Reviewed by Ian Lipke Chris Hadfield has pursued a career that comes the way of few men. A seasoned and accomplished astronaut, a test pilot and experienced fighter pilot in the US air force and navy, he has seen action intercepting Soviet bombers over United States air space. A veteran of space flight, a director
Reviewed by Patrica Simms-Reeve For generations, children have been thrilled by the stories from classics such as those by the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen. Some of these classics are macabre, cruel, and bloodthirsty. Mostly, they are dark tales that don’t conclude with the clichéd ‘happy ending’. Oliver Jeffers’s latest book, designed for the
Reviewed by Wendy Lipke As soon as I began reading this book, I became enchanted by the imagery of the landscape. The author Karen Manton made it come alive and, for me, this became a major focus throughout the book. It did not take away from the main story, but in fact enhanced it, adding
Reviewed by Gerard Healy A very interesting look at the array of puzzles, odd-ball questions and games thought up by HR departments to help select the best applicants for top-flight jobs. The author is William Poundstone, an American, and while his focus is mainly on the US, many of the job-selection processes he describes would
Review by Richard Tutin The Governors of our Australian states are often regarded as mysterious beings. After all, what do they do? What is their purpose? Philip Payton has taken up the challenge of demystifying state governors through this history of the Governors of South Australia. Though he focuses on only one state he does,
Reviewed by Antonella Townsend It is that time of year, again, when parents will be looking for Christmas presents, and Allen & Unwin have come to the rescue with We Go Way Back by Idan Ben-Barak, illustrated by Philip Bunting. Idan Ben-Barak has degrees in microbiology and in the history and philosophy of science. He
Reviewed by Clare Brook Boori Monty Pryor is a multi-talented performer with experience in film and television as an actor and writer; he has also worked in theatre-in-education. Boori is the author of several award-winning children’s books, including the Prime Minister’s Literary Award winner Shake a Leg. Story Doctors is his latest book, illustrated by
Reviewed by Gerard Healy Another great effort by renowned Australian children’s author and illustrator Graeme Base. You may be familiar with his earlier works including ‘Animalia’ (1986), ‘The Eleventh Hour’(1988) and ‘The Sign of the Seahorse’(1992), which were all beautifully coloured and intricately detailed. This one is finely detailed but it’s in black and white,
Reviewed by Wendy Lipke A Fire Inside – The Power of the Human Help Reflex is the 23x30cm hard covered book which accompanies a feature-length documentary of the same name, scheduled for nationwide release on 7th October 2021. The documentary was commissioned by NRMA Insurance as a legacy and in celebration of all those who
Reviewed by Wendy Lipke The latest book by Australian writer, Caroline Overington, is called The Cuckoo’s Cry with the additional rider, ‘when a stranger comes to stay’. Immediately I thought of the saying a cuckoo in the nest. According to Wiktionary, the word ‘cuckoo’ can have a couple of meanings when applied to human behaviour.
Reviewed by Patricia Simms-Reeve Christmas, time for celebration, in my childhood saw the arrival of the Christmas beetle in droves. With a gleaming, gently striped carapace and vivid blue eyes, it was an added delight to those December days. Sadly, I have not seen one in decades. Like the windscreen no longer splattered with insect
Reviewed by Ian Lipke When I first read the story of Larrimah, I formed the opinion that once again someone had taken the stereotypical characters of a bush town and attempted to cash in on the gullible American market. Present in large number were the old standbys: drunken men and women in sun-suffused conditions that
Chris Hammer – author of Scrublands and Silver – has now released his new book Treasure & Dirt. A feature article on the author follows. Chris Hammer was a journalist for more than thirty years covering both Australian federal politics and international affairs. For many years, he was a roving foreign correspondent for SBS TV’s flagship current affairs program Dateline.
Reviewed by Ian Lipke Chris Hammer introduces the practice of ‘ratting’ in the opening pages of his new novel, which bears the rather pedestrian name of Treasure and Dirt. Finnigan’s Gap, a tiny town little more than able to meet the needs of impoverished miners, is rocked when the body of Jonas McGee is found
Reviewed by Ian Lipke Lutheranism retains more than respectably large congregations five hundred years after Martin Luther and his followers founded the movement. Yet the Luther name has always carried some sort of atmosphere, not as specific as a slur, but rather a feeling of grubbiness somehow. This leaves Luther a man of great interest.