(courtesy Bloomsbury Publishing) Stolen by Ann-Helén Laestadius (translated by Rachel Willson-Broyles)is that most universal and yet achingly specific kind of novel. At once a coming-of-age tale of one young Sámi woman battling to find in place in a world that holds obstacles and antagonism within and without, sometimes violently so, she Continue Reading
Books
Book review: Nick and Charlie (A Heartstoper novella) by Alice Oseman
(courtesy Harper Collins Australia) Life all too often feels like a series of endless goodbyes. Or possible goodbyes anyway; just when things seem to have settled into a pleasing and happy pattern, and we feel like this life things is forming itself into some existentially rich and satisfying shapes, along Continue Reading
#StarWarsDay book review: Brotherhood by Mike Chen #MayThe4thBeWithYou
(courtesy Penguin Books Australia) Star Wars is defined in many ways by the relationships which fill it with a space operatic sense of connectiveness that powers the narrative and lends it a great deal more resonance that you might expect what it essentially a galactic Western. Han and Leia and Continue Reading
Book review: Funny Story by Emily Henry
(courtesy Penguin Books Australia) You know what’s so appealing about romantic comedies? No matter how over the top their premise might be or fantastically narrative convenient the narrative powering them might be, they provide a delightfully overpowering sense of comfort that life can be good and wonderful, and if it’s Continue Reading
Book review: The Husbands by Holly Gramazio
(courtesy Penguin Books Australia) Is it possible to write a novel that is riotously clever and funny and yet absolutely able to cut right through to the heart of what it means to be human, to love, connect and belong, and to feel lost and alone when that doesn’t going Continue Reading
Book review: Interesting Facts About Space by Emily Austin
(courtesy Allen & Unwin) No one wants to think they’re a terrible person. If we’re honest, we all want to be the hero, the saviour, the flawlessly giving and selfless person that people laud and talk about with breathless wonder, someone people want to be friends with and love and Continue Reading
Book review: Floating Hotel by Grace Curtis
(courtesy Hachette Australia) Working out when you should walk away from something you love is always tough. The reason you’ve stuck out a particular gig for so long is the very thing that keeps you anchored there, and while longevity of occupation in a particular place or occupation doesn’t always Continue Reading
Book review: James by Percival Everett
(courtesy Pan Macmillan Australia) When you consider a classic book like Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, first published in 1884/85, it’s hard to imagine that the much-loved and adapted story could have any new light shone on it. It’s so well known and it’s lead character so well Continue Reading
Book review: The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stuart Turton
(courtesy Bloomsbury Publishing) Could it be possible that the whodunnit can be reborn at the very end of the world? Well, to be fair, in the case of the inimitable Stuart Turton that happened a number of years back with the head-scratchingly brilliant The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle (2018) Continue Reading
Book review: Wrong Answers Only by Tobias Madden
(courtesy Penguin Books Australia) How on earth do you respond with any sense of sanity or certainty when everything you have ever depended on suddenly crumbles to dust in one fateful instant? That’s the huge question that confronts Marco di Mario one particularly scary day when, fresh from finishing first Continue Reading