They did it with love by Kate Morgenroth

  This was a Desperate Housewives mystery (with a twist) which centres around a mystery-only book club in a wealthy suburb in Connecticut! I loved the chapter titles run monthly (almost) and focusse…

Tagged: murder, mystery, people, rich, clubs

Started by Jenni Wong in Fiction A-Z (General) Feb 7.

The Soul Of A New Machine - Tracy Kidder

This picture of the team that built Data General's Eagle minicomputer was taken in March 1980, a few weeks before the machine shipped under its market name, the MV/8000. - Wired magazine This Puli…

Tagged: machines, engineers, computing, computers, technology

Started by Bern in Non-fiction Feb 6.

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

The Grapes of Wrath is set in the 1930s during the Great Depression. The story describes the journey of the Joad family, who are forced to leave their farm because of severe drought and travel to Cal…

Started by Tuesday evening book club in Historical Feb 3.

Marching Powder : a true story of friendship, cocaine, and South America's strangest jail by Rusty Young

This book was an excellent account of one of the strangest places on earth.  Entertaining, riveting, it is a must-read for any back-packer.

Started by Read, Review & Win in Non-fiction Feb 3.

All about "All about Eve" : the complete behind-the-scenes story of the bitchiest film ever made by Sam Staggs

400 pages on the movie "All About Eve"; an overstretch of at least 200 pages.  It feels laboured and slightly fraudulent - even the origins of the character Eve don't ring true.  One good point is th…

Started by Read, Review & Win in Non-fiction Feb 3.

Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell - a review by a Mosman Reader

A classic I missed in younger days and quite delightful.  Mrs Gaskell gives a most intimate view of life in Victorian England with a gentle humour.  She depicts a struggle to survive in a tight-laced…

Started by Read, Review & Win in Fiction A-Z (General) Feb 3.

China's great train : Beijing's drive west and the campaign to remake Tibet by Abrahm Lustgarten - a review by a Mosman reader

 For anyone interested in Modern China, Abrahm Lustgarten's book is an essential read.  It paints broad and intimate pictures of the PRC's policies and people caught up in them, whilst telling the re…

Started by Read, Review & Win in Non-fiction Feb 2.

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger - a review by a Mosman reader

            A crisply structured, well-paced novel full of intense scenes followed by rather banal descriptions of American daily life.  Pleasantly improbable like the best of Hollywood blockbusters,…

Started by Read, Review & Win in Fiction A-Z (General) Feb 1.

Good plain cook by Belthan Roberts

Supposedly set in 1936, where 19 year old Kitty answers an ad for a "good plain cook, broad outlook essential" to work in an "artistic household" in Sussex. Kitty doesn't let the small fact that she…

Tagged: Sussex, bohemian, relationships, England, rural

Started by Jenni Wong in Fiction A-Z (General) Jan 28.

The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science - Richard Holmes

The story of the men and women who made necessary the coining of a new word - 'scientist' - first inscribed in the Oxford English Dictionary in 1840. The principle players are Joseph Banks, William H…

Tagged: science, god, astronomy, chemistry, history

Started by Bern in Biography Jan 22.