Books

  No matter how open someone may appear on the surface, the odds are that somewhere with them lurks secrets unspoken, some possibly even unacknowledged, that may never see the light of day, regardless of how close they may be to their loved ones. This idea, that we never truly know Continue Reading

  SNAPSHOT Many of these original books focus on life’s lessons, joys, and curiosities. Gackley cleverly takes the books’ classic covers and turns them into unforgettable, edgy, politicaly incorrect parodies that speak to the bad little kid in all of us. With a catalog of children’s book titles like Peeping Continue Reading

(image courtesy Pan MacMillan)   What must it be like to lose your birthday? For the aged titular protagonist in Diana Rosie’s debut novel, Alberto’s Lost Birthday, it has never really been an issue. As a young boy orphaned in the midst of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), his life has been one of survival, Continue Reading

  It has been said, quite possibly once too often, that all good things must come to an end. But what if, wonders the titular protagonist in The Heart of Henry Quantum, if they were never all that good to begin with? Of course Henry has always told himself that Continue Reading

  It’s tempting to look at celebrities, even those from what Miranda Hart refers to as the “pretty earthy, budget-constrained variety of show business” (BBC sitcoms), and assume their lives unfold in some sort of gilt-edged ivory tower untroubled by the cares and concerns of our everyday world. But as Continue Reading

  In the West, where sensitivity to free flowing spirituality often finds itself subsumed to logic and consumerism more often than not, the idea of reincarnation is often treated with outright scepticism and ridicule, or at the very least, benign neglect. For some reason, the idea that we are not wholly Continue Reading

  Grief does strange things to people. And try as we might to predict how we will react in circumstances of great loss, you don’t really know how you will cope, or not cope as the case maybe, until the time comes. In the case of Arthur Pepper, the protagonist Continue Reading

(cover via Hachette Australia)   Dreams are often seen as an ephemeral part of life. Necessary yes, for without them where would we draw hope, or be motivated to push beyond ourselves and achieve great things, but hardly the root stock of existence, a necessity for a full and complete Continue Reading

  Adversity often strikes us when we are least expecting it. That’s largely because our natural tendency, the Eeyores among us not withstanding, is to hope for the very best, to let hope spring eternal until such time as it becomes abundantly clear that it has no intention of rewarding Continue Reading