Reviewed by Norrie Sanders This is a book that I have been waiting to read for decades. As a young teenager, I encountered Captain Reg Saunders at the Royal Military College Golf Club. I knew plenty of Captains and Colonels, but none commanded the room like Reg. His popularity, modesty and open warmth were immediately
Reviewed by Ian Lipke Jamie Williams’ War Dog blends visceral realism with a focused exploration of human psychological endurance. Rather than relying on melodrama on a grand scale, the novel grounds its narrative in high-stakes combat, spatial tension, and character morality. War Dog reveals a work defined by a disciplined, economical prose style, an evocative
Reviewed by Gayle Williams Margarita Nazarenko’s Unbothered is not a manifesto for indifference. Rather, it is a guide to developing personal standards and living by them with confidence, free from the weight of other people’s opinions. At its core, the book encourages readers to cultivate enough self‑trust that external approval no longer dictates their emotional
Reviewed by Rod McLary Patricia Cornwell is a best-selling author of over forty books – most of which feature her much-loved character Dr Kay Scarpetta a forensic pathologist. Her first novel Postmortem won the Creasey, the Edgar, the Anthony and Macavity Awards – the first book ever to win these major awards in one year.
Reviewed by Gayle Williams Eileen Cummings’ I Am the Daughter They Stole is a first‑person account of an extraordinarily brave and resilient woman. As the title suggests, Aunty Eileen is a member of the Stolen Generations. Born in 1943 on a cattle station in Arnhem Land, where her mother worked as a domestic servant, she
Reviewed by Ian Lipke The moving story of a man who was struck down by mesothelioma and his friend who moved the equivalent of the earth to save him. The story opens with a number of lovely character studies of young men at university. Life as lived by these men rings true to the ears
Reviewed by Colleen McLennan The author, Raya Goldtwig, was born in 1936 in Warsaw, Poland, a member of a prosperous Jewish family, the daughter of Marya and Jozef Goldzweig, and the sister of her ten-year-old brother Mieczyslav (Michael). Now on the cusp of her 90th birthday, Raya has accepted the encouragement of her daughters and
Reviewed by Norrie Sanders It is one of life’s ironies that a ship that sinks is more likely to be remembered than one which stays afloat. Who remembers the name of the Titanic’s sister ship? The Olympic was on the Atlantic the night Titanic sank and retired gracefully after a reliable and illustrious career of
Reviewed by Rod McLary The subtitle to this book is A Memoir of Love, Loss and Addiction and is Jonathan Tepper’s story of his childhood and his family. The story is an unusual one by any measure and the epigraph really says it all: How natural it all seemed then; how remote and improbable now!
Reviewed by Clare Brook Michael Delahaye is a former BBC Television news reporter, correspondent and documentary producer. From 1998 he worked as a senior media consultant for the Thomson Foundation UK to protect and develop independent journalism in the post-Soviet world. He travelled throughout the Russian Federation – Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Moldova, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and
The mischievously misleading title might suggest a podiatrist’s handbook but this is more than cautionary advice from a professional. While there are brief mentions of the value of Birkenstocks, importance of abandoning glamour and high heels and the benefits of taking good care of feet, the book is an entertaining guide to facing the latter
Reviewed by Wendy Lipke Stolen Man on Stolen Land is written in the first person and follows a young Afro American couple who have decided to spend some years in Australia. The reader is given an insight into life in America for people of this culture and how others, not born in Australia, find life
Reviewed by Wendy Lipke Award winning journalist Grantlee Kieza OAM is well known as the author of many books which foreground notable Australians who are never found in the history books yet their impact on our history has been of great worth. Among this esteemed group are people like Mrs Kelly, Annette Kellerman, Sister Viv
Reviewed by Colleen McLennan William McInnes is an Australian author and actor. He grew up on the Redcliffe Peninsular in Queensland and attended the Humpybong Primary School and Clontarf Beach State High School. In 1985 he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree at Rockhampton Campus of Capricornia Institute of Advanced Education (now Central Queensland University).
Reviewed by Ian Hamilton To be blunt, this autobiography starts poorly but, fortunately, the second third of the book is more insightful and the last third of the book is engaging and challenging. In some ways it resembles a play where slowly but surely a one-dimensional (flat) character evolves into a three dimensional (round) one.