Latest Reviews

History

Queensland Reviewers Collective (QRC) is the new name for an initiative that began eighteen years ago. Up until November 2016 it was known as M/C Reviews. In December 2015, the M/C Reviews website had a major security breach that took it down, and the editor of the book reviews section and some of the reviewers responded by starting a blog as a temporary site for book reviews until the website could be repaired. Unfortunately, it eventually became apparent that the website was not able to be restored, thus ending its long and illustrious presence as a place for the lively engagement with books and film through reviewing.

Once again, the editor and a small group of book reviewers decided they valued M/C Reviews enough to enable its rebirth as the Queensland Reviewers Collective. It no longer has an association with the Queensland University of Technology.

The website that M/C Reviews was initially a part of was M/C – Media and Culture, founded in 1998 as, according to the History section, ‘a place of public intellectualism, analysing and critiquing the meeting of media and culture’. It was meant as a place where the popular and the academic could meet, and ‘debates may have some resonance with wider political and cultural interests’.

The website was initiated and developed at the University of Queensland, St Lucia, Australia; since 2004, it has been hosted by the Creative Industries Faculty at the Queensland University of Technology in Kelvin Grove. The first publication was the M/C Journal, still thriving today, followed by M/C Reviews, and then M/Cyclopedia of New Media.

Acknowledgement of Country

In the spirit of reconciliation Queensland Reviewers Collective acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.

Other Reviews

Health/Wellbeing

Lemons are a Girl’s Best Friend by Janet Hayward

Reviewed by Antonella Townsend There is something very appealing about the smaller pocket size hard cover book.  In the case of Lemons are a Girl’s Best Friend it feels instantly delicious.  This colourful little book would be the best present for anyone, not just girls, who value recipes for external and internal health.  This is

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Cooking/Diet

The Lost Recipes by Ross Dobson

Reviewed by Richard Tutin We have all seen them in our newspapers, magazines and now online at different websites. A steady stream is published each week with the invitation to try them out. What are they? The answer is recipes that can be made for any meal or snack depending on the situation. They reach

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Children

Dot! Scribble! Go! by Hervé Tullet

Reviewed by Antonella Townsend If I had to sum up Hervé Tullet’s  Dot! Scribble!  Go! in few words it would be ‘Confidence Builder’.  This large hard cover book is pitched at a target audience between three and six-years-old.  It steers the young brain to represent their environment with pride and imagination. I write from a

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Children

We Do Not Welcome Our Ten-Year-Old Overlord by Garth Nix

Reviewed by Antonella Townsend Enid Blyton must be glowing green with envy in her grave. Children’s literature is imaginative light years away from days of yore, although brave twelve-year-old and ten-year-old characters are still saving the day.   Although in We Do Not Welcome Our Ten-Year-Old Overlord by Garth Nix, they are busy saving the world from

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Non-Fiction

Indian Summers by Gideon Haigh

Reviewed by Richard Tutin Australians know that summer has well and truly arrived when Test Cricket is promoted and broadcast. Over the years Australia has hosted many great teams: England, New Zealand, South Africa and Pakistan immediately come to mind. We should not forget India in this list of worthy adversaries who have come to

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Crime/Mystery

Present Tense by Natalie Conyer

Reviewed by Rod McLary Natalie Conyer first came to my attention when her book – her second book – Shadow City was published in Australia in 2024.  I reviewed it in these pages and said: The author has crafted a taut and tense novel which engages the reader from the beginning and doesn’t ease up

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Longlist Indie Book Awards 2025

Australian independent booksellers have nominated their favourite Australian books of 2024 and are thrilled to announce their Longlist for the Indie Book Awards 2025! Since 2008, the Indie Book Awards have celebrated the very best in Australian writing and who better to nominate and judge the best-of-the-best than indie booksellers? These passionate and knowledgeable booksellers

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Children

Something Special by Emily Rodda

Reviewed by Antonella Townsend When a book reappears after forty years it just has to be something special.  So, Emily Rodda’s debut novel Something Special is aptly titled having been a children’s fantasy favourite for many years, winning the Children’s Book Council of Australia Book of the Year for Younger Readers Award in 1985.  Although

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General Fiction

Finding Joy in Oyster Bay by Susan Duncan

Reviewed by Wendy Lipke Susan Duncan’s latest novel is called Finding Joy in Oyster Bay. The first chapter spoke of nothing like “joy” as it is about a young woman who chooses to abandon her child. However, she knows that the baby will be cared for by others. As I continued to read on, I

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If you would like to contact the coordinator of the Queensland Reviewers Collective, either to enquire about becoming a reviewer, to offer a book to review, or to make a comment on the blog generally, please use the form.

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