Kathryn's Inbox

British author Eliza Clark goes where few would dare to with Boy Parts creating a novel with an utterly disgusting female lead. Irina is a narcissist, a paedophile, a psychopath and a murderer. Boy Parts is the story of how, while committing some of the most dreadful acts, Irina not only goes undetected, but manages to manipulate everyone around her, from her adoring best friend Flo to the young men that she takes explicit photographs of, to the people that she sells the photographs to.  This novel is not easy reading, however, its saving grace is that it does not promote Irina's behaviour at all--it is written in such a way that the reader will dislike her almost immediately. What follows is a study on how much she can get away with, based on other people's perceptions of what a young and attractive woman is capable of and her worth. I cannot say that I enjoyed this book as much as I found myself turning pages, wanting to know what Irina would do, get away with and if she wou...

Beloved Australian singer/songwriter Paul Kelly takes his songs, arranges them in alphabetical order and uses them as a basis for a truly unique memoir. And unsurprisingly he names it after what is, for many, the most beloved Paul Kelly song of all, How to Make Gravy. This was a truly engaging read. Rather than being a memoir with a linear timeline, Kelly does what he does best, allowing his songs to shape the narrative. Consequently, we as the reader learns the stories behind the songs, more and more is revealed about Kelly's life and the things that inspires his music, whether it be stories that he has heard, life on the road, his family and friends or the challenge of coming up with a film soundtrack. Not all aspects of his life are pretty but I really appreciated the humble way Kelly told his story as he takes the reader into his confidence and shows empathy for the people around him. I found myself reading this one over a couple of weeks, carrying it in my bag and snatching up...

Picture it. Adelaide 2025. I'm walking through my favourite bookshop, passing the crime section when I turn around and I just happen to spot ... The Golden Girls? The hilarious 1980s sitcom, back in the form of a delightful cosy mystery titled Murder by Cheesecake?   Bring it on! Murder By Cheesecake is the first in a soon to be series of cosy mysteries staring Blanche, Dorothy, Rose and Sophia. Rose has been tasked with organising a traditional St Olaf style wedding (complete with lots of silly traditions) for her beloved niece and the others are doing their best to pitch in, especially as the groom's snobbish family aren't all that keen on the idea of a small, quirky wedding. However, things don't truly go awry until Dorothy's unpleasant date for the wedding is found dead in the freezer, his face buried in a traditional St Olaf cheesecake. Worse still, Dorothy is the prime suspect and she and the girls need to move fast to clear her name and keep the wedding on ...

There are a whole lot of animals at the heart of the latest Baby-Sitters Club graphic novel adaption, a whole house full of them in fact, and Jessi Ramsey junior officer of the BSC has been trusted to care for them for a whole week. While the Mancusi's are away, Jessi will be taking on a sitting job of a different kind, caring for three dogs, five cats, various birds, rabbits, hamsters and even a snake. Meanwhile, the BSC are having some internal problems, mostly due to Kristy being bossier than usual. How can Jessi manage to look after a house full of pets for a week, and help to fix things at the BSC?  This was a fun and entertaining read. It's been a long time since I read the original--so long that I was a little skeptical of this one going in. The number of pets the Mancusi family had seemed wildly extreme, as was the fact that they would trust an eleven year old kid they had never met before to care for them for an entire week. Then, of course, I had to remind myself that...

Like many of us, journalist Nevin Martell is a diehard fan of the utterly brilliant daily comic strip, Calvin and Hobbes. Looking For Calvin and Hobbes is equal parts a study of the comic and the story of how Martell sought to find out more about the comic's reclusive author Bill Watterson, who turned his back on multiple deals for merchandising, an animated series and who does not seek fame or notoriety in any way, shape or form. Martell never gets to interview Watterson, but what we go get is a solid story on how a was never spoiled by over-exposure or merchandising and remains beloved by fans, interviews with all kinds of people including Lynn Johnson who created the wonderful For Better of For Worse daily comic, and an outline of Watterson's career.  This was an interesting read. I knew close to nothing about Watterson but for the fact that he never allowed his comic to be monetised, and the story of how Calvin and Hobbes came into being was an interesting one, along with t...

Hannah Kent's memoir, about a year long student exchange to Iceland and how it inspired her bestselling novel Burial Rites is absolutely fascinating from beginning to end. The author shares with the reader how, at age seventeen, she left Australia in the middle of summer and arrived in Iceland, a country so different from her own, in the middle of winter. There she would discover careless adults, new traditions, friends that would become family and, eventually, the story of Agnes Magusdottir, the last woman to be executed in Iceland. Some years later she would return to research the life of Agnes Magusdottir and turn it into a story that would become an award winning and bestselling novel.  I enjoyed reading this for a number of reasons. First, like many Australians I find Iceland to be both fascinating and very far away. It was interesting to read and discover more about the real Iceland and how people live their day to day lives. Second, I loved the inside glimpse to how the aut...

A fake marriage for a very surprising reason is at the heart of this fun, cozy romance set in Bath. August is a dreamer, big on ideas and personality. Flynn is smart and quiet and, as his ex-girlfriend put it when she dumped him, not at all adventurous. Disenchanted with love, he returns from Japan where he has been living for the past four years to Bath and, after some troubles finding suitable accommodation, he sees the perfect flat advertised. There is just one problem. August has her heart set on that very flat, mostly due to something that her beloved grandmother said to her many years before. At the viewing, Autumn and Flynn discover that the eccentric landlady will only rent the flat to a married couple, and soon the pair come up with a novel solution ... This was a fun and cozy read, with most of the drama revolving around how the main characters keep up the pretence of being married, their guilt about telling a lie and the further complications it causes when they start fallin...

Olive Branche, the bubbly adapatable star of the Click series is back ... and busier than ever. The fifth book in the series has Olive over-committing on a number of tasks. She has guitar lessons, she is taking part in a special project for the student council and she has just seen an advertisement for a filmmaking contest that she desperately wants to enter. Then, through a little manipulation from her friend Willow's parents, she finds herself joining Berry Scouts. Soon Olive finds herself exhausted and unable to keep up with everything. What will she do? This was not the more enjoyable instalment in the series, with a plot that feels very thin and cliched. However, it is also true that I am not in the target audience and it wasn't written for me--instead it's for kids who might find themselves in that situation or who see a friend going through the same thing. And the book satisfies that requirement just fine. That said, the whole thing is resolved well and has a great ...

I doubt that I am saying anything groundbreaking here, but The Baby Dragon Cafe had me at the title alone. Immediately it had me thinking of all of my favourite cozy, cafe themed reads ... but with a very cute and fiery twist. Fortunately, the title sets the theme perfectly for this cosy fantasy novel. Saphira has just opened a cafe, one where dragon owners are allowed to bring their baby dragons with them. This is a novelty in her hometown as other cafes do not allow baby dragons inside--and with good reason it turns out, as the baby dragons keep burning or breaking everything in the cafe. Anyway, apart from the massive financial costs of replacing burned equipment, Saphira is happy with her new venture. It is the closest that she will ever get to caring for a baby dragon. That is, until one day, the very eligible bachelor Aiden steps into the cafe with a baby dragon that he has very reluctantly inherited, and he wants Saphira to be the one to train baby Sparky.  This was an unco...

Ellidy was living the dream. Despite growing not believing in true love or happy endings, she found herself living on the Gold Coast in a blissful, happy relationship with her partner Olympic snowboarder Alex 'Chumpy' Pullin. They were planing to have children. Then the life they had built together came to a tragic and unexpected end when Chumpy passed away in a spearfishing accident. Within hours, Ellidy made a surprising decision. If she couldn't have a baby with Chumpy, then she would have one for him. I am not going to pass judgement on parts of this one--the ethics of post mortem sperm retrieval or the author sharing the story so publicly online--because well, it's not my journey. Also her life is so far removed from my own experiences that I barely feel qualified. So I will leave that aside. Although marketed as the story of Pullin's pregnancy, the focus was a bit choppy, at times feeling more like a biography of Alex 'Chumpy' Pullin written by his par...

What a joy it was to revisit my favourite, and arguably the best, book in Beverly Cleary's classic Ramona Quimby series. Written over a span of forty-four years (and itself a spin-off of the Henry Huggins series the first volume of which was published in 1950,) the books have a delightful timeless quality about them. The setting is slightly ambiguous, thanks to limited references to technology and the fact that the Quimby's are most definitely working class and non-political, nothing points to one decade, it could be any time point in the second half of the twentieth century. Ramona Quimby, Age 8 is a particularly joyous instalment in the series as we see Ramona come into her own more, while sensitive big sister Beezus is most definitely a teenager. We watch as Ramona starts at a new school, rides the school bus for the first time, and uses creative problem solving when it comes to her two enemies--Yard Ape from her class at school, and Willa Jean, the vivacious and bossy pres...

Only Mostly Devastated is the perfect story of a summer fling gone wrong. Ollie and Will are opposites who fall for one another. Then, the summer holidays end. Will stops messaging Ollie, and a heartbroken Ollie consoles himself with the fact that he will be back in California soon. Then his parents make a surprise announcement. They're staying in this small town permanently and Ollie is enrolled at a local school where he soon discovers that Will runs with the popular sporty crowd and he is most definitely not out. And no friend of Ollie's ... This was an entertaining read, a queer YA romance with some very definite parallels with Grease.  Ollie is an easy character for the reader to feel sympathetic toward. Fortunately, Will is portrayed as a sympathetic character as well, a popular sporty kid in a small town who may not necessarily had the support he needs from his family if he comes out. There's also a cast of slightly loopy supporting characters who I did not care for...

If I could describe Ducks , a graphic memoir, in one word it would be bleak. Cartoonist Kate Beaton (creator of Hark! A Vagrant ) tells the all too real story of the two years that followed her graduation from college. After receiving an arts degree, she returns to Cape Breton in Nova Scotia where she discovers a stark reality. Employment opportunities, especially full time ones, for arts graduates are non-existent in this part of Canada.  She also has a large student debt which is only going to get worse if she doesn't find a way to pay it back. So, she takes a different career path, moving to Alberta, working in the oil sands. As I said at the beginning of my review, Ducks is bleak. A once hopeful student, Kate Beaton finds herself discovering some harsh realities about employment after university, and even harsher realities about jobs on the oil sands. Each frame perfectly showcases that bleakness and the experiences that she has along the way, putting up with lower than expect...

Ahh, Jessica Wakefield is up to no good again. Sneaking Out  the fifth volume in the Sweet Valley Twins graphic novel series adapts another classic story from the original series. This is the one where Johnny Buck comes to town. And super-fan Jessica Wakefield, who caught Johnny Buck's hat when he tossed it into the crowd at a film premiere, is desperate to go. After all, Jessica knows that Johnny meant for her to catch that hat, and that if she takes it to the concert he is sure to recognise her in the crowd. He'll just have to invite her backstage. But for now, there are just a few tiny obstacles in the way. Jessica's parents have forbidden her and twin sister Elizabeth to attend the concert as they feel the twins are too young. Second, Jessica cannot afford a ticket. With some characteristic Jessica Wakefield style scheming she comes up with solutions to both problems. She will sleep over at her friend Lila's house. And she will take on a job dog sitting, cash paid u...

Readers are in for a treat with Guards! Guards!  Terry Pratchett's eighth Discworld novel and the first City Watch novel. It is the story of Captain Sam Vimes, an alcoholic and head of the somewhat complacent City Watch who finds himself falling for wealthy dragon breeder Lady Ramkin. It is also the story of Carrot, an orphan raised by dwarves who finds himself as the newest--and the most honest and earnest--member of the City Watch. It is also the story of how a secret brotherhood summons a dragon to terrorise Ankh-Morpork and how Vimes, Lady Ramkin, Carrot and Unseen University's Librarian work to restore law and order, with some very amusing results. Guards! Guards! is a fun read from start to finish. As always I enjoyed Terry Pratchett's unique yet incredibly accurate insights into human nature. There were a few moments when I found myself laughing out loud (a bit awkward when I was reading outdoors) and in particular I enjoyed the resolution to the dragon problem. As ...

Journalist and author Rachel Held Evans was raised by her religious parents in an evangelical church. In Searching For Sunday she details her thorny relationship with the church, in particular moments of doubt, a desire to find a new church that fits better with her spiritual beliefs and the trappings of trying to do this when she was becoming an increasingly famous Christian writer and blogger.  Searching For Sunday is a book of faith, doubt and the path the author takes to rediscover her faith. Rachel Held Evans raises questions of faith and the role of the church in the early 21st century. There are no easy answers, of course, but the author remains open as she shares her personal and spiritual journey.  Overall, this is an interesting read, one that anyone who has left the church will be able to identify with. (Especially in the freedoms of being able to do whatever one wishes on Sunday morning. Or maybe that's just me.) I found her voice to be honest and authentic, a rari...

Love her or hate her, there is no denying that Colleen Hoover is a bestselling author. She has a solid--and extremely loyal--fanbase. She has seen one of her novels made into a film, caused a stir with a colouring book that got cancelled, copped loads of criticism and most of her publicity has been born through her books going viral on social media, first with her (then) self-published first novel Slammed and then again several years later when her novel  It Ends With Us became the first novel to go viral on TikTok, four years after it was first published and enjoyed moderate success. While most of her novels can be broadly considered romance, Verity , self-published in 2018 was a sincere attempt at combining her light, breezy writing style with a darker storyline and a surprise twist at the end. The result is, well ... Verity  tells the story of Lowen Ashleigh, a reclusive writer in her early thirties who is hired as a ghostwriter to complete a series of novels by bestselli...

Aussie author Jodi McAlister's latest romantic offering starts strong, with a fast paced--and hilarious--recap of two academic rivals and complete opposites, wealthy Jonah from a competitive academic family and Sadie, who has fought against every possible odd to gain a PhD. As Jonah recaps the seven times they managed a truce, the reader just knows they might make a perfect couple. If only they could let go of their egos, if their families would stop interfering and if employment in the academic world was not quite so fierce. Then, in the midst of it all, the rare perfect employment opportunity comes along. They both have very compelling reasons for wanting it--and Sadie soon works out a way that both can have it. Unfortunately it involves this unlikely pair of enemies getting married. This comes with all kinds of problems. Their families each oppose it, if the university finds out theirs is a fake marriage they'll likely be thrown out and worse still ... Sadie and Jonah are fa...

I was born with an eccentric heart ... Bono's memoir begins with a quote that is both literal truth and near perfect metaphor for the much loved musician, activist and now, author. Shaped around forty different U2 songs, Surrender is Bono telling his life story. Most U2 fans will know parts of the story already, particularly the parts about the band formed when the members met at high school, the same place where Bono met his wife Ali. Just as many will know that some of these stories were already shared in by in Bono on Bono by Michka Assayas and in U2 by U2. However, what makes this book stand out is the willingness of the author to be vulnerable and what he shares with the reader. I read this one slowly, over the course of about three and a half weeks, which I soon discovered was the perfect way to take in the stories and meant that I had time to listen to my not-exactly-small collection of U2 albums along the way and enjoy the songs I'd just read about. For me, the most i...

When much loved author John Green visited Serra Leone with his wife Sarah to do some research into maternal and neonatal healthcare systems (the country has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the world,) he was not expecting to become friends with Henry, a young man with the body of a boy, who was fighting tuberculosis. The meeting prompted Green to investigate further into the treatment and outcomes for TB patients in Serra Leone. What he found would rightly shock many people--that tuberculosis, which has been easily diagnosable and curable since the 1950s, is still one of the deadliest diseases in the world due to the medical inequalities that exist across the globe. In short, over a million people each year die of tuberculosis based on where they live and the medical treatment available. Angry yet? I know I am.  John Green has used his anger to create this book. He examines the history of tuberculosis, the myths and stigma that surrounds the disease, the role of drug c...

Besties Beth and Chanda are back in the second instalment of Besties, a spin-off from the successful Click series. This time around, Beth and Chanda are looking forward to attending their first formal school dance, but things go a bit sour when neither can find the perfect dress. Then an unintentional comment from Chanda's older sister leads both girls to believe that they need a date and suddenly the dance feels like one big disaster--and it hasn't even happened yet. Although not as well done as the books in the Click series, this was an entertaining little read about growing up and false expectations. Beth and Chanda don't need expensive dresses or dates to make the dance a special occasion, but a false sense of what a 'grown up' dance entails leads them to believe that they do. I found myself cringing every time Beth and Chanda put themselves on the line for some poor clueless boy who just isn't on their wavelength. Fortunately, the moral lesson comes throug...

I had so much fun reading the Little People Big Dreams book about Andy Warhol that I just had to turn my attention to another recent release from the series, this one featuring controversial author Roald Dahl. After all, how would someone explain Roald Dahl to children--an author who was exceptionally talented, who they've most probably heard of and read some of his work already, and who in his personal life was exceptionally complicated and cruel?  Well, somehow, author Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara does exactly that. As is an integral part of this series, she introduces the reader to the subject, this time Roald Dahl, as a child and shows how he is shaped by a childhood experience of taste testing chocolate bars and unfair school policies and how they influence his later work. She also recounts his experiences fighting in the Second World War (ending in injury) how he begins his career as a writer and ... she acknowledges that he was far from perfect and that he was anti-semitic (d...

The Indefatigable EnviroTeens are back. And this time, in their first full colour graphic novel, they are on a hilarious adventure of defeat a Toxic Space Potato who has enslaved an entire planet for personal gain. Along with their sidekicks Stuart the Wobblegong and Beverley the Sourdough Starter, they are facing their greatest challenge yet in this riotous, laugh out loud adventure. I'll be brave and admit, this book had me at the title alone. Add in a little First Dog on the Moon humour, zany plot twists and political satire and this graphic novel is a real winner. It's silly, it's intelligent and it is a whole lot of fun. And the toxic space potato, who wants everyone to give up on planet earth and live on Mars certainly sounds familiar ... I absolutely enjoyed this one from start to end. Highly recommended. 

Reader beware, titles can sometimes be deceiving. This book may be called the Banned Books Club , but banned books, and the club, take a back seat to the stories of the three main protagonists. There is Gia, a very independent woman who many years ago started a banned books club at her school, only to find herself run out of town after she had her English teacher charged, and convicted, of sexual assault. (Long story short, the townspeople wouldn't believe her, even though the court did.) Then there is Margo, Gia's seemingly perfect sister, who didn't get run out of town, who married a popular local man and who is begging for her sister to come home to help care for their mother. What Gia doesn't know is that Margo has suffered through her husband's coercive control and she's hoping that Gia will come home so that she can finally make a clean break of it. And then, because this is a small town, there is Cormac, the very attractive local vet who no woman can catc...

The Little Mermaid gets the Meant To Be treatment in the third novel of Disney's bestselling Meant To Be series. This time around Zoraida Cordova tells the story of Ariel, the star of Siren Seven, a girl band made up of seven sisters, managed by their father who also owns the family's own record label. Siren Seven have just had their final farewell concert and twenty-five year old Ariel is looking forward to having a break from the music industry and finding out who she is away from the stage. Her father has promised her that she can have some time off, and then betrays her by announcing to the public that she is about to embark on a solo career. So what does Ariel do? She runs away, creates a new identity as Melody and goes on the road with an up and coming band where she works behind the scenes selling merchandise. All good, until Eric, the front man of the band begins to fall for Melody. He has no idea who she really is and he claims to hate Siren Seven and their music. Wh...

What a joy Elizabeth of East Hampton turned out to be! Technically a spin off or a sequel to Emma of 83rd Street, and a part of the For the Love of Austen series this time around the authors turn their focus to a modern day retelling of Pride and Prejudice. It is tourist season once again and Elizabeth 'Lizzy' Bennett is helping out in the family bakery. She secretly aspires to study journalism, but those dreams seem awfully unrealistic at the moment. Her beloved father is recovering from a stroke and neither her outlandish mother (who is always working on a get rich quick scheme,) or her four sisters are capable of running the bakery. Jane already has a job as a teacher, Mary is busy protesting climate change, Kitty has a business degree and cannot bake, and Lydia is more focused on finding a rich husband. And if that wasn't enough to contend with, Lizzy soon finds herself falling foul of Will Darcy, a wealthy tourist who is here with his friend Charlie ... who just happ...

Olive, star of the Click series is back. As readers will know, Olive has always been a popular kid, a floater who has the ability to form genuine friendships with a range of other kids. Now she's in sixth grade, a member of the student council and she is doing well with her studies. When a new girl, sassy Natasha, arrives at school, Olive suddenly finds herself with an unexpected challenge. Natasha does not like Olive. And worse still, Natasha is keen to make friends with all of Olive's friends ... and suddenly Olive is left feeling as though everyone would rather be Natasha's friend than hers. This was such a relatable and well written account of preteen friendships. I've probably said this before--Olive is a great character and author/illustrator Kayla Miller does an excellent job of putting her in situations that are so believable and relatable that this series now has a huge following among adults and teenagers, along with the intended middle grade audience. Olive...

Call Me By Your Name is a coming-of-age novel about a brief but intense love that will be remembered--and felt--for a lifetime. Seventeen year old Elio is used to his home on the Italian Rivera being opened to guests, his father's students, and he thinks nothing of this until the day Oliver, an American student, stumbles out of a taxi, saying a casual, 'Later' to the driver. Elio is immediately smitten, with his imagination going into overdrive as he struggles to reconcile with his feelings. What begins with Elio doing his best to avoid Oliver eventually turns to a discover of love and intimacy like no other he has experienced before. This was an empathetic and well crafted read about a young man struggling under the intensity of his feelings for another person. It is also a story of how two people find something so very rare--total intimacy with one another. That said, this isn't always comfortable reading and it should probably come with a disclaimer that many people ...

I had no idea this volume of sermons by history making and beloved activist and Baptist minister Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr existed, let alone been republished as a Penguin Modern Classic, until I stumbled upon it a several weeks ago at a beautiful bookshop in the Adelaide Hills. Intrigued, I purchased it immediately and over a coffee at a nearby cafe I immersed myself in a work that I soon discovered was both hopeful and beautiful.  Taken from some of the author's most powerful sermons A Gift Of Love was originally published in 1963, and updated after Dr King was assassinated in 1968, and again in 1981. The sermons focus on strength, the importance of activism and his vision for an America where people are not divided by race. He also speaks of his personal experiences of activism. Personally, I found his account of the Montgomery bus boycott, and his role in it to be absolutely fascinating. Though, it should be stressed also frightening, as Dr King's house was bomb...

Okay. I know these books are meant to be for kids. But the concept of a Little People Big Dreams book about Andy Warhol was just too much for me to resist. And let's face it, outside of all of the controversies there are many aspects of Andy Warhol's career that would be very interesting and inspiring for young, budding artists. Like the fact that he was a shy kid, plagued by illness and that he could take something as mundane as a soup can and use it to change the art world forever. Anyway ... this was a fun and age appropriate biography. I loved the illustrations, which felt very fitting--unique but with a definite Warhol flavour. There is also a longer biography at the back, which will probably be appreciated more by older children and any grown ups that are reading along. Understandably, the book does not mention that Warhol was shot or his unexpected death in hospital following a routine operation.  Overall, an excellent resource for kids and a bit of fun and inspiration f...

The BSC graphic novel adaptions are back and this time the focus is on oft-overlooked BSC character Mallory Pike. And it is one of the best instalments in the series to date. This one opens with a behind the scenes look at the Pikes, a nuclear family with eight kids. For Mallory, the oldest, this often means being expected to help her parents look after the younger kids, and also going without a lot of things that she secretly wants because her family cannot afford it. She's also fed up with being treated well ... like a kid. Mallory has the chance not only to prove herself as capable, but to earn some money to buy some of the things she wants when she is offered a regular baby-sitting job caring for eight-year-old identical twins Marilyn and Carolyn Arnold. There's just one catch. The twins are absolute terrors and just love to swap places. But with a little bit of ingenuity, Mallory just might be able to solve the problem and learn a thing or two about good communication. I a...

Originally published in 2018 (and later updated) Feminists Don't Wear Pink is an eclectic series of short pieces from various high profile women on what feminism means to them. Some of the pieces, such as the Bridget Jones piece by Helen Fielding are fiction, other authors share poetry and many, from Amy Trigg to Liv Little to Charlotte Elizabeth open up about their deeply personal experiences. Much like the writers, every piece is different and everyone has a different view on what feminism means to them. This was an entertaining, though often eclectic read. I enjoyed most of the pieces on their own, individual merit, but each did not always flow into the next one well which got a bit distracting after a while, and meant that I found myself putting the book down again after reading one of two short pieces. (And consequently, the book took my a while to get through.) The book was originally published in the United Kingdom meaning that some of the authors were completely unknown to...

To say that I have been 'enchanted' by Disney's Meant To Be series would be a massive understatement. The concept is surprising as it is brilliant. Classic Disney movies reimagined as contemporary romance novels, written by bestselling authors. And it works so well. If The Shoe Fits is the first release in the series. Penned by Julie Murphy, the author of Dumplin'  it retells Cinderella. Except this time, Cinderella is Cindy, she is an aspiring fashion designer who just loves shoes. And she is the first ever plus size contestant on a reality show that just happens to have been created and produced by her stepmother. Her stepsisters, both influencers, are contestants on the same show. The only catch is that Cindy has already met the man that she and the other contestants are competing for ... and there is a very real and very mutual attraction between them. This was a fun and lightweight romance set against the backdrop of a very well choreographed reality show. Cindy an...

Don't stay where you are needed. Go where you are loved ... So reads the blurb on the back of my copy of Love Looks Pretty On You, a delightful collection of poetry and short prose by Lang Leave. And what a teaser that proved to be as I read through the collection, with each offering speaking of one kind of love or another. All forms of love are mentioned, though the collection does focus on romance, particularly unrequited love. Some of the poems would most definitely be comforting to any reader who has a broken heart.  I absolutely adored this one, snatching bits here and there, though my favourite memory is taking it with me to a cafe on a cool Saturday afternoon, taking in the short works in between sips of coffee.  Recommended. PS Did you know ... author Lang Leav was born in Thailand, after her family fled the horrific Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia. The author grew up in Australia and now lives in Sydney.

The Baby-Sitters Little Sister series gets spooky once again in a tale of Halloween, haunted mansions and families who just flat out don't believe a highly imaginative kid when she discovers that she is living with a ghost. The latest graphic novel adaption is Karen's Ghost, the twelfth novel in the original series and eleventh graphic novel in the series, opens with Halloween fast approaching and Karen becoming intrigued by the story of Ben Brewer, her reclusive great-grandfather whose biggest claim to fame was that he ate fried dandelions. Or, at least, that was his biggest claim to fame until one night when Karen hears some creaks and groans from the attic of the Brewer family mansion and becomes convinced that it is the ghost of Ben Brewer, who is haunting the attic and third floor. A trip to the attic with her stepsister Kristy leads Karen to discover a diary written by Ben Brewer's son Jeremy, who also believed that Ben Brewer haunts the house--and that every ten yea...

Can a dog be twins? That is the question which has catapulted the author's unnamed narrator to fame online. The novel begins as a satire of a life lived online, with the protagonists days spent scrolling through social media and the like, with much commentary on the ridiculousness of what appears online. Midway through, it takes a surprise turn. The narrator is pulled increasingly back into the real world as she learns that her sister is pregnant with a child that has a rare and severe disability. As she rushes to be by her sisters side, suddenly her life becomes more and more divided into two, with the absurdity of what she sees online, and the harsh and heartbreaking realities that are unfolding in front of her, things that are important in her life, but that no one in the outside world is talking about. This was an interesting read. After a while, the depictions of scrolling and online content became tiresome, while the truly interesting parts of the story was what was happening...

Art is so much more than a picture inside a frame. And nothing sums up that feeling more than My Friends the latest novel by Fredrick Backman. The novel opens with Louisa, a girl who was abandoned by her mother and who ran away from her foster home after the untimely death of her very best friend Fish. Seemingly a guerrilla artist, we meet Louisa as she attends an art auction with spray paint in her backpack, but slowly the author reveals something different--a sensitive young woman who just wants to look at a famous artwork titled The One of the Sea which she knows is a painting of so much more than the sea. After all, she can see the pier and the four young people depicted in the painting. Her fascination with the painting and lack of interest in certain rules does not bode well for the other people at the auction, which soon turns into a series of unexpected events, where she encounters the artist, and the story of the four teenagers on the pier--and the birth of the career of an a...

When Kellie Finlayson was just twenty-five years old, she received a shocking diagnosis--she had stage four bowel cancer. Four years later and (thankfully) she is still here and raising awareness, shattering myths about bowel cancer and being a passionate advocate for bowel cancer awareness and an ambassador for the Jodi Lee Foundation. There Must be More is her personal story, detailing her diagnosis, treatment and the ups and downs experienced along the way.      This was a powerful read. Bowel cancer isn't always the easiest of things for people to talk about. It is also something that, here in Australia we often associate with aging--so much so that every Australian receives a bowel cancer test kit from the government on their fiftieth birthday. In reality it can happen to anyone, and Kellie Finlayson has played a huge role in creating that awareness in me, and, I suspect people like me. However, There Must Be More is not only a book about raising awareness. It is a...

Beautiful World, Where Are You, the third offering from Booker Prize long-listed author Sally Rooney has one failing. It isn't very good. The novel tells the story of four very different thirty-somethings living in Ireland, Alice, an internationally renowned author who suffered a nervous breakdown after the publication of one of her novels, Alice's best friend Eileen who lives in Dublin, is equally as miserable as her best friend and can't admit that she's in love with Simon, a devout Catholic with whom has she as friends with benefits relationship, and Felix, an angry creep that Alice met on Tinder. And so the novel goes from there with each of the characters being miserable and slowly trying to work through their various communication issues and quarter life crises.  Unfortunately, Rooney works so hard on trying to create mystery and well-crafted prose at the expense of her characters and, dare I say it, a plot. The novel starts slowly, improves after the first seven...

There is something delightful about the Dinosaur Couch comics that seem to pop up on my social media feeds every now and again. The combination of the clean lines, musings on life and well ... dinosaurs, just seem to make it a hit. Worked on by a team--James Stewart comes up with the words and plot and K Romey does the illustrations, the whole thing has a very gentle feel. When I discovered that an entire collection of these cute comics was available, I just had to find a copy.  And it doesn't disappoint. Divided into seven different sections, the comics talk about various parts of life, from relationships to happiness to feeling anxious and overthinking. I love the simplicity and the way it breaks it all down, leaving any reader who might be struggling with an issue (or who has struggled in the past,) feeling seen. I found this one more enjoyable when I read just one or two comics at a time, rather than binging on them. Recommended.