Reviewed by Ian Lipke With Shannyn Palmer we meet a writer who is very difficult not to quote. We can paraphrase her but always run the risk of producing a lower-rate product. What does this strangely titled book set out to tell us? Why do we need a new work of history that seeks to
Reviewed by Ian Lipke This latest volume in the Ancient Egypt Series sees the host nation on its knees. For more than fifty years, Egypt has been beset by a ruthless enemy, she is a civilisation in ruins. The Hyksos, a bloodthirsty barbarian people from the distant east continue to advance, crushing armies in their
Reviewed by Richard Tutin Reading Victor Sebestyen’s very rich and detailed history of Budapest reminded me of when my wife and I visited the city as members of a tour group in 2010. That brought on the urge to dig out of their various hiding places some video and photos we took during the two
Reviewed by Gerard Healy This is an action story on steroids by Mark Greaney. He’s the American writer whose book The Gray Man has recently been made into a Netflix movie starring Ryan Gosling. Armored starts in Beirut where we meet our all-American hero Josh Duffy, an ex-Army sergeant now working as a mercenary employed
Reviewed by Patricia Simms-Reeve The title suggests the aspect of the novel that is, like the art of origami, delightfully creative. This Japanese skill is extremely precise and delicate in its essential simplicity. Special papers are carefully folded to create unlimited possibilities. In this book for children, it is a bird and a boat. Mina
Reviewed by Clare Brook An author that provides readers with scientific research concerning health and wellbeing and can be simultaneously amusing is clearly a gifted communicator. Dr. Norman Swan has achieved this in his latest book. So you want to Live Younger Longer? is packed with a wide range of material. First off it’s all
Reviewed by Rod McLary 1989 is the second book in Val McDermid’s new series of crime thrillers – the first was 1979 – which centres on Allie Burns. However, ten years after the first in the series, the world has moved on and taken Allie with it. She is no longer an investigative journalist with
Reviewed by Patricia Simms-Reeve People of all ages who value our wildlife will undoubtedly love the story of Flipper and Finnegan. Based on the events following the oil spill off Phillip Island in Victoria in 2001, it focuses on two little penguins who belong to the smallest of this species of bird. Unsuspecting of the
Reviewed by Norrie Sanders What if your father told many tales of the Second World War, but somehow the real story was elusive, with three obscure years? What if he was sworn to secrecy, but you are intensely curious about the events that took place in those malignant times? This was the dilemma facing Neil
Reviewed by Gerard Healy This interesting novel, by Natasha Pulley, is set in Russia in 1963. The story begins in a Siberian gulag in winter where Valery, or zek (prisoner) 745 as he’s known, has spent six years of his ten-year sentence. Through his scientific knowledge, personality and ruthless actions, he has a relatively privileged
Reviewed by Patricia Simms-Reeve The Unbelieved may be her first fiction book, but Vikki Petraitis has written a crime novel that has all the hallmarks of a writer most accomplished in the genre. The plot is cleverly shaped, with a web involving fraud, murder and violence. The setting is a small town, Deception Bay, where
Reviewed by Richard Tutin Journalism and journalists are constantly in the spotlight. Whether it is watching the nightly television news or reading the various newspapers in their paper or digital forms, we are constantly hearing or reading the results of the journalistic craft. Journalists have come under attack in recent times as societies grapple with
Reviewed by E. B. Heath Bobby Palmer’s debut novel, Isaac and the egg, deserves to be approached with a fresh mind in order that the storyline unravels as the author intended. Therefore, this review will not contain plot details, only say the themes are of love, loss, grief and recovery. It can also be said
Reviewed by Patricia Simms-Reeve Children’s books perform so many valuable tasks. They can foster a love of reading, entertain, banish boredom, and sometimes educate and reassure. The Golden Swift fulfils all of the above. A delightful mix of fantasy, fact and plot, it will have wide appeal to middle school children. In the second of
Reviewed by Wendy Lipke This story by Jules Van Mil epitomises many of the migrants to Australia after the World Wars who leave behind their homeland to travel to the other side of the world in the hope of a better life. In 1950, Avril Montdidier, a young French woman, did just this. She had