Reviews & Recommendations
March 16, 2015
Annabel Smith has created a disturbingly plausible world in her latest novel, The Ark, which is set later this century in a post peak oil Australia. An underground bunker, aka the Ark, has been established to preserve five billion seed specimens. As violence and lawlessness (known in the book as the Chaos) increase, 26 people consisting […]
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December 18, 2014
Summer Holiday Reading
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In my previous post, Five Faves: Writers from the West, I shared the names of five books (and their writers) that I enjoyed this year. But there are so many more on my To Read list, and I seem to be adding titles faster than I can finish them. Here are just a few of those I hope […]
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December 12, 2014
I’ve heard it said that Western Australia’s isolation disadvantages our writers and artists. Yet there is so much creative talent here that I believe I could spend 2015 reading writers from the West, and still not finish a long list of great books. For now, though, here are five books (and their writers) that I read in 2014 […]
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October 12, 2014
Recently a friend posted a Facebook challenge that requires nominees to list 10 books that have stayed with them in some way. I normally avoid the challenges doing the rounds of social media. They somehow remind me of the chain letters I used to receive during my childhood. And the introvert in me particularly resists those requiring video evidence. But […]
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August 18, 2014
This week (Saturday 16 August to Friday 22 August) is Children’s Book Week in Australia, and I love its theme of ‘Connect to Reading – Reading to Connect’. Some of my most cherished moments are of connecting to my children through fabulous books. But I also remember with fondness the nightly routine of my parents reading to me. So […]
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August 8, 2014
Earlier this year, I heard Australian author Claire Zorn speak about her YA novel The Sky so Heavy at the Perth Writers Festival. I bought a signed copy for my teenage son, only to discover he had already borrowed it from the library (‘But I’ll read it again. It’s good.’) – and wound up reading it […]
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