I enjoyed this book by Rachel Kushner. She has a contemporary style of writing that is both honest as well as engaging.
The Mars Room is a strip Club and the story is an account of what it is like to be poor and a female and to be serving two life sentences in a correctional facility in America. Raw earthy and at times brutal. Worth reading, albeit in small chunks.
It is not one of those books you can’t put down.
A work of fiction woven out of historical facts. The melodrama is overdone but it was interesting enough to keep going.
Covering perhaps one of the most interesting periods in the history of the Moghuls. A time when the seeds of conflict were sown, a conflict that has boiled over and which has split the continent between Hindu and Muslim.
An excellent read. Well written, thought provoking, engaging.
Alternates between two narrative threads – one set in Virginia in the US, during and after the American civil war, and the other in the 1950’s as one of the characters retraces the path to his roots. Capturing the themes of conflict, oppression and ultimately resignation and reconciliation.
I felt that the author rushed the ending which was maybe a little too abrupt.
I have been writing my whole life. I started with my sister, writing down our Barbie sagas played out on the floor of our shared room. From there I moved up to a desk and, depending on what I was reading at the time, wrote in various styles.
The Brontes were such an inspiration that I wrote an entire three hundred page novel in minute script, with a fountain pen, in a series of tiny note books.
Writing has always been my passion, that by which I define myself. I became a great traveller and, along with a rugsack I carried a pile of journals with me always.
Whether being splashed by foamy waves on yacht decks, flying between continents, or hitch hiking down a tarred road, my journals have kept pace with me.
I have written many different styles, as needs have presented themselves.
? some journalism for the E P Herald
? an in house newspaper for AECI
? scripts for television and
? scripts for corporate clients (including Pick and Pay and Spur)
? copy for web sites
? a blog for the last two years (the Blah Blah Blog)
? a column in a local newspaper
That great unfinished novel keeps calling, and in between raising children, and endless moves from place to place, pages of words get scribbled down.
At the moment I write on a gold netbook with a butterfly cover. I sit on our wide white veranda, if the weather is fine, and there is only bird song anywhere near me.
I keep indoors mostly though, and its a battle to ‘show up at the page’. I distract myself with a floor that needs to be swept, or a cup of tea that must first be made.
The space around me must be silent, and preferably these days, absolutely only filled by me. Its a solitary thing. Lonely even.
Having a novel published is just about the only dream I have from childhood. The other precious details of my life, like having children, were things I, recklessly, assumed would happen, and they have.
Some years I hardly write, but like a true friend, when we meet again, the blank page and me, its like no time has passed at all.
So, if Destiny is a thing at all, then being a Wordsmith must be mine.
Words are food for me, of the most nourishing and sustainable kind. Delicious some are too of cause, and caustic, bitter, salty some, like tears.
Anyway, give me something to write, and I will.
Where it comes from , this writing down words, no one knows.
Its the strangest thing, but I feel all those sentences and paragraphs and characters, gathered around me like low lying clouds, just waiting to rain down words.
michelle@askthelocals.co.za
Are you looking for someone to do a write up for your business or accommodation establisment ? I can write a detailed , glowing review which can be as long or as short as you wan’t . Tell me a bit about your venture and I will do the rest. Please phone me at 044 3884659 all hours ,and we can discuss your needs
Another Dud.
Note to self: Nominated for….Winner of…..Shortlisted for…..is no guarantee
Didn’t take long to decide that this book was not working for me
A not to be believed pre-war thriller set aboard the Titanic.
Predictably both the hero and heroine make it through to the end of the book a bit battered and bruised, to complete the happy ending.
Readable but only just. I needed the help of Google to recall the story line of this book by Mark Billingham.
The unfolding plot is both clumsy and contrived. In particular, the attempt at an erotic twist in the tale. Inserted for impact rather than content, the punch line falls flat. Clumsy and puerile. Only suggested if there is nothing else to hand.
Short term temporary assignment. Contract staff