Mt Roskill Grammar

229,041 pages read and 6,088 team points

Team members

Kāhui

2,269 pts

(1,657 pages read)

Great Expectations

By Charles Dickens

4 stars

My daughter still loves Dahl's "Matilda", so wanted me to read something that Matilda had read... so I read this to her these holidays (I assume reading aloud still counts)... I may have had to make a few substitutions between the text and the aural version on the fly. Obviously a classic. I actually can't remember reading it earlier, and this physical copy has had a long life already. Wonderful and curious. I do think reading a physical book that is actually older than me deserves a few points... this one has certainly had some hands on it! :)
Companion piece

By Ali Smith

5 stars

Brilliant, as usual from Smith. Set during the time of lock downs. A woman looks after her sick father's dog while he is hospitalised. A stranger from university thirty years ago calls. There is a large bird. Etc. The play with words is magical, you will especially love it if you find a little etymology charming, I do.
Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman

By Elizabeth Buchan

3 stars

I found this book in one of those little free libraries/cupboards found on streets and thought it might suit my friend for Christmas (no expense spared). But I am loathe to give a book that I couldn’t stomach myself, so read it. I enjoyed it. All the characters are more than two dimensional, everyone does or has done things they shouldn’t have, there are no happy endings, just continuing to live while you can. I think the author often writes romances, this is not that. Warm reality-ish. 3 1/2
Delirious

By Damien Wilkins

5 stars

Wonderful. One of the best books I have read in a long while. An older couple is doing their best to walk through their later years and the family tragedies/situations that have shaped them as the rest home beckons. Every character is gently flawed and knowable. You will love Mary and Pete. I would encourage you to try reading it rather than reading reviews of it.
Six Clever Girls Who Became Famous

By Fiona Farrell

4 stars

Another book I picked up free from a local free library cupboard on some walk. The first chapter is all about the six characters as young teenagers, wonderful rendering of being female and the dramas (real and imagined) of growing up. Then you meet them again, "all grown up", and draw lines between the two stages. Although the writing is of a particular era, the feelings and yearnings are not dated. Recommended and you're welcome to my copy!

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Mt Roskill Grammar

229,041 pages read and 6,088 team points

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