Eleanor’s Secret by Caroline Beecham is part mystery, part love story, and proved just right for a couple nights’ winter reading. Here’s the blurb: London, 1942 When art school graduate, Eleanor Roy, is recruited by the War Artists Advisory Committee, she comes one step closer to realising her dream of becoming one of the few…
The Golden Man Booker has revealed the shortlist of five books in contention for the Golden Man Booker Prize. This special one-off award (not to be confused with the annual Man Booker Prize), marks the 50th anniversary of the award. It’s aim is to crown the best work of fiction from the last five decades…
Sometimes a book knocks you off your feet and into a completely alien environment – no, I’m not talking sci-fi, but Michael Mohammed Ahmad’s The Lebs. I grew up in Sydney in the same timeframe as this book, but Ahmad’s Sydney is like nothing I’ve ever experienced. ‘Bani Adam thinks he’s better than us!’ they…
A dark, but extraordinary tale, The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris was confronting, raw and evocative in an entirely different way. Here’s the blurb: Lale Sokolov is well-dressed, a charmer, a ladies’ man. He is also a Jew. On the first transport from Slovakia to Auschwitz in 1942, Lale immediately stands out to his fellow…
Isn’t the cover of Holly Ringland’s debut The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart gorgeous? The inside is just as lovely, too – it’s beautifully designed. There’s been a lot of hype about this book so I was looking forward to reading it for myself, and the idea of women living and healing together through working…
Kelly Rimmer’s Before I Let You Go hooked me with its story of two sisters and one impossible choice – it was one of those books that once you get to a certain point, you have to keep on reading. And it’s also one of those books that makes you think about what you would…
Dark and brooding, Bereft by Chris Womersley was my introduction to a writer I met briefly in the Green Room at the Perth Festival Writers Week wrap up. Aptly dubbed ‘Australian gothic’, this tale of a boy who flees his home town after being accused of murdering his sister, returning years later without really knowing…
I’ve been a Jenn J. McLeod fan since her first book came out back in 2013 and later this year I’ll have the pleasure of meeting her in person at the Serenity Press retreat I’m co-hosting (and I’ll be interviewing her on stage at Stories on Stage). A Place to Remember is her fifth book…
The Rules of Backyard Croquet by Sunni Overend captivated me with its fresh and sassy take on a familiar theme – a woman shaking off past baggage to shine bright. And shine bright Apple March did, as she emerges from a self-imposed cocoon to find new friendships, love, and her zest for what she’s best…
I can’t go past a good domestic thriller and when The Wife by Alafair Burke turned up in my mailbox, I read every chance I had over the next two days. It’s like the married version of a whodunit with an underlying back beat of “Stand By Your Man” and I lapped it up from start to finish. It’s…
