Spin by Robert Charles Wilson — a review

There are times when I finish a book and feel uplifted, even joyous. At other times a book may plunge me into deep thought or introspection. Both of these reactions are fine by me and generally lead to reviews that are easy to write. The following review of…

The Queen’s Envoy by Lord David Prosser — a review

I have been reading at a breakneck pace lately and still have M.R.Mathias’ book to review but I simply could not resist writing about the Queen’s Envoy first. This is Lord Daud’s second book — although chronologically it comes before My…

Only the Innocent by Rachel Abbott

The blurb that accompanied ‘Only the Innocent’ raised questions about women who commit apparently perfect, cold-blooded murder so I was primed for a story about a psychopath. The fact that this psychopath was going to be a woman merely added a touch of spice to my…

The Sword and the Dragon — a review

I have waxed so many cats over this book that Warrandyte is now awash with naked, shivering felines who won’t come within spitting distance of me. So today I’m saying enough is enough. Today I will review M.R.Mathias’s The Sword and the Dragon.

SWTOR — first impressions

SWTOR [or Star Wars The Old Republic for the uninitiated] is one of the newest mmo’s to hit the internet and I began playing it just two days ago.

Yes, I know I should have been writing instead but honestly, SWTOR seems to be functioning more as a carrot…

Ian’s Story — a review

I finished reading Ian’s Story almost two weeks ago now and resisted the urge to review it straight away — not because I did not enjoy it but because I wanted to do it justice.

Quite frankly, my initial reaction to Ian’s Story was a sort of stunned ‘oh my god’…

The joys of procrastination

Following links in posts and other people’s blogs can lead to interesting destinations and ‘Cat Waxing — 101’ opened my eyes to a whole world of metaphor I’d previously missed [apparently ‘cat waxing’ is a metaphor for procrastination. ..].

And let there be…More Barsetshire Diary!

Here in Australia it’s Friday already and what better way of starting happy hour than by telling you all about ‘More Barsetshire Diary’, the third book by Lord David Prosser.

Bushfire season 2011/12 is over

I hope I haven’t jinxed myself but I honestly can’t see how a fire could hit Warrandyte now — the air is crisp and cool, the grass is a vibrant green and you can almost smell autumn in the air…oh wait, that could be alpaca poop.

Dead fox…why me?

I woke up this morning with great plans. I was going to do another review [now 3 behind] and then I was going to wrestle a particularly difficult chapter of the book into submission. Best laid plans and all that. Now it seems I’m going to have to spend the best part of the day digging a hole to…