak Afrikaans I would suggest reading them in the original language. Afrikaans is such a descriptive language that it does not translate as powerfully into […]

And now my watch has ended . . .

He was blood of the dragon, but now his fire has gone out. He was Aemon Targaryen. And now his watch has ended. from A Feast for Crows – GRR Martin The fourth season of Game of Thrones ended a couple of weeks ago and I’m already suffering from GoT withdrawal. Which is quite interesting […]

The Lewis Trilogy – my favourite reads this year

This year I have read a number of books I really enjoyed, but my favourite reads were definitely the three books making up The Lewis Trilogy. Written by Peter May, they are in order, The Blackhouse, The Lewis Man and The Chessmen. My preferred type of crime fiction are books that read more like “regular” […]

Gone Girl – The scariest book I read this year

I read a lot of crime and thriller fiction, but no book this year has scared me as much as Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. I start it thinking it was another story about a husband killing his wife, and then protesting his innocence. But no, it’s much more than that. It seems to be […]

The Elfish Gene by Mark Barrowcliffe

Or to give it its full title: The Elfish Gene: Dungeons, Dragons And Growing Up Strange. My reading is often influenced by book titles. The more unusual the better, and this one certainly got my attention! As the e-book was not available for download, I ended up listening to the audio-book version which is narrated […]

Podcast: Our Friend David

Although I did not know David Rakoff (a comic essayist – amongst other things) personally, I was very sad to hear he had died of cancer at the age of just 47. I first heard of him via the This American Life radio programme. Since we don’t get the American radio services in South Africa, […]

The Tribe of Tiger by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas

My “book reviews” to date – though they are more “random thoughts on books” than actual reviews – have fallen into two basic categories. Recently published books to which I had a very strong reaction – mostly of the not so positive kind – and my all-time favourites, which tend to be obscure books, often […]

What Your Cat Wants You to Know – Really?

I am a cat lover. I know you might not know that since I’ve spent many posts telling you all about our wonderful dog Rosie, but it’s true. I’ve owned quite a few cats – my first being when I was around 5 years old. Okay so my mother looked after and fed the cat, […]

Steeped in Blood by David Klatzow & Sylvia Walker

Or to give it its full title: “Steeped in Blood: The Life and Times of a Forensic Scientist“.  It says on the cover “As told to Sylvia Walker”, so she did the actual writing. The forensic scientist in this case is Dr David Klatzow, South African’s very own Gil Grissom (he of “The evidence never […]

Local is lekker!

Lekker (Afrikaans). Good, enjoyable. [At least in the context I’m using it. “Lekker” can mean a whole lot of things, most colourfully detailed in the Urban Dictionary! See here for all their definitions.] For years I’ve been a fan of crime fiction. I’ve read crime fiction from all over the world. Well, at least the […]