Reviewed by Gerard Healy An interesting story of memory manipulation that had me engaged initially but became more confusing as the characters time-travelled back and forth down various memory trails. Reading it was like a hike in the woods that gradually lead into a maze of blind alleys. The story centres on two main characters

Reviewed by Wendy Lipke Love Song is the third book in the Daughters of the Outback series by Sasha Wasley and the film rights to all three novels have just been sold. Soon readers will be able to view Willow, Free and Beth on the screen amid the beautiful Australian landscape. The earlier books in

Reviewed by Wendy Lipke Advancing Australia Ideas for a better Australia is a 130mm x 196mm, 145 page booklet containing articles from many expert thinkers and edited by Amanda Dunn and John Watson. The Foreword to the book is written by Michelle Grattan AO, Professorial Fellow of the Institute for Governance and Policy Analysis at

Reviewed by Rod McLary Matilda – as implied by the subtitle to this new biography – was a remarkable woman whose story is not often found in the history books.  There are a few reasons for this.  First, there is a paucity of contemporary material on her; second, there is almost nothing of her personal

Reviewed by Angela Marie There’s something about a book. There’s something about holding it in your hands and carefully turning the pages. A book is a gift and how wonderful if that gift recognises and celebrates the love and affection between mother and child. I LOVE MY MUM BECAUSE is an interactive picture book targetted

Reviewed by Angela Marie   “Elaine’s tennis ladies had their own idea of a class system …Humans strive to sort themselves into strata wherever they find themselves – even, or perhaps especially, in a former penal colony.  The only group where she hasn’t found that is in her little swimming circle…They’re all equals in the

Reviewed by Norrie Sanders The People vs The Banks is a compelling tale of the events leading to Australia’s royal commission on misconduct in financial services – the first in eighty years.  The action takes place in recent years, with emphasis on the commission’s activities from December 2017 to February 2019. Michael Roddan demonstrates how

Reviewed by Rod McLary Washington Black – the third novel by award-winning Canadian writer Esi Edugyan – is a bildungsroman; that is, a novel which focusses on the moral and psychological growth of a young protagonist from child to adult.  Washington Black, the eponymous protagonist, or ‘Wash’ as he is known to his acquaintances, is

Reviewed by Ian Lipke Readers of up-and-coming author Martin Holmen will be interested in the writing style that has a dynamic  immediacy of impact in the book Slugger. How to paint a character so that he or she is immediately recognised, how to present insights into the lives of the people around the central character,

Reviewed by Rod McLary Simon Greene is a successful and rich wealth management consultant; his wife Ingrid is an ex-model of Scandinavian origin but is now a respected paediatrician in a private hospital.  They live with two of their three children – Anya [the youngest] who is a student at an exclusive private school and

Reviewed by Wendy Lipke This novel is the twenty-third book in the Montalbano detective series written by Italy’s most famous contemporary writer, ninety-four year old, Andrea Camilleri. His books have been written in Italian and translated into English by Stephen Sartarelli, who includes in each Montalbano novel translation a set of illuminating footnotes that explain

Reviewed by Wendy Lipke Julie Keys’s book the artist’s portrait is one of the strangest books I have read in a long time. Perhaps the best way to describe how I initially felt about this book is to take a sentence from a letter in the book. ‘Your letter of the 12th reached us a

Reviewed by Wendy Lipke The novel Fled is based on the true story of a convict, Mary Bryant, sent to Australia with the First Fleet, who with her two children and a small group of convict men flee Sydney Cove by commandeering a small boat and taking on a perilous journey to Koepang (Timor). Here

Reviewed by Wendy Lipke The novel A Dream of Italy, by Nicky Pellegrino, begins with a young Italian man, returning to his roots in a dilapidated medieval town with its narrow streets, fresh mountain air and views across the valley below. When he becomes mayor of Montenello, his goal is to restore the place to