Reviewed by Ian Lipke It is important to realise that this story was written for an audience that requires an exciting story not too troubled by authenticity. It is not for the serious reader. Given the book’s limitations and accepting that the genre is romance literature, readers can be comfortable that what they’re about to
Reviewed by Patricia Simms-Reeve Towards the end of this book, rather symbolically, a fragile and joyous hope emerges. This takes the form of two of the characters drinking the sap of the birch tree. The first people of the U.S. believed that, in Spring, the rising sap from these trees in the woods, gave them
Reviewed by Rod McLary The title of this book, part memoir and part social commentary, references the colloquial name ‘Rust Belt’ which was given to the north-eastern states in America where a major decline in the steel industry occurred from the 1980s. The Rust Belt was so-called because of the consequent economic and social decline
Reviewed by Patricia Simms-Reeve After reading the promotion to the publication of this book, I supposed that Harry had to be a very exceptional dog. Jill Baker, the author and devoted owner of Harry, suffered within a year, the death of her beloved husband, George, and a diagnosis and subsequent treatment for breast cancer. For
Reviewed by Gerard Healy The very talented illustrator and author Graeme Base has given us another agreeable tale, this time featuring three long-eared, white-furred, unassuming heroes. The story, when read to younger preschool children, should appeal because of its gentle charm, familiar settings and quirky characters. The vocabulary used (e.g. racquets, usual, disappeared and
Reviewed by Rod McLary This rather quirky title gives a good idea of what is within the book. It is a re-imagining of the well-known film Grease but with a LGBT twist. Ollie, when on holidays with his family at a lake in North Carolina, meets and falls in love with Will. Ollie and Will
Reviewed by Gerard Healy This is a charming picture book for younger readers (from 3 years) from the well-credentialed writer Jackie French and illustrator Bruce Whatley. The book’s concept is credited to Ben Smith Whatley, Bruce’s son. Jackie French’s long interest and concern for wombats, going back at least to ‘Diary of a Wombat’ (2002),
Reviewed by Ian Lipke Professor Henry Reynolds has described Cassandra Pybus’s Truganini as “a book of unquestionable national importance.” I could not agree more. It is a compelling book for Australians, for its stance on the human rights that aborigines would have expected, but were denied as a consequence of the blatant self-aggrandisement of George
Reviewed by Angela Marie “I have in my time sailed around Britain, canoed across Africa and crossed both America and Europe not once but several times. Yet the 7.71-mile route of London’s Number 12 bus stands equal to all those journeys. I cannot think of a trip with greater diversity or a more wonderful sense
Reviewed by Ian Lipke In 1941 the Allies are in a desperate situation. They require a new type of offensive weapon to level at their Nazi opponents. They need a way to demonstrate that Hitler was not the clean, fine character that his propaganda portrays. Posing as a wealthy industrialist, Tom Wilde enters Germany to
Reviewed by Patricia Simms-Reeve The title gives pause. Spinster is a word that may appear in novels of past centuries, but is rarely used today. It carries an aura of sadness and loneliness, even failure. Failure to be married, to bear children. Sections of this book are deeply affecting and do convey powerful feelings of
Reviewed by Rod McLary Return Ticket is the third book in a ‘loose trilogy’ entitled One Boy’s Journey to Man and tells the final part of the story of Jack Muir. The earlier books Boy on a Wire and To the Highlands respectively relate Jack’s experiences at an exclusive private boys’ school in Perth, and
Reviewed by Rod McLary Pandora English – the protagonist of this novel – is a living human being. The word ‘living’ is used advisedly as the area of New York in which Pandora lives is populated by the living, the dead and the undead. She lives in Spektor – an area of Manhattan where the
Reviewed by Ian Lipke So much like a re-make of Twelve Angry Men in literary form and so very, very different, Graham Moore’s thriller, with its devious, unexpected ending is likely to stand amongst the classics of suspenseful writing. Moore has published two other works, but neither of them has the impact that The Holdout
Reviewed by Wendy Lipke Some people believe that it is important for children to have pets as they get the opportunity to experience death and learn about the grieving process and that this will prepare them for the experience of losing a family member. Others believe that the grieving process is somehow innate in us