Judith Lucy I enjoyed her previous books - The Lucy Family Alphabet and Drink, Smoke, Pass Out. I could relate to a disfunctional family. It was told with humour and self deprecation. This one is heavy, with fewer jokes between the self examination....

John Wyndham I love Day of the Triffids and picked this collection of short stories up from a used book store for 50c. Science fiction is the only genre I like the short story format. For other genrres I want to know the characters longer. For Sci-f...

Marianne de Pierres It was hard to get into this one, as like most science fiction, you are plonked in a future reality  you have to comprehend. But once I got into it I really enjoyed it. Good Sci-Fi concepts, good characters. I enjoyed the wa...

Cythia Saltzman. This was a fascinating read, starting with van Gogh's life himself and then working the way thorugh all the owners of the portrait, right through to the Japanese ownner in 1990 that paid $82.5 million for it. The first couple of own...

Tim Dean I thougth this would be like other non fiction books I have read on this topic, like Mismatch by Giphart. But instead of being a scientest or hoistrian Dean is a philosopher. So it lacked as many anededotes as i am used too. It was a well c...

Irvine Welsh This felt like a poor mans Patrick Bateman. Replace wall street with english cop. You did not relate or empathise with the self centred misogynistic character, its like watching a car crash. It does not have the sharpness or the existen...

Simon Winchester One of my favourite non fiction writers, easy to read and accessible information. The gold rush era of San Franciso through to the 1906 fire and beyond. Exploration of the science earthquakes and tectonic plates in general. Then bal...

Terry Pratchett For me this seemed ot be two novels mashed together. The Australian side is very enjoyable because I can relate to it. Then the Unseen University professors in an alternate reality is some ncie science fixtion. It lacked the coheranc...

Elizabeth O'Connor I am so used to these old books about settlement and toughh times on the allotment being funny. This one was not, it had its moments, but certainly not like the other books I have read. This one was beautifully written and we sha...

Julia Blackburn I thought this would be another one of those travel books about Europe. Like A Year in Provence. Not so much. This is set in northern Italy in rugged high mountains and details the live of some of its elderly residents. Life was toug...

Richard Conniff I love this period in time, the emergence of the amateur naturalist. Both at home and then heading off on perilous jounreys. Those intrepid adveturers obsessed with the next species. Then trying to categories them. Then the expansion...

Terry Pratchett I love the Rincewind adventures. Other readers get their favourites from the guards or the witches, and I enjoy them too, but Pratchett did a remarkable job in these first two. They reminded me of other fantasy adventures, two charac...

Richard Glover I started this thinking it was a glowing recount of better times in Australia. Lifetime jobs, houses and cars for eveyone, kids playing outside. It did have that, but it was mainly removing our nostalgia glasses. What it was really li...

Terry Pratchett This is my second reading. It is another Tiffany Aching adventure with the witches. It is just what I needed and is a light, funny, interesting read. Love Pratchett....

Brian Christian & Tom Griffiths Interesting concept. I tend to treat algorithms as something we create to make computer processing easier, to gte a job done on a computer. But in fact over time we develop better and better methods. Then there is...

John Grisham The first half of this book was slow. I think the only other book of Grishams I have read was The Firm, I loved it, great suspense and face paced. This one was okay once it got started. Some insightas into prison life and running from t...

Oliver Sacks This one sat on my bookshelf for a long time. I think I was intimidated by the authors intellect. But he has such an engaging curiosity that you are caught up in the story. It is a glimpse into how a neurologist works. Their investigati...

Chris Guillebeau I had read Chris' art of non conformity and thought this one was worth a try. These start up writers and zealous distrupturers are just book/course/newsletter salesmen. This is their job. We are enabling their lifestyle. That 'salt...

John Larkin This is a light, funny travel book. John is an Australian resident having moved from England with his family as a child. Ireland, or the idea of Ireland, increases its pull on him in mid life. He makes a pilgrimage for 1 years. But it i...

Kitty Ferguson This one has sat on my shelf for a little while. I was a bit daubted by it. But it was really accessible. It is a great combination of history, physics, maths, and wonders of the universe. It is a great example of the scientific metho...

Brian Stableford This book had excellent nanotech ideas. I like the pursuit of eternal life, the examination of overpopulation, corporations with long lived humans. I like that we were transported to the future and then the transistion from now to t...

Arthur C. Clarke Arthur C. Clarke has an infectious wonder for space. This is his first published novel. It explores the preparation for a trip to the moon. Published in 1951, 18 years before we actually landed on the moon. It is a fascinating story...

Terry Pratchett Pratchett books make me so happy, he has found his sweat spot here. Not my absolute favourite book of his but does everything right. Examines philosophic issues around being human, science ideas, interesting characters, and always fu...

Willian Gibson & Bruce Sterling I bought this for Gibson but with the collaboration I did not see much of him and set in 1855 it lacked the future computer ideas I liked in his work. It is a Victorian steam punk thriller. It was exciting with g...

Douglas Rushkoff This book made me feel sad and helpless. To begin with it read like a propaganda piece, very one sided, but over time I saw the truth in this perspective. The pervasiveness of coprorations and how that mentality has become a part of...

Adrian Plass I read this book and others in the series when I was yonger and still a Christian. I remember it being very funny and it has still held up. It has a lovely family dynamic with the son and wife great characters. The church members are go...

Peter Spann I read this over 15 years ago. If I applied the prinicpals I would be twice a multi millionaire (just jokes). I was inspired when I read it then and I was again now. It is an easy read and feels like some stories were adjusted to fill th...

Terry Pratchett Loved it. I really like the witches characters, Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg, and Magrat. They are off to save a girl from marrying a prince this time. Instead of Cinderella we have Embers. Instead of Casanova we have Casanunda, beca...