(courtesy Penguin Books Australia) If you have ever travelled through the valley of the shadow of death of grief – and yes, that is some prime-grade Psalms-level language there but being plunged into grief often feels quite Biblical – you will know that it feels like it is sucking all Continue Reading
Books
Halloween book review: Alice by Christina Henry
It’s quite the thing these days to take a classic novel as inspiration, or even an ancient one in some cases, and take it to new and exciting places that honour the original work and author but explore new territory. In many cases, it’s done brilliantly and originally well, as Continue Reading
Halloween book review: The Last Bookstore on Earth
(courtesy Penguin Books Australia) Any time any author decides to take a well-established genre, give it a good shake-up and reshape its form entirely is a good time. Especially when it comes one as well-trafficked as the end-of-the-world genre which has been pretty much full-to-bursting with zombies and aliens and Continue Reading
Book review: Our Life in a Day by Jamie Fewery
(courtesy Hachette Australia) Whenever we’re asked to pick the highlights for anything, whether it’s a relationship or an overseas trip or our childhood, we unerringly pick the glowingly positive high points, driven by some unspoken acknowledgement that for something to be a highlight it must have unquestionably upbeat qualities. But Continue Reading
Book review: Tiny Uncertain Miracles by Michelle Johnston
(courtesy Harper Collins Publishers Australia) It is hard, if not next to impossible when you are caught down in the depths of grief and loss, and the suffocating smallness of life that often comes with it, not to feel as if there is any hope left in life. But as Continue Reading
Book review: Picture Imperfect by Jacqueline Wilson
(courtesy Penguin Books Australia) It’s all too easy to have someone create your life story for you. None of us set out to do that, of course; we dream and plan and hope based on the very firm idea that we are the masters of our destiny but somehow we Continue Reading
Book review: Spiderlight by Adrian Tchaikovsky
(courtesy Pan Macmillan Australia) The grand and noble quest across vast distance in pursuit of the decisive victory of good over evil is a staple of fantasy novels. It crops up again and again and for very good reason – here is the perfect vehicle for putting disparate people together, Continue Reading
Take the plunge with the fun new trailer for The Pout-Pout Fish
(courtesy IMP Awards) SNAPSHOTTwo aquatic misfits embark on an impossible journey to save their home. Living on a rundown shipwreck, Mr. Fish discovers a hyperactive young sea dragon Pip – who had mistaken his home for a junkyard – pilfering his belongings. The heated argument that ensues leaves both their Continue Reading
Book review: Unnecessary Drama by Nina Kenwood
(courtesy Text Publishing) Life, so youthful expectation dreamily romanticises, is supposed to fall into all kinds of predictable (and, of course, satisfyingly successful) places. But as we all soon discover, some more than others, life is not to be dictated to, benignly and excitedly or otherwise, and so what often Continue Reading
Book review: The Maskeys by Stuart Everly-Wilson
(courtesy Transit Lounge Publishing) Despite this book’s title, The Maskeys, and no, this does not require a spoiler alert, are not the centrepiece of the novel which bears their rather blighted name. Penned by Stuart Everly-Wilson, who brought us the superlatively good Low Expectations, The Maskeys revolves instead around Rodney, Continue Reading