Kathryn's Inbox

RF Kuang's Babel is a dazzling and ambitious speculative fiction about history and etymology. Robin Swift is orphaned in Canton and brought to England as the ward of a man that he knows (but never dares say,) is his biological father. After years of study, he is given a place at Oxford to study at Babel, a tower in the centre of the institution from which the power of all of the British Empire flows. He soon discover that many kinds of sinister forces exist and eventually, he and his classmates discover that they have to find a way to stand up for what is right ... While this novel has received much acclaim across the globe, my own feelings are mixed. The plot is somewhat tedious in the first half of the novel and the second, while much more exciting, does not always properly address what was set up in the first half. I found the death of Professor Lovell and subsequent cover up to be quite gripping and it certainly sets up the second half of the novel, but I felt that the charact...

Abi and her twin sister Brook are back in another touching story about what it means to be an identical twin. This time around, it is Term 2 at school. Brook is terrified about giving a talk in front of the whole class, so she and Abi come up with a scheme where they will swap places and Abi, a confident public speaker, will give the talk in her place. Except that things go very wrong, and Abi, as Brook, ends up being chosen for the school public speaking competition ... This was an entertaining read. To be honest, I found the subplots about the discovery of the hut and that of Frankie raising money for a new guitar to be more interesting than the main twin plot. That said, there is lots of fun to be had and there is a great moral about being truthful--with a fitting punishment, rather than fire and brimstone consequences. Also, the lesson is something that I feel kids will be able to understand and relate to, especially those like Brook, who may be anxious about public speaking.  ...

Political journalist Amy Remeikis takes a long hard look at the Prime Ministership of John Howard and examines how his old fashioned style leadership and unwillingness to compromise may have led to many of the social problems that we are experiencing in contemporary Australia. It has been thirty years since Howard was elected and nineteen since he was voted out of office, but many problems can be linked back to the policies of the time.  This was an interesting read, particularly as I was in my early teens and too young to vote when Howard was elected, and, during the early part of my adulthood I was against many of his policies, in particular sending Australian troops to Iraq. However, Remeikis goes far deeper than my personal quibbles with Howard and takes a deep dive into many of the policies such as negative gearing that have had far reaching consequences. The book is well researched and far more than a moral panic that pins the blame on today's problems on someone who cannot f...

It is no accident that Rebecca Perry's debut novel May We Feed The King has been longlisted for the 2026 Booker Prize.* The novel is a well written account of a reluctant medieval king, and of a curator who, some many years later is tasked with recreating parts of his palace for an anniversary display. The novel opens with the curator, who, though it is not deeply touched upon (the reader gets just enough to be empathetic,) has some troubles in her personal life. As a consequence, she is burying herself in her work, doing deep research, which leads to the bulk of the story, her speculations of who this king could have been. The third son, it was never expected that he would rule and, it would seem, he does not really want to. There are people plotting against him and all kinds of rumours until he and the queen find freedom in an unexpected way ... And that's really it. The real treat of the novel for me is the way that it touches upon the human condition and human nature. It h...

There is no stopping the almighty BSC Graphix series. What started as a four book project in 2006 adapting four popular Baby-Sitters Club books as graphic novels now has nineteen volumes in the series and there is no sign of it slowing down yet.  Dawn On the Coast is the most recent addition to the series and only the second adaption to feature Dawn as the main protagonist. (Why The Ghost at Dawn's House was skipped, I'll never know.) In this one, it is spring break and Dawn is off to visit her dad and her brother Jeff in California. (Now here is another point. Jeff's departure for California was depicted in book fifteen in the original series, which was skipped in the graphics.) Anyway, as Dawn returns to California she soon discovers just how much she has missed her Dad and Jeff, and Sunny, her California bestie who has started her own, laid back version of the Baby-Sitters Club. (Sidenote: Sunny and Maggie later become key characters in the long-forgotten California Di...

I have mixed feelings about Katie Kitmura's Booker Prize shortlisted novel, but I also suspect that this is what the author intended. The author's talent lies in the way she sets the scene for one story, that of a middle aged woman who meets a young man in a Manhattan, and then, in each chapter, changes things over and over again. Who are these two people to each others? Lovers caught in an uncomfortable encounter? A mother and the son she gave up for adoption? A mother and the son she cast out? Two actors playing a part? A shyster and a bored middle aged couple who were sucked in? The possibilities are endless and each chapter changes things and challenges the readers perceptions. There are no clear answers. Ultimately, I feel that the story and the relationship the characters have with one another what each individual reader will see and will want it to be. It could be easy to explain it all using one bit of evidence or another from the narrative, but I also suspect that may ...

There is something quite lovely about a fantasy novel featuring Barbie. Although this one is marketed as young adult and a coming of age novel, the novel is very innocent, and perfect for readers who are just beginning to transition from middle grade but who may not yet be ready just yet for some of the darker parts of YA fantasy. Also, it makes for near perfect escapism for anyone who has fond memories of Barbie. In the novel, Barbie has grown up in a boarding school in Heartland, a mythical land where there is lots of pink, everything is perfect and she, along with her classmates studies hard. Barbie adores her guardian Robin, the best friend of her mother who died when she was just a baby. She is also looking forward to graduation, where mythical beings, known as fates, will decide on her future career.  Then the unthinkable happens. Barbie is the first student from the academy not to have a fate. Something is not right, and against the wishes of her guardian she embarks on a da...

South Austrailan author Vikki Wakefield takes a gritty look at the cycle of poverty in This Is How We Change the Ending.  How people get stuck there ... and what it takes to break free. Nate McKee is a high schooler living with his dad in a Housing Trust flat in a fictional South Australian town. He shares a room with his half brothers, three year old twins, because his dad is currently using his bedroom for a hydro crop that will (supposedly) make them rich. The only support Nate has is from his stepmum Nance, who is just eight years older than him and has her own struggles with poverty, an abusive husband and the twins, one of whom has additional needs and the other who is already showing signs of turning out like his dad. His best mate is becoming a criminal. Nate's only solace is his notebook, where he records his feelings and the local youth centre, but after a violent incident, it appears that the centre will be closed. Then a local graffiti artist finds Nate's notebook a...

There has been a lot of controversy surrounding Rachel Cusk's latest novel, Life of M.  Much of this controversy has been over questions over whether the novel is fiction or auto-fiction, the latter of which Cusk is quite skilled at. If it is the latter is the titular actress, known as M in the novel, based heavily upon Natalie Portman, with whom Cusk is acquainted with in Paris? And if so, is it wise for anyone to have created such an unflattering portrait? Full disclosure, I do not know. The end of the novel certainly throws out some interesting clues, ones that are best left for the reader to discover for themselves. Ultimately, though, I found the book was more enjoyable when I did not focus to heavily on what has been said in the media. Life of M tells of the observations of an unnamed author, currently based in Paris with their husband, who is tasked with following M, a Hollywood actress who has been famous since childhood, so that they may write a book about it. Intertwined...

On the evening of tenth of May 1972 Dr George Duncan, a lecturer at the University of Adelaide, was thrown from a footbridge into the River Torrens where he tragically drowned. He had lived in Adelaide for just six weeks. His alleged murderers were all police officers, from the Vice Squad and it was believed that Dr Duncan had been targeted because of his sexuality. Though no one would ever be charged with his murder, it led to widespread reforms across South Australia, which became the first state in Australia to decriminalise homosexuality. In The Death of Dr Duncan author Tim Reeves takes an in-depth look at this tragic, totally preventable death, how it led to a shift in public attitudes and legal reforms and the way the death was investigated, which never led to a criminal conviction.  The Duncan case is absolutely shocking and rightly so. A man targeted because of his sexuality and murdered, allegedly by the very people who were supposed to protect the community. Then we hav...

Brooke is an absolute master of organisation. She knows how to get things done and how to organise everything. However, when she moves to Melbourne to start uni and into a run down student share house, things start to go awry. First she discovers a mouse. Then their third housemate arrives. Jesse, who just happens to be her mortal enemy from high school. He's the guy who broke her fourteen-year-old heart when he ditched her so that he could get in good with the popular crowd. Brooke has never, ever let him forget it. She isn't about to forget it now. They might be sharing a house, but they are definitely, definitely not friends. And Brooke is definitely not going to talk to him at all, and create any further unnecessary drama.  I loved the concept of this one. Brooke is a strong willed and stubborn young woman who has compelling reasons for her (sometimes) overbearing and off-putting behaviour. Jesse also has his reasons for his past behaviour. While they may not be perfect, it...

A little while back, I read and reviewed Game Changer the first novel in Rachel Reid's massively popular and bestselling Heated Rivalry series. Recently developed into a television series for HBO Max, the novels in the series tells the stories of male ice hockey players who experience same sex attraction and their romantic lives. While the majority of the novels and bulk of the television series focuses on a secret relationship between two players from rival teams, Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov,  Game Changer is the story of hockey player Scott Hunter who encounters university graduate Kip Grady who is underemployed and working at a smoothie bar. What starts as a pregame ritual of drinking smoothies for Scott soon develops into secret romance between the pair, eventually culminating in Scott being the first hockey player in his league to be an openly gay man. And thus setting up the rest of the series as other romances in the hockey world begin to blossom. It's a great pre...

Okay. I confess. I could not resist that cover and all of the nostalgic vibes it brought back. Of being a kid and ordering a cheap paperback from a Scholastic catalogue about other kids doing things that were simultaneously ordinary and ever-so-slightly extraordinary. Plus the title mentions frogs and I like frogs. There's a Frog In My Sleeping Bag is a stand-alone story that forms part of a loosely linked series of books about the kids in a third grade class who all have adventures that somehow feature animals. It tells the story of Janna, a lively girl who struggles with the fact that her Spanish mother has raised both her and her younger brother to be fluent in both English and Spanish. But, enough of that. Janna is looking forward to the school camp ... where she finds herself in a whole lot of trouble and as the victim of a number of pranks. Including the aforementioned frog in her sleeping bag.  This was a lot of fun. The book was published well, some time ago, but the theme...

British comedian Rik Mayall, best known for The Young Ones and Drop Dead Fred offers readers a delightful satire on the typical celebrity memoirs in Bigger Than Hitler Better Than Christ. He presents himself to the reader as a delusional twit, certain that he is the biggest celebrity in the world, and offers a heavily embellished account of his career. The whole thing is a lot of fun, though the joke soon becomes tired. Mayall never for a single moment breaks character which is, in some ways, hilarious but the book does tend to drag after a while. I think this probably would have been more interesting had he written a heavily embellished introduction and an embellished afterword with all of the serious bits in between, but I do respect that that was never his comic style and he was never going to be the sort of comedian to release a serious memoir. Regardless it is an entertaining reminder of a talented comedian who died when he was still too young. Recommended.