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

Winner – Rathbones Folio Prize

Australian author Michelle de Kretser has won in the fiction category of the Rathbones Folio Prize, for her novel Scary Monsters (A&U). In the award’s first year under a new prize structure, winners were named in three categories, fiction, poetry and nonfiction. Each category winner receives £2000 (A$3500) and the overall prize winner receives £30,000 (A$52,500). Judges

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Dublin Literary Award 2023

The shortlist for the 2023 Dublin Literary Award, worth €100,000 (A$162,360), has been announced. The shortlisted titles are: Cloud Cuckoo Land (Anthony Doerr, Scribner) Em (Kim Thuy, trans by Sheila Fischman, Seven Stories Press) Love Novel (Ivana Sajko, trans by Mima Simic, V&Q Books) Marzahn, Mon Amour (Katja Oskamp, trans by Jo Heinrich, Peirene Press) Paradais (Fernanda Melchor, trans by

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General Fiction

An Ungrateful Instrument by Michael Meehan

Reviewed by Ian Lipke Michael Meehan has set his tale in the early 1700s in France during the long reign of King Louis XIV. The lad Antoine Forqueray and later his son Jean-Baptiste had the unenviable reputations of being the only musicians in France capable of performing at a highly sophisticated level on the viola

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General Fiction

Prettier if She Smiled More by Toni Jordan

Reviewed by Tricia Simms-Reeve When our lives are battered by interest rate hikes, cost of living pressures and the  environmental devastation of floods or fire, it is a very welcome relief to read Toni Jordan’s latest novel. She handles a family’s dramas with clever humour and delightful descriptions. Her characters’ everyday lives, although ordinary, are

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Crime/Mystery

Simply Lies by David Baldacci

Reviewed by Ian Lipke Simply Lies is an uncomplicated title that describes more than adequately the latest yarn by David Baldacci. The characters create a mindset in which to tell a lie and then maintain it with the simplicity of truth. One chapter begins with a character introduced as Arlene Robinson. She is most plausible

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Children

Jamie by L. D. Lapinski

Reviewed by Wendy Lipke The 21st Century has seen a marked change in attitudes. Many traditional beliefs have been questioned and people are more prepared to speak out to support their ideas. The children’s book, Jamie, by L. D. Lapinski highlights some of these changes. The main character and narrator is 11 year old Jamie

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Literary Quiz – number one.

QRC Literary Quiz In our recent newsletters, we have included a Literary Quiz.  Until now, only subscribers have been able to see it and answer the questions.  Now the Quiz will be put on the website for general viewing. Below is one of the first of the Quizzes.  This Quiz asks for the authors of

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Indie Book of the Year 2023

Winner of the Indie Book of the Year – Craig Silvey Our congratulations to Craig Silvey for his winning the Indie Book of the Year – and the Children’s Book of the Year category – with Runt. Craig Silvey says of his win: ‘Thirteen years after Jasper Jones was awarded Book Of The Year, it bears reiterating

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Indie Book Awards 2023

Indie Book Award Winners Thirteen years after Jasper Jones was awarded Book Of The Year (in 2009), Australian independent booksellers are thrilled to announce RUNT by Craig Silvey (Allen & Unwin) as their favourite book from last year, and the winner of The Indie Book Awards 2023 Book of the Year. This is Craig’s second

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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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