How to Bee is suggested for 8-12 year-old readers. It has also been referred to as a little novel, and I saw it as this, for that age plus those in their teens and even adults. The futuristic book has themes of the changing environment, rural versus urban life, the value of material wealth and what Read More …
Letters to the Lost is a beautiful novel for the upper end of the young adult section. It has a gruesome beginning. Juliet has written a letter to her dead mother, detailing a photo her mother has shared with her, taken by another photographer in a war zone. Juliet’s mother was a photographer as well, Read More …
Eliza Henry Jones’s first book In the Quiet was shortlisted for the New South Wales Premier’s Literary Awards and the Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction. Her second, Ache, has just been released and she is still in her twenties. The follow up book to a successful debut can be challenging but she has pulled Read More …
Vivienne Kelly’s second novel, The Starlings, revolves around Australian Rules football, following the season of 1985. I am not much of a football fan, but neither is the protagonist, eight-year-old Nicky, so I found his perspective on it amusing, and the family drama around it was fascinating. The prologue had me hooked where Nicky says Read More …
Living on Hope Street is aimed at teenagers, but contains issues of domestic violence, racism, sexuality and intolerance that adults could and should read about as well. It is told from the perspectives of various residents of, the in some ways ironically named, Hope Street. Young boys Kane and Sam are dealing with their abusive Read More …
I have read some of Katherine Scholes’s previous novels and enjoyed them. Her latest, Congo Dawn, looked like a challenge at nearly six hundred pages, but I was engaged right from the start in the lives of Anna and Dan. It starts in Melbourne with Anna leading a satisfactory life, working as a secretary, living Read More …
Two of our reviewers loved J.D. Barrett’s debut novel The Secret Recipe for Second Chances. For one of them it was her favourite book of the year. I didn’t get to that one so was interested to try her second book, The Song of Us. I really enjoyed this one. Zoe is a musical thanatologist, Read More …
Paul Jennings has written many books for children of all ages. Most of his books are funny and entertaining. This novella is a departure for him. It is pitched at 10-14 year-olds, and I would say the older end of this. Don’t be deceived by this slim book. It is not for young ones. Having Read More …
Katherine Boland has written a candid memoir of her life with its various phases. At times humourous and others sad, she has certainly lived an interesting life. Born in England she was brought to Australia at four-years old with her parents and younger sister Lisa, as ten pound Poms. Her earlier life in Australia was happy, Read More …
Fiona Lowe’s latest book, Daughter of Mine, reminded me of Monica McInerney’s books, particularly The Alphabet Sisters. This also has three very different sisters, but born in a Victorian country town, with similar family dramas, relationship issues, secrets and lies. The characters are introduced and then the deceit and the surprises are slowly revealed. This Read More …
