It was all about book love — hearts, glitter, chocolate and some very special guests made for a fabulous launch of the National Year of Reading 2012 at Bowen Library. Tuesday 14 February, Library Lovers Day, was the official launch date of Australia’s National Year of Reading 2012 and Councillor Scott Nash, Mayor of Randwick, [...]
The Lucy Family Alphabet (Judith Lucy, read by Judith Lucy, Bolinda audio, cd, $34.95, ISBN 9781742017709) Comedienne Judith Lucy says her family’s ‘view of normal wasn’t always everyone else’s’ and she’s not kidding! She had her first shower at 15. Until then, her mother had told her the shower was broken. The maggots her father [...]
You may connect Shamini Flint with her crime fiction novels the Inspector Singh Investigates series but did you know that she also writes books for children? These include the Sasha in Singapore series (picture travel books), novels Diary of a Cricket God, Diary of a Soccer Star, and Ten (about a little girl dealing with [...]
Liao Yiwu is a dissident Chinese poet, novelist, and screenwriter who miraculously escaped from China to Berlin in July of this year. His epic poem, Massacre was published in 1989. Condemning the killings in Tiananmen Square, it landed him in prison for four years. His latest book, The Corpse Walker is a collection of [...]
I love a banned book don’t you? Neil Gaiman’s back of book blurb snippet for The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian says: “Excellent in every way, poignant and really funny and heart-warming and honest and wise and smart … I have no doubt that in a year or so it’ll be winning awards [...]
This is an enthralling novel about love, imaginings, the borders of sanity and madness and the ultimate triumph of hope. In his sharp depictions of small-town savagery and finely detailed portraits, Hall sweeps the reader away with powerful, breathtaking prose. Love Without Hope (the title comes from the Robert Graves poem of the same name) [...]
With the novella Vertigo, award-winning author Amanda Lohrey (The Philosopher’s Doll, Camille’s Bread) once more taps into the Australian zeitgeist. Luke and Anna, 30-something corporate editors living in Sydney’s Glebe, are affected by a familiar convergence of affluenza, crippling mortgages and pollution. They are also linked by a shared tragedy. In pursuit of the ‘rural [...]
This short, shatteringly beautiful memoir gets five stars out of five from me; I read it in one sitting and was mesmerised. It may be short in terms of pages but it is masterful in the scale it encompasses. The story is very simple and is told very simply. Gaberielle Carey’s mother, Joan, aged 80, [...]
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