Reviewed by Ian Lipke Professor Henry Reynolds has described Cassandra Pybus’s Truganini as “a book of unquestionable national importance.” I could not agree more. It is a compelling book for Australians, for its stance on the human rights that aborigines would have expected, but were denied as a consequence of the blatant self-aggrandisement of George
Reviewed by Angela Marie “I have in my time sailed around Britain, canoed across Africa and crossed both America and Europe not once but several times. Yet the 7.71-mile route of London’s Number 12 bus stands equal to all those journeys. I cannot think of a trip with greater diversity or a more wonderful sense
Reviewed by Patricia Simms-Reeve The title gives pause. Spinster is a word that may appear in novels of past centuries, but is rarely used today. It carries an aura of sadness and loneliness, even failure. Failure to be married, to bear children. Sections of this book are deeply affecting and do convey powerful feelings of
Reviewed by Wendy Lipke Some people believe that it is important for children to have pets as they get the opportunity to experience death and learn about the grieving process and that this will prepare them for the experience of losing a family member. Others believe that the grieving process is somehow innate in us
Reviewed by E. B. Heath Those societies, which cannot combine reverence to their symbols with freedom of revision, must ultimately decay either from anarchy, or from the slow atrophy of a life stifled by useless shadows. Alfred North Whitehead. Every human society has a cultural framework that advocates a value system along with a code
Reviewed by E.B. Heath The title of this book belies the depth of intriguing knowledge therein. Mind, brain, sex and hysteria! My brain leapt towards Freud, without any bidding from my mind, and that is the last location I want either to visit. How the Brain Lost its Mind: Sex, Hysteria and the Riddle of
Reviewed by Patricia Simms-Reeve This title, in itself, arrests the attention of the reader who is interested in the human brain, the most complex and unexplored area of the body, if not the planet. The book is a thriller of a very different nature, and, in under 300 pages, gives a glimpse of the advances
Reviewed by Norrie Sanders The Great Recession of 2007 – the one that Australians call the GFC – was a boon to economists. Book sales boomed as the very economists who had failed to predict the crash, tried to convince us that they knew why it occurred. If only those same economists could have predicted
Reviewed by E. B. Heath ‘Hawke was a vivid fellow; and entertaining by his very nature’. Tom Keneally Remembering Bob, edited by his eldest daughter, Sue Pieters-Hawke, is a compilation of one hundred and thirty-eight eulogies of praise for Australia’s 23rd Prime Minister. Reading it was akin to attending a long memorial service, while wondering,
Reviewed by Antonella Townsend At its simplest, the act of cooking is an act of love; an act of indulging those you love with something delicious. The above is a quote from the introduction of Matt Preston’s latest cookbook – More, which is all about vegetables, nuts and grains. He promotes vegetarianism without the finger
Reviewed by Ian Lipke I had not heard of this artist until I attended an art history class at the University of the Third Age in Brisbane a couple of years ago. While weeks of studying the old masters had sharpened my analytic skills and broadened my knowledge of those things that make an artist
Reviewed by Patricia Simms-Reeve As the author states, ocean racing involves multiple skills: like combining football, flying and surfing. Add to this the luck of the draw that comes with playing poker and the skill of a chess player who plans a forward strategy, and you have the formula! His book pays homage to
Reviewed by Norrie Sanders Exodus was Leon Uris’ influential novel about the birth of Israel, commemorating the extraordinary events which created a homeland for Jews after the Second World War. It was a story of hope following the horrors of Hitler’s holocaust. But another exodus took place at that time that has not been commemorated.
Reviewed by Pauline Seath All the Burning Bridges, written by veteran Australian actor Steve Bisley, is a sequel to his highly acclaimed first book Stillways, a memoir published in 2013, and nominated for several literary awards. Steve, a born storyteller, grew up in Lake Munmorah, near Newcastle NSW. Stillways tells of his childhood, candidly, sometimes
Reviewed by Rod McLary With a nod to Frederich Nietszche, Rowan Hooper’s book is – in his own words – ‘a book about what it feels like to be exceptional and what it takes to get there’. Structured in three parts – Thinking, Doing and Being – the book explores the diversity of humans and