The prefect explanation of book reading and reviewing – I think I paint my reviews with my own delight or lack of. How do you read/review your reads?
Image courtesy of Aerogramme Writers’ Studio
Review: We All Lived in Bondi Then – Georgia Blain
We All Lived in Bondi Then
Georgia Blain
Scribe
9781761380730
RRP $29.99
Description:
From the author of the multi-award-winning bestseller Between a Wolf and a Dog, a powerful collection of previously unpublished stories.
A sister is haunted by the consequences of a simple mistake. A daughter searches for certainty as her mother’s memory degrades. An encounter at a house party changes the course of a life.
In We All Lived in Bondi Then, beloved Australian author Georgia Blain returns to her resonant themes of relationships and family, illness and health, love and death. Composed in Blain’s final years, these nine stories grapple with large questions on a human scale, brimming with her trademark acuity, nuance, and warmth.
My View:
This is not just a book for those who enjoy the short story genre. This is a book for those who love great writing, emotive and evocative prose and a fabulous sense of place, even if that place maybe somewhere buried deep in side you.
This read is not melancholy but I grapple to find the words to explain just how deeply personal yet relatable these words are. Bitter sweet…yes a touch of bitter sweet, a touch of sadness…a touch of hope, words reaching out to your heart.
Review: Greater City Shadows – Laurie Steed
Greater City Shadows
Laurie Steed
UWA Publishing
ISBN: 9781760802691
Description:
A man treads water in the Swan River, hoping to bring his friend back to shore. Three siblings gaze skyward seeking a comet among the stars. A mother and daughter grapple with their fraught relationship and an inappropriate birthday cake. Bushfires sweep a Perth suburb while a woman, still burnt from a previous relationship, lessens the divide between an individual and their community. In Greater City Shadows, Laurie Steed shines a light on the tremendous complexity and beauty of everyday relationships. From unrequited first love and burnt flames of the past to early parenthood stresses and tense friendships. These short stories are vulnerable and tender — a captivating collection reminding us that to be connected is to be human.
‘Evocative and engaging, Greater City Shadows shows how the short story form, in the hands of a skilful writer, can offer profound insights into people’s inner and outer lives.’ — Susan Midalia‘Timely, tender and true, Greater City Shadows is a superb collection of stories.‘ — Ryan O’Neill
My View:
I don’t know what else I can add to my review that hasn’t already been said; “though provoking, tender, profound insights into people’s inner and outer lives, evocative…”
Perhaps I will just add; moments that make you pause and think…make you feel, moments you can relate to, I see a little of this writer’s soul in every short story and I like it.
Review: How to Find a Rainbow – A Reena & Rekha Story by Alom Shaha Illustrated by Sarthak Sinha
How to Find a Rainbow
Alom Shaha
Illustrated by Sarthak Sinha
Scribble
ISBN: 9781761380372
RRP $24.99 (Hardback)
Ages 3-7 yrs
Description:
Reena hates rainy days. She hates the way the dark clouds make everything look so dull.
Rekha loves rainy days. She loves the way the rain makes the earth smell.
When Rekha spots a rainbow, she rushes indoors to tell her sister about it. Reena will want to paint it, for sure!
But when the sisters go outside to find it, the rainbow disappears. Where could it have gone?
A vibrantly illustrated tale about finding light even in the gloomiest of times, How to Find a Rainbow will warm your heart — and give you a handy guide to making your own rainbow, too!
My View:
Heart warming and beautifully illustrated. This delightful book has themes of friendship, sisters, nature, and of course rainbows and there is even instructions on how to create your own rainbow in a backyard puddle (last page). This is sure to be a popular activity on a sunny day with the backyard hose and the puddles created.
This book comes complete with printable online Teacher Notes – always very useful.
Review- Bird Life, Anna Smaill
Bird Life
Anna Smaill
Scribe
ISBN: 9781761380112
RRP $29.99
Description:
The second novel by Booker Prize-longlisted author Anna Smaill. A lyrical and ambitious exploration of madness and what it is like to experience the world differently.
In Ueno Park, Tokyo, as workers and tourists gather for lunch, the pollen blows, a fountain erupts, pigeons scatter, and two women meet, changing the course of one another’s lives.
Dinah has come to Japan from New Zealand to teach English and grieve the death of her brother, Michael, a troubled genius who was able to channel his problems into music as a classical pianist—until he wasn’t. In the seemingly empty, eerie apartment block where Dinah has been housed, she sees Michael everywhere, even as she feels his absence sharply.
Yasuko is polished, precise, and keenly observant—of her students and colleagues at the language school, and of the natural world. When she was thirteen, animals began to speak to her, to tell her things she did not always want to hear. She has suppressed these powers for many years, but sometimes she allows them to resurface, to the dismay of her adult son, Jun. One day, she returns home, and Jun has gone. Even her special gifts cannot bring him back.
As these two women deal with their individual traumas, they form an unlikely friendship in which each will help the other to see a different possible world, as Smaill teases out the tension between our internal and external lives and asks what we lose by having to choose between them.
My View:
Literary fiction at it’s finest!
Greedily, I devoured this book in one sitting, then regretted turning over the last page. This book is a gentle, intelligent, thought provoking discussion on love, grief, family, mental illness and “fitting in”.
This is an amazing read and I highly recommend it. I predict awards in its future
Looking Forward….
I’m looking forward to a fabulous 2024.
Review: The Housemate -Sarah Bailey
The Housemate
Sarah Bailey
Allen & Unwin Aus
ISBN:9781760529338
Description:
Three housemates.
One dead, one missing and one accused of murder.
Dubbed the Housemate Homicide, it’s a mystery that has baffled Australians for almost a decade.
Melbourne-based journalist Olive Groves worked on the story as a junior reporter and became obsessed by the case. Now, nine years later, the missing housemate turns up dead on a remote property. Oli is once again assigned to the story, this time reluctantly paired with precocious millennial podcaster Cooper Ng.
As Oli and Cooper unearth new facts about the three housemates, a dark web of secrets is uncovered. The revelations catapult Oli back to the death of the first housemate, forcing her to confront past traumas and insecurities that have risen to the surface again.
What really happened between the three housemates that night? Will Oli’s relentless search for the murderer put her new family in danger? And could her suspicion that the truth lies closer to home threaten her happiness and even her sanity?
A riveting, provocative thriller from the bestselling author of The Dark Lake, Into the Night and Where the Dead Go.
My View:
Friday night I decided to do a little reading before bed, around 3.30am I turned over the last page….ahhhh…what a FANTASTIC READ!
Do yourself a favour, pick up any book by this author, you will not be disappointed.
PS Sarah Bailey has a new book coming out next month, Body Of Lies, another in the DS Gemma Woodstock series, I cannot wait for this.
#FridayFreebie: For Once In My Life – Karly Lane
For Once in my Life
Karly Lane
Allen & Unwin
ISBN:9781761066122
Description:
Jenny thought she was done with men and relationships . . . her kids, however, had other plans. A delightful, entertaining and funny rural romance from Karly Lane, the bestselling author with over 550,000 books sold.
Jenny Hayward cannot believe that she’s fifty years old and a grandmother with adult children! When did that happen? Not that long ago her three daughters were in school and Jenny was following her dream of becoming a nurse.
In the two years since her husband walked out, Jenny has been absorbed in her family and work, until her daughters and her best friend secretly set her up with a profile on a dating app and she is thrust unexpectedly into the world of dating.
However, as the dates keep coming, Jenny wonders how the people she loves the most in the world have managed so impressively to pick the wrong men for her.
The annoying barman watching on is much more enjoyable company. The barman who is more than a decade younger than her. Yet Nick doesn’t seem to notice her age at all . . .
Is Jenny’s next date the date of her dreams?
363 pages, Paperback
#Giveaway# Thanks to Allen & Unwin and the author, I have 2 copies of the contemporary, heartwarming, rural romance to give away. It’s easy (must be an Australian resident), in the comments list any of Karly’s other novels. I will randomly select the 2 winners on 8th Of December. Good luck.
Review: The Last of the Yakuza – Jake Adelstein
The Last Yakuza – Life and Death in the Japanese Underworld
Jake Adelstein
Scribe
ISBN: 9781925106817
Description:
The Last Yakuza tells the history of the yakuza like it’s never been told before.
Makoto Saigo is half-American and half-Japanese in small-town Japan with a set of talents limited to playing guitar and picking fights. With rock stardom off the table, he turns toward the only place where you can start from the bottom and move up through sheer merit, loyalty, and brute force — the yakuza.
Saigo, nicknamed Tsunami, quickly realises that even within the organisation, opinions are as varied as they come, and a clash of philosophies can quickly become deadly. One screw-up can cost you your life, or at least a finger.
The internal politics of the yakuza are dizzyingly complex, and between the ever-shifting web of alliances and the encroaching hand of the law that pushes them further and further underground, Saigo finds himself in the middle of a defining decades-long battle that will determine the future of the yakuza.
Written with the insight of an expert on Japanese organised crime and the compassion of a longtime friend, investigative journalist Jake Adelstein presents a sprawling biography of a yakuza, through post-war desperation, to bubble-era optimism, to the present. Including a cast of memorable yakuza bosses — Coach, the Buddha, and more — this is a story about the rise and fall of a man, a country, and a dishonest but sometimes honorable way of life on the brink of being lost.
My View:
This started with intrigue and the promise of an exciting read to come. Unfortunately it did not deliver, I read over 200 pages waiting to be captivated, enthralled….it didn’t happen. I gave up.
Too much tell and not enough show, the narrative rambled and I could not keep up with the times or the characters.
Review: Voices in the Dark – Fleur McDonald
Voices in the Dark
Fleur McDonald
Allen & Unwin
ISBN: 9781761066481
RRP $32.99
Description:
A powerful and poignant rural family story told by the acclaimed Fleur McDonald, bestselling author of Broad River Station and Into the Night.
Sassi Stapleton is called home after news her grandmother is unwell. Less than an hour away from her hometown, Barker, she swerves to miss a roo and her car rolls down an embankment and she’s left hanging. By the time she is found, her grandmother has already passed away.
Sassi’s mother, Amber, returns from South Africa, and as soon as she arrives family tensions between her and her brother, Abe, are back in the forefront of everyone’s minds.
When it quickly becomes clear that Sassi’s grandfather Mr Stapleton is unable to live alone, the hunt is on to find a carer. Rasha enters the family home, firmly entrenching herself as someone they can’t do without, and before long Mr Stapleton is happier than he has been in years.
Then bruises start appearing on Mr Stapleton and he becomes withdrawn, refusing to talk even to Sassi.
None of the family are convinced that Rasha could hurt anyone. Amber is his daughter; Sassi, his granddaughter. None of these three could hurt Mr Stapleton.
Or could they?
My View:
I do love the Detective Dave Burrows series written by this author and this one did not disappoint . Another character driven, rural town, contemporary mystery that showcases the life and relationships of women working in those landscapes; farmers, police officers, migrants… all essential, important stakeholders in the community they live in.
In this read McDonald tackles a number of issues that are not just relevant to small rural towns; elder abuse, the aging population, rising costs of living, staff shortages since Covid 19, family secrets, relationship breakdowns…this read posses many questions that rural and city dwellers can relate to.
I look forward to reading the next in this series.
Time Out
As some of you may know, a few weeks ago I was the victim of an internet fraud. The $$$ are not recoverable, it could have been worse. It will take my art “business” sometime to recover.
I went through all the stages; shock, disbelief, intense anger, depression… this elaborate fraud sucked the joy from my life.
At first I put 100% effort into trying to sell some art to try and claw back some $$$. The harder you try …. well that didn’t work, in-fact made me feel even worse as all my efforts failed.
I guess acceptance that this was out of my control, took a while in coming.
It was timely that we already had a caravan trip away planned … it has been just what I have needed. A complete change of scene, of focus… I might even feel like painting again soon.
Reading, Writing and Riesling 