If you are an inveterate reader, the odds are good, better than good actually, that fellow readers or close friends (sometimes, happily, they are both) that at some point they will recommend a book to you. A book, they will assure you with a mix of solemnity and enthusiasm, is Continue Reading
Books
Book review: The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff
(courtesy Allen & Unwin Book Publishers) We live in a grievously unbalanced world. No surprises there you say; one look at the 24/7 news cycle or at the place we work or the society in which we live and it becomes clear that fairness very rarely rules the day and Continue Reading
Book review: Bound to Happen by Jonathon Shannon
(courtesy Ultimo Press) When it comes to Sliding Doors territory, that exciting or maddening place, depending on your perspective, where possibilities are endless and change, incremental or large is a constant, there are always a multitude of ways things can either come together or go spinning far apart. At least, Continue Reading
Short film review: The Wonderful World of Henry Sugar
(courtesy IMDb (c) Netflix) Talk about a marriage made in storytelling heaven. The Wonderful World of Henry Sugar brings together the Roald Dahl story which is part of a 1977 short story collection by the author entitled The Wonderful World of Henry Sugar and Six More – the book also Continue Reading
Book review: The Scourge Between the Stars by Ness Brown
(courtesy Pan Macmillan Australia) Accomplished horror preys, and yes that word is wholly intentional, as much on our fear of what will happen, of what lurks in the dark or unseen realms just out of perception as it does on what actually comes to pass. It’s the dread, the sickening Continue Reading
#Christmas preview book review: The Wake-Up Call by Beth O’Leary
(courtesy Hachette Australia) This will come as a news to absolutely no one but the world is not exactly full of moments which end neatly and perfectly and with everything tied in a bright red bow. It’s also not fantastically good at giving people the happy endings they deserve, and Continue Reading
Book review: Big Gay Wedding by Byron Lane
(courtesy Macmillan Publishers) Fiction is, strictly speaking, the stuff of make believe and imagination, of dreamt up people and not even a shred of coincidence between people living and those who have most certainly shuffled off this mortal coil. But the truth is, and any writer will tell you, that Continue Reading
Retro book review: Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne
Classic books are hailed as classic for a reason. It’s not simply that they’ve been around for a while; plenty of tiles have and people struggle to remember titles, plots or even that they exist at all. The ones that really imprint themselves on peoples’ minds, or that really cement Continue Reading
“Every good thing in this world started with dreams… so you hold onto yours.” Wonka drops its second fabulous trailer
(courtesy IMP Awards) SNAPSHOTBased on the extraordinary character at the center of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl’s most iconic children’s book & one of the best-selling children’s books of all time, Wonka tells the wondrous story of how the world’s greatest inventor, and magician, and chocolate-maker became the Continue Reading
Book review: My Father the Whale by Gina Perry
(courtesy Harper Collins Publishers Australia) There is a power in confronting past hurts and grief but understandably doing so can send seismic shocks through our life that have no guarantee of a happy ending when all the agonising dust has settled. That’s the stark truth that confronts Ruby in My Continue Reading