Reviewed by Wendy Lipke The Choice is the third book in the Dragon Heart Legacy trilogy by Nora Roberts. Although a reading of the first two books enhances what is in this book, it can be read on its own because the prologue provides the basic outline of the story so far. However, having already
Reviewed by Rod McLary The Passenger is the first novel from Cormac McCarthy – one of America’s finest writers – in sixteen years. His previous novel The Road was published in 2006 and was a post-apocalyptic novel in which an unidentified cataclysmic event destroyed civilization. The Road won both the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and
Reviewed by Wendy Lipke The author, Inga Simpson, says that the book came about from a challenge in a 2015 article entitled ‘Just not Cricket: Where are the Great Australian Cricket Novels?’ (401). I must admit I was not immediately drawn to this story as I am not a dedicated cricket fan. However, once I
Reviewed by Rod McLary Alex Miller is one of Australia’s finest writers – and is the winner of Miles Franklin Literary Awards for The Ancestor Game [in 1992] and Journey to the Stone Country [in 2003] and has won several other awards. A Brief Affair is his fifteenth novel and, as he does in his
Reviewed by Ian Lipke When Adam Brewster, the protagonist of John Irving’s new novel, The Last Chairlift finds himself enmeshed in an incestuous affair with his unmarried mother, all the signs flash “Beware! This book may not be worth the time needed to read it.” The fleshpots are further indicated by the naming of the
Reviewed by Wendy Lipke This was one of the most interesting, humorous and satisfying books that I have read for some time. Written by Western Australian Craig Silvey, and illustrated with sketches by Sara Acton, this book with its hard cover and dust jacket reminded me of the Readers Digest books. One of this author’s
Reviewed by Wendy Lipke This book is the third novel written by one of the UK’s most treasured comedians and presenters. He hosts The Graham Norton Show on BBC1, a show on BBC Radio 2 every Saturday and is a judge on RuPaul’s Drag Race UK. The story Forever Home is not a comedy unless
Reviewed by Patricia Simms-Reeve Kamila Shamsie’s stunning new novel is an unflinching depiction of the changing friendship between two girls, Maryam Khan and Zahra Ali, who are going to school in Karachi. Their lives are brightened by books, videos and music. They had met for the first time in a bookshop when they had simultaneously
Reviewed by Wendy Lipke No – this has nothing to do with the British sitcom about Hyacinth Bucket. This story is about what we all do to some extent, some more than others, at some stage in our lives. If you are lucky enough to be a parent, it’s a lifetime journey. The book begins
Reviewed by Rod McLary There are some novels which defy an easy classification – and Moon Sugar is one such novel. Is it science fiction, magic realism, a crime story or a romance? In some ways, it is all of these. It is a creative genre-bending novel which engages the reader from this sentence in
Reviewed by Wendy Lipke This book by Carol Lefevre does not follow the usual conventions of a novel where the reader can become immersed into the lives of a few main characters and follow their journey to whatever end the author may have in mind. It is not one storyline nor two – one in
Reviewed by Patricia Simms-Reeve It is an exceptional ability in an author to be able to convincingly and seamlessly blend fact and fiction in order to produce books as brilliant as the late Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall trilogy. Maggie O’Farrell, with her latest novel, The Marriage Portrait, has demonstrated that she too possesses this to
Reviewed by Ian Lipke Told from dual first-person perspectives (Crew and Wren) this book follows a developing relationship between Lancaster Prep Boarding School eighteen-year-olds Crew Lancaster and Wren Beaumont. Crew Lancaster belongs to a family that owns the school. (I know of no situation where a school is owned by a family – I could
Reviewed by Rod McLary T [or Timothy] is a tweaker – a slang term for someone who is addicted particularly to methamphetamines [or meth] – and is the protagonist of this uncompromising but lyrical novel describing the world inhabited by those who are dealing in or using – or both – illicit drugs. Just as
Reviewed by Gail McDonald Di Morrissey is an Australian author who has written many novels centred around various locations in Australia. This book The Night Tide is no different in that it is set in the Pittwater area of Sydney’s northern beaches. Di Morrissey trained as a journalist working in newspapers, magazines, television, film, theatre