Reviewed by Patricia Simms-Reeve If you can’t afford to live in a New York apartment bordering Central Park, wear couturier gowns, dine in five-star restaurants, but long to savour such a life style, this book is for you. It indulges the dreams of those who regard a life of luxury to be their ideal, a
Reviewed by Ian Lipke Creating God is an attempt to recreate the worlds in which the founders of several major religions lived and laboured. The result is a book rich in detail, consummate in its scholarship, and revelatory in exposing for modern eyes the conditions that allowed religious movements to flourish. Derricourt’s approach is to
Reviewed by Patricia Simms-Reeve Ethel Rosenberg’s tragic life highlights a dark phase in post-war America. Its political and legal world was dominated by bigotry and fear, stoked by McCarthyism and the looming power of Hoover, head of the FBI. The devastation of the atom bomb, the growing threat of Russia, then Mao’s communism gripping China,
Reviewed by Ian Lipke Farmers or Hunter-Gatherers is a sophisticated, academic attack on, if not a complete dismantling of, the arguments expressed by Bruce Pascoe in his Dark Emu publication of 2014. Pascoe argued that classical aboriginal society was more sophisticated than present society believed because the evidence showed that they were farming at a
Reviewed by Wendy Lipke Kerry McGinnis’s early life has given her a wonderful understanding of people. When her father was left with five young children after the death of his wife, they went bush giving Kerry many experiences that she could draw on for her writing. When asked about the process used when writing a
Michael Robotham has been awarded the 2021 Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for his heart-stopping psychological thriller When She Was Good. This comes a year after Robotham became the first Australian to win the CWA’s prestigious Gold Dagger twice. The Crime Writers’ Association said of When She Was Good that it was,
Reviewed by Ian Lipke I must admit that until now I had never heard the name Hazel Rowley. I did not know that I had been missing the works of a writer of consummate prose. Here I distinguish, as I’m sure the editors do, between writing biographies and biographical writing. The first suggests writers researching,
Reviewed by Rod McLary The title of this book – The Others – immediately suggests a ‘them versus us’ scenario and that is exactly what it is. But, in this book, the ‘us’ is an eleven-year-old boy and his father and the ‘them’ while never clearly identified are always present – a little like shadows
ABA 2021 Booksellers’ Choice winners announced. The winners of the Australian Booksellers Association’s (ABA) 2021 Booksellers’ Choice Book of the Year Awards have been announced. The winning titles in each category are: Adult Fiction Book of the Year The Dictionary of Lost Words (Pip Williams, Affirm) Adult Nonfiction Book of the Year Phosphorescence (Julia Baird, Fourth Estate)
Reviewed by Gerard Healy Michael Robotham’s latest thriller is a roller-coaster ride of suspense and plot twists. The writer has set another story in London, this time with a young, female policewoman as the central character. Her name is Philomena (Phil) McCarthy and she is the estranged daughter of a gangster. The theme that runs
Reviewed by Rod McLary Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 film Psycho attracted a great deal of attention when it was released – not the least of which was due to its main protagonist, played by Janet Leigh, being murdered within the first half-hour. It was almost unheard of for the main character to disappear from the screen
Reviewed by Gerard Healy A quick, smash and grab look at Australian politics by Mark Humphries and Evan Williams. It’s a small, joke-packed volume you can easily read in a few hours, leaving you with a few good chuckles but unlikely to have made a very lasting impression. In food terms, it’s a light entrée
Reviewed by Wendy Lipke As a writer and news anchor for TV networks for over twenty years, first with the ABC then Channel 9, Mimi Kwa felt compelled to write this memoir after opening a letter from her father which contained the following information: THE SUPREME COURT OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA Kwa v Kwa In the
Reviewed by Antonella Townsend Finally! Someone has cracked the language barrier between us and our very best friends – dogs. Caring dog owners have always known that dogs can communicate, many of whom are fluent in dogese. But a very clever person has taught her dog to speak English via an augmentative and alternative communication
Douglas Stuart’s Booker Prize-winning debut novel Shuggie Bain (Picador) has won book of the year at the British Book Awards, reports the Bookseller. The novel, which also won the debut book of the year award, won the top award ahead of Maggie O’Farrell, who won the fiction award for Hamnet (Tinder Press), and David Olusoga, who won the children’s illustrated and