Death of a River Guide

Death of a River Guide, Richard Flanagan, 1994

  • Australia, #22
  • Paperback, Alibris.com, $0.99
  • Read January 2015
  • Rating: 3.5/5
  • Opening line: As I was born the umbilical cord tangled around my neck and I came into the world both arms flailing, unable to scream and thereby take in the air necessary to begin life outside of the womb, being garrotted by the very thing that had until that time succoured me and given me life.
  • Recommended for: Reading breaks between fever dreams

Read on for the full review

Picnic at Hanging Rock

Picnic at Hanging Rock, Joan Lindsay, 1967

  • Australia, #14
  • Kindle, £4.37
  • Read March 2014
  • Rating 4/5
  • Opening line: “Everyone agreed that the day was just right for the picnic to Hanging Rock – a shimmering summer morning warm and still, with cicadas shrilling all through breakfast from the loquat trees outside the dining-room windows and bees murmuring above the pansies bordering the drive.”
  • Recommended for: proper young ladies who read Patricia Highsmith and Daphne du Maurier, have a secret love of Unsolved Mysteries, and appreciate the pathos of the opening scene of Carrie but find the rest of the movie lacking in subtlety

Read on for the full review