(courtesy Penguin Books Australia) This one is. This phrase, which distills into three short but carefully chosen words a centred approach to life that forces, in the best way, to only think and concentrate on the present, repeats over and over in the imaginative joy that is The Last Gifts Continue Reading
Books
Book review: The Extraordinary Disappointments of Leopold Berry (Sunderworld Vol. 1) by Ransom Riggs
(courtesy Allen & Unwin Book Publishers) If you have read any novels featuring a “Chosen One” hero, you will be quite familiar with the idea that someone of great talent and abilities but no real awareness of them will be plucked from anonymity and obscurity to become the saviour of Continue Reading
Book review: Kit McBride Gets a Wife by Amy Barry
(courtesy Simon & Schuster Australia) There’s something about a plucky, funny protagonist who won’t take no for an answer that absolutely reels you in. While society as a whole, and indeed their own family, are happy to tow whatever the agreed line of mainstream behaviour has been deemed to be Continue Reading
Book review: The Hitwoman’s Guide to Reducing Household Debt by Mark Mupotsa-Russell
(courtesy Affirm Press) When you pick up the superlative gem that is The Hitwoman’s Guide to Reducing Household Debt by Mark Mupotsa-Russell, you first think that here is a quirky, whimsical read of a ex-hitwoman, now happily and cosily domiciled in suburban life in the Dandenong Ranges near Melbourne, who Continue Reading
Darker and more dangerous yet … Thoughts on The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power S2, E1-3
(courtesy IMP Awards) The Bible has said it. Countless novels has ruminated on the idea. And it’s been observed more than once by everyone from social commentators to political experts that evil often wears a pleasing and amenable face. It makes sense, of course. After all, as a species we Continue Reading
Book review: Valley by Stacey McEwan (The Glacian Trilogy, book 3)
(courtesy Penguin Books Australia) Valley releases 10 September in Australia via Penguin Books. (ARC provided by NetGalley) When you’re reached the end of a gripping fantasy trilogy, where the stakes are high and the fate of multiple characters and narrative arcs hang precariously but meaningfully in the balance, sticking the Continue Reading
“All kinds of bad people getting in the water now.” Thoughts on Bad Monkey S1, E1-4
(courtesy IMP Awards) Even though he’s about two centuries late for the rise of TV streaming, there’s no doubt that Scottish playwright, novelist and poet would have found a lot with which he could relate with the sunny beachside film noir storyline of Bad Monkey. Based on the book of Continue Reading
Book review: The Betrayal of Thomas True by A. J. West
(courtesy Simon & Schuster UK) In his atmospherically-titled novel, The Betrayal Of Thomas True, A. J. West manages a rare and enthrallingly intense double feat. He delivers up a epically tense mystery, a race of one man to uncover the spy who has betrayed the “mollies” of 1715 London, often Continue Reading
Book review: Finding Mr. Write by Kelley Armstrong
(courtesy Hachette Australia) One of my reading happy places, and as an eclectic reader there are many, is when a writer combines books and love in one beautifully realised package. There’s something about the idea of a rom-com which is all about books and writing that sets the pulse racing Continue Reading
Book review: These Burning Stars by Bethany Jacobs
(courtesy Hachette Australia) There is something breathtakingly thrilling about opening a sci-fi novel by an author you’ve never read before and finding an opening paragraph that sets the scene so vividly that in less than a quarter of a page you’re immediately thrust into a world and a story that Continue Reading