Reviewed by Ian Lipke Richard Wellington is a doctor well loved by a wide selection of television and radio listeners. If he happens to cause the female heart to beat a little faster and should he step across boundaries and spend a little too much time in a bedroom that is not his own, well
Reviewed by Wendy Lipke This hard covered children’s picture book is presented by two celebrated picture book creators. Margaret Wild is a recipient of the Nan Chauncy Award and Lady Cutler Award for her contribution to Australian literature. For this book she is ably assisted by internationally renowned award-winning author and illustrator, Stephen Michael King.
Reviewed by Wendy Lipke This early children’s book by author and illustrator, Heidi McKinnon, is a hardcovered ten-and-a-half-inch book with a large orange dog face on the cover. The reader is first introduced to SHMOOF and all his antics. Then they meet FLOOF who is a grey cat. As most people know some cats and
Reviewed by Wendy Lipke This hard covered children’s book is a tale in Tangrams. For those who are unaware of the term, an explanation is provided at the beginning of the book where it says, ‘the pictures in this book are all made from the same seven shapes, which form a puzzle called a tangram.’
Reviewed by Rod McLary It is not often that I review books from the YA genre; but this one – We Saw What You Started – caught my attention. It was well worth the read and here we are with my review. Teenage detectives are not uncommon in YA novels – think Nancy Drew or
Reviewed by Ian Lipke This novel opens in 1898 with a quick sketch of a father who is about to be sentenced for a long term in prison. The story then switches to the lives of two boys, Billy and Tommy Smith, forced to grow up amid the harsh environment of the streets of Sydney’s
Reviewed by Ian Lipke Wanting to expose myself to a piece of modern literature I soon found that much has changed in the many years I have been away. I expected to find different writing styles and degrees of acceptance that differed from my own, but I did not anticipate the raw emotion and the
Reviewed by Rod McLary Lisa Jewell has published twenty-three novels and, according to her publisher, the most recent ones have been ‘dark psychological thrillers’; and, according to this reviewer, Don’t Let Him In falls readily into that category. Even the title suggests danger and tension and neither is in short supply as the narrative unfolds.
Reviewed by Wendy Lipke Maya Linnell is among a small group of Australian women writers who make the reader feel, when reading their books, as if they are visiting relatives in a small country town. These communities contain amazing and inspiring everyday people within them. Yet at the same time there are jealousies and the
Reviewed by Ian Lipke Stephen J. Campbell’s reading of Leonardo da Vinci requires the widest possible circulation, not because his argument is utterly convincing but because he comes so close to doing just that. He leaves the reader gasping at the audacity of his proposals but also wondering if he might in fact be right,
Reviewed by Ian Hamilton Best Left Buried is more complex than thrillers which have a single plot line and restrict themselves to the essentials of the thriller genre: a dangerous situation, some elements of intrigue and brave cunning to bring the danger and intrigue to a resolution. Neil A. White adds another dimension to his
Reviewed by Ian Lipke In this mystery, Stephen King tells the story of a social misfit who pledges, in a note to Buckeye City police, to kill “13 innocents and 1 guilty,” in order, we eventually learn, to avenge the death of a man who was framed and convicted for possession of child pornography and
Reviewed by Wendy Lipke When longtime arts critic for the Seattle Times, Moira Macdonald, decided to write her own novel, a popular bookstore, Read the Room, became its own small universe. At the centre of this story are three characters who would love to change their circumstances by expanding their social circle and hopefully find
Reviewed by Patricia Simms-Reeve The image of the chemist as a meticulous, hard-working valued member of a community is drastically altered by the chemist, Idris Khan, in this exceptional thriller. Initially, he is the respected and caring professional but he is forced to shed this stereotype and ultimately becomes a murderer. His pharmacy is located
Reviewed by Wendy Lipke This book by Molly Potter and illustrator Sarah Jennings belongs to the Let’s Talk series of books helping adults start big conversations with little people. The author believes that talking to kids for 5-minutes-a-day about feelings is as important for their wellbeing as eating vegetables or cleaning their teeth. Molly Potter