Blog Archive

1 September 2025

Michael Duffy's latest book published today!

It’s Booker shortlist month and I have three longlisted books I am going to try to read before the shortlist is announced on 23 September: Universality by Natasha Brown, Endling by Maria Reva, and Flesh by David Szalay. I’m hoping at least one of them makes the shortlist so I have one book to follow without starting again!

But for today, our more important news is that Michael Duffy’s latest book in the Bella Greaves series, Death in the Gardens, is published this morning. You can read my review for the book by clicking on the links in the titles for Death in the Gardens.

Michael Duffy is a local author (to us) and has contributed a major project to this site, Michael Duffy Interviews the Great Writers.

Michael’s latest book sees a murder take place in the beautiful gardens of Everglades in Leura, designed by Paul Sorenson in the 1930s. The house and gardens of Everglades are a place for artists and writers to work, a tourist attraction, and they also cater for live outdoor theatre, weddings and other functions. Now they have also hosted a murder!

There are links to other reviews of Michael’s books in this series at the end of the Death in the Gardens review. Simply click the book covers. And if you think the covers are beautiful and unusual for crime fiction, you might be interested to know that Michael’s wife, Alex, paints and designs all the covers.

You can find out more about Michael and his work – and you can even purchase his books – by visiting his site, authormichaelduffy.com.au.

If you are a Blue Mountains resident and would be interested to hear Michael speak (or will be in the Blue Mountains), Michael is speaking with local garden luminary Mary Moody at Everglades Gardens on 21 September. More information can be found by clicking here.

- bikerbuddy

8 September 2025

A Father's Day Present

In Australia, Father’s Day falls on the first Sunday of September each year. My eldest son, who is in Minnesota at the moment, sent me a heartfelt message via Facebook Messenger yesterday afternoon: “Happy Father’s Day mate innit”. My heart was warmed to think that he remembered me. He is a man of few words but with feelings that run deep!

My other son has recently moved out of home for good, after he bought a house with his girlfriend, Tamara. Jenny and I met up with them for dinner last night, and I spoke at length with Tamara about books while dinner and drinks were being ordered, since I know nothing about football (is it still football season?)

They bought me this wonderful edition of R.F. Kuang’s Ketabasis for Father’s Day. I have read and reviewed two of Kuang’s other books, Babel and Yellowface, and I had been eyeing Ketabasis in the shops and wondering whether I should buy it, or be restrained and think about all I have still waiting to be read. So, I was restrained. But the issue of an ongoing temptation has now been resolved. I suspect Tamara had an influence on the choice of book. She met R.F. Kuang after an author talk in Sydney a while ago. She had her books signed and the author commented that Tamara had a nice dress. So, I think that makes them ‘besties’.

But like many other books, Katabasis will have to wait. I am committed in my mind to reading some specific books over the next few months, including books from the Booker Prize Longlist (some of which I hope will make it into the shortlist), as well as local author Chris McGillion’s new book, The Island’s Vengeful Dead, along with a continued reading of Homer’s Odyssey.

- bikerbuddy

11 September 2025

I'm not paranoid - algorithms don’t spy on people (do they?)

How did she know?

I was finalising the review for Maria Reva’s Endling yesterday afternoon. Part of the story is about the romance/marriage industry in Ukraine. Western men take tours specifically designed to find a Slavic wife. For roughly two weeks the men meet with women and go on ‘dates’ and participate in activities together as a group. Maria Reva wanted to write about this when she started her novel and expose stereotypes of Ukrainian women as compliant and quiet. Those who have read reviews on this site will know there is often extra material in the right sidebar or links to other websites. For this reason, I started doing searches like ‘Ukrainian women’ and ‘Ukrainian romance tours’ on my computer. I was able to find an excellent article on the romance trade in Ukraine, specifically. I was very happy with the result.

This morning when I checked Facebook on my iPad the first post on my feed was of an attractive woman at the edge of a pool with the heading ‘Slavic Women’.

This is, of course, merely a coincidence.

- bikerbuddy

24 September 2025

Booker Prize Shortlist 2025

I only just finished reviewing the three books I purchased from this year’s Booker Prize Longlist before the Shortlist was announced this morning (Sydney time). My method for choosing the three I reviewed was this: I read over the descriptions on the Booker Prize site, decided what sounded appealing to me and then picked two, Endling by Maria Reva and Universality by Natasha Brown. The third purchase, Flesh by David Szaley, was a spontaneous decision while I was in the shop.

The result: neither of the two books I picked made the shortlist. I didn’t think Universality would, but I had picked Endling as the most likely of the three. Shows you what I know. Of the three books, Endling was the least conventional in structure and was a little experimental. Maybe that was part of the reason. Roddy Doyle, himself a past Booker winner, is chair of this year’s judging panel, and he has stated, “I’ve read novels where I’ve often felt to myself, ‘If there was a little less showing off, there would be a good story there,’ and I don’t think any of these books [chosen for the Shortlist] show off.” Endling is a bit showy. Maybe that was it. Maybe I just like show-offs?

I finished reviewing Flesh, my spontaneous purchase, just a few days ago. I thought it was an accomplished novel, although in a conversation I had with someone who had read it, I could see how it wouldn’t appeal to everyone. I tried to incorporate that thought into my review while at the same time discussing why I thought the novel was good. I already know that some people would disagree about what I had to say about the novel.

I’m not sure if I will review any more books from this year’s Shortlist before the winner is announced on 10 November. I’ve just got out from under the self-imposed time pressure of reviewing the last three. I’ve twice reviewed the entire Shortlist before since starting this site and I found it to be worthwhile. Whether I try to do that or come someway short of doing that again may, in part, depend on how close I come to being in a bookshop during the next month and how much restraint I have.

This is a list of the six Shortlisted books. Book descriptions are taken from the Booker Prize site:

FleshDavid Szalay

Fifteen-year-old István lives with his mother in a quiet apartment complex in Hungary. New to the town and shy, he is unfamiliar with the social rituals at school and soon becomes isolated, with his neighbour – a married woman close to his mother’s age – as his only companion. Their encounters shift into a clandestine relationship that István barely understands, and his life soon spirals out of control.

As the years pass, he is carried gradually upwards on the 21st century’s tides of money and power, moving from the army to the company of London’s super-rich, with his own competing impulses for love, intimacy, status and wealth winning him unimaginable riches, until they threaten to undo him completely.

The Land in WinterAndrew Miller

December 1962, the West Country.

Local doctor Eric Parry, mulling secrets, sets out on his rounds, while his pregnant wife sleeps on in the warmth of their cottage. Across the field, funny, troubled Rita Simmons is also asleep, her head full of images of a past life her husband prefers to ignore. He’s been up for hours, tending to the needs of the small dairy farm where he hoped to create a new version of himself, a project that’s already faltering.

But when the ordinary cold of an English December gives way to violent blizzards, the two couples find their lives beginning to unravel.

The Rest of Our LivesBen Markovits

What’s left when your kids grow up and leave home?

When Tom Layward’s wife had an affair, he resolved to leave her as soon as his youngest daughter turned 18. Twelve years later, while driving her to Pittsburgh to start university, he remembers his pact.

He is also on the run from his own health issues, and the fact that he’s been put on leave at work after students complained about the politics of his law class – something he hasn’t yet told his wife.

So, after dropping Miriam off, he keeps driving, with the vague plan of visiting various people from his past - an old college friend, his ex-girlfriend, his brother, his son - on route, maybe, to his father’s grave in California.

AuditionKatie Kitamura

Two people meet for lunch in a Manhattan restaurant. She’s an accomplished actress in rehearsals for an upcoming premiere. He’s attractive, troubling, young – young enough to be her son. Who is he to her, and who is she to him?

The Loneliness of Sonia and SunnyKiran Desai

When Sonia and Sunny first glimpse each other on an overnight train, they are immediately captivated, yet also embarrassed by the fact that their grandparents had once tried to matchmake them, a clumsy meddling that only served to drive Sonia and Sunny apart.

Sonia, an aspiring novelist who recently completed her studies in the snowy mountains of Vermont, has returned to her family in India, fearing she is haunted by a dark spell cast by an artist to whom she had once turned for intimacy and inspiration. Sunny, a struggling journalist resettled in New York City, is attempting to flee his imperious mother and the violence of his warring clan. Uncertain of their future, Sonia and Sunny embark on a search for happiness together as they confront the many alienations of our modern world.

FlashlightSusan Choi

One evening, 10-year-old Louisa and her father take a walk out on the breakwater. They are spending the summer in a coastal Japanese town while her father Serk, a Korean émigré, completes an academic secondment from his American university. When Louisa wakes hours later, she has washed up on the beach and her father is missing, probably drowned.

The disappearance of Louisa’s father shatters their small family unit. As Louisa and her American mother Anne return to the US, this traumatic event reverberates across time and space, and the mystery of what really happened to Serk slowly unravels.

- bikerbuddy