Books

(courtesy Pan Macmillan Australia) In this postmodern, mash-up obsessed, creatively synergistic digital age of ours, it’s fun to see what really imaginative people will do when they mix their own highly original ideas with an existing, much-loved story. Case in point is The Night Before Christmas in Wonderland by Carys Continue Reading

(courtesy Hachette Australia) Christmas is popularly thought of as a magical time of second chances. It often doesn’t feel that with all the rush and busyness and the general furious exhaustion and angst of life seeming to reach a tinsel-draped fever pitch, but in The Nine Lives of Christmas by Continue Reading

(courtesy Penguin Books Australia) We’ve all been there. A great job presents itself, we know we can do it so we throw everything into landing it, only to discover that maybe it wasn’t the right fit after all. But is that the end of the story always? Not necessarily; sometimes Continue Reading

(courtesy Hachette Australia) Jenny Colgan’s books always feel like you’re falling into the embrace of an old and trusted friend, whose very presence makes all the terrors and troubles of the world dim, and then go away. That’s especially so when you return to one of the many series she Continue Reading

(courtesy Boldwood Books) Enemies-to-friends is a fairly standard trope in romantic comedies, festive or otherwise. So, the fact that Christmas Ever After by Jamie Admans features it should not as an almighty Santa-loving surprise; what is interesting is how effectively the author this well-worn genre element to give her rom-com Continue Reading

(courtesy Hachette Australia) There is an idea that if you’re writing an escapist story, then it must be purely froth and confection, its fairytale heart untroubled by the real issues of the world. And while, yes, a healthy amount of reality-defying escapism is just what the mental health-enhancing doctor ordered, Continue Reading

(courtesy Penguins Books Australia) Life is full of “It seemed like a good idea at the time” moments. We can, we believe anyway, have all the wisdom of Solomon and the insight of a god, in one crystal moment of absolute clarity and act accordingly, only to find not that Continue Reading

(courtesy Harper Collins Publishers Australia) If you have always felt like you belong, like you have an undeniable, fixed and unquestionably certain place in this world, then you are a very lucky and blessed individual. We all want and need that, with an animal need for community running hard, deep Continue Reading