Book Choice - February 2017

"This happy hour: Andrew Marjoribanks, Wordsworth Books, gives us a bagful of the best in fiction and non-fiction. Beverley Roos Muller and Mike Fitzjames have Ireland in mind, Beverley with Emma Donaghue’s novel The Wonder, and Mike with John Banville’s Time Piece – A Dublin Memoir and Pete McCarthy’s hilarious McCarthy’s Bar. As always, Mike Fitzjames sets our nerves ajangle with thrillers, two this month by Karen Rose and Ian Rankin. Melvyn Minnaar reviews Historian Hermann Giliomee – An Autobiography. This is Giliomee’s colourful, controversial and feisty career in local history and politics. Jane Raphaely finds Petina Guppah’s The Book of Memory memorable. Jay Heale considers two very different books about human relationships, which he recommends as excellent reading for young adults. Vanessa Levenstein found more good reading for young adults in Alice Hoffman’s Faithful. Myrna Robins finds fine Africana in Yeomen of the Karoo: The Story of the Imperial Yeomanry Hospital at Deelfontein by Rose Willis, Arnold van Wyk and JC ‘Kay” de Villiers. Phillippa Cheifitz finds well seasoned reasons to rush to the kitchen in Reuben Riffel’s fourth cookbook – Reuben at Home, while Philip Todres finds joyfulness in The Book of Joy – Lasting Happiness in a Changing World by the Nobel Peace Prize Laureates His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso the 14th Dalai Lama and Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, with Douglas Carlton. Do stay with us for our easy-peasy competition to win one of two R200 Wordsworth Books vouchers. Andrew Marjoribanks, a bagful of good books here!"