Tag: Australia

• Book Review: Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth

  What a wild ride of a book! I finished Mad Mabel last night and this morning I had to go back and read the last chunk of pages again. Just to be sure I had all the facts straight. This novel, the 11th by Australian author Sally Hepworth, is told in dual timelines, labeled “Then”…

  michardillo

  November 7, 2026

  books

  Australia, book-review, books, fiction, Fredrik Backman, Kathryn Stockett, literature, Mad Mabel, murder, My Friends, novel, reading, Sally Hepworth, St. Martin’s Press, The Calamity Club, writer, writing

• Book Review: Memorial Days by Geraldine Brooks

  For my second book of the new year I chose the beautiful yet painful Memorial Days: A Memoir by Geraldine Brooks, a book that details the death of her husband, the “love of her life,” in May of 2019. I remember reading about when Tony Horowitz died suddenly after collapsing on a sidewalk in Chevy…

  michardillo

  January 7, 2026

  books

  Australia, author, book-review, books, Chevy Chase, Delia Ephron, Flinders Island, Geraldine Brooks, grief, Horse, Left on Tenth, literature, Martha’s Vineyard, memoir, Memorial Days, mourning, nonfiction, novel, pain, Politics and Prose, Pulitzer Prize, reading, sorrow, Spying on the South, Tasmania, Tony Horwitz, writer, writing

• Book Review: Looking for You by Alexander McCall Smith

  Before there was Match.com, eHarmony.com, or Tinder.com, there were individuals or agencies that “made introductions,” much like the matchmakers of the old days, like Yenta in the famous Fiddler on the Roof. The underlying theme of Fiddler is one of the key words of the musical: tradition. In Alexander McCall Smith’s series A Perfect Passion…

  michardillo

  February 2, 2025

  books, Essay

  A Laborer in the Vineyard of Love, A Perfect Passion Company, Alexander McCall Smith, ARC, Australia, book-review, books, Canada, Cook for You, Edinburgh, fiction, gap year, Goodreads, literature, Looking for You, NetGalley, novel, reading, Scotland, series, writer