It is somewhat bemusing to me that the book I decided to read on my long journey to Australia is one recommended by another American who has recently visited your shores.  Oprah Winfrey, a great advocate of reading, has picked two Charles Dickens classics to recommend to her admiring followers.  Although A Tale of Two Cities was one title she charged her book club members to read, I picked up a paperback edition at my library in blissful ignorance of Oprah’s endorsement.  My…

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This is another one of those books you describe with the hackneyed phrase, “I couldn’t put it down.” Although Cloudstreet and Tim Winton have been on the literary scene for some time now, this was my first introduction, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.



Cloudstreet follows the lives of two families, the Pickles and Lambs, as they share a dilapidated old mansion in postwar Perth. For the longest time I thought the oldest Pickles daughter, Rose, was the main character in the story, but as I… Continue