Giveaway: The Gosling Girl by Jacqueline Roy

* Copy courtesy of Simon & Schuster *

Intro

I'm excited to share my first giveaway for 2022 today, with 3 print copies (valued at $32.99AUD each) of The Gosling Girl by Jacqueline Roy up for grabs thanks to Simon & Schuster Australia. The giveaway is open to AUS and NZ entries only and entries close midnight on Sunday 20 February 2022. Enter below and good luck!

Blurb

Michelle Cameron’s name is associated with the most abhorrent of crimes. A child who lured a younger child away from her parents and to her death, she is known as the black girl who murdered a little white girl; evil incarnate according to the media. As the book opens, she has done her time, and has been released as a young woman with a new identity to start her life again.

When another shocking death occurs, Michelle is the first in the frame. Brought into the police station to answer questions around a suspicious death, it is only a matter of time until the press find out who she is now and where she lives and set about destroying her all over again.

Natalie Tyler is the officer brought in to investigate the murder. A black detective constable, she has been ostracised from her family and often feels she is in the wrong job. But when she meets Michelle, she feels a complicated need to protect her, whatever she might have done.

The Gosling Girl is a moving, powerful account of systemic, institutional and internalised racism, and of how the marginalised fight back. It delves into the psychological after-effects of a crime committed in childhood, exploring intersections between race and class as Michelle's story is co-opted and controlled by those around her. Jacqueline writes with a cool restraint and The Gosling Girl is a raw and powerful novel that will stay with the reader long after they have turned the last page.

Giveaway

This giveaway has now closed.

Review: Verity by Colleen Hoover

* Copy courtesy of Hachette Australia *

Colleen Hoover is the bestselling author of more than 20 books, but would you believe this is my first? Verity by Colleen Hoover is a standalone thriller and Verity of the title is a successful author of a series of books. After a terrible accident leaves her unable to complete the series, her publisher is on the hunt for a writer to collaborate with Verity. Lowen is hired to ghost write the last 3 books and she stays with the family to go through Verity's office and work materials, in preparation to write the remaining books.

Lowen is a struggling writer and this is an opportunity of a lifetime but after discovering a secret autobiography, she starts to sense a feeling of unease in the house. Excerpts from the autobiography are dispersed throughout the novel and they were thrilling and exciting to read.

Here's the intro to the autobiography (or book within the book):

"The thing I abhor most about autobiographies are the counterfeit thoughts draped over every sentence. A writer should never have the audacity to write about themselves unless they're willing to separate every layer of protection between the author's soul and their book. The words should come directly from the center of the gut, tearing through flesh and bone as they break free. Ugly and honest and bloody and a little bit terrifying, but completely exposed. An autobiography encouraging the reader to like the author is not a true autobiography. No one is likable from the inside out. One should only walk away from an autobiography with, at best, an uncomfortable distaste for its author. I will deliver." Page 61

If that doesn't make you want to read on, I don't know what will.

My only reason for holding back on a fifth star was the twist at the end. It was dramatic and impactful, but the letter at the end was overkill. The letter was repetitive while drumming into us the big reveal to make sure every single reader understood the development. It was just too heavy handed and somewhat jarring after such a tightly composed thriller.

Verity is an engaging psychological thriller and I found myself thinking about the characters throughout the day. It's also wonderfully creepy and incredibly sexy with some steamy scenes that keep the pages flying. 

If you enjoyed The Girl On The Page by John Purcell or The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz, then this is for you!

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Review: Bibliophile - An Illustrated Miscellany by Jane Mount

Bibliophile: An Illustrated Miscellany by Jane Mount is exactly what it sounds like, a collection of miscellaneous book related information illustrated in Jane Mount's distinctive style. I was expecting this to be a coffee table book to flip through and enjoy and was pleasantly surprised to find so much more.

Containing artwork of Beloved Bookstores and some great Recommendations from Bookish People, there were genre related chapters that included a stack of books in the author's iconic style alongside an illustrated explanation of the genre and some noteworthy inclusions. There's also an additional list of titles but don't make the mistake I did when I assumed this was the list of the titles featured in the artwork. It's not! It's a separate and additional list of books to study and explore.

You're bound to be adding books to your TBR when you're reading this and I can't help but wonder how the author put the book together. Is each book spine a separate artwork, enabling the author to arrange her images in order to build her book stacks? Or is each pile of books one singular and complete artwork? If anyone knows or wants to speculate, leave me a message in the comments below. Back to the book!

The aptly titled Bibliophile (a person who has a great love of books), also includes some one off chapters celebrating groups of books with topic lists like the following:

• Famous Writing Rooms
• Iconic Covers
• Beautiful Contemporary Covers
• Songs about Books
• Books Made into Great Movies
• World-Changing Book People
• Little Free Libraries
• Picture Books for Grown-Ups

Intrigued to know what's in the lists? You'll have to read the book to find out. I was surprised to have read so many books from the Cult Classics mentioned (what does that say about me?) and enjoyed the variety of bookish miscellany on offer here.

Bibliophile: An Illustrated Miscellany by Jane Mount is a light and easy read and would make a great gift for book lovers with a variety of reading tastes and interests. I borrowed mine from the library, so my copy is going to be enjoyed by another book lover very soon. Should I slip them a note?

 

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Review: The Hill We Climb by Amanda Gorman

On 20 January 2021, I was incredibly moved by Amanda Gorman's address at President Biden's Inauguration. Gorman was the youngest presidential inaugural poet in US history and she definitely made an impression on those present that reverberated around the world. Watching her deliver her poem entitled The Hill We Climb, I was excited by this young mind and my admiration for her continues to grow.

Receiving a stunning hardback copy of The Hill We Climb for Christmas, I made sure to read this exactly a year to the day of the Inauguration event and was still moved by her words. They're just as relevant now as they were then and I doubt her message will ever date. Reading it every other day since then, (it's only 27 pages long), I decided to read her words while watching the video footage from that auspicious day in preparation for this review.

Gorman eloquently delivers a message of promise and hope, and in doing so, she has given every American a vision to aspire to:

"Because being American is more than a pride we inherit -
It's the past we step into, and how we repair it." Page 17

The Hill We Climb is inspiring to read, and watching Gorman's gestures, cadence, rhythm and delivery style elevates the experience to a whole new level.

If you haven't heard, watched or read The Hill We Climb by Amanda Gorman, I heartily recommend you do. It'll be the best 6 mins or 27 pages you'll ever experience. In the meantime, I'll leave you with my favourite section of the poem:

"In this truth, in this faith, we trust.
For while we have our eyes on the future,
History has its eyes on us." Page 19

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Review: Adrift in Melbourne by Robyn Annear

* Copy courtesy of Text Publishing *

I'm a proud resident of Melbourne and live close to the CBD where I've witnessed extraordinary changes to the city over the years. I've seen the tallest building in Melbourne erected from a dusty carpark, and then seen the title of Melbourne's tallest building Eureka eclipsed. I've witnessed the opening of Federation Square, the beginning of the metro tunnel, the establishment of new galleries and more. The city of Melbourne is continually evolving and I'm certain we're going to continue seeing further change and development in the future.

Having enjoyed Old Vintage Melbourne by Chris Macheras so much last year, the chance to explore the city further with Robyn Annear was too tempting an opportunity to pass up.

In Adrift in Melbourne - Seven Walks with Robyn Annear, the author guides us through the city of Melbourne and the reader can recreate the tours on the ground or experience them via Google Maps or from the comfort of home. I chose the armchair traveller option but had to keep my device handy as I was constantly looking up images of buildings still present and those lost to the bulldozers of time and progress.

Annear's sense of humour and personal touch accompanies us on every tour and while largely focussed on the history of buildings and locations, here's a funny story from the intersection of Franklin and William streets:

"During a lull in traffic one weekday morning in 1952, a large grey shag landed in the middle of this intersection and disgorged two live fish. A city-bound cyclist, without even dismounting, scooped up both fish and kept riding." Page 255

Can you imagine your astonishment on seeing this today? I imagine it would have been exactly the same for those pedestrians 70 years ago. What a hoot!

Reading Adrift in Melbourne, I was continually learning and marvelling, did you know:

"By the 1930s, Flinders Street Station was the busiest in the world, swallowing and disgorging more than twice as many passengers weekly as Grand Central station in New York." Page 40

I've just started researching Docklands and re-acquainting myself with the well established suburb it is today, and laughed when I read this:

"Take a tram west... and you'll arrive at the intersection of Collins and Bourke streets. Talk about a mind-fuck. Welcome to Docklands." Page 74

Indeed! The meeting of two parallel streets is a complete mind-fuck and Annear couldn't have said it better.

Phrases and sayings snuck into the book occasionally and they were always entertaining. How's this one:

'Latrobe had a smile that might ripen a banana'. Meaning, presumably, that it was radiant like the tropical sun. Page 159-160

What a classic description! I had no idea that 448 Queen Street was once home to Holt's Melbourne Matrimonial Agency, or that thousands of residents would mill around the GPO when a 'flag raised over the clock tower signalled the arrival of a mail ship from England.' Anyone wanting to collect or post a letter had to queue at the GPO for hours, with observations of staff being knee deep in mail. I can't imagine it, can you?

In 1850:

"Something like two hundred thousand letters and three hundred thousand newspapers passed through the Melbourne post office, and within three years, those numbers would increase ten-fold." Page 192

The process for the cleaning of straw bonnets was absolutely remarkable, and I was exhausted just reading about the detailed process that took days to complete on page 146. I just dearly wished the book included some photographs of the sites mentioned. I constantly had to set the book aside and dive into Google in order to bring up images of the buildings and sites mentioned.

The author's love of history is evident and even her casual reference to the veranda blitz of 1954 opened my eyes to periods in our history where heritage features weren't valued and instead residents preferred the new to the old. 

I think Annear sums it up best at the end of her guided tours, when she writes:

"Surely the best argument for keeping old buildings in a modern city is one of scale, human scale. That, and the sense they convey of someone having been here before us. I'm not talking about memory: memory can outlive brick and stone. But the solid presence of old places, made and kept at human scale, gives a city and its inhabitants their bearings across time. Lose that and your city's a machine." Page 260-261

Adrift in Melbourne by Robyn Annear is highly recommended for history lovers, non fiction readers and those with even a passing interest in Australian history and the evolution of Melbourne, Victoria.

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Review: The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams

The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams is the story of Esme Nicoll, who grows up in a garden shed in Oxford known as the Scrippy, or Scriptorium. Esme's father Harry is one of a team of lexicographers working on the assembly of the first Oxford English Dictionary under Dr Murray's watchful eye. Esme is surrounded by words and growing up without a mother, she often turns to the definitions sent in by volunteers and her dear Aunt Ditte to help her make sense of the world.

Esme is a fictional character and Ditte is a fictionalised version of a woman called Edith Thompson, but the novel is based on real figures from history who worked on the dictionary. It was a mammoth undertaking that began in 1857 with a concept and was finally finished in 1928 with supplements to follow. During this time, many faceless women and volunteers made significant contributions to the project but are unremembered by history. In The Dictionary of Lost Words, Australian author Pip Williams has attempted to right the balance and give us a sense of what the project might have meant to those whose lives centred around it.

Beginning in 1886, The Dictionary of Lost Words is a slow moving coming-of-age story and we follow Esme from a child, through her formative years into an adult. During this time, the suffrage movement grows and Esme befriends an actress. In contrast, I enjoyed the complex relationship between Esme and Lizzie, and Lizzie's status in the world as a bondmaid was both confronting and touching. From Lizzie:

'I clean, I help with the cooking, I set the fires. Everything I do gets eaten or dirtied or burned - at the end of a day there's no proof I've been here at all'. She paused, kneeled down beside me and stroked the embroidery on the edge of my skirt. It hid the repair she'd made when I tore it on the brambles. 'Me needlework will always be here' she said. 'I see this and I feel... like I'll always be here.' Page 41-42

This quiet character study explores class differences, the suffrage movement, and female agency in particular. The scriptorium with it's 1,029 pigeon-holes and the endless flow of quotation slips being received from all over the world was expertly portrayed and I longed to sort the mail with Esme and compose responses to the many questions submitted by members of the public. I enjoyed Esme's determination to collect and record women's words and her enthusiasm for language and stories shines through.

"Words are like stories, don't you think, Mr Sweatman? They change as they are passed from mouth to mouth; their meanings stretch or truncate to fit what needs to be said. The Dictionary can't possibly capture every variation, especially since so many have never been written down." Page 148

If you enjoyed the 2019 film The Professor and the Madman, based on the 1998 book The Surgeon of Crowthorne by Simon Winchester, (also published under the title The Professor and the Madman) then you'll no doubt enjoy this.

The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams will appeal to historical fiction lovers, booklovers and those with a fondness for words and language. Highly recommended.

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Review: Vanished by James Delargy

* Copy courtesy of Simon & Schuster *

Vanished by James Delargy is a thriller set in outback WA with an engaging premise. The Kane family move to an abandoned mining town in WA with their six year old son Dylan, but soon the entire family disappears. What happened to them?

This was an intriguing enough premise to draw me in and the mystery kept me plowing through the book to find the answers. The family choose the least run down cottage in the town and try to make the most of their circumstances by engaging in a home improvement project.

The novel unfolds from multiple character perspectives, with each of the parents Lorcan and Naiyana in the past and Detective Emmaline Taylor investigating their disappearance in the present. Both Lorcan and Naiyana have their reasons for leaving family and friends behind in Perth so there's plenty to keep the plot moving.

The fictional abandoned mining town of Kallayee is located in the Great Victoria Desert, and Delargy does an exceptional job of bringing the remote location and the desolate landscape into sharp focus. The writing is also compelling, and I especially enjoyed this insight into the despicable nature of some elements of humanity.

"The unspoken had been uttered, leaving a bitter taste. It was disgusting. It was horrible. And now that it was out in the open, it was a possibility." Page 315

Vanished by James Delargy is highly recommended for fans of Jane Harper or Chris Hammer.

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Guest Review: Snotlings - The Boogie Monster by Tarryn Mallick

* Copy courtesy of the author *

Intro

James Harris

Junior guest reviewer James Harris has been reading up a storm over the holidays and discovered a new favourite Australian author. Snotlings - The Boogie Monster by Tarryn Mallick and illustrated by Nahum Ziersch is a laugh out loud thriller starring boogers and germs for children aged 7-12 years. I'll let James tell you all about it as he 'picks out' the best parts 😆

James' Review

Lucky for me Tarryn Mallick saw a review that I did on Carpe Librum and asked me to review her new book Snotlings. So it sounded really awesome - a whole world of boogers up someone’s nose, what's not to be excited about?

Firstly, it came in the mail. I never get mail so that was really exciting. And it was in a cool box, with a magnifying glass and some trading cards that were a bit like Pokémon cards, but were from the characters in the book. SO cool. And it was signed by the author and I was one of the first ever children to read the book! And there was 40 tiny pictures of snotlings to find in the book, which was fun to use the magnifying glass for. So I wanted to start this book straight away (but Mum made me finish the one I was reading first).

There is this boy called Jackson, who is a kid about my age who NEVER vacuums his room (which sounds like me..!). He has a booger collection in his room, and one day he picks his nose and sees the booger move. So he uses a magnifying glass to look at it and finds a little warrior named Flick. This opens up the story about a whole world inside his nose where there is a war going on. There is good guys (the snotlings who have really cool names like Flick, Loogie, Crust, Goober) who live in Stickly Castle, and the bad guys (Mucuszar and his army of germs). And then they come out to the real world and try to destroy it by turning them into nose picking zombies. Jackson and his friends have to stop this all from happening, and explain it to the adults.

I liked this because it was funny and was easy to imagine the world because it painted a clear image in my head of the world up Jackson’s nose. I really hope there will be a book 2 because I think it has a lot of potential and this book has already based the story so well, it would be easy to jump into a new story of the snotlings.

I give it 5 snotballs out of 5 (and totally worth picking your nose for….)

James' Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

2022 Reading Challenge Sign Ups

Sign ups for the 2022 reading challenges have been open for weeks now, but I like to sign up when I've finished wrapping up the previous years' challenges and reviews.

In 2022, I'm aiming to read 75 books and will be participating in the following 3 reading challenges:

• Aussie Author Reading Challenge 2022
• 2022 Nonfiction Reader Challenge
• Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 2022

If you're wondering why I'm not participating in the Australian Women Writers' Challenge for the first time in 9 years, the challenge has now ended. For more info, see my wrap of the challenge.

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Aussie Author Reading Challenge 2022

Last year I just managed to achieve the Emu level (24 books) of this challenge, but have decided to slip back to Kangaroo level this year.

Hosted by Jo from Booklover Book Reviews, I'll need to read and review 12 books by Australian authors, of which at least 4 are female, 4 are male, 4 are new-to-me authors and at least 3 genres are covered.

You don't need a blog to join in, and you can follow along on Facebook, Twitter or GoodReads.

2022 Nonfiction Reader Challenge

This challenge is hosted by fellow Aussie book blogger Shelleyrae at Book'd Out, and I'm signing up for the Nonfiction Nibbler level.

For this I'll need to read and review 6 books from any of the following categories:

1.  Social History

2.  Popular Science

3.  Language

4.  Medical Memoir

5.  Climate/Weather

6.  Celebrity

7.  Reference

8.  Geography

9.  Companion to a podcast

10. Wild Animals

11. Economics

12. Published in 2022

Any suggestions? You can also participate via Goodreads, LibraryThing, Instagram or Twitter. 

Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 2022

Hosted by Marg at The Intrepid Reader, I've signed up to complete the Renaissance Reader level again this year.

For this I'll need to read 10 historical fiction books to complete the challenge and I'm already putting together a mental list of all the books I want to read.

You can follow my progress during the year on my Challenges 2022 page.

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What are your reading goals for 2022? Are you participating in any reading challenges? Do reading challenges motivate you to read more widely? I'd love to know.

Carpe Librum!

Review: John Safran Vs The Occult by John Safran

The last book for 2021 helped me achieve my reading goals, given that I needed one more book by an Australian male author in order to complete my Aussie Author reading challenge. (See what else I read here).

In John Safran Vs The Occult, Australian satirist John Safran explores his interest in religion, expanding his research to include witchcraft, black magic, satanism and the occult.

If you're expecting to learn more about what these practices are and their brief history, this isn't that book. Rather, Safran researches and then investigates current cases and crimes specifically attributed to witchcraft, black magic, satanism and the occult and takes the reader along for the experience. This makes for an individual case perspective rather than an analysis of these practices as a whole.

Written before the pandemic and published in 2019, Safran travels to Los Angeles, Texas and Vanuatu, and even meets a Muslim woman seeking an Islamic exorcism in his hometown of Melbourne.

Originally published as an Audible Original, Safran's unassuming personality and genuine interest in people and their beliefs enables him to get locals to open up and talk to him. I'll admit I got lost in the sea of people in Vanuatu and the myriad ways in which they were connected to the case, but hearing directly from the people being interviewed via excerpts was definitely a highlight. Safran's interview techniques build trust and rapport and listening to the stories it's clear the interviewees trust Safran to represent them honestly and with respect.

John Safran Vs The Occult is a solid introduction to the author's research style, varied fields of interest and unique delivery. As always, Safran manages to find the lighter moments and there are many chuckles along the way.

For more, you can check out my review of Murder In Mississippi by John Safran or check out my Google Hangout with him in 2013.

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Review: At Home - A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson

British author Bill Bryson's enthusiasm for history is contagious and I thoroughly enjoyed listening to At Home - A Short History of Private Life. 

In this offering, Bryson looks at the history of private life by breaking down our domestic lives and examining them through the lens of the rooms contained within the Victorian parsonage in which he lives.*

Read by the author in his instantly recognisable delivery (now a favourite audiobook narrator alongside Hugh Mackay and David Sedaris) the book contains 19 chapters including: The Study, The Attic, The Bedroom, The Scullery and Larder, and The Nursery to name a few.

My favourite chapter by far was The Stairs, as I'm fascinated by just how dangerous and deadly the stairs were in households. The stairs used by servants and domestic staff were steep, cramped, and often included steps of uneven height. This was a disaster waiting to happen for staff rushing up and down stairs countless times a day, and was the cause of many accidents and deaths.

The role of clergy and their subsequent decline was interesting, although Bryson seemed to deviate from his own structure on occasion to expound on other tangential topics of interest. Finding the majority of the content presented interesting, I didn't mind this at all, however some readers might.

Informative, educational and entertaining, I can highly recommend At Home - A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson and will check out more of his works in the future.

*And yes, I just broke a personal rule never to use the word 'lives' and 'lives' in the same sentence, but I wanted to see if you were paying attention.

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

3 Reading Challenge Wrap Ups for 2021

It was close, but I successfully completed all of my reading challenges during 2021 and read 75 books in total. You can see my wrap up of the Australian Women Writer's Challenge here and a list of all the books I read in 2021 here.

How did I go and what did I read?

2021 Nonfiction Reader Challenge

This was my second year participating in the 2021 Nonfiction Reader Challenge hosted by Shelleyrae at Book'd Out and I completed the Nonfiction Nibbler level. For this, I read 6 books from the categories below in order to complete the challenge.

1. Biography (Grave Tales: Melbourne Vol.1 by Helen Goltz & Chris Adams)

2. Travel

3. Self-help (#EntryLevelBoss by Alexa Shoen)

4. Essay Collection (Silence by John Biguenet)

5. Disease (Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor)

6. Oceanography

7. Hobbies (Christmas in Suburbia by Warren Kirk)

8. Indigenous Cultures (The African Lookbook by Catherine E. McKinley)

9. Food (Peanut Butter - Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Midnight by Tim Lannan & James Annabel)

10. Wartime Experiences

11. Inventions (Chromatopia by David Coles)

12. Published in 2021 (Everything I Know About Life I Learned from PowerPoint by Russell Davies)

Aussie Author Reading Challenge 2021

Hosted by Jo at Booklover Book Reviews, I successfully completed the Emu level of the challenge to read and review 24 titles written by Australian Authors, of which at least 10 are female, 10 are male, and 10 are new-to-me authors. I also had to read from a minimum of 4 genres. 

1. My Best Friend's Murder by Polly Phillips
2. The Reach by B. Michael Radburn
3. Peanut Butter - Breakfast Lunch Dinner Midnight by Tim Lannan & James Annabel
4. Chromatopia - An Illustrated History of Colour by David Coles
5. The Last Reunion by Kayte Nunn
6. The Paris Affair by Pip Drysdale
7. Tussaud by Belinda Lyons-Lee
8. Before You Knew My Name by Jacqueline Bublitz
9. Grave Tales: Melbourne Vol. 1 by Helen Goltz & Chris Adams
10. The Family Doctor by Debra Oswald
11. A Voice In The Night by Sarah Hawthorn
12. The Emporium of Imagination by Tabitha Bird
13. The Inner Self by Hugh Mackay
14. The Lost Girls by Jennifer Spence
15. Nineteen Days by Kath Engebretson
16. As Swallows Fly by L. P. McMahon
17. Noni the Pony Counts to a Million by Alison Lester
18. Old Vintage Melbourne by Chris Macheras
19. Devotion by Hannah Kent
20. Christmas in Suburbia by Warren Kirk
21. The Housemate by Sarah Bailey
22. Modern Slow Cooker by Alyce Alexandra
23. Kill Your Brother by Jack Heath
24. John Safran vs The Occult by John Safran

2021 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge

Hosted this year by Marg at The Intrepid Reader, I completed the Renaissance Reader level of the challenge to read 10 historical fiction books.

1. Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell

2. The Shape of Darkness by Laura Purcell

3. A Net for Small Fishes by Lucy Jago

4. The Last Reunion by Kayte Nunn

5. Tussaud by Belinda Lyons-Lee 

6. Mrs England by Stacey Halls

7. The Last Garden in England by Julia Kelly

8. Katharine Parr: The Sixth Wife by Alison Weir

9. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab

10. Devotion by Hannah Kent

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Have you read any of the books mentioned above?

I'm already thinking ahead to this year's reading challenges and have promised myself not to cut it so fine again on the Australian male author component of the Aussie Author challenge. I said that last year too, didn't I? 

How was your reading in 2021? Did you achieve what you wanted to?

Review: Kill Your Brother by Jack Heath

* Copy courtesy of Allen & Unwin *

Disgraced athlete Elise Glyk finds more than she bargains for when trying to locate her missing bother Callum by posing as a private investigator in Jack Heath's latest crime thriller, Kill Your Brother.

You know from the title going in that Elise is going to have to confront her loyalties head on at some point, but knowing this doesn't detract from the tension and the action that builds and explodes on the page. The reader also knows from the blurb that Elise is going to be caught by Callum's captor and imprisoned alongside him, but in no way is this a spoiler. Trust me, you won't be able to predict what happens next.

Having loved Heath's Timothy Blake series (Hangman, Hunter and Hideout), I'm pleased to report that the author is just as skilled at writing kick-ass female characters as he is penning kick-ass male ones. Elise is a brilliant and resourceful protagonist with a refreshing and unique background and I was rooting for her all the way.

The sibling dynamic between Elise and Callum was layered and entertaining and the setting in Warrigul in Victoria was a refreshing surprise and a stroke of genius from this Canberra based author.

Kill Your Brother is the latest high octane crime thriller from Jack Heath and it's a ripper of a stand alone novel. Highly recommended! (You can read a free excerpt of the first 24 pages of the book here).

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Top 5 Books of 2021

It's time to reflect on my year of reading in 2021 and select the best 5 books from a total of 75 titles read this year. Last year my Top 5 list contained only review titles, and this year I'm pleased to return to a more balanced mix. Two of the books in the following list were sent to me for review, with the remaining three coming from my own TBR pile. Once again, historical fiction dominated the list and I was proud to include Australian author Tabitha Bird in the cut.

Without further ado, here are my Top 5 Books of 2021 in the order I read them:

1. Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell

For some reason I now regret, I didn't request a review copy of Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell, but after seeing so many of my trusted book bloggers falling in love with this story, I had to jump on board.

Hamnet is an historical fiction novel about the death of Shakespeare's 11 year old son Hamnet in 1596, and in particular how his wife Agnes and family deal with the loss. Shakespeare is never named in the book (not once!) and while the book is about his family, it's not all about him.

You don't need to know anything about Shakespeare in order to enjoy this novel. It's essentially the story of a 16th century family and the way in which they cope with life's choices and challenges and I was absolutely blown away by the evocative writing.

2. Mrs England by Stacey Halls

This was one of my most highly anticipated releases for 2021 and I was thrilled when it delivered on all of my hopes and expectations. Ruby May is a qualified nurse from the Norland Institute in London and accepts a position at the isolated Hardcastle House looking after three children from the family of wealthy mill owners Charles and Lilian England.

Mrs Lilian England keeps strange hours, doesn't interact much with the children and doesn't involve herself in the running of the household while Mr England is friendly, relaxed and approachable and it's soon clear who really runs the house. Mrs England is a slow moving gothic tale, with Ruby's past carefully revealed and the relationships between the characters slowly evolving.

The ending made me gasp and I thoroughly enjoyed discussing it with other readers on GoodReads and social media. This is the second year in a row Stacey Halls has made my Top 5 Books of the year list, what will she write next?

3. The World At My Feet by Catherine Isaac

This book was a complete surprise. Ellie is a social media influencer and avid gardener suffering from agoraphobia. Living in a granny flat behind her parent's home in the English countryside, she makes a living from her sponsored gardening posts on her highly successful Instagram account EnglishCountryGardenista. I was interested to get to the root cause of Ellie's agoraphobia and when I did, I found I was fascinated by the topic and spent a few nights Googling post-revolution Romania.

Offsetting this dark beginning to Ellie's life, her gardening career was a sheer delight to read about and I thoroughly enjoyed following her around the garden and reading her Instagram posts in the book.

The World At My Feet by Catherine Isaac was a terrifically enjoyable contemporary novel with moments of character insight and inspiration and I was willing Ellie through as she lost her way and dusted herself off again.

4. The Emporium of Imagination by Tabitha Bird

Set in Boonah in Queensland, this book contains magical realism and reading it was like sending nourishing warm hot chocolate straight to the soul. The Emporium of the title is a shop, and Earlatidge is the store's custodian. The shop travels the world to where it's needed and at the start of the book, it's opening in the small town of Boonah. When it magically appears and the shopkeeper has been found, the store will sell vintage gifts to revive broken dreams, repair relationships, ease grief, soothe broken hearts and more.

The Emporium of Imagination is an incredibly uplifting and life affirming novel delivering messages about regret, lost opportunities, guilt, smothered dreams, love, loss, sorrow, grief, duty, hope, redemption and more to the reader.

Written by Australian author Tabitha Bird, I loved sharing this with a family member and it was a highlight of my reading year.

5. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab

Adeline LaRue is born in France in 1691, and at the age of 23, her family decide to marry her off but she refuses to be 'gifted like a prize sow to a man she does not love, or want, or even know'. In sheer desperation to avoid this fate, Adeline prays with every fibre of her being. A spirit of the woods eventually answers and Addie explains she wants to be free and doesn't want to belong to anyone. In making a deal, her soul is cursed.

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab is a character driven story about how Addie comes to terms with her curse and learns to navigate life now that she is forgettable. Addie is invisible, unable to leave a mark on the world or even say her own name. The unexpected ache of losing her family and everyone she's ever known is tough.

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is full of evocative writing and passages that made me pause and reflect on the past, the present and the future and ponder what really matters in the world.

_________________________________________________________________________________

So, there you have it! What do you think of my list? What was your favourite read in 2021?

In 2021...My Life In Books

Celebrating my life in books was so much fun last year I decided to do it again in 2021 thanks to Shelleyrae from Book'd Out.

The idea is to complete each of the prompts below by selecting a book you've read during 2021.

2021 was the year of: The Emporium of Imagination by Tabitha Bird
In 2021 I wanted (to be have): The World at My Feet by Catherine Isaac
In 2021 I was: A Voice in the Night by Sarah Hawthorn
In 2021 I gained: Silence by John Biguenet
In 2021 I lost: The Lost Girls by Jennifer Spence
In 2021 I loved: Christmas in Suburbia by Warren Kirk
In 2021 I hated: Dust by Michael Marder
In 2021 I learned: How to Behave Badly in Renaissance Britain by Ruth Goodman
In 2021 I was surprised by: Gory Details by Erika Engelhaupt
In 2021 I went to: The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward
In 2021 I missed out on: The World of PostSecret by Frank Warren
In 2021 my family were: Elsewhere by Dean Koontz
In 2022 I hope: Everything is Beautiful by Eleanor Ray

If you'd like to do this challenge, please consider yourself tagged. Feel free to leave your answers below or come back and provide a link to your post so I can check out your 2021 in books.

Review: The Sentence by Louise Erdrich

* Copy courtesy of Hachette Australia *

A book set in an independent bookshop in Minneapolis, with a ghost? Sign me up!! Louise Erdrich is a native American author and Pulitzer Prize winner and The Sentence is my first time reading any of her work.

All Souls' Day is a day for commemorating and honouring the dead, and The Sentence begins on All Souls' Day in 2019 and takes us through a year of bookshop employee Tookie's life, ending on All Souls' Day in 2020. Tookie is a likeable native American character although her backstory didn't seem (to me) to chime with the direction of the story. Here's a sample of her voice though:

"I have a dinosaur heart, cold, massive, indestructible, a thick meaty red. And I have a glass heart, tiny and pink, that can be shattered." Pages 251-252

The reader accompanies Tookie as she navigates this troublesome year, but there's no real sense of an overarching purpose to what we're reading. The issues are up to the minute current, however the 'year in the life' seemed to be the only unifying story arc.

Having said that, there are many quotable moments in The Sentence and there's much here for book lovers to get excited about. Daily tasks in the bookshop, interesting and compelling customers, reading references we can all relate to (many of us have our own 'hard stack' and 'easy stack' of books waiting to be read), book lists (catnip for readers) and the overall power of books and stories for people navigating the Black Lives Matter movement or enduring isolation and lockdowns in the midst of a pandemic.

I loved Tookie's description of one of her customers she refers to as Dissatisfaction:

"By way of the fact he was impossible to please, Dissatisfaction was one of my favourite customers. He was always in a hurry and wanted me to drop everything. He is one of the cursed, a Tantalus, whose literary hunger perpetually gnaws but can never be satiated. He has read everything at least once. As he began reading capaciously at the age of six, he is now running out of fiction. I love the challenge of selling books to him and tried first, as usual, to interest him in history, politics, biography. I knew he would not accept anything but fiction, but this was a chance for him to vent anxiety over what he might read next. He snarled and swatted aside my factual offerings." Pages 97-98

Despite these gems, overall, I guess I felt disconnected from this free form narrative. I generally prefer more structure to my plots than 'here's what Tookie experienced in a crazy year we've all recently experienced from a thousand different perspectives'. Naturally Tookie's perspective is different from my own, but perhaps I just couldn't engage with Tookie on the deep level many other readers seemed to have reached while reading The Sentence.

I really think books like The Sentence will improve with age and distance from the events it covers. Readers in 20-30 years who don't have a living memory of the murder of George Floyd, the Black Lives Matter movement and the beginning of the pandemic will be reading with interest, while I read in recognition.

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Review: Never by Ken Follett

* Copy courtesy of Pan Macmillan *

Carpe Librum readers will know I'm a fan of Ken Follett's historical fiction Kingsbridge series which began with The Pillars of the Earth, but the author has also written many successful thrillers across his illustrious writing career. Never is his first contemporary novel in over a decade though, so naturally I was keen to check it out.

Never by Ken Follett is a political thriller about the beginning of World War III and a whopper of a book coming in at 815 pages. In a complex plot that doesn't blame any one country for the escalations, the narrative is populated by various characters located around the world. The actions of these characters inform the plot and the tension slowly builds as each person narrates their role in a much bigger series of events. Major powers are involved and the situation realistically begins to snowball out of control.

Never could be called an espionage thriller or a spy thriller, but it also serves as a timely warning that despite a leader's best intentions, international politics is a dangerous game. In typical Follett style, the author had me looking up new-to-me words throughout the novel, (bellicosity on page 5 and vituperation on page 145)* but not so often as to spoil the rhythm of the book.

I'm not a huge fan of political thrillers, but I always enjoy Ken Follett's deeply layered storytelling and detailed character arcs and put my complete trust in him from page one. Fortunately I was rewarded by the close of this expertly researched - yet very long book - with a surprisingly enjoyable ending. Highly recommended.

* Bellicosity is an inclination to fight or quarrel, a warlike or hostile manner or temperament.
* Vituperation is verbal abuse or language that is full of hate, or angry criticism.

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Guest Review: Spacecraft by Timothy Morton

* Copy courtesy of Bloomsbury Australia *

Intro

It happens to the best of us.... we pick up a book with the hope of being transported, yet it completely fails to take off. We're coming to the end of my series of Object Lessons reviews thanks to Bloomsbury Australia, and in this installation, guest reviewer Neil Béchervaise shares his reading experience of Spacecraft by Timothy Morton.

Neil's Review

For those who have enjoyed the complexities of Edmund Husserl’s early twentieth century Phenomenology and Jacques Derrida’s Deconstruction from a half-century later; for those who delighted in the antics of The Muppets and then in Star Wars, Star Trek, et al, Morton’s near-encounters with spacecraft may be an inimitable intellectual challenge. Those, on the other hand, who entered the pages of Spacecraft expecting to be informed and engaged may be rather disappointed.

Morton’s passion for the philosophical underpinnings of space science fiction allows him to wander at warp speed from Han Solo and Chewbacca to Princess Leia, Kermit and Miss Piggy; from a depthy deconstruction of the infinity contained within Dr Who’s most definitely finite TARDIS to the garbage which is the Millennium Falcon.

Considerably more excited by the potential for the space through which spacecraft might travel or, borrowing from Einstein’s relativity theories in which space might travel past the spacecraft, Morton’s exploration manages to introduce the sexual implications of an object being drawn into a largely incomprehensible body. Touching on the nipples of the spacecraft, the gunnery turrets and the control centres, Spacecraft explores political imperatives - fascism, Marxism, imperialism – as he draws on Blake’s Marriage of Heaven and Hell and Beckett’s Endgame to illustrate the philosophical machinations of his apparent heroes, the authors and their on-screen characters.

Timothy Morton’s Spacecraft added little to my understanding of spacecraft as I thought I understood them. Instead, it offered a complex polemic that will be quite familiar to disciples of Derrida, Foucault and Irigaray in which the intension of the author may always present a challenge for the reader.

Spacecraft will probably appeal to those who have sought to make sense of that complexity which is space by studying the film and television depictions of a world from which all boundaries have been removed, all identifiable positions contested and all relativities absorbed into a commercial singularity most easily understood from the viewpoint of a droid, or maybe a muppet.

As Morton observes in his closing fusillade:

“It’s something to think about now that we are literally ‘after the end of the world,’ [because] “America never was a country, never did achieve escape velocity from slavery and property.” Page 111

As one reviewer has observed, Timothy Morton’s Spacecraft takes the best part of a whole day to read – but it is not until the end that the political angst is fully revealed. And by that time, the spacecraft has departed – or maybe it has been left behind, garbage, until it is reclaimed for another purpose, perhaps.

Neil's Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Australian Women Writer's Challenge 2021 Wrap Up and Wind Down

I've been participating in the Australian Women Writer's Challenge since 2014, however this year it was announced that the challenge is wrapping up permanently. From 2022 onwards, the focus will shift to lesser-known Australian women writers of the 19th and 20th Century which is largely outside my reading choices but I wish everyone well in their reading adventures.

Needless to say I'll greatly miss striving to meet my challenge requirements every year and engaging with all of the lovely reviews and reviewers participating in the challenge each month. Fortunately the Facebook group will continue to celebrate the works of contemporary Australian women, so I'll try to engage more regularly over there.

I'd like to thank the many volunteers across the years who gave freely of their time to host, edit and wrap up the various categories of the challenge for eager readers and participants like me who greatly enjoyed the regular content hitting their inbox. A special thanks to Theresa Smith who has become a friend to me over that time and whose dedication to AWW I have admired.

In 2021, I was attempting the Franklin level of the 2021 Australian Women Writer's Challenge and needed to read 10 books and review at least 6 of them in order to complete the challenge. I'm pleased to say I successfully completed the final year of the challenge (phew!) and here's what I read: 

1. My Best Friend's Murder by Polly Phillips
2. The Last Reunion by Kayte Nunn
3. The Paris Affair by Pip Drysdale
4. Tussaud by Belinda Lyons-Lee
5. Before You Knew My Name by Jacqueline Bublitz
6. Grave Tales: Melbourne Vol. 1 by Helen Goltz & Chris Adams
7. The Family Doctor by Debra Oswald
8. A Voice In The Night by Sarah Hawthorn

9. The Emporium of Imagination by Tabitha Bird
10. The Lost Girls by Jennifer Spence

Additional books read for the challenge:
11. Nineteen Days by Kath Engebretson

12. Noni the Pony Counts to a Million by Alison Lester

13. Devotion by Hannah Kent

14. The Housemate by Sarah Bailey

15. Modern Slow Cooker by Alyce Alexandra

Last year I read 21 books for the challenge, so this number is a little down on previous years. Time permitting, I'd like to try and read The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams and Adrift in Melbourne by Robyn Annear by the end of the year, but we'll see how I go.

Carpe Librum!

Review: Hunger - A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay

Does it make sense to follow the review of a recipe book with a memoir about body image and being overweight? Maybe it does, or maybe it doesn't, but I can promise it was a sheer coincidence that my reading choices overlapped in this way.

In Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body, author Roxane Gay reflects on the struggles she has with her weight, stemming from a vicious sexual assault at a young age. The author shares intimate details about her mental and physical health, fat phobia and the daily hassles and humiliations she endures due to her size.

"This is no way to live, but this is how I live." End of Chapter 59

As a reader in Australia who struggles with their weight, I was hoping to gain some insight or new angle on weight gain and body image from a bestselling author, professor and social commentator. However, Roxane Gay's experiences as a tall (1.91m), bisexual American woman of Haitian descent are nothing at all like mine. I realised half way through that I had entered into this memoir with a fixed agenda instead of the intention to learn about another person's battles and demons.

"The bigger you are, the smaller your world becomes." Chapter 62

Roxane Gay is raw and unapologetic in an endearing way and bares her soul in this memoir. Her struggles with confidence and self worth were well written yet hard to read and as a society, there is much we should be ashamed about. After finishing Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body, it's clear we have a long way to go in learning how to treat one another.

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Review: Modern Slow Cooker by Alyce Alexandra

I love my slow cooker, and when looking for some inspiring new recipes, discovered Modern Slow Cooker - 85 Vegetarian & Vegan Recipes to Make Your Life Easy by Australian bestselling author - who has her own line of kitchen accessories - Alyce Alexandra. I'm not a vegan or a vegetarian but 85 slow cooker recipes that make my life easy? Yes please, I'm salivating already!

The first recipe I tried from this collection was the Harissa-Spiced Creamy Carrot Soup from page 53. I love soup, and prior to reading this book, I hadn't tasted or even heard about harissa paste. Alyce Alexandra explains that it's:

"... a concentrated fiery concoction made from blended peppers, oil and spices. While it is traditionally used in North African and Middle Eastern cooking, [the author] finds a small amount does great things for almost any cuisine." Page 34

I followed the recipe precisely, but the flavour was a little intense for my untrained palate and I'd be using far less next time. I'm not a good cook, but the carrot soup was tasty and lovely with crusty bread.

There was great variety in the recipes on offer and next up I'm going to try a sweet recipe. If it works, I'll be sharing it with the family at Christmas time. No spoilers though 😉 

What's your favourite slow cooker recipe? For another slow cooker recipe book by an Australian author, check out my review of The Easiest Slow Cooker Book Ever by Kim McCosker.

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Review: The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz

* Copy courtesy of Allen & Unwin *

Jake is a creative writing teacher suffering from self doubt and writer's block following the enormous success of his debut novel. When one of his students has a killer idea for a book, Jake is jealous and waits for the inevitable sensation when the student's bestseller hits the shelves. Years later, Jake learns his student died unexpectedly before finishing his novel (not a spoiler, it's in the blurb) and he faces a moral dilemma.

What follows from there forms the basis of The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz and it's an exciting thriller for writers, published authors, aspiring authors, librarians, booksellers, storytellers, readers, bibliophiles and creative types.

"Stories, of course, are common as dirt. Everyone has one, if not an infinity of them, and they surround us at all times whether we acknowledge them or not. Stories are the wells we dip into to be reminded of who we are, and the ways we reassure ourselves that, however obscure we may appear to others, we are actually important, even crucial, to the ongoing drama of survival: personal, societal, and even as a species." Page 61

Interspersed amongst the goings on are excerpts of Jake's bestselling book, offering us a neat view into his dilemma and eventually the origin of the trouble that eventually follows. Because of course there's going to be trouble.

The Plot will definitely appeal to readers and I enjoyed seeing the many authors mentioned throughout the book. The list of shamed writers on page 76 was a highlight:

"Then he would be relegated to the circle of shamed writers forever and without hope of appeal: James Frey, Stephen Glass, Clifford Irving, Greg Mortenson, Jerzy Kosinski..." Page 76

Of course, then I had to stop reading so I could go and find out the juicy details of the literary scandals attached to the authors mentioned, only being familiar with James Frey.

The Plot is an exploration of the role writers have in telling a story, the duty and responsibility of authors to tell a story well lest the spark of inspiration drift away to alight on the pen or keyboard of a more disciplined and deserving writer.

It's clear to me that the author Jean Hanff Korelitz has given a lot of consideration to the nature and creativity of the writing process, the elusive source of inspiration and the troubling loss of it and the moral dilemmas and complexities of plagiarism and theft.

An entertaining read for booklovers, highly recommended.

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★