This book from Gabrielle Moss explores the huge selling phenomenon that was book series for kids and teens in the 80's and 90's. Books like RL Stine's Goosebumps, The Babysitters Club and The Saddle Club were hugely popular, long running series with little gimmicks that sold like hot cakes, targeting a previously untapped market, essentially …
When Natsuki is a child, she believes that her toy hedgehog is an alien and wants her to save the planet using magic. When she tells her beloved cousin, he is a life line who understands her and tells her his secret, he's also an alien. We come to understand that this story helps them …
Following the death of his childhood best friend, Federal police officer Aaron Falk returns from Melbourne to the small country town he grew up in. His old friend Luke apparently killed himself after murdering his wife and six year old son and in the town of Kiewarra tensions are high. The grip of a two …
I picked this up because I really like books like Like Water For Chocolate, stories that have a hint of magic, but that are otherwise kind of about everyday life. (Magic realism is one of our favourite genres). Rose Edelstein is turning 9 when her mother makes her a beautiful lemon cake with chocolate icing. …
Continue reading The Particular Sadness Of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender
Vincent Bijlo is more well known in The Netherlands where he works in TV, radio and theatre, as well as in stand up comedy, so I had never heard of him before Holland Park Press asked me to review this book for them. (As always, all opinions herein are my own, and the book was …
There is nothing quite like an Allende story. I feel like her books read as though she's right there narrating them to you, like you're hearing someone's family history or life story, and yet her description is so evocative and insightful, it's something more than mere storytelling too. In this, her latest book, she writes …
Although this story is about war, and all the sadness and destruction that goes with that, it has a really beautiful fairy tale quality to it as well. A blind young girl grows up with her father in Paris. He is the locksmith at a museum, and he builds her a complete model of the …
Continue reading All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
I really enjoyed this unusual book, a Booker Prize winner back in 1984, which was recommended to me for my reading list this year. It tells the story of Kere, a woman who lives in a tower and has distanced herself from other people, especially her family. But she finds herself drawn out of herself, …
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