News by Julie
Books to look forward to this autumn
Where to start?? New releases are queueing up to secure a place at your bedside table. It’s tough to know where to begin when you have a list of books like this. Good luck choosing!
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News by Julie
How to dupe Silicone Valley
The court case of Elizabeth Holmes of health-care start-up Theranos is in the news these days. If you’re curious about the whole story, I highly recommend Bad Blood by John Carreyrou, investigative journalist at The Wall Street, who exposed Holmes’ fraud. Addictive reading! Read our review here.
Review by Julie
The Yellow Birds
Timely, tough and beautifully written
The desperately sad situation in Afghanistan brought back memories of The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers. Powers is something as contradictory as a machine gunner and a poet, as well as an extremely talented author. A Michener Fellow of Poetry from the University of Texas at Austin, Powers served as a machine gunner in the Iraqi cities of Mosul and Tal Afar in 2004 and 2005. His novel The Yellow Birds, inspired by his own experiences of war, is a superb book, heart wrenching, moving and beautifully written. Read full Review
Review by Julie
The World of Yesterday
The Highs and Lows of Humanity
The World of Yesterday by Stephan Zweig is his autobiography, finished two days before his and his second wife’s joint suicide. It’s a lament for a lost world, a love letter to creativity and artists and an eloquent analysis of events that led up to both the first and the second world wars. The parallels with aspects of our own turbulent times are hard to ignore. Zweig, an Austrian Jew whose wonderful novellas (The Royal Game, Amok, Letter from an Unknown Woman, Twenty-four Hours in the Life of a Woman) many of you will know, was the world’s most popular author in the 1920s and 30s, until Hitler banned his books. Highly recommended.
Ingenious Thrillers for Teens
Foul is Fair
Sizzling 21st century reimagining of Macbeth
Catching Teller Crow
Ghosts, murder and the darkest days of Australian history
S.T.A.G.S.
Thrills and chills in this darkly clever YA Book Prize shortlisted novel
White Rabbit Red Wolf
Fiendishly clever thriller makes YA Book Prize shortlist
Review by Julie
The Hummingbird
That warm, fuzzy feeling
I shed a tear as I finished The Hummingbird by Sandro Veronesi, an Italian writer whose books keep winning prestigious Italian book prizes. Veronesi’s writing was new to me and that, it seems, has been a mistake. The life story of ophthalmologist Marco Carrera had warmth, humanity, universal truths and provided the perfect holiday read.
Review by Kirstin
Effi Briest
Classic German novel of adulterous downfall
Considering its description by Thomas Mann as one of the six most significant novels ever written, and rumoured to have moved Samuel Beckett to tears on even his fourth reading, Effi Briest by Theodor Fontane remains a remarkably little known novel outside of its native Germany. Set in 1880’s Prussia, Effi treads the well-worn path of the nineteenth century literary heroine. As an unworldly young woman in a status obsessed male-dominated world, her story tells of a stifling marriage of convenience. Prepare for adulterous downfall and a classic interpretation of the expression ‘pistols at dawn.’
Review by Kirstin
Worst. Holiday. Ever.
‘For all the shy kids in the world.’
Stan’s philosophy has always been to firmly decline anything resembling an adventure. There are just too many things that could go wrong. To date, he’s managed to avoid such horrors as bungee jumping and dancing in public, but now, at the age of twelve, the worst has happened. He’s going on a totally unwanted holiday to Italy with his friend, Felix, and family. In Worst. Holiday. Ever. by Charlie Higson, we join Stan as he grapples with a lengthy personal list of holiday fears, including octopuses, weird toilets, and being beach body ready.
Review by Julie
Sorrow and Bliss
Mental illness, from the inside
On paper, Martha should be happy. She’s a talented writer and married to a man whose love and patience know no bounds. So why is Martha so troubled and in conflict with everyone? And why can she never hold down a job? In Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason, we go inside the mind of a woman suffering from undiagnosed mental illness and get to feel the darkness and self-loathing. As devastating as this sounds, Sorrow and Bliss is more than tragedy, Mason’s acerbic wit and portrayal of a sweet on-off love-story make this read more than a sad one.
News by Julie
Can I tempt you with a historical fiction novel?
I feel it’s time to speak up for historical fiction which, in my opinion, has an undeservedly bad reputation. True, there are some pretty trashy ones out there but there are also quite a few stunningly good ones. Besides being well-written and with an interesting storyline, a good historical novel takes you to a different time and place, perhaps one you didn’t know much about, and leaves you simultaneously entertained and a wiser person. We’ve reviewed quite a few on this blog which you now can find on the blog under ‘Reviews’ in the main menu.
