(courtesy Pan Macmillan Australia) One of the things that daunts many readers, including this reviewer, in an age of content plenty and time paucity, is embarking on a series of books, especially a lengthy of one of say, nine books. It’s not that the narrative arc doesn’t enthrall with its Continue Reading
Books
Do readers dream of running a bookshop? Books about booksellers are having a moment – the reality can be less romantic
(Photo by Fahrul Azmi on Unsplash) This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. My mother and I wanted to open a bookshop. We signed up for a CAE course, which was cancelled when the bookseller who ran it went out of Continue Reading
Book review: New Year’s Kiss by Lee Matthews
(courtesy Penguin Random House) We love the idea of reinvention. There’s something immensely appealing about the idea that we’ve made mistakes or decisions that have changed us in some way , or life has strangely twisted us in some way, and that all that damage can be undone. The idea Continue Reading
Conquering the TBR like a mountaineer: My top 25 books of 2023
(via Shutterstock) Ever since I was a kid and bullying made the real world a scary and dangerous place to be, I have found books to be the ultimate comfort, the one escape I can count on to make everything seem a whole lot more magical and good again. Even Continue Reading
Merry pop culture Christmas to all … and to all a good streaming-reading-listening night!
(courtesy Pinterest (c) Charles M. Schulz) Merry pop culture Christmas everyone! I have had a ball as always this year writing about all kinds of books, movies, TV/streaming shows, graphic novels/comics and songs, and while it’s been tough to keep writing in my spare time when my day job as Continue Reading
Festive book review: All is Bright by RaeAnne Thayne
Christmas miracles are the stock in trade of the season. They pop as regularly as stocking stuffers and garlands of ivy and baubles, and while they might be vanishingly rare in the festive desert known as the rest of the year, they are thick on the decorative ground when Christmas Continue Reading
On 11th day of Christmas … I read The Christmas Carrolls – A Fantastically Festive Family by Mel Taylor-Bessent
(courtesy Harper Collins Publishers Australia) What is there to be said about the wondrously fun and glittering festive fun that is the familially festive joyfest that is The Christmas Carrolls: A Fantastically Festive Family by Mel Taylor-Bessent? Why you could call it “‘festabulous” or “Christmasriffic”, “merrynifiscent” or perhaps even “bauble-illiant”. Continue Reading
On 10th day of Christmas … I read That Festive Feeling by Heidi Swain
(courtesy Simon & Schuster) Finding your way out of a dark and terrible place in life is never easy. For Holly that sense of being trapped somewhere she doesn’t want to be – divorced, alone and effectively homeless with nowhere to go but either to stay at her emotionally frigid Continue Reading
Festive book review: The Santa Suit by Mary Kay Andrews
(courtesy Pan Macmillan Australia) Is it possible to successfully manage a new start in life when the halls aren’t decked, the world is not being joy-ed and a man in a red suit isn’t acting all merry and bright? Likely, yes, but honestly why would you want to when Christmas Continue Reading
On 7th day of Christmas … I read Along Came Holly (Mistletoe Romance #3) by Codi Hall
(courtesy Sourcebooks Casablanca) Writing about people falling love, especially at Christmas, purported to be the most romantic time of the year (and honestly it sure feels like that, even in an Australian summer), is quite possibly one of the easiest things to do in the world. Throw in some cute Continue Reading