This book. This book is grounded inside its main character's mind and body in an almost visceral way, and if you've ever had a "crazy" friend--and who hasn't, but I mean one who is actually diagnosed with anxiety disorder and/or OCD--even though this book is entertaining and wonderful and all the things good fiction should be, it will help you to "get" them in a way they might not have been able to articulate to you.

Aza is the star of the show. Or maybe she's not. She's so stuck inside her head, where twisty thoughts and logic have her spinning about the bacteria in her body and how it might just take over and kill her, that maybe she's the victim. Worse, maybe she is the bad guy. And the victim. And the star.

Life is complicated.

Aza is lucky in that she has a best friend, Daisy. Daisy, who talks all. the. time. but who sticks by Aza even though Aza isn't easy to stick by. So when Daisy suggests that she and Aza make like Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden to solve the mystery of the missing billionaire, Aza goes along with it.

Things happen. So many things. And I don't want to talk about any of them, really, because it would spoil this book, which unspools almost magically. It starts from a very clenched place and almost literally unwinds to a a better stasis.

Read it. Read it to find out what role Aza plays in her own life. To see if she can find her way out of her own head, at least a little. And to find out what the title means: "turtles all the way down."

So yeah - consider this review the equivalent of me standing next to you, shoving this book into your hands, making almost uncomfortable levels of eye contact while imploring you to read it.

But really. Read it.

'Kizie Aur Manny' under way as the Hindi adaptation of John Green's 'The Fault in Our Stars.'

My cousin John Greenacre, who has died aged 85, was a renowned teacher. He was totally committed to Peterhouse school, near Marondera, Zimbabwe, where he recorded 56 years of service. He taught maths and coached tennis and cricket. He also led safaris to the Kalahari desert and Chimanimani national park.

Although John was born in Putney, south-west London, his family had long been based in Durban, South Africa. It was there that his father, Kenneth – an RAF pilot during the second world war – was director of the family department store, Greenacre’s. His mother, Elizabeth (nee Brett), was a devoted wife and mother.

Continue reading...

Online Resource