I WAS feeling pretty down the other day. In fact, on a scale of 1 to Adele, I was truly miserable. Unlike the angst-ridden singer, for me it wasn’t a case of love gone wrong, though. It was far worse – I’d been beaten by a word. That doesn’t happen to me very often. Actually, [...]

… by Edward Kelsey Moore Reviewed for NewYork Journal of Books by Stevie Godson A CLUTCH of husbands, wayward and otherwise, a vicious small-town bigot, and even a couple of benign ghosts – including a most unladylike Eleanor Roosevelt – are among the characters who inhabit the pages of professional cellist Edward Kelsey Moore’s enchanting debut novel. [...]

Reviewed for New York Journal of Books by Stevie Godson IT’S not very often that I agree with book “blurbs,” which tend to be embarrassingly over-the-top paeans of praise for the contents, encouraged (paid for?) by the publisher and presumably approved by the author. The blurb for this book, though, underplays its awesomeness. Grant Ginder’s [...]

…  A Field Guide to the Hearts and Minds of Readers Everywhere by Lauren Leto Reviewed by Stevie Godson FROM the minute I saw the title of Lauren Leto’s latest book, I was hooked – or, at least, I wanted to be. It first floated tantalisingly into my view on a list of titles sent [...]

by Constance Hale Reviewed for New York Journal of Books by Stevie Godson VERBS, reckons author Constance Hale, run deep in our DNA. And yes, she says, you should take her literally because “the human version of the FOXP2 gene gives us our capacity for speech and therefore for verbs”. Well, okay, but by that reckoning [...]

Reviewed for New York Journal of Books by Stevie Godson AN ELDERLY actor explores the nature of memory as he reminisces about the two great events of his life: his seduction at age 15 by a 35-year-old housewife, and the loss, by suicide, of his only daughter. Sadly, the most extraordinary aspect of Man Booker [...]

IT’S logical really. If the cradle of humankind is in Africa – right here in South Africa, in fact – then it follows that language also began on our continent. And, guess what? A new study has discovered just that. According to Dr Quentin Atkinson, from the University of Auckland in New Zealand, every single [...]

I’M A bookaholic. Have been ever since I learned my ABC. My folks even had to hide all the torches away so I didn’t spend all night reading under the bedcovers. The beloved once made a futile attempt to ban me from buying any more books – he reckoned the walls were on the verge [...]

IF ACTIONS speak louder than words, then integrious actions speak even louder. And even though that strange adjective fell out of favour – and dictionaries – decades ago, it certainly fits the old adage. So as everything around us – not just here but globally – seems to be falling apart, thanks in no small [...]