Books

Mythologies, no matter the culture, are wondrous things to dive into. They give you a rich insight into a people’s culture, what matters to them and the values that underpin their belief system and which shape/have shaped them and their society. But fascinating though the storytelling can be, they often Continue Reading

When you read as much as this reviewer, you will be used to the florid expansiveness of most back cover book blurbs which promise the earth, the moon and the stars, a word-driven trailer of sorts for the story which lies tantalisingly within. Much of the time the blurbs mail Continue Reading

(courtesy Harper Collins Publishers Australia) The world can be divided in any number of interesting ways but for the purposes of this review, let’s just say that there are those who use pop culture as an amusing, sometimes comforting diversion and those, who for thoroughly understandable reasons (reality sucks), use Continue Reading

(courtesy Hachette Australia) We are all products of our past and present. That might seem self-evident and startling obvious, but for all its lived veracity, the truth is that we often struggle to bridge the two or to fully understand and live out how the past impacts on the current Continue Reading

(courtesy Hachette Australia) Talk of the multiverse is everywhere these days. It’s partly based on reports of new and emerging science but it’s driven, you have to suspect, by the fact that our own world is diving headfirst, driven by inaction over climate change and extreme political machinations, into the Continue Reading

(courtesy Fremantle Press) There are times in our lives, many times in our lives in fact, when waving a magic wand to make trenchant issues simply disappear is a very appealing option. Unfortunately outside of Harry Potter films, wands are not in general, everyday use and problems usually have to Continue Reading

(courtesy Harper Collins Publishers Australia) Life is all about playing parts. That’s not to say that’s healthy, unless of course you’re an actor in which case have at it and then some, but the reality is that, for a whole of reasons, many of us spend our days unconsciously being Continue Reading

(courtesy Penguin Books Australia) Despite living in it all the time, humanity is, by and large, not all that good with dealing with the reality. So averse are we to its omnipresence and the way in which it very rarely squares with our fairytale glossy hopes and dreams that we Continue Reading

(courtesy IMP Awards) Whether we’re conscious of it or not, we often tend to define ourselves in terms of our connection to others. In an ideal world, we would be who we are consistently and without change from one situation to another or one person to another, but a combination Continue Reading