General – Hellobooks.co.za

Close to Home – Cayleigh Bright

Anna Howcroft — Sun, 29 Apr 2018 10:40:44 +0000

“Close to Home” is a novel of mystery and intrigue. The sudden death of popular classmate Clarence has a wealthy and indulgent group of friends suspecting that he didn’t take his own life. Their disbelief evolves into obsession as they make it their mission to uncover the true cause of his death and what they believe to be a homicide. In the tradition of Bret Easton Ellis and Donna Tartt, “Close to Home” gives us an unsettling glimpse into the intimate workings of a group of affluent young people – charismatic, restless, and, as it turns out, deeply destructive to those around them

The People We Hate at the Wedding – Grant Ginde

Anna Howcroft — Wed, 24 Jan 2018 16:24:01 +0000

Paul and Alice’s half-sister Eloise is getting married! In London! There will be fancy hotels, dinners at “it” restaurants and a reception at a country estate complete with tea lights and embroidered cloth napkins. They couldn’t hate it more. The People We Hate at the Wedding is the story of a family. Donna, the clan’s mother, is now a widow living in the Chicago suburbs with a penchant for the occasional joint and more than one glass of wine with her best girlfriend while watching House Hunters International. Alice is in her thirties, single, smart, beautiful, stuck in a dead-end job where she is mired in a rather predictable, though enjoyable affairwith her married boss. She might just like her klonopin prescription a bit too much. Her brother Paul lives in Philadelphia with his older, handsomer, tenured track Penn professor boyfriend who’s recently been saying things like “monogamy is an oppressive heteronormative construct,” while eyeing his lacrosse bro undergrads. Paul works for a famous “immersive” psychologist – sadistically forcing people to confront their own fears day in and day out. He hates it. And then there’s Eloise. Perfect, gorgeous, cultured Eloise. The product of Donna’s first marriage to the dashing European playboy of the Western World Henrique, Eloise has spent her school years at the best private boarding schools, her winter holidays in St. John and a post-college life cushioned by a fat, endless trust fund. You can’t even, with her, can you?

Return to Corriebush – Lynn Bedford Hall

Anna Howcroft — Sun, 21 Jan 2018 12:58:55 +0000

To anyone who has read or owns a copy of “Fig Jam and Foxtrot”, this sequel will be welcomed with open arms. Once again, the gentle kind-hearted but nosey women of Corriebush get together for a cup of tea, a slice of cake and a gossip, and along the way present the reader with four more stories and over 90 delectable recipes. This is a book to be savoured and enjoyed while reading the heart-warming stories about Flora the retired nurse, Jacoba the pianist, and Estrelita the trapeze artist, or the tragic fact-based tale of Sara, a young Voortrekker girl. Share with friends and family one of Lynn’s superb dishes, tailored to suit today’s tastes – how about Tomato Tartlets with Olives, Pesto and Pecorino, or what about Savoury Lamb Chops or Roasted Peaches? And to those readers who have yet to experience the people, stories and food of this small Karoo town, pull up a chair, put up your feet, and enjoy!
“Return to Corriebush” was the Gourmand World Cookbook Award Winner in the category Best Cookbook

Dutch Courage – Paige Nick

Anna Howcroft — Wed, 17 Jan 2018 15:05:06 +0000

Grace has led a pretty sheltered life. So when her sister begs her to take her place as a Rihanna impersonator at a club in Amsterdam, no alarm bells go off … until she finds herself onstage in the city’s famous red-light district with only a pole for support and her knickers in a knot.

Thrown into strip-club life, and forced to share an apartment with an exotic troupe of impersonating divas with Lady Gaga-sized egos, Grace has to learn some hard lessons fast. One: living with Marilyn Monroe and Madonna isn’t easy. And two: transformations don’t happen overnight – especially when your bra is determined to sabotage your dance routine

Lessons in Husbandry -Shaida Kazie Ali

Anna Howcroft — Wed, 29 Nov 2017 11:27:13 +0000

Shaida Kazie Ali writes with a delicate poetic touch that tempers sorrow with humour.

The novel is an enticing synthesis of mystery, eulogy, playful feminist tract and romance – and it is the central love story and sense of promise and liberation it offers which provide succour from grief for both protagonist and reader

The Institute For Taxi Poetry – Imraan Coovadia

Anna Howcroft — Wed, 29 Nov 2017 10:45:46 +0000

Solly Greenfields, the first of the taxi poets, has been shot dead. At the Institute for Taxi Poetry, where they train young people to write poetry on the bodywork of Cape Town’s taxis, Solly’s protege Adam Ravens tries to make sense of his death. Who killed Solly, and why is Adam’s son acting so weird? In the world of Imraan Coovadia’s new tragicomic novel taxi companies thrive in a single-party state. Taxi poets are admired, sliding-door men rule, professors and politicians strut and fret and connive in a society shaped by violence and ambition, love, and the unsettling power of the imagination

The Treasure Punt – Peter Christie

Anna Howcroft — Sun, 12 Nov 2017 08:26:12 +0000

“The Treasure Punt” is a delightfully-written and illustrated book in which corporate storyteller and human resources strategist Peter Christie uses the anecdotal form to bring home some important lessons for those on both sides of the job market: recruiters and people looking to be recruited. Christie’s central metaphor is that of a pirate Captain (Captain Black-bug), representing a leader of a company, who sails the seven seas on his ship (The Bountiful), looking for treasure. Along the way Black-bug encounters many adventures, each of which teaches him something about making the best of his crew, and experiences, to maximise his material gain. If you read The Treasure Punt as a recruiter, you will find some powerful tools for bringing the right talent on-board in your organisation, and if you are a candidate, for making yourself a desirable workplace treasure

The Art of Unpacking Your Life – Shireen Jilla

Anna Howcroft — Wed, 08 Nov 2017 10:06:54 +0000

Twenty years ago, they were the best of friends. When Connie invites her university gang on the holiday of a lifetime, a safari in the Kalahari, they have little in common anymore. Is getting them back together a terrible mistake?

Connie is lonely. With her children at secondary school and an ambitious MP husband, who is regularly adulterous, she is searching for her own purpose in life. She feels insecure next to Sara, a driven, defiantly single barrister, and has conflicted feelings towards her old flame, the freshly-divorced Luke, whose own secrets threaten to overwhelm him.

Despite the undercurrent of tension, they are drawn into the adventure and begin to enjoy each other once more, a million miles away from their daily concerns. They finally have space to explore what really matters to them. But a series of events and revelations bring new challenges to the group

The Nix – Nathan Hill

Anna Howcroft — Thu, 02 Nov 2017 13:22:44 +0000

Meet Samuel: stalled writer, bored teacher at a local college, obsessive player of online video games. He hasn’t seen his mother, Faye, in decades, not since she abandoned her family when he was a boy. Now she has suddenly reappeared, having committed an absurd politically motivated crime that electrifies the nightly news, beguiles the Internet, and inflames a divided America. The media paints Faye as a radical hippie with a sordid past, but as far as Samuel knows, his mother was an ordinary girl who married her high-school sweetheart. Which version of his mother is true? Two facts are certain: she’s facing some serious charges, and she needs Samuel’s help. As Samuel begins to excavate his mother’s – and his country’s – history, the story moves from the rural Midwest of the 1960s, to New York City during Occupy Wall Street, back to Chicago in 1968 and, finally, to wartime Norway, home of the mysterious Nix. Samuel will unexpectedly find that he has to rethink everything he ever knew about his mother – a woman with an epic story of her own, a story she has kept hidden from the world

Capture – Roger Smith

Anna Howcroft — Tue, 17 Oct 2017 12:25:17 +0000

Nick is the man who has it all – or so it seems. But that can change in a second: his young daughter tries to get his attention but he’s busy – smoking a joint – so she decides to rescue her toy boat from the water herself. Vernon, watching from the distance, sees her slip and fall, but chooses to do nothing – until it’s too late. An ex-cop, now a security guard, Vernon promises to make sure Nick doesn’t get into trouble, but Vernon is only thinking of himself, and Nick doesn’t realise until he’s in too deep to get out. Taut and uncompromising, Capture is a stark reminder that, sometimes, one moment is all it takes. Roger Smith was born in Johannesburg, South Africa. A screenwriter, producer and director, his award-winning first thriller, Mixed Blood, was published in six countries. Both Mixed Blood and his second book, Wake Up Dead, are currently in development as feature films