Reviewed by Richard Tutin It was either fortuitous or a coincidence that, when Janine di Giovanni’s book The Vanishing -The Twilight of Christianity in the Middle East arrived on my desk, a statement from the Patriarchs and Heads of Local Churches of Jerusalem was published concerning the current threat to the Christian presence in the
Reviewed by Rod McLary Essentially, Anthem is a tale of a quest undertaken by the fourteen-year-old protagonist Simon Oliver. Quests exist in the folklore of all cultures and ethnic groups – and usually require great exertion by the hero as s/he confronts many moral and physical obstacles through the journey. In fact, one section of
Reviewed by Clare Brook Only a life that faces the truth of the finality of death allows an individual to live without existential anxiety, freeing them to pursue a passionate, authentic existence in the limited time that they have. Menzies & Menzies. We’re all going to die! Maybe not today, or tomorrow, but at some point
Reviewed by Patricia Simms-Reeve Matt Haig, well known for his bestselling children’s books, (A Mouse Called Miika is his twelfth) is also a much-admired author for adults, his most recent success being The Midnight Library. Miika, a Finnish mouse, has fun adventures which involve special powers, (drimwicked) which enable him to overcome a snow owl’s
Reviewed by Patricia Simms-Reeve This book, with its store of memories, contains 32 short stories of an Australian childhood. Introduced by Alice Pung, it is a fine addition to the series that Black Inc has published, illuminating the experiences of Asians, Aboriginals, Africans, Queers, and Disabled people growing up in Australia. It is rich in
Reviewed by Wendy Lipke Writer Mary Lee Donovan, an editorial director at Candlewick Press, and artist Lian Cho have produced a beautiful 27.5 x 26cm hard covered children’s book about hospitality and acceptance featuring the word ‘welcome’ from more than fourteen languages. Readers are told in the first couple of pages that the text is
Reviewed by Rod McLary She and I is the first novel by young Irish author Hannah King. Part psychological thriller and part crime novel, the story is set in a small town in Northern Ireland. Keeley Mackley and Jude Jameson are best friends and have been since early childhood. They live opposite each other in
Reviewed by Wendy Lipke This is the first novel to be published under this author’s name. Previously, she had published a variety of children’s books and two adult historical novels under the name of Carol Jones. For this publication, The Secrets of Bridgewater Bay, Brooks has chosen the genre of historical fiction and used a
Reviewed by Antonella Townsend Alcoholic tough guy on a revenge mission is not my trope of choice. However, Ollie Ollerton’s jaunty writing style somewhat softened the testosterone-fuelled violence as the protagonist of All or Nothing, Alex Abbott, wrought retribution on a network of pedophiles. From the first line, I was hooked: On the carpet lay
Reviewed by Norrie Sanders Some say – and not just Kiwis – that this wide brown land has no mountains. It requires some lateral thinking to overcome the problem of perceived flatness. The first solution to a stunted land is typical Aussie ingenuity – just call any mound a mountain. Residents living near Mount Whycheproof
Reviewed by Ian Lipke Bain Attwood is an experienced historian who currently occupies a Chair of History at Monash University. The professor knows what he is writing about. In 2010, his book Possession: Batman’s Treaty and the Matter of History won the Ernest Scott Prize for the most distinguished contribution to the history of Australia
Reviewed by Ian Lipke This novel by Robert Cox introduces its readers to a man called Tom Birch, one of those almost forgotten identities who lived in a fertile part of middle and eastern Tasmania. As always in attempts to resurrect a person, long dead, there must be considerable research combined with a lot of
Reviewed by Rod McLary At the outset, I should declare that I have read almost all the Dr Kay Scarpetta novels by Patricia Cornwell. Consequently, I come to this review with a slight bias in the author’s favour. However, to balance that bias, I consider that not all the Scarpetta novels are equal – some
Reviewed by Wendy Lipke The reader of this latest book by Kathleen Glasgow is told that more than twenty million people in the United States struggle with substance abuse each year…that statistic begins with users at age twelve…and that’s only what has been documented (379). The author who, in her first book Girl in Pieces,
Reviewed by Patricia Simms-Reeve Thrillers, that supremely popular of fiction genres, produce such an array of title that a book must be outstanding in order to captivate the discerning reader. Barry Maitland has written more than a dozen books which mostly feature David Brock and his respected colleague, Kathy Kolla. From The Marx Sisters, his