Sign up for our newsletters to receive our Most Anticipated Books of 2025!

Reviews by Cloggie Downunder

Power Reviewer  Power Reviewer

If you'd like to be able to easily share your reviews with others, please join BookBrowse.
Order Reviews by:
The Paperbark Shoe: A Novel
by Goldie Goldbloom
outstanding debut (5/24/2015)
“The tin roof of the Italian’s hut flashed like a semaphore at the clouds scudding over the moon, smoky white clouds, fraying at the edges, with deep purple bellies”

The Paperbark Shoe is the first novel by West Australian-born novelist and short story writer, Goldiemore
Academy Street
by Mary Costello
A remarkable debut novel. (5/12/2015)
“Another vocation, then, reading, akin, even, to falling in love, she thought, stirring, as it did, the kind of emotions and extreme feelings she desired, feelings of innocence and longing that returned her to those vaguely perfect states she had experienced as a child.”
more
Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen
by Mary Norris
informative, witty and very funny (4/22/2015)
“What is a semicolon, anyway?” Is it half a colon? Is it a period on top of a comma? Or an apostrophe that has been knocked down and pinned by a period?”

Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen is the first book by Mary Norris, who has been on the staff of The Newmore
Landline
by Rainbow Rowell
a real pleasure to read (4/22/2015)
Landline is the fourth novel by American author, Rainbow Rowell. L.A. TV comedy writer Georgie McCool has been married to Neal Grafton for fifteen years and has two sweet and adorable daughters, Alice and Noomi. But Georgie knows her marriage is broken. They still love eachmore
Unnatural Habits: A Phryne Fisher Mystery (Phryne Fisher Mysteries)
by Kerry Greenwood
excellent novel (4/22/2015)
Unnatural Habits is the nineteenth book in the popular Phryne Fisher series by Australian author, Kerry Greenwood. A chance encounter with a young female reporter for The Daily Truth in a laneway leads Phryne Fisher to investigate the disappearance of three pregnant girlsmore
A Man Called Ove
by Fredrik Backman
a stunning debut: moving, uplifting and very funny. (4/4/2015)
A Man Called Ove is the first novel by Swedish blogger and columnist, Fredrik Backman. At fifty-nine, Ove has definite ideas on how things should be done, on the best car to drive (obviously a Saab), and no patience for those who cannot follow the rules. The son of a hard-more
Legend Of A Suicide
by David Vann
An amazing debut. (3/24/2015)
“Watching the dark shadow moving before him, it seemed as this were what he had felt for a long time, that his father was something insubstantial before him and that if he were to look away for an instant or forget or not follow fast enough and will him to be there, hemore
The Three Incestuous Sisters: An Illustrated Novel
by Audrey Niffenegger
Different. (3/17/2015)
The Three Incestuous Sisters is the second “visual novel” by American author and artist, Audrey Niffenegger. The original books were hand printed: a limited edition of ten copies. The drawings are aquatints, featuring three sisters, Clothilde, Ophile and Bettine, who livemore
The Well
by Catherine Chanter
This thought-provoking novel is a brilliant debut. (3/10/2015)
“Elsewhere, people were squeezing the last six months into small spaces: bicycles onto the backs of campervans, mattresses onto the roofs of cars, sleeping bags into recycled supermarket carriers, saucepans stacked one into another like Russian dolls, inflatable watermore
Calling Me Home
by Julie Kibler
An impressive debut. (3/9/2015)
Calling Me Home is the first novel by American author, Julie Kibler. When eighty-nine-year-old Miss Isabelle asks her black hairdresser, Dorrie to drive her from Texas to Ohio, Dorrie realises it must be for a very good reason. Single mother of a teenaged boy and girl,more
Elizabeth Is Missing
by Emma Healey
a brilliant debut novel (2/28/2015)
“…I remember the town being almost too bright to look at when I was a girl. I remember the deep blue of the sky and the dark green of the pines cutting through it, the bright red of the local brick houses and the orange carpet of pine needles under our feet. Nowadays –more
Aquarium
by David Vann
Another excellent offering from David Vann. (2/25/2015)
“Like a leaf giving birth to stars………..Body of small green leaves, veined, very thin, its fins painted in light cast from elsewhere, but from his eye out his long snout, an eruption of galaxies without foreign source, born in the fish itself. An opening in the small fabricmore
The Buried Giant
by Kazuo Ishiguro
Quite unexpected. (2/3/2015)
“…for if we’re mortal let us at least shine handsomely in God’s eyes while we walk this earth!”

The Buried Giant is the seventh novel by award-winning Japanese author, Kazuo Ishiguro. Set in post-Arthurian Britain, it follows the journey of a Briton couple, Axl and Beatrice,more
The Seventh Day: A Novel
by Yu Hua
thought-provoking (1/27/2015)
The Seventh Day is the fifth novel by acclaimed Chinese novelist and essayist, Yu Hua. At forty-one, Yang Fei dies in an Eatery explosion, but, having no burial plot, and no-one to buy one for him, he eventually finds himself wandering in a sort of Limbo, the Land of themore
Funny Girl
by Nick Hornby
another brilliant dose of Hornby at his best (1/4/2015)
“What was he doing with her? How on earth could he love her? But he did. Or, at least, she made him feel sick, sad and distracted. Perhaps there was another way of describing that unique and useless combination of feelings, but ‘love’ would have to do for now”

Funny Girl ismore
The Kill Room: A Lincoln Rhyme Thriller
by Jeffery Deaver
Deaver page-turner (1/4/2015)
The Kill Room is the tenth full-length novel in the Lincoln Rhyme series by American author, Jeffery Deaver. Lincoln Rhyme, Amelia Sachs and the team are asked to assist in the case of an assassination, but the case has political implications. Assistant DA, Nance Laurel ismore
Elegy for Eddie: A Maisie Dobbs Novel
by Jacqueline Winspear
Another excellent Winspear mystery. (12/28/2014)
“Everything good has a dark side, even generosity. It can become overbearing, intimidating, even humiliating – and no one likes to think someone else is pulling the strings….”

Elegy For Eddie is the ninth book in the Maisie Dobbs series by British-born American author,more
The Crane Wife
by Patrick Ness
Quite magical. (12/21/2014)
“…a story …is a net, a net through which the truth flows. The net catches some of the truth, but not all, never all, only enough so that we can live with the extraordinary without it killing us”

The Crane Wife is the third stand-alone novel by American author, journalist andmore
A Lesson in Secrets: A Maisie Dobbs Novel
by Jacqueline Winspear
Another great read (12/15/2014)
A Lesson In Secrets is the eighth book in the Maisie Dobbs series by British-born American author, Jacqueline Winspear. After being (somewhat ineptly) followed for some ten days, psychologist and investigator, Maisie Dobbs finds herself recruited into the Secretmore
Fortunately, the Milk
by Neil Gaiman
A fun read. (12/14/2014)
Fortunately, The Milk is the fourth book for young readers by British author, Neil Gaiman. Mum’s away, Dad’s in charge and there’s no milk for breakfast. Dad pops down to the corner shop to get some, but seems to take forever to get back. He explains to his sceptical sonmore

Top Picks

  • Book Jacket: The Demon of Unrest
    The Demon of Unrest
    by Erik Larson
    In the aftermath of the 1860 presidential election, the divided United States began to collapse as ...

BookBrowse Book Club

Book Jacket
The Memory Library
by Kate Storey
Journey through the pages of this heartwarming novel, where hope, friendship and second chances are written in the margins.
Book Club Giveaway!
Win My Darling Boy

My Darling Boy by John Dufresne

The story of of a man whose son collapses into addiction and vanishes into the chaotic netherworld of southern Florida.

Enter

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

D T the B O W the B

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.