Reviewed by Ian Lipke The novel Iron Flame about Violet Sorrengail and her boyfriend Xaden continues on from Rebecca Karros’s story called Fourth Wing published in 2022. This novel was a raging success. It was anticipated that Iron Flame would be just as successful. However, with a different premise, and a different focus, a story
Reviewed by Richard Tutin Many of us are familiar with the ‘Opium Wars’ that were waged in China by western Powers such as Britain and France between 1839 and 1860. What may be unfamiliar is the background to these skirmishes that ended with China having to allow the continued importation of opium and other goods
Reviewed by Rod McLary An epigraph to this new novel by Stephen Orr is a quote from the esteemed Australian author Patrick White. He says: The mystery of life is not salved by success, which is an end in itself, but in failure, in perpetual struggle, in becoming. Epigraphs by definition point to the theme
Reviewed by Wendy Lipke In December 2012 Bruce Munday first published the book Those Dry Stone Walls. It sold out four times and was reprinted with revisions. Those Dry Stone Walls is now out of print again. Wakefield Press and the author decided that rather than go to a fourth reprint a second edition should
Reviewed by Gail McDonald This book is the first published book by Anton Clifford-Motopi although he wrote three other books while completing post-graduate studies in public health, working as a university lecturer and raising four children. The author’s stories explore themes of self-identity, family relationships and friendship drawing from his experiences growing up in a
Reviewed by Norrie Sanders Some true stories deserve a novel. This is one of them. Even the title of Diane Armstrong’s latest novel is a clever and poignant take on a date palm that did not exist when the story took place, and an historian might overlook, but a novelist could see the romantic symbolism.
Reviewed by Gail McDonald Amal Abou-Eid is a passionate educator, mother and author of multiple self-published books. Amal started writing children’s books when she couldn’t find books that depicted characters and stories that related to their Muslim Lebanese Australian identity. This is the third book by Amal. Cara King is a Melbourne based illustrator and
Reviewed by Gail McDonald Ian Hayward Robinson is a former teacher who worked for many years in curriculum development and teacher development for the Victorian Education Department. He has run courses on Story Structure and workshops at many writing conferences across Australia. The Most Amazing Thing is his first picture book. Matt Shanks is an
Reviewed by Gail McDonald Phil Cummings the author of this book is an Australian author who has written over 70 children’s books including picture books and novels. His work is published in the USA, Canada, Japan, South Korea, China, and throughout Europe. Phil has received many awards including 2016 Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA)
Reviewed by Norrie Sanders Rarely does a book cover juxtapose an image of the Kremlin and a map of the Kimberley. If this book was a work of fiction, most readers would consider it far-fetched. But calling this a “remarkable true story” is actually an understatement. The main storyteller is Nick Stride, a likeable Englishman,
Reviewed by Patricia Simms-Reeve By today’s standards, Thunderhead is unusually brief in length. This belies the fact that here is a book that must not be overlooked or dismissed. It encompasses writing that is poetic, lively and very clever in its portrayal of a woman trying desperately to master ‘how to be’ in her ordinary
Reviewed by Wendy Lipke Australia is fortunate in the 2020s to have so many talented writers who celebrate the Australian landscape while at the same time presenting heartwarming human stories. Jennifer Scoullar is one such author. Her latest Australian rural fiction, The Rivertown Vet, which is her thirteenth offering, is set in rural South Australia.
Reviewed by Wendy Lipke When reading the latest book by Fiona McCallum called Looking Out it took me some time to see the significance of the title. The story focusses on one family and a couple of close friends set in the post pandemic years. Natasha and Mitchell have two bright daughters. Natasha is striving
Reviewed by Wendy Lipke Lisa Medved is an Australian author who spends much of her time in The Hague. She has worked in public relations and event management submitting work to various corporate publications and magazines in the UK and the Netherlands. In this, her first novel, she takes the reader into the seventeenth-century Flemish
Reviewed by Wendy Lipke Claire Saxby, the author of this children’s book worked in Community Health while simultaneously writing for children. She has won several awards for her work. Jess Racklyeft is an illustrator who creates a variety of works either on paper or digitally. Her work with Claire Saxby on Iceberg, resulted in the