Carpe Librum Celebrates 20 Years of Blogging

I have another major milestone to celebrate in 2025 because this month (drum roll)...

Carpe Librum turns 20 years old!

I'd love to share how it all started, what's changed over that time and offer a giveaway so that we can celebrate this accomplishment together.

I've come a long way since this blog started in 2005 under the name My Four Bucks. Often when people offer their opinion they call it their 2 cents but I always have more than 2 cents to contribute and in order to share it, My Four Bucks was born. At the time, I posted on topics that took my fancy however my first official book review was The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. Since then, I have published an astonishing 1,126 book reviews, can you believe it?

In August 2012, My Four Bucks underwent a significant rebrand and was relaunched as Carpe Librum (Seize the Book). In May 2014, I joined the team of book bloggers writing for Boomerang Books and also became one of their affiliates. Over the next 12-18 months I included affiliate links with all of my reviews but it failed to generate any income.

In 2015 Carpe Librum turned 10 and in April 2016 I was excited to launch my current logo. In 2018 and 2019 I was asked to be a Digital Storyteller and Blogger for the Melbourne Writers Festival which was a highlight and I thoroughly enjoyed it. In September 2020 I became a Booktopia affiliate, but again, this wasn't successful in the long term.

In the early years, I began receiving requests from authors to review their books on Carpe Librum. I also began to send publishers my reviews of their new releases and after a number of months, started requesting advance reader copies (ARCs) for myself. I was thrilled when they said yes and they soon started asking me to review ARCs and sending books in the mail. This increased over time and lead to a lucrative few years receiving all kinds of unsolicited books in the post every week just in the hope of a review.

Let's check out some stats from the last two decades of blogging:
Number of posts published: 1,596
Number of reviews published: 1,126
Number of blog comments: 3,280
Number of giveaways: 89

Number of books given away: 133
Number of author interviews: 51
Number of email subscribers: 795
Number of reading challenges completed: 51
1 Million views achieved: December 2017
2 Million views achieved: September 2023
3 Million views achieved: May 2025
Most popular book review: Bitter Greens by Kate Forsyth (32,447 visits)

More recently, the number of unsolicited books in the mail from publishers has declined significantly over the past year or so and other Australian book bloggers agree it's the end of an era. I can request new releases on NetGalley (NG) however I still prefer to read print copies over e-books so I'm not an active NG reviewer. I've been enjoying the additional reading time to pursue the never ending list of back catalogue books and have still managed to enjoy some incredible new releases from publishers. The fact that I'm not reviewing as many ARCs and new releases as I used to could have had a detrimental effect on my traffic but that hasn't been the case at all.

What's next? I've stayed true to the books I like to read and haven't been tempted to dip my toe into the highly popular pool of romantasy novels that are dominating the catalogues at the moment. I don't spend much time on Instagram and don't feel any desire to join the BookTok community. Yet despite this, readers are still finding my reviews and continue visiting my little corner of the internet at Carpe Librum. Last month I achieved 3 Million hits and I don't know of any other Australian book blogger who has reached this milestone; but if you have, please let me know below, I'd love to congratulate you on your success!

It's been a thoroughly enjoyable 20 years and I've never considered slowing down or stepping away from my passion for a moment. Reading and reviewing books fills my cup, so thanks to all of my subscribers and readers. Some of you have been with me since the very beginning, while others have stuck around after entering a giveaway, or pop back in from time to time to see what I've been reading. If you're reading this, it means we share a love of books and the written word, and I appreciate that while you're reading my words here, you're taking precious time away from your book. Carpe Librum!

Giveaway

Enter here or below for your chance to win a $50AUD gift card from Dymocks. If you don't have access to a Dymocks store I'll arrange a gift card of the same value from your preferred bookseller to be emailed to you. Entries are open internationally and close at midnight AEST Monday 30 June 2025. Good luck!

Review: The Name of the Sister by Gail Jones

* Copy courtesy of Text Publishing *

The Name of the Sister by Gail Jones is about an unknown woman who is sighted on a deserted highway outside of Broken Hill in rural New South Wales. A passing trucker stops to render aid to the woman who is traumatised and unable to talk. The media is ablaze with the story as families and friends of the missing from within Australia and abroad claim the unknown woman Jane is their sister, daughter, wife, mother, friend.

Angie is a freelance journalist in Sydney who begins to write about Jane's re-appearance from the point of view of those who have had their hopes crushed after learning Jane is not their missing loved one. Supporting character Bev is Angie's best friend and a cop, who happens to be assigned to the case and travels to Broken Hill to investigate Jane's identity and where she came from.

This sounds like another great Australian crime fiction novel with two strong female characters, but let me tell you, I needed a dictionary by page 6 to look up the word 'contrapuntal' and it didn't stop there. There were moments where there was a particular turn of phrase I especially enjoyed, like this one from Angie:

"Their conjugal irritation was mutual, and both needed by some edifying alternative to be reminded of who they were." Page 74

However, moments like conjugal irritation were fleeting, and I needed to frequently stop reading and reach for a device to look up words like: lunette, propinquity, ziggurats, raddled (yes it's a word), maunder, ineluctable and interregnum. Other new to me words were: obduracy (I was hazy on this one so had to check the meaning), lacrimarium, cartouche and invidious.

I enjoy learning new words, however Angie's internal thoughts started to feel like an intellectual flex by the author when combined with the lines of poetry, quotes and double helpings of introspection. In fact, this quote from Angie's inner thoughts perfectly describes the writing style of The Name of the Sister:

"And the fact that she was composed of all this mixed-up cultural stuff: drifting phrases, lines from songs, literary quotations, rhymes and rhythms, scraps of image, nothing that really passed for coherent thought." Page 75

The novel was definitely coherent, but this intellectual flotsam and jetsam peppered the page when I really wanted to get down to Jane's story. Couple this with the internal musings from Angie on missing women in general, the intrusion of journalism in true crime, the contrast between the urban streetscape and rural landscape, her mess of a marriage, and the malevolent predation of women and my patience started to wear thin.

The focus on feminism and misogyny was a little too heavy handed for me but is timely and will deeply resonate with many readers. Here Angie reflects on Bev's role:

"She'd been an officer most of her adult life and must surely have known what to expect: how a woman is intruded upon, how a woman is presumed known, and how what is unknown incites anger, or desire, or the wish crudely to expose." Page 5

Broken Hill is described as parched, inhospitable and empty-looking so you might be thinking this an odd cover design for an erudite rural mystery. Angie's love of white ibises and the ancient Egyptian culture (Thoth in particular) is the inspiration for this literary design although I didn't think it was a good fit for the story within.

The denouement was engaging and I enjoyed the action and plot development at the end, however overall I found this pretentious and ostentatious. I've enjoyed literary fiction in the past so I don't think I'm unsuited to the entire genre, but The Name of the Sister by Gail Jones is high-brow literary crime fiction which I found to be full of Angie's internal contemplation and cogitation that failed to engage my interest. I'm clearly not the right audience for The Name of the Sister which might be called a literary masterpiece in the hands of other readers. Gail Jones is a celebrated Australian author but I don't think I'll be exploring any more of her novels.

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Review: The Mad Women's Ball by Victoria Mas

The Mad Women's Ball by Victoria Mas is set in 1885 at the Salpêtrière Asylum in Paris. At the time, women who were homeless, practising prostitution or suffering from a mental illness or neurological disorder found themselves committed to the asylum. A woman who publicly criticised her husband's infidelity could be locked away. If a woman didn't want to marry and was discovered to prefer same sex relationships, she was locked up. A middle aged woman flaunting herself on the arm of a much younger man could be incarcerated for debauchery, while today we'd call her a cougar.

According to the author, women of loose virtue, the dotards and the violent, the hysterics and the simpletons, the fantasists and the fabulists were all admitted. Basically, the Salpêtrière took in women Paris didn't know how to deal with.

A diagnosis of hysteria was easily made and I knew I'd find it frustrating at just how easy it was to pack a woman off to an insane asylum in this period of history.

"The Salpêtrière is a dumping ground for women who disturb the peace. An asylum for those whose sensitivities do not tally with what is expected of them. A prison for women guilty of possessing an opinion." Page 27

Primarily a dual narrative, Geneviève is the Matron of the Asylum and a stern mother figure to the nurses. Eugénie is from a well to-do family and finds herself sent to the Salpêtrière Asylum after confiding in her grandmother that she can see ghosts. Geneviève has devoted her life to the Asylum looking after the inmates, but things begin to change for her when Eugénie arrives.

Inspired by history and including the work of Jean-Martin Charcot - renowned for founding modern neurology as we know it - the title was drawn from the fact that a ball was held at the Salpêtrière Asylum every year. Patients were dressed in elaborate gowns and members of high society attended the ball to observe the madwomen from a safe distance and watch them dance. In the novel, the majority of patients look forward to the ball and the opportunity to dress up, be seen by the public and maybe meet a man while the spectacle and behaviour of Paris' elite left a lot to be desired.

A relatively short novel with a satisfying conclusion, I was hoping for a greater focus on Eugénie's ability and would happily follow her into a second novel to see what becomes of her.

Published in 2019 and translated from French, The Mad Women's Ball by Victoria Mas is about agency and the suppression of female autonomy in 19th century France and in 2021 it was also made into a movie in France.

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Review: What to Expect When You're Dead by Robert Garland

When the Pope died in April 2025 and his body was put on display for members of the church and the public to pay their respects, I was reminded how jarring it is to today's sensibilities and thought it was a good time to listen to What to Expect When You're Dead - An Ancient Tour of Death and the Afterlife by Robert Garland.

Covering the time period in history 100,000 BC - 400 AD, this audiobook references ancient texts, artworks and archaeology at a level I was largely unfamiliar with. However I did enjoy some of the content, including this quote taken from Greek Playwright Aristophanes (446 BC - 386 BC):

"In Aristophanes Frogs, anyone who has harmed a guest, failed to pay a boy for his sexual favours, struck his mother, punched his father or sworn a false oath is consigned to a sewer full of turds." Chapter 5 Heaven and Hell

The beliefs of many ancient civilisations and religions were offered, in addition to their thoughts on the afterlife, how best to lay the dead to rest and how to honour their ancestors.

As a youngster I was interested in the history of Egypt, the pyramids and of course the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb. I was simultaneously disturbed by the fact mummified remains were once desecrated by grave robbers and disturbed in the 'modern era' by archaeologists, with artefacts removed to be sold to private collectors or displayed in museums. It shouldn't come as a surprise then that I relished the legend of the curse of Tutankhamun and enjoyed hearing more about Egyptian curses here:

"Thieves certainly weren't deterred by the stiff penalties they incurred if apprehended, death by impaling being a common punishment. Nor by the curses that the deceased promised to rain down on those who broke into their tombs. A typical Egyptian curse reads as follows: As for anyone who shall violate my corpse in the necropolis or shall damage my image in my chamber, the ka (spirit or soul) of Ra (sun god) shall abhor him. He shall not bequeath his goods to his children nor shall he be restful in life, nor shall he receive water in the necropolis. His ba (personality and soul) shall be destroyed forever.' " Chapter 8, Where to Deposit the Remains

Scary stuff! The book includes beliefs and practices from a range of ancient cultures and traditions, including Early Christian, Egyptian, Etruscan, Greek, Hindu, Islamic, Jewish, Mesopotamian, Roman and Zoroastrian. I'll admit I was in very unfamiliar territory here, however this did help to clarify that my interest in death rituals is anchored in Western culture closer to my own time. I've shared my interest in the mourning etiquette of the Victorian era in other reviews and have the current books on my virtual TBR to read at some stage in the future:

• Fashionable Mourning Jewellery, Clothing and Customs by Mary Brett
• Mourning Art & Jewellery by Maureen Delorme
• Death in the Victorian Family by Pat Gallant
• Childhood & Death in Victorian England by Sarah Seaton

Narrated by Zeb Soanes, What to Expect When You're Dead - An Ancient Tour of Death and the Afterlife by Robert Garland is recommended for dedicated non fiction readers with an interest in ancient history and ancient civilisations from 100,000 BC - 400 AD. I thought that was me but it turns out that it isn't.

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Celebrating 3 Million Page Views!

I'm a big fan of celebrating milestones and I have one to share today...

Carpe Librum has just reached 3 Million Page Views!

This year my web traffic has increased significantly (by more than 60%) and I'm receiving an average of 77,000 visitors to my website every month. I haven't made any changes to actively increase my audience but I love seeing the new subscribers signing up every day to receive a bookish post from me once a week or so.

This gives me a lot of joy and loyal readers will remember my excitement at hitting 2 Million Views back in September 2023, so to receive an additional 1 Million visitors in the time since then is a huge accomplishment.

This month I'll be celebrating my 20 Year Blogiversary and reflecting on the changes I've seen in that time. I'll also be doing something special to mark the occasion and thank my subscribers so keep an eye out for an upcoming giveaway.

In the meantime, thank you for being a valued visitor and subscriber, even if you just read my reviews from your inbox. I love sharing my reviews with you and hope you have something good to read at the moment.

I'm off to do a bookish happy dance.... which sounds like: "I've got 3 million page views" to the tune of "We've got 5 thousand dollars" from Wayne's World. IYKYK.

Carpe Librum!

Review: The Buried Life by Andrea Goldsmith

* Copy courtesy of Transit Lounge *

Set in contemporary Melbourne, The Buried Life is about three characters who form a connection. Adrian Moore is a university scholar who studies death, Laura is a highly successful town planner and Kezi is a young artist still coming to terms with being shunned by her family for rejecting their religion.

Written by Australian author Andrea Goldsmith, each of the three characters were well fleshed out and really came alive on the page.

We're introduced to 43 year old Adrian on the first page as he reflects on the fact that his university colleagues call him Doctor Death.

"Adrian believed no malice was intended; it was a term of familiarity, like any nickname. And it was accurate: death was his subject. He studied it, he wrote books about it, he lectured on it. As a result of his endeavours, death had yielded up a good many of its stings and mysteries." Page 3

Wow, what an opening paragraph, I was instantly hooked! Adrian's work was fascinating and my sole reason for reading this book. Thankfully this formed a great deal of the content and I enjoyed references to classic works and graveyard poetry in particular. However Adrian is mourning (sorry, couldn't help it) the demise of a 10 year relationship a year ago and starts to reflect on his career in an attempt to find a new angle in his field of study.

As a town planner, Laura was an interesting character however the author focuses almost entirely on her relationship with her controlling husband, not her career. Laura slowly - sometimes too slowly for my liking - begins to see her marriage in a new light although I quickly recognised her charming, lying husband Tony as a narcissist.

Adrian and Laura share a mutual love of cheese and Adrian is a close friend - almost a parental figure - to Kezi, a young artist who makes hand-made paper. These three characters are brought together in this literary novel with themes of death, parental estrangement, the depths of friendship and connection dominating the pages.

I really enjoyed the familiar setting on the streets of Melbourne:

"Melbourne, a sprawling metropolis of more than five million inhabitants, boasts a unique peculiarity: people accidentally run into friends and acquaintances, or they meet strangers with whom there is just one or two degrees of separation. Sydney is not like this, nor Saint Petersburg, nor Barcelona, all cities of a similar size to Melbourne. ....Melbourne is still a village; but a reason for ridicule by Sydneysiders is a source of delight for Melburnians." Page 119

I particularly enjoyed the mention of the Readings Bookshop on Lygon Street where I plan on taking my friend from Queensland later this month and who actually recommended this book! 

If you enjoy literary fiction about romantic relationships, platonic friendships and familial ties this is for you. If you enjoy music by Mahler, cheese or writings about death this is for you.

I'll leave you with an example of the writing style and Adrian's thoughts on cheese, admitting he shows no restraint:

"Soft cheese, hard cheese, blue mould, white mould, washed rind, cloth-bound, salty cheese, smoky cheese, cow's milk, ewe's milk, cooked cheese, raw cheese: Adrian was captive to them all. Only ricotta and cheese made from goat's milk failed to delight; the former lacked flavour and was the texture of vomit, the latter tasted of charcoal and perspiration." Page 75

The Buried Life by Andrea Goldsmith isn't my usual reading fare but earned an additional star for inspiring me to listen to music by Mahler and check out the hand-made paper scene here in Melbourne.

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★