‘A Single Shard’ – Linda Sue Park. (Oxford University Press) I had never encountered this charming story before;  it was a gentle, lovely read, that absorbed not only me, but two of my children. It is a novel that sits very firmly in the historical fiction genre, set in a small village on the west coast [...]

 ‘The Book Thief’ by Markus Zusak. (Random House 2005). ‘The Book Thief’ was originally marketed in Australia as an adult book, but was been taken on by the American market for a young adult audience and has rather unfairly become stuck in this genre. Like Mark Haddon’s, ‘Curious incident of the dog in the night-time’, [...]

- Mark Haddon. (Vintage Books. ISBN 0-99-45025-9) Mark Haddon’s novel, aimed and marketed differently for both child and adult readers, begins with its protagonist, a 15-year-old autistic boy, Christopher Boothe, discovering the body of a neighbour’s dog, pinned to the ground by a garden fork. The police hold Christopher for questioning over the incident, but [...]

‘Molly Fox’s Birthday’ – Deirdre Madden (Faber - ISBN 978-0-571-23966-5)  This was an incredibly, perceptive book to start my reading for 2010. Deirdre Madden is a gifted wordsmith who has the capacity to paint intimate scenes of life with a beauty and shrewdness seldom seen, nowadays.    The novel concerns itself with the world of the theatre, [...]