I promise to keep up with this list this year – last year's went unfinished.
Pearl in a Cage, by Joy Dettman
Wonderfully easy reading and a good old-fashoned yarn that saw me through the hectic, frantic days of the end of the year and over Christmas into the beginning of this year. Dettman has written an entire series (The Woody Creek series) based on the life and characters of a small timber town in country Victoria, Australia.
I had accidentally picked up and started book 2, Thorn on the Rose, and was enjoying it greatly when I realised I ought to start at the very beginning.
The books are naffly designed and titled, and their pretty-girl covers would put me off if I saw them in a bookstore. But I'd be missing out. It's great knowing there is a whole string of good, easy reading available to me when I need it.
Life of Pi, by Yann Martel
Saw the film trailer with my 3D glasses on for The Hobbit and love director Ang Lee's work, so I thought I'd better read the book to enjoy the film to the fullest. Had I been sensible enough to realise it was magic realism (groan), and was all about religion and wrestling with faith (even louder groan), I certainly would not have bothered. I should have known this was smoke and mirrors: it won the bloody Booker after all.
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, by Rachel Joyce
Another great holiday read. I absolutely loved this story of Harold's epiphany, caused by the arrival of a letter from an old acquaintance. He turns his entire life upside down, inside out and around about, and by doing so gradually helps himself come to (uneasy) terms with the demons and damage of his past. Moving and beautiful.
The Secret River, by Kate Grenville
Still reading. I plan to see the Sydney Theatre Company production of this in February for the Festival of Perth.
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