Reviewed by Richard Tutin There is a song that came out some years ago where the singer complains about how hard it is to be humble when they are perfect in every way. While this smacks of self-centred boasting, the desire to be perfect has been ingrained into the human psyche since the beginning of
Reviewed by Wendy Lipke The book Dare to be Different: Inspirational Words from People who Changed the World is a hard covered 19.5 x 25.5 cm publication which is a rich and exciting compendium for children of quotes from speeches, letters, lyrics, stories, and poems by people who have done wonderful things during their lifetime.
Reviewed by Richard Tutin Anyone who was interred in the Auschwitz prison camp during World War II was, more often than not, destined never to be released. Auschwitz has gone down in history as one of, if not the most, despicable places of death and torture created by human beings. It was a place where
Reviewed by Patricia Simms-Reeve Although Afghanistan has a rich literary tradition, life there is a struggle to survive in the twenty-first century, to the degree that writing is almost a luxury, especially for the women. My Pen is the Wing of a Bird is an unusual title but strikingly conveys that, by writing, these women
Reviewed by Rod McLary Those Who Perish is the fourth in the award-winning Caleb Zelic series. Two of the earlier books [And Fire Came Down and Darkness for Light] have been favourably reviewed in these pages. For those readers new to the books, Caleb is profoundly deaf from contracting meningitis as a five-year-old. He is
Reviewed by Norrie Sanders How would you feel if you were happily working overseas, then arrested without trial and deported to another country and held indefinitely in custody by armed guards? All through no fault of your own. Such was the fate of Miyakatsu Koike, a Japanese national, working in Indonesia for a Japanese bank.
Reviewed by Ian Lipke If there is no difference between a fantasy novel and a fantastical one, there should be. Richard Swan’s novel The Justice of Kings is a vastly different enterprise from Ken Follett’s Never, which is an epic tale of the fanciful. Richard Swan’s book is epic in size but certainly not in
Reviewed by Clare Brook When thinking of occupied France during the Second World War, one does not usually associate the brutality of the Gestapo and their ever-present Swastika Flags flapping in the Parisian breeze, with the elegant swish of Christian Dior’s haute couture, but Christine Wells has brought both together in her novel Sisters of
Reviewed by Ian Lipke The premise of this book is simple: to save your loved one’s life, you have to play and win the game. Across the globe five strangers receive a horrifying message, texted from a number unfamiliar to them. The message makes clear that the person loved most is in danger. ‘To save
Reviewed by Gail McDonald The Dictator’s Wife is set in the town of Poarta, capital of the fictitious country Yanussia, in eastern Europe under the dictatorship of Constantin Popa the country’s executive president. However, according to the author Freya Berry, the story, although it is fiction, is ‘heavily rooted in fact ‘ after she spent
Reviewed by Antonella Townsend I have long since been an enthusiastic reader within the category of Young Adult Fiction, but had never anticipated loving so very much a book produced for ages 4+. Such is the magic of Eyes that Speak to the Stars by Joanna Ho, illustrated by Dung Ho. Joanna Ho is passionate
Robert Lukins – Loveland Avid Reader Bookshop has an Author Event with Robert Lukins. Brief details are below but for all the details, click here. Thursday 10 March 2022 6:30 PM – 7:30 PM In store at Avid Reader Bookshop / ZOOM Online Register until 10 March 2022 4:00 PM To read the QRC review of Loveland,
Reviewed by Ian Lipke Have you ever returned to a town where you grew up as a lad? Have you been struck by how much your memory fails to tally with the town in its grown-up state? Dean Ashenden visits Tennant Creek, fifty years after his last sojourn there. While the town has been transformed,
Reviewed by Rod McLary Robert Lukins is an Australian author – his first book The Everlasting Sunday was published in 2018 and received positive reviews. Loveland is his second novel and is largely set in Nebraska in a small town called Loveland. There are two parallel stories but chronologically they take place sixty odd years
Reviewed by Wendy Lipke Charity Norman was born in Uganda but spent her early years in Yorkshire and Birmingham. She has set this story in New Zealand where she moved her own family in search of a more inclusive family lifestyle. This sentiment finds a place in the book, Remember Me, as it highlights family