(courtesy Penguin Books Australia) Childhood is in many ways, the most perfect and yet, once departed, the most impossible of idylls to return to, and yet as the enduring power of A. A. Milne’s now 100-year-old creation Winnie the Pooh reminds us in ways melancholic and yet comforting, it doesn’t Continue Reading
Books
Book review: Myself & Other Animals by Gerald Durrell #AndyAt60
(courtesy Penguin Books Australia) As part of my 60th birthday celebrations, I am highlighting figures and characters and franchises which have meant the world to me, enriching my life beyond measure and granting the ability to see this amazing world of ours in ways that might otherwise have evaded me. Continue Reading
Book review: The Everlasting by Alix. E Harrow
(courtesy Pan Macmillan Australia) There are some authors you read because they are the kings or queens of masterfully woven narratives, while still others grab your attention because they inject searing emotion into every word, deed or impactful character moment or they are able to take astonishingly imaginative premise and Continue Reading
Book review: The Austen Affair by Madeline Bell
(courtesy Pan Macmillan Australia) A creatively outrageous premise is nothing new in storytelling; the very best narratives in the hands of masterful writers thrive on them and well executed, they can elevate a story in a trope-heavy genre into something magically alive and vivaciously original. Case very much in point Continue Reading
He’s found a new home … Paddington the Musical
(courtesy Paddington the Musical) Is there such a thing as too much Paddington Bear? Well, of course not, what a very strange thing to even contemplate! The truth is we can never have enough of Michael Bond’s wondrously sweet and insightful creation who has found heartwarming expression in 29 books Continue Reading
Book review: Tusk Love by Thea Guanzon
(courtesy Penguin Books Australia) There’s a good reason the enemies-to-love trope is so prevalent in romantic literature. While we all accept on some level that not everyone will like us and that conflict is all inevitable despite our best efforts, there’s a deep-rooted part of us that wants to believe Continue Reading
Book review: Frankie by J. M. Gutsch and Maxim Leo
(courtesy Penguin Books Australia) If you have ever travelled through the valley of the shadow of death of grief – and yes, that is some prime-grade Psalms-level language there but being plunged into grief often feels quite Biblical – you will know that it feels like it is sucking all Continue Reading
Halloween book review: Alice by Christina Henry
It’s quite the thing these days to take a classic novel as inspiration, or even an ancient one in some cases, and take it to new and exciting places that honour the original work and author but explore new territory. In many cases, it’s done brilliantly and originally well, as Continue Reading
Halloween book review: The Last Bookstore on Earth
(courtesy Penguin Books Australia) Any time any author decides to take a well-established genre, give it a good shake-up and reshape its form entirely is a good time. Especially when it comes one as well-trafficked as the end-of-the-world genre which has been pretty much full-to-bursting with zombies and aliens and Continue Reading
Book review: Our Life in a Day by Jamie Fewery
(courtesy Hachette Australia) Whenever we’re asked to pick the highlights for anything, whether it’s a relationship or an overseas trip or our childhood, we unerringly pick the glowingly positive high points, driven by some unspoken acknowledgement that for something to be a highlight it must have unquestionably upbeat qualities. But Continue Reading