Book Recommendations Archives

An intrepid African safari guide sets out to discover all he can about the wildlife of the South American continent in a hilarious book about walking pumas (can be dangerous), chasing jaguars (can be elusive) and finding love (can be tricky). Not content with regular encounters with dangerous animals on one continent, Peter Allison decided to get up close and personal with some seriously scary ... Read more

Learn to bake with Britain’s favourite women’s fiction author, Marian Keyes… Saved by Cake gives an extremely honest account of Marian Keyes’ recent battle with depression, and how baking has helped her. A complete novice in the kitchen, Marian decided to bake a cake for a friend and that was it – she realized that baking was what she needed to do in order to get h... Read more

In this highly anticipated follow-up to her award winning first novel, Good to a Fault, Marina Endicott tackles the fascinating world of vaudeville in it’s hey day of the early 20th century. The Little Shadows is itself something of a variety act, at turns tragic and comedic, melodramatic and risqué. It is a theatrical performance of a book, written in four acts and separated by an overture, in... Read more

You know you have found a really special book when reading it gives you shivers. This is especially true when you happen to be reading the book in weather conditions far more conducive to sweltering than shivering. I took Eowyn Ivey’s The Show Child on holiday with me. I read it in surroundings that could not be further removed from the book’s ice-cold, Alaskan setting. And yet despite the fact... Read more

For many parents there is a point, not long after New Years Day, when the long summer school holidays stop being fun. By then the kids have played with, broken or got bored with their Christmas presents, and the weather is too hot, too wet, too cold, too perfect for them to go outside. Parents know what I mean. Suddenly the TV is boring, the Internet is boring, video games are boring, the kids ... Read more

Newest MasterChef sensation, and Country Women’s Association cake champion’s secrets shared! One of life’s simple pleasures is the lingering aroma of a freshly baked cake, especially one you have made yourself. Cooks everywhere are rediscovering the satisfaction that comes from old-fashioned baking at home. And in this delectable world of cakes, scones, sponges and puddings, one home cook... Read more

I picked up The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. I am totally devastated by this book. I cried when I read it, and I never cry. You don’t want to throw around phrases like “instant classic,” but I can see this book sitting next to The Catcher in the Rye. It’s that good. Lev Grossman, author of The Magicians and The Magician King [youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_FzrUXOZEc&rel=0] NB... Read more

 The Booktopia Book Guru asks Eowyn Ivey author of The Snow Child Ten Terrifying Questions  ————————— 1. To begin with why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself – where were you born? Raised? Schooled? I was born in Denver, Colorado, but have spent my entire life since I was a very small child in Alaska. I attended public schoo... Read more

‘People like us … have different rights, different values than do ordinary people because we have different needs which put us … above their moral standards.’ — Modigliani Amedeo (‘Beloved of God’) Modigliani was considered to be the quintessential bohemian artist, his legend almost as infamous as van Gogh’s. In Modigliani’s time, his work was seen as an oddity: contemporary with the Cubists bu... Read more

Marianne de Pierres author of Burn Bright, Angel Arias and The Sentients of Orion series reveals… The 5 best novels I read this year are… Faithful Place by Tana French Marianne de Pierres: Tana French is a relatively new Irish crime writer with only three novels released to date. With each book she goes from strength to strength, and this, her third novel delivers superior characterisation and ... Read more