cread | read & see

Today's cReview departs from newspaper literary sections and samples book reviews and literary articles from popular book review blogs and a think-tank site. Toby's Room by Pat Barker was reviewed by Jon Page at Bite The Book (also of Pages & Pages bookshop, Mosman) who thought the book paled in comparison to Barker's Regeneration trilogy, which was also First World War fiction. Page found it difficult to connect to the characters and wrote, “you don’t feel satisfied or engaged with what the novel was attempting to achieve.” Sharp Objects by Gllian Flynn was also reviewed by Bite The Book's Jon Page who was inspired to read Flynn's earlier work after enjoying the new release, Gone Girl .  Page found Sharp Objects, a crime mystery novel, to be disturbing, “but disturbing in an interesting way.” It was mostly the psychological and self-inflicted violence that got to him, Page reveals, with the novel set in small Missouri town which it is festering in gen...

Welcome back to Creaview, as we take a look at the weekend's book reviews from major publications across the globe. This week we'll drop in on the book sections of The Washington Post , Christianity Today and The Canberra Times . 500 Days by Kurt Eichenwald was reviewed by Dina Temple-Raston of The Washington Post . The book looks at the Bush administration's handling of the 18 months following September 11, 2001. Temple-Raston thought most of what the book covered was familiar ground, but she was won over and 500 Days compelling due to Eichenwald's “journalistic attention to detail.” The Book of Mormon Girl: A Memoir of an American Faith by Joanna Brooks was reviewed by John G Turner of the Post , who simply summarises the book, an autobiography by Morman Joanna Brook. Turner gives little indication as to his thoughts regarding the content or the quality of the book until the conclusion of his review: “Brooks’s sprightly yet thoughtful prose, her carefully con...

We're back with week two of Creview, reviewing the weekend reviews of another three newspapers. This week in honour of Melbourne Writers Festival we feature The Age , along with the UK's The Independent , and the Los Angeles Times .(And list the LA Time's bestsellers.) Nine Days by Toni Jordan was reviewed by Thuy On of The Age , who considered the use of nine characters' perspectives spanning a four generation time frame, a tad ambitious: “The novel feels like a series of postcards that offer colourful but tantalisingly brief episodes in the lives of nine individuals.” Kate Holden, also of The Age , reviewed Our Kind of People: Thoughts on the HIV/AIDS Epidemic by Uzodinma Iweala. Holden calls it a  “passionately argued lecture on survival, stigma, African (read: human) dignity and misconceived Western attitudes.” She comments on how it challenged her with its cranky tone while praising its beautifully drawn portraits of people of the people of whom Iweala write...

Creview is a weekly feature on Cread that will provide a quick summary of what literary and book sections from leading mastheads around the globe are reviewing each week – a collative exercise in reviewing the reviewer. This week it's The Sydney Morning Herald , The Guardian and The New York Times . Love Shy by Lili Wilkinson, published April 1, was reviewed by Aleesah Darlison of the SMH with the review little more than a synopsis of the protagonist's journey of self-discovery and a thumbs up from the reviewer. Also from the SMH , novelist Paul Auster's autobiography Winter Journal was reviewed by Thornton McCamish, who tells us that, “exactly who Auster is turns out to have very little to do with his career as a celebrated novelist and nothing to do with nostalgia.” Interesting to note: while this book got the attention of SMH on the weekend, where it was painted in a positive light, J Robert Lennon of The Guardian reviewed it last Wednesday and considered it...