I started the year with this novel and it‘s possible it‘ll be the best read of 2023. Written with deft insight into the Appalachian culture so awfully crippled by an opiate crisis - mostly recognized by the drug OxyContin, the story is told from the razor sharp wit and tragedy of young Demon born in Lee County, Virginia. The writing makes you laugh and also cry, there‘s so much depth and character it keeps Kingsolver up there with the best! 5⭐️‘s

A blisteringly great summer read that was a real page turner. Said to be a loose weaving of the lives of Gina Pareño, Elizabeth Taylor, Ava Gardener and Rita Hayworth rolled into one it certainly leaves you with the sense that Evelyn was a real historical figure! Loved the strong #femalecharacters who through the journey told over decades, discover themselves and the real value of life. Great twist at the end, a recommended read!

Omg fan-girling out, a Barbara Kingsolver review of Richard Powers “Overstory”

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/09/books/review/overstory-richard-powers.html

I really wanted to love this book. The concept is great, the subject matter fascinating, the historical research deep…but it was all undone for me by the two dimensional American housewife Ella. I stuck it out to the finish, hoping the choice she made would redeem her and somehow make it all believable but I was sadly disappointed. That said, there are some beautiful moments and quotes within the subplot & I guess that‘s what got me to the end.

This was my Xmas read, sitting on a NZ beach channeling Florence! A bit of armchair travel, tales of lost love & old friends, art history with a feminist twist, the end of WW11 and a hilarious parrot! Sometimes a little too dialogue heavy for me but in its own sense, the scenes themselves were “still life” moments in time. A beautiful entwining of lives, places and real historical events, a perfect holiday read.

Nearly a SO-SO as I struggled with the desperately sad circumstances that land the protagonist in the place she begins…inside a dumpster. I pushed through the book hoping some glimmer of good fortune would befall her, but how can it when she starts the book dead? By the end I saw the beauty in her friendships and the commitment those friends held to care for each other, regardless of their differences. A tough but beautiful read.

A mesmerizing collision of multiple narratives, each all connected to a forest or tree. Powers weaves incredible and sometimes alarming info-metrics into the story, arming the reader with a battalion in favour of our forests and eco-systems. A book that has stayed with me for the years since I last read it. Quite wonderful!

Such a brilliant read, a tender story told over the last few years of the life of Jesus Christ, narrated by Ana his wife. SMK has imagined a story in which Jesus had a wife & how it was for her to live in this time as woman with her own hopes, dreams and needs. Incredibly well researched story in which she paints a feminist journey that leaves you sitting up in bed at night feeling a tad guilty that you may have fallen in love with the son of god!

Kind of like a feminist western but the chicks don‘t sling guns (well mostly not) ~ so they sling library books instead and they‘ve got no choice but to take on the baddies - the white, racist, capitalist patriarchal men and their enslaved society. The most fun read, 💯 percent delightful!!

There‘s always one gem that stands out above the rest and this year it‘s Cloud Cuckoo Land (followed tightly by Trent Daltons All our Shimmering Skies). Visually rich and chronologically layered this is a transportive journey through time and place that channels the art of myth, love, loss and great hope for our planet.

This is Miriam‘s account of trekking though European and NZ forests months or years at a time, often just surviving by hunting and foraging. Initially I thought it‘d be boring, kind of diary style journaling but after the 1st chapter I was hooked. It‘s really delightful, very transporting and makes you really consider what life we are living with all our devices and accumulated bits and bobs. She‘s quite the inspirational female huntress! 💚

A grungy small town love story that goes off on some deep psychological tangents. Rugged and slightly harrowing but written brilliantly in a style that is strong & unique to Winton.

We‘d all heard of Rudolph Valentino but what‘s the goss on his missus? Only that Natcha Rambova was a talented set designer, costume designer, dancer, actress, spiritualist and Egyptian symbology decipherer who was completely instrumental in developing Valentino‘s screen persona, negotiating his deals and designing his sets and costumes. The whole story is an eye popping look into one of the great designers and feminists of her time.

A harrowing journey of a Mexican mother and her young son as they run from a cartel that wants them dead. The story brings this plight home hard and gives you a sense of the desperate situation that‘s playing out in reality every day. Intrigued to read the book has become a topic of hot debate in literary circles about appropriation as Cummins is not Mexican herself, but instead spent 4 years researching this book. Not sure I agree, great book!

Well the title and the blurb drew me in, a “remarkable piece of historical detective work” about Charlotte Badger. Except that the book begins with a disclaimer that we don‘t really know that much about her and all we can do is piece together what we do know. We know that she happened to be on a boat called the Venus that was stolen in 1806 by Benjamin Kelly, first mate of the captain Chace who was left ashore. Does that really make her a pirate??

All Our Shimmering Skies is Trent Daltons second book and left me clasping it in silence at the end. A rich and magical fable that describes west coast Australian desert as some kind of mythical Avatar-esque jungle. Very much thé héros journey for a 12 year old gravediggers daughter, spellbinding, terrifying and richly woven. Incredibly visual and I hope we‘ll get to see it on the big screen sometime soon. Def one of my favs ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Mildly engaging sojourn of 4 characters who aren‘t quite happy with their lives and spend a lot of the book delving into the great philosophical questions of the world. Felt like too much millennial anxiety for me!

An autobiographical “highlights of my life” by a Aimee Crocker, a woman of means from a wealthy railroad family, California, born 1864. Aimee takes you on incredible (& almost unbelievable) adventure stories of a woman travelling solo through the Eastern continents in the late nineteenth century. She was brave & perhaps a little foolish, but this nonetheless saw her arrive in some magical and perilous situations. Quite a trip!