Reviewed by Ian Lipke I had not heard of Margaret Oliphant before I delved into The Library Window and the thoughts or imaginings of a young woman who sits each day at her window gazing across the street to what some say is a window and some say is not. I’m told that Oliphant was
Reviewed by Wendy Lipke When one reads the words ‘out of time’ the mind switches immediately to finishing a test or project, rushing to be at a certain place at a certain time, the parking meter or maybe something even more sinister. In Steve Hawke’s novel, ‘out of time’ refers to Joe, an older man
Reviewed by Antonella Townsend and Willow James O’Loghlin’s latest book The New Kid: Very Popular Me is an easy and most amusing read for 8-11 year olds. Should older readers leaf through, they will probably get hooked and feel as though, sentence by sentence, they are walking through a weird time warp tunnel back to
Reviewed by Antonella Townsend It is heard on the news that a policeman has been shot and is in a critical condition. But that’s it! No follow up; the story behind the story. There should be a special edition of the news once a month letting us know what has happened. Thankfully Luke Warburton has
Reviewed by Ian Lipke The name of Peter Corris ranks high in the annals of Australia crime writing. Of his ninety odd books published between 1973 and 2017, forty-two feature his private eye, somewhat damaged, hero Cliff Hardy. Other fiction include the ‘Creepy’ Crawley and Browning series and a number of non-fiction books that include
Reviewed by E.B. Heath Professor Dixon is clearly a mild mannered man, but everyone has a breaking point, and his can be faintly detected in the first chapter of his latest book. In Australia’s Original Languages: An Introduction Dixon is at pains to refute, for all time, any ideas that Australian Indigenous languages are impoverished
Reviewed by Wendy Lipke Crossings, by Alex Landragin, has a very unusual storyline including love, which ‘thrives on ephemera: hunches, gut feelings, obscure clues, and all the fuel it needs’ (118); murder, leaving its victims with empty eye sockets; treachery, ‘knowing Chanel’s henchman would be listening… I took off my shoes…took my blue suitcase… (and)
Reviewed by Norrie Sanders The cover says it all. Two strapping young men striding forward, wearing suits and confident expressions. The image, viewed through a matrix of dots, suggests technology and a multitude of stars – or are they coins? Despite the blurring, both men are so similar that they could be clones. Clearly, these
Reviewed by Rod McLary Social isolation, loneliness and dying alone [and not being found for days or weeks or even months] are the themes which run through this debut novel by Richard Roper. The idea for the book was sparked by a law in England that, where people have died without family or friends to
Reviewed by E. B. Heath Lenny Bartulin bestows a reading experience of a very different kind! Fortune begins as a light breeze. Vast crowds gather as Napoleon parades through Berlin in 1806. Within a few pages, gale force winds of war propel hapless characters, along with readers, through one hundred and ten years of history,
Reviewed by Ian Lipke Tim Bowden’s book has been given the royal treatment by his publishers Allen & Unwin who have produced a very attractive 400-plus page book. The cover design is a splendid one. There is something about irreverence that attracts Australian readers, and I have no doubt that this book on that very
Reviewed by E.B. Heath The latest Griffith Review – The New Disruptors – aims to broaden readers’ perspective of the digital world beyond personal experience. The contributions range widely such as: Russian trolls attacking western democracy; the ‘forever war’ going on in Pine Gap; how democracy can be refreshed via sortition; the rise of the
Reviewed by Rod McLary That I shall say goodnight til it be morrow.Parting is such sweet sorrow.Romeo and Juliet. Act 2:scene 2. Shakespeare’s play does not provide only the title for David Nicholls’ most recent book, it also provides the structure on which the plot hangs. In a thoroughly creative and imaginative way, the author
Reviewed by Ian Lipke Bill Swiggs’s writing style shows the influence of Wilbur Smith, whether Swiggs knows it or not, and that’s not a bad thing. Swiggs tells a comfortable tale if murder and bushranging combined with fraud and deceit can still be comfortable. It is Swiggs’s writing style that dispenses comfort. The reader knows
Reviewed by Ian Lipke Physics for many students has the same effect as being caught by police for running a traffic light – you want to just run away and hide. If that is you, then there is no more need to panic. To qualify that statement a little: if you’re studying thermodynamics with Professor