Month: August 2019

by

Review: Heal – Pete Evans

101 Simple Ways to Improve Your Health in a Modern World

Pete Evans

Pan Macmillan Australia

Plum

ISBN: 9781760782627

 

Description:

So many of us are looking for practical changes we can make to nourish our body, be more active and find meaningful connection – ways to be stronger, happier and healthier, in a fast-paced world.

 

Pete begins with what he knows best – food – and offers suggestions on how to eat and drink in ways that will support your wellbeing. Next, he explores different ways to move and play that are known to positively influence physical and mental health. There are ideas on how to relax your body and mind, including massage and meditation, as well as the best strategies for restorative sleep. Finally, Pete explores activities that promote creativity, self-awareness and connection with other people, which are all essential to emotional wellbeing.

 

With ideas to inspire everyone to make a change in their lives – no matter how big or small – Heal will help you to find the path to your healthiest self.

 

 

My View:

This is Pete Evan being the best person he can be and sharing with you how he does this.

I loved the soft bound cover, the gloriously peaceful images (in fact all the photography here is outstanding) and the joy reading this creates.  This book is full of positive vibes, uplifting.

 

 

Heal – Peter Evan

 Photograph courtesy Ant Ong.

 

by

Review: The Van Apfel Girls Are Gone – Felicity McLean

The Van Apfel Girls Are Gone

Felicity McLean

Harper Collins Publishers Australia

Fourth Estate

ISBN: 9781460755068

 

Description:

We lost all three girls that summer. Let them slip away like the words of some half-remembered song and when one came back, she wasn’t the one we were trying to recall to begin with.’

 

So begins Tikka Molloy’s recounting of the summer of 1992 – the summer the Van Apfel sisters, Hannah, the beautiful Cordelia and Ruth – disappear.

 

Eleven and one-sixth years old, Tikka is the precocious narrator of this fabulously endearing coming-of-age story, set in an eerie Australian river valley suburb with an unexplained stench. The Van Apfel girls vanish from the valley during the school’s ‘Showstopper’ concert, held at the outdoor amphitheatre by the river. While the search for the sisters unites the small community on Sydney’s urban fringe, the mystery of their disappearance remains unsolved forever.

 

Brilliantly observed, sharp, lively, funny and entirely endearing, this novel is part mystery, part coming-of-age story – and quintessentially Australian. Think The Virgin Suicides meets Jasper Jones meets Picnic at Hanging Rock.

 

 

My View:

Outstanding!

 

If evocative, tension packed mysteries are your thing than don’t miss reading this book.

 

Felicity McLean captures the age of the characters, the idiom and the culture of the 90’s effortlessly – or makes it seem effortlessly.

I was glued to the pages, holding my breath, hoping for a positive outcome. There is so much tension packed into every observation, every comment, and every moment.

 

This is compelling, haunting and thought provoking. I loved every minute of this read.  Is this the best read of the year? I think so. It is a book that will stay with me for a long time.

 

by

Review: Good Girl, Bad Girl – Michael Robotham

Good Girl, Bad Girl

Michael Robotham

Hachette Australia

ISBN: 9780733638053

RRP$32.99

 

Description:

From the bestselling author of The Secrets She Keeps, the writer Stephen King calls “an absolute master…with heart and soul,” a fiendishly clever suspense novel about a dangerous young woman with a special ability to know when someone is lying—and the criminal psychologist who must outwit her to survive.

 

A girl is found hiding in a secret room in a house being renovated after a terrible crime. For weeks she has survived by sneaking out at night, stealing food for herself and two dogs that are kept in the garden. The nurses at the hospital where she is taken call her “Angel Face” because she won’t tell anyone her name, or her age, or where she came from. Maybe she is twelve, maybe fifteen, or somewhere in between. She doesn’t appear on any missing person’s file, or match the DNA of any murder victim.

 

Six years later, still unidentified, the same girl is living in a secure children’s home with a new name, Evie Cormac, when she initiates a court case demanding the right to be released as an adult. Psychologist Cyrus Haven is sent to interview Evie and decide if she’s ready to go free, but Evie Cormac is unlike he’s anyone he’s ever met. She’s damaged, destructive, and self-hating, yet possessed of a gift, or a curse, that makes her both fascinating and dangerous to be with—the ability to tell when someone is lying. Soon he is embroiled in her unique and dangerous world, his life in utmost peril.

 

Cleverly constructed, swiftly paced, and emotionally explosive, Good Girl, Bad Girl is the perfect thrilling summer read from the internationally bestselling author David Baldacci called “the real deal.”

 

 

My View:

This is very much a character based narrative and Michael Robotham has provided us with two more wonderful protagonists to follow, Cyrus Haven and Evie.

 

Steadily paced with interesting back stories (and more to be revealed) about both leads this is a book that will leave you wanting more. More back stories, more about the mystery, more about the relationships, more about Cyrus and Evie’s future…just more please 🙂

 

 

 

 

by

Strawberry Crumble: Lunch at 10 Pomegranate St – Felicita Sala

 

Author and Illustrator: Felicita Sala

Publisher: Scribble 

Piccolo Angelo Photography (@piccolo_angelo_photography)

3 punnets of strawberries

1 tbsp lemon juice

200 g flour

1/2 cup slivered almonds

80g sugar

100g butter

creme fraiche to serve

 

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.

Cut strawberries in half and place in a small oven tin with lemon juice and a spoonful of sugar.

Cut butter into small cubes and mix with flour and sugar in a bowl . Rub the mixture with your fingers until you have a crumbly mix, like wet sand.

Cover strawberries with the crumble mix, sprinkle almond son top.

Bake 40 minutes until golden.

 

Serve with creme fraiche or vanilla ice cream.

 

 

 

by

Review:The Burnt Country – Joy Rhoades

The Burnt Country

The Woolgrowers Companion #2

Joy Rhoades

Penguin Random House

Bantam

ISBN: 9780143793724

RRP$ 32.99

 

Description:

A scandalous secret. A deadly bushfire. An agonizing choice.

 

Australia 1948. As a young woman single-handedly running Amiens, a sizeable sheep station in New South Wales, Kate Dowd is expected to fail. In fact the local graziers are doing their best to ensure she does.

 

However Kate cannot risk losing Amiens, or give in to her estranged husband Jack’s demands to sell. Because the farm is the only protection she can offer her half-sister Pearl, as the Aborigines Welfare Board calls for her forced adoption.

 

Ostracised by the local community for even acknowledging Pearl, Kate cannot risk another scandal. Which means turning her back on her wartime lover, Luca Canali . . .

 

Then Jack drops a bombshell. He wants a divorce. He’ll protect what’s left of Kate’s reputation, and keep Luca out of it – but at an extortionate price.

 

Soon Kate is putting out fires on all fronts to save her farm, keep her family together and protect the man she loves. Until a catastrophic real fire threatens everything . . .

 

 

My View:

This was not the booked I expected to read!

 

Firstly I did not realise that this was the second in a series until I looked up the book details for my review. But don’t worry this reads perfectly as a stand a one.

 

Second – this is not the rural romance I thought it was going to be. There are relationships – but that is what life is about; the complex nature of our emotional resilience.

 

Thirdly – whilst this is a “historical” fiction the times are not that far away (late 1940s early 50’s). I found the social issues intriguing; women’s’ rights – financial, social, family, legal, work, domestic violence, the war, detention, The Stolen Generation… so so interesting and engaging.

 

This narrative packs a big punch – so many social issues, a tense engaging plot, relationships that felt real, I loved the way women supported each other and help raise each other up. The theme of fire was constant and added a cohesion to the overall plot and an uneasiness that anyone living in a dry, remote countryside will understand.

 

This read was surprising and amazing! I loved it and I hope you do too.

 

And I see a book to film in the future….

 

PS

I enjoyed the bonus recipes supplied at the end of the book.

 

 

 

by

Review: The Day The Lies Began – Kylie Kaden

The Day the Lies Began

Kylie Kaden

Pantera Press

ISBN: 9781925700381

 

Description:

‘Big Little Lies’ meets ‘The Party’

 

“It seemed simple at first – folding one lie over the next. She had become expert at feathering over the cracks to ensure her life appeared the same. But inside, it didn’t feel fixed.”

 

It happened the day of the Moon Festival. It could have been left behind, they all could have moved on with their lives. But secrets have a habit of rising to the surface, especially in small towns.

 

Two couples, four ironclad friendships, the perfect coastal holiday town. With salt-stung houses perched like lifeguards overlooking the shore, Lago Point is the scene of postcards, not crime scenes. Wife and mother Abbi, town cop Blake, schoolteacher Hannah and local doctor Will are caught in their own tangled webs of deceit.

 

When the truth washes in to their beachside community, so do the judgements: victim, or vigilante, who will forgive, who will betray? Not all relationships survive. Nor do all residents.

 

Sometimes, doing wrong can feel completely right…

 

 

My View:

A great exploration of relationships and the truths and half-truths we tell ourselves/our partners when faced with tough decisions, thankfully most of us will never need to discuss the type of incidents that these conversations revolve around.

 

Twisty and complex, this is a slow burning type read where you really get to understand the main characters. I really loved the growth of the relationship between the angst filled teen and the older woman and the big reveals, most I had not guessed.

 

This is a read that asks the big questions, ‘how well do you know your partner?’ and “how well do you know yourself?’ Isn’t it interesting how people’s reactions/personality changes when they are in very difficult, emotional situations?

I think this would make great tv.

 

 

 

 

 

by

Black Bean Soup: Lunch at 10 Pomegranate Street- Felicita Sala

Author and Illustrator: Felicita Sala

Publisher: Scribble 

Piccolo Angelo Photography (@piccolo_angelo_photography) 

 

Black Bean Soup

3 cans of Black Beans ( or 750 grams cooked and drained)

2 garlic cloves minced

1 red onion

1 tsp crushed cumin

1/2 green bell pepper (capsicum)

1 tbsp tomato paste

1 tsp oregano

500ml stock (or bean cooking liquid)

4 strips of bacon chopped

juice of 2 limes

 

Finely chop onion and bell pepper. Heat up a large pot. Add some olive oil and fry bacon for 2 minutes, until brown.

Add onion and bell pepper and cook on gentle heat for 5 minutes.

Now add garlic, cumin, oregano and tomato paste. Stir and cook another minute.

Add the beans and the stock and season with salt. Simmer for 1/2 an hour stirring occasionally.

Add lime juice at the end and serve with rice and some coriander (optional).

 

Serves 4-6

 

 

 

 

 

 

by

#MeatFreeMonday: Coconut Dahl – Lunch at 10 Pomegranate Street – Felicita Sala

Author and Illustrator: Felicita Sala

Publisher: Scribble 

Piccolo Angelo Photography (@piccolo_angelo_photography) 

 

Coconut Dahl

2 cups/400 g red lentils

1 tsp turmeric

2 Tbsp curry powder

3 tbsp coconut oil or ghee

1 litre/4 cups water

1 can of coconut milk

2 carrots

1 clove of garlic minced

1 tbsp grated ginger

3 tbsp tomato paste

2 tbsp salt

4 green onions

 

Finely chop the carrots and green onions.

Gently cook the vegetables in a large pot with the oil/ghee and a pinch of salt. Add the ginger, garlic, turmeric and curry powder. Stir for 1 minute.

Add tomato paste with a little water and stir some more. Add the lentils.  Add the water and simmer for 20 minutes.

Add the coconut milk and salt and simmer for another 15 minutes, stirring occasionally and adding  a little water if needed.

 

Serve with rice.

Serves 6-8

 

 

 

 

 

 

by

The Gemma Woodstock Trilogy – Sarah Bailey

                                    

Sarah Bailey has written three novels in the Gemma Woodstock Series and I would highly recommend reading this trilogy, one book after the other; it is simply the best way to understand your protagonist, their dilemmas, and their growth and to appreciate the talent of this award winning writer as her writing goes from strength to strength on this journey.

 

The Dark Lake: Book #1

In a suspense thriller to rival Paula Hawkins and Tana French, a detective with secrets of her own hunts the killer of a woman who was the glamorous star of their high school.

 

Rose was lit by the sun, her beautiful face giving nothing away. Even back then, she was a mystery that I wanted to solve.

 

The lead homicide investigator in a rural town, Detective Sergeant Gemma Woodstock is deeply unnerved when a high school classmate is found strangled, her body floating in a lake. And not just any classmate, but Rosalind Ryan, whose beauty and inscrutability exerted a magnetic pull on Smithson High School, first during Rosalind’s student years and then again when she returned to teach drama.

 

As much as Rosalind’s life was a mystery to Gemma when they were students together, her death presents even more of a puzzle. What made Rosalind quit her teaching job in Sydney and return to her hometown? Why did she live in a small, run-down apartment when her father was one of the town’s richest men? And despite her many admirers, did anyone in the town truly know her?

 

Rosalind’s enigmas frustrate and obsess Gemma, who has her own dangerous secrets—an affair with her colleague and past tragedies that may not stay in the past.

 

Into the Night: Book #2

After the shocking murder of a high-profile celebrity, Gemma Woodstock must pull back the layers of a gilded cage to discover who among the victim’s friends and family can be trusted–and who may be the killer.

 

Troubled and brilliant, Detective Sergeant Gemma Woodstock finds herself lost and alone after a recent move to Melbourne, broken hearted by the decisions she’s had to make. Her new workplace is a minefield and Detective Sergeant Nick Fleet, the partner she has been assigned, is uncommunicative and often hostile. When a homeless man is murdered and Gemma is put on the case, she can’t help feeling a connection with the victim and his lonely, isolated existence.

 

Then Sterling Wade, an up-and-coming actor filming his breakout performance in a closed-off city street, is murdered in the middle of an action-packed shot, and Gemma and Nick have to put aside their differences to unravel the mysteries surrounding the actor’s life and death. Who could commit such a brazen crime? Who stands to profit from it? Far too many people, and none of them can be trusted. Gemma can’t imagine a pair of victims with less in common–and yet as Gemma and Fleet soon learn, both men were keeping secrets that may have led to their deaths.

 

With riveting suspense, razor-sharp writing, and a fascinating cast of characters, INTO THE NIGHT proves Sarah Bailey is a major new talent to watch in the world of literary crime fiction.

 

Where the Dead Go: Book #3

Four years after the events of Into the Night, DS Gemma Woodstock is on the trail of a missing girl in a small coastal town.

 

‘Every bit as addictive and suspenseful as The Dark Lake . . . Sarah Bailey’s writing is both keenly insightful and wholly engrossing, weaving intriguing and multi-layered plots combined with complicated and compelling characters.’ The Booktopian

 

A fifteen-year-old girl has gone missing after a party in the middle of the night. The following morning her boyfriend is found brutally murdered in his home. Was the girl responsible for the murder, or is she also a victim of the killer? But who would want two teenagers dead?

 

The aftermath of a personal tragedy finds police detective Gemma Woodstock in the coastal town of Fairhaven with her son Ben in tow. She has begged to be part of a murder investigation so she can bury herself in work rather than taking the time to grieve and figure out how to handle the next stage of her life – she now has serious family responsibilities she can no longer avoid. But Gemma also has ghosts she must lay to rest.

 

Gemma searches for answers, while navigating her son’s grief and trying to overcome the hostility of her new colleagues. As the mystery deepens and old tensions and secrets come to light, Gemma is increasingly haunted by a similar missing person’s case she worked on not long before. A case that ended in tragedy and made her question her instincts as a cop. Can she trust herself again?

 

A riveting thriller by the author of the international bestseller The Dark Lake, winner of both the Ned Kelly Award and the Sisters in Crime Davitt Award for a debut crime novel.

 

 

My View:

This is an award winning series and I am saddened to have reached the end of the trilogy.  Gemma Woodstock is a character that fights injustices and crimes and her personal demons whilst co – parenting and I love this character’s development and am pleased that her journey is one of growth and relative success. I like the ‘warts and all’ depiction of Gemma’s life; a flawed protagonist she certainly is but not a hopeless one, she does grow, mature and accepts responsibility for her actions. It is unusual to see a woman portrayed as honestly as this – with her risk taking behaviour, her fragile state of mental health, her relationship issues, her strength; she is the most unorthodox  female protagonist I think I have come across. The honesty is refreshing.

 

I highly recommend this series.