Domestic noir. It’s great, right? All those twists and turns, secrets, and multi-layered plots and characters. No wonder it’s huge. So, it’s a great thrill to welcome Sara Foster to the blog today – Australia’s (via the UK) own Queen of domestic noir. Her new book – All That is Lost Between Us – is a work of psychological suspense, set…
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about being the reading doldrums. I simply could not find a book that grabbed me. Then, I stumbled across The Near Miss. Oh, praise you reading-Gods. You always seem to deliver at the right time! The Near Miss was exactly what I was looking for – contemporary fiction, written by an Australian woman writer,…
They say books find you when you need them. When ‘Confessions of a Once Fashionable Mum’ found me, I was in desperate need of a laugh – and that’s what this book delivered. Author, Georgia Madden, takes us deep into the cringe-worthy and difficult moments of new motherhood, via the ‘once fashionable’, Ally Bloom. Ally’s first year of motherhood is…
Claire Varley is that rare bird whose manuscript made it off the slush pile and into publication. And what a manuscript it is! ‘The Bit in Between‘ is laugh-out-loud funny (seriously, there were chuckles of audible volume) but also slightly whimsical and romantic as we watch our two gen y-ers, Alison and Oliver, fall in love. (Read more of my…
When I first heard about Sunni Overend, I knew I had to know more, for two reasons 1) Her book ‘March’ sounded like so much fun 2) Since self-publishing, Sunni has gone on to secure a two-book publishing deal with Harper Collins. ‘March’ is the story of Apple March, an aspiring fashion designer whose career ambitions have come unstuck due…
The best short story writers manage to say a lot, using a little. If you want to see what I mean, you need to read the work of Claire Aman, a writer from northern NSW who writes the most moving short stories, in a most economical and restrained fashion. (Read one of them here – Queensland Bluegrass – I GUARANTEE…
Every so often a writer comes along who reminds you of the immense possibilities of language. Myfanwy Jones is that kind of writer. The way she works with imagery. The way she structures her sentences. The way she creates characters who are real but slightly magical. It’s just so… energising. You can read in more detail my thoughts about Myfanwy’s…
I have to admit I was a bit shocked when I found out that Eliza Henry-Jones is only 25 years old. Her debut novel, In the Quiet, is wise and insightful. Many people (including me) have described it as ‘quiet’ – but it’s quiet in a way that makes you want to lean in to really hear what’s being said.…
There is no doubt, ‘The Other Side of the World‘ is one of my top picks of the year so far. Author, Stephanie Bishop, has the most beautiful, poetic writing style and the book, as a whole, has much to say about nostalgia and the way in which people long for a place and time in their lives they can…
Thanks to this blog, I’ve recently diversified my reading habits to include genres and titles I wouldn’t normally pick up, like young adult fiction. What a revelation! Re-visiting your teenage self is both an exhilarating and confronting experience – which pretty much sums up the reaction I had to Trinity Doyle’s Pieces of Sky (read the review here). So, I’m absolutely…