Reviewed by Norrie Sanders You can’t help but admire someone setting off on a journey like this. Any long distance walk in back country requires mental and physical doggedness, and the 660km Australian Alps Walking Track is right up there. Having walked bits of the same route, I looked forward to this book taking me
Reviewed by Ian Lipke Puccini would have had no idea what Ellie Marney planned to do with his great aria from Turandot Nessun Dorma (or None Shall Sleep). Opera lovers across the world would be cringing at her audacity if the book were just not so good. One bump continues to bother (and that will
On 15 September, the 2020 Booker Prize shortlist was revealed by the 2020 Chair of Judges Margaret Busby. The shortlist was selected from 162 submitted books. Readers of the six chosen books will explore the tender story of a mother’s battle to save her daughter in a dystopian city made inhospitable by the climate crisis;
Reviewed by Patricia Simms-Reeve The rollicking sequel to Jinxed! Cora Bell’s Untold Magic is a roller coaster of colourful adventures, humour and, of course, magical antics. It is bound to please the ever-increasing number of readers who are lovers of fantasy. The background to Cora’s acquiring her magic skills and becoming a ‘syphon’ is explained
Reviewed by Ian Lipke A huge book of 800+ pages, The Evening and the Morning appears to be a useful source of information relating to the pre-1000 CE period. Having read general knowledge books in the history of this era as well as some specialist tomes, I am comfortable in asserting that the author’s research
Reviewed by Ian Lipke Lionhearts opens with England in dire need of a king. But Richard 1, the Lionheart, has been captured while on Crusade and is held fast in Austria pending payment of a ransom. To raise the money needed to bring him home, every lord has increased taxes and the common people are
Reviewed by Ian Lipke While I have never heard of Catrine Clay, whose ‘ground-breaking research’ produced The Good Germans, the fault is not hers. It is my responsibility to keep up. I note that Ms Clay has written at least one other book, King Kaiser Tsar, and on its merits has been described as an
Reviewed by Rod McLary Bluebird is a sprawling novel set in the fictitious small town of Bluebird located just across the bay from Ocean City. It could be anywhere but the descriptions of the town’s characters place it squarely in Australia. Most readers would recognise – and perhaps some may even know – many of
Reviewed by Ian Lipke Almost seven hundred pages face the reader of Professor Grace Karskens’s latest book People of the River. This is a masterpiece of historical writing that deals with the lost worlds of early Australia (as she calls them). Karskens bases her text on the Hawkesbury and Nepean Rivers areas, where she identifies
Reviewed by Wendy Lipke This second novel by Meg Keneally has much in common with her first solo novel Fled. The early part of both novels is set in Britain at a time when the common people felt powerless, exploited by those with money and where survival was all a matter of chance. The second
Reviewed by Patricia Simms-Reeve One of the most exciting developments in publishing is the high quality and irresistible nature, mostly, of books for children. From babies to young adults, there is an ever-growing selection which would impoverish a family should book-loving parents succumb and shower their offspring with appealing items. Of course, libraries are an
Reviewed by Patricia Simms-Reeve From a heartache, deep and near unbearable, to the carefree beauty of birdsong, the road crawled along by Sam Bloom is an unforgettable experience she shares with her readers. The horror of her predicament, after a catastrophic accident on a family holiday in Thailand, is graphically and movingly conveyed in her
The winners of ABIA Awards for 2020 were announced earlier this year. A selection of the winners is listed below. Literary Fiction Book of the Year: The Weekend Charlotte Wood Matt Richell Award for New Writer of the Year: your own kind of girl Clare Bowditch General Fiction Book of the Year: Bruny Heather Rose
Reviewed by Rod McLary Mayflies is written in two parts: part one is set in Summer 1986 and part two is set in Autumn 2017. The seasons selected for the titles of the parts suggest the mood of what is contained within them. The protagonists are Tully and his best friend James [or Noodles as
Reviewed by Ian Lipke Another crime story, a handsome hero (beautiful heroine, if you prefer), regulation plot, and a vicious killer that must be put away – we all know the drill. But not this time. S.R. White has broken the mould. Hermit is a very different crime story – in fact, it has