ms_tiahmarie's reviews
1089 reviews

This short story collection is told with a folktale flair, whose author allows the tone and 'voice' bend to suit each individual story. An enjoyable read. I 'dragged' the stories out as much as possible, inserting other books (romance novels) before moving on to the next story in attempts to savour this collection.

Interesting slices of SA life. Each story is told with a purpose: a message, moral or stand/view point.

I didn't like any of the characters, yet I polished it off in one night. The female narrator holds you at bay, while giving the impression of being honest of the events even if she has a bias. She is written to have traits more often associated with a man. Something about the tone had me thinking of 'We Need To Talk About Kevin.' Not that the stories have anything to do with each other. Perhaps it had something to do with the spectacularly dysfunction relationship between the partners.

My physio lent this to me. A simple fable based on an Athabascan legend. The author does a wonderful job of balancing the 'point' of the old tale while fleshing it out enough to make a short book. My physio loved the 'survive or die trying.' Think she was trying to tell me something.

Hear Me Alone displays tremendous growth in Mgqolozana's prose from his first book, A Man who is Not a Man, which was story driven.

Not that Hear Me Alone doesn't have a story, but it is one you've heard before - sort of. A re-telling of of a familiar Bible tale. Writers do like to play with The Book - the variations of Ruth, The Life of Brain, The Last Temptation of Christ (both book and film), The Red Tent and so on - and I like to read them.

A book you can dip in and out of. Her quips about the individual articles are sometimes better than the actual article. I enjoyed it. But readers beware - this is not a How to Be a Woman Part II, it is simply a collection of her work.

I never feel hip / cool / savvy enough when I read SL Grey. (Okay, this is only my second one, so the statement is a bit over the top.) Feel like passing the book out to a bunch of 19 year olds who might shun Orson Wells. Although this is more a commentary about our lives and values rather than government.

Off to make myself a warm cup to water now, with a slice of lemon whilst wearing a bed jacket.

Ahem.

Stunning: raw yet beautiful, real yet surreal, honest yet full of lies.

Atkinson has a real gift for quirky characters that I simply love. Yet, me and my weird - thing? - with crime / detective stories...I kept walking away from the book to read something else. Why do I do that? But I loved the details about the characters' lives, the relationships...different courses for horses and all that, I suppose.

This was fun. Plenty of belly laughs and smiles. Not a book I'd buy or read again, but sometimes a book like that is perfect.