User: Reading Room Blog (Moonee Valley Library Service)

I had been eagerly awaiting the release of this much anticipated second novel by the remarkably talented Audrey Niffenegger and, I must admit, it did not fall short of my high expectations. Niffenegger's debut work, The Time Traveller's Wife, set an impossibly high standard for contemporary creatively written fiction. Her Fearful Symmetry is a similarly enjoyable read, filled with emotional intensity and driven by a quirky, original plot. The story centres on a seemingly inseparable pair of beautiful young twins, Julia and Valentina Poole. The twins are your typical American teenagers - apathetic, bored and disinterested in college or career paths. But their lives change irrevocably when they receive notice that an aunt they never even knew existed has died and left them her apartment overlooking the famous Highgate Cemetery in London. They feel that at last their own adult lives can begin, but they are completely unaware of the tangled web of unravelling lives they are about to encounter - from the obsessive compulsive crossword setter who lives above them and is unable to leave the confines of his flat, to their aunt's shy and mysterious lover who lives below them, and even to the aunt herself - who never quite got over the painful estrangement from the twin's mother, and who cannot seem to quite leave her flat behind. With Highgate Cemetery itself taking on it's own important role in the unfolding drama, and echoing disparate voices from a previous Dickensian London, Her Fearful Symmetry is an intriguing yet darkly disturbing contemporary ghost story. Playing on Niffenegger's familiar themes of love, loss and identity, the story intricately explores that delicate thread that binds human relationships, paying particular attention to the idea of the inseparable twin dynamic - that notion of not being whole without the other and the inherent trauma this can cause at the onset of a twin's adulthood. Even the title offers word interplay between symmetry and cemetery, setting up the novel's major ... (show full review)theme of identity loss and the deep loneliness and sadness that accompanies such a realisation. For anyone who enjoyed The Time Traveller's Wife, Her Fearful Symmetry is a must-read. Niffenegger's ability to create beautiful stories about the depth of human experience is profoundly moving; the painstaking care for the complex details of characterisation and the necessary research she undertakes in order to properly understand settings and places is apparent in each page. Her Fearful Symmetry is a lovely book by a remarkable writer and artist. Niffenegger is also a visual artist who has published two illustrated books: The Three Incestuous Sisters The Adventuress Her debut bestseller, The Time Traveller's Wife, has been adapted into a feature film starring Eric Bana as Henry and Rachel McAdams as Clare. Reviewed by Stacey

Brand’s enormously popular My Booky Wook covered his early life, drug and sex addictions and rise to fame. His second volume, This Time It's Personal continues with his career in radio, television and films, his attempt to break into the American market and, of course, the sordid details of his (not very) private life. Observation is a comic’s sharpest weapon and Russell sees himself and others clearly. He notes that without fame his persona doesn’t make sense. So once he’d landed as an unknown in Los Angeles he knew that he was no longer a comic with a bright future, he was just another lunatic with a hairstyle that looked like a mental illness! Russell romps and rages through life but somehow manages to turn out an impressive body of work. He’s a person who needs to be surrounded by others and has amassed many admirers and close friends. It’s obvious that whatever outrageous thing he does or says, at the back of his mind he’s wondering if he can use the material for his book or show. The book ends with Russell finding true love with Katy Perry. If you will be offended by swearing, offensive behaviour and extreme bad taste, this is not the book for you. If, like me, you think Russell Brand is a hilarious and talented (nit)wit, I recommend it to you. Reviewed by Janet

Miles has a most engaging family. With his mother a staunch Catholic and his father an agnostic, philosophical discussions are the norm in this household. No idea is out of bounds for dissection and analysis. Miles' father is a scientist and inventor and he and Miles spend hours on fascinating ideas that often lead nowhere. Miles is very close to his older brother Ralph, whose ambition is to be a stage director. Miles gets the "sex talk" from all three - his father's practical approach is to give him a book to read and a talk about bicycle saddles. Ralph gives him tips on how to woo the girls, "act camp, flutter your eyelashes and talk about clothes". His mother's advice is simple and relevant, "give pleasure and you will receive it". Despite Father's scientific approach to life, he does have his superstitions. He never fully recovered from reading "The lion, the witch and the wardrobe" and still has a fear of the insides of wardrobes! In Autumn he can be seen leaping around under trees trying to catch falling leaves for good luck. Mother believes her form of superstition, Catholicism, is much more sedate. A convenient scapegoat for all that goes wrong in the house is their imaginary maid Annie. Annie is even suspected by the police of involvement in a robbery. In the final chapter Father presents Miles with a bill for his childhood, itemised examples include a postcard sent from France, 100 bookmarks, and buying a pumpkin for Halloween. It is interesting to see how Miles deals with this compared to his brother Ralph. This autobiography is very funny, the family eccentric and lovable, with plenty of exaggeration for effect.

Six year old Bertie's week is crammed with learning Italian, playing the saxophone, yoga class, seeing a psychiatrist and other mind-improving activities thought up by his mother Irene. He would prefer to do what other boys do - choose his own friends, go camping with the Scouts, play and have fun. Bertie feels that gaining the advanced age of seven (which seems an impossibly long way off) may bring him some independence from his mother. The reader, sadly, can not share his hope. We meet familiar well-loved characters: Domenica the anthropologist; gentle Matthew, newly and blissfully married; Elspeth, Bertie's ex-teacher; Big Lou, who runs the coffee shop; the Artist, Angus, and his beloved dog Cyril. The characters we love to hate turn up again: Olive, Bertie's manipulative and bullying classmate; Bruce, handsome and vain; pretentious Antonia; and Irene, Bertie's awful domineering mother. This is the sixth in the very enjoyable 44 Scotland Street series and, like the previous books, is written with great insight into human nature and gentle humour. Highly recommended by Janet.

Introduced to the world of Hong Kong soon after the transfer of sovereignty from United Kingdom to China through the eyes of an Australian expatriate, Emma Donahoe, employed to teach English it is easy to become swept up in the moving story that unfolds as she is integrated into a Chinese household that is more than it appears to be on the surface. Mixing Eastern and Western cultures this book introduces readers to a fantasy world that could easily reside alongside our own without us being aware of the conflict hidden beneath the surface. Containing mythological characters from Eastern and Western culture, a charming little girl named Simone, her father John and their American bodyguard Leo as well as a host of supporting characters that aren’t always what they seem this novel is a compelling read and a great introduction to two series that grow even more complex and engaging as they progress.

I have just finished reading Bury your dead by Louise Penny, the sixth book in the Chief Inspector Gamache series. If you enjoy clever plots and well developed characters you can’t go wrong with this series. Starting with Still life, the series is set in the small Canadian village of Three Pines. As the series continues you get to know the characters of the villagers, Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, and his team from the Surete du Quebec. In this last novel the action moves to the city of Quebec. The murder of a an obsessive historian searching for the remains of Samuel de Champlain, the founder of Quebec, highlights the history of the city where French and English languages and cultures live together, not always peacefully. The intriguing descriptions of the buildings and society of Quebec make you want to visit the city. A sub-plot involves the re-investigation of a murder in Three Pines and the book deals with the need to both respect the past and let it go. A wonderful read!

Benjamin Law's debut book, The Family Law, is a well-written and amusing collection of short essays on his eccentric family, and life growing up Asian in Australia. Anyone writing self-deprecating, humorous essays about growing up gay in a provincial town, about an oddball family and a boyfriend with saintly patience, is going to suffer by comparison with David Sedaris. This however, to me at least, is not a bad thing, because I enjoyed Sedaris' Naked, I am just disappointed that the comparison has been so widely made. Law's talent is obvious though, he is a senior contributor to Frankie and has appeared in The Monthly and the Courier-Mail. The Family Law didn't make me L-O-L but it brought me close a few times. Some of the anecdotes veer into a heavy-handed sentimentality that jars with the otherwise irreverent tone and appears calculated to offer a bittersweet insight. I enjoyed being introduced to Asian diasporic culture through Law’s impertinent skewering. But many of his other anecdotes instantly took me back to my own dorky, pretentious childhood. I too, owned a Sony Walkman with mega-bass function. The book’s other treat is its wonderfully shameless characterization of Law’s mother. She treats her kids to graphic descriptions of their births and sends them birthday text messages littered with ÖÖÖÖÖÖs to represent women screaming with labour pains. And she loves to SKI – “spending the kids’ inheritance”. What I think I loved the most about this book is that it is distinctively Australian, but doesn't venture into topics like cricket or the outback. Law’s telling of growing up in Australia is an accurate telling of the kind of childhood not yet extensively chronicled, and one that feels familiar. Despite its copious swearing, unflattering descriptions and recollections of vicious family fighting, The Family Law is a deeply affectionate portrait. Simultaneously weird and instantly recognizable, the Laws are an Australian family it’s well worth getting to know. Reviewed by Cory.

I didn't sleep with Joey Ramone but I did see the Ramones play back in Hobart almost 20 years ago. I didn't know much about the band and it stayed that way until I stumbled across this recent publication . The author is Joey 's brother so it covers intimately much of Joey's life, musical pursuits, relationships, substance abuse and state of mind thru his 50 years. Sometimes bleak and brutally honest if your a fan of American punk this book is worth a read.

The book gripped me as it is a beautiful, gentle but sad tale of two cousins whose lives become entwined despite distance and time separating them. We first meet Clementine, from Sydney and her cousin Fran, from Lake Conapaira when they are seven and nine years old. We follow them through their teenage years into adulthood. Although they are related, they have a totally opposite background. Clementine is close to her parents, goes to a private school and university, whereas Fran is brought up by an abusive mum, drops out of school and becomes a single mum like her own mother. It is a good read for young adults and adults alike. A great text for years 8, 9 and 10 as a close study of a text and whilst it features suicide, desperation and hopelessness, there is also hope. But also as a Book club book, it would encourage an interesting discussion about the ‘what if-s’ of life. A book I can recommend.

Anyone whose heart is lifted by the song of the magpie, or the sight of a skein of geese across the sky, will enjoy this wonderfully illustrated book. It's a history of ornithology, the story of birds and the people who were fascinated with them and tried to understand the mysteries of migration. How is it possible for a tiny bird weighing less than an ounce to fly 22,000 miles? Old myths and legends about birds, such as the one about swallows wintering underwater, barnacle geese being born from flotsam in the ocean or peacocks changing sex are fascinating side trails too. The most intelligent birds are apparently the crow and parrot families, and the famous parrot called Alex was supposed to have the intelligence of a 4 year old child. However his trainer also said Alex "had the negative, self-centred behaviour of a two year old, which is why there are so many abandoned parrots!" I had best to stick to budgies, then.

After the terrible genocide of the Jews in Europe during World War II, the sympathy of all decent people was directed to the survivors. Out of the holocaust and international guilt that more was not done to save the Jews, evolved the United Nations decision to create the State of Israel out of part of Palestine. Arabs had lived in Palestine for thousands of years, generally peacefully coexisting with their Christian and Jewish neighbours. The first Zionists were welcomed as they paid good prices for property. By 1948 Palestinians were being forcibly evicted from their homes and farms by the Israelis. The dispossessed had nowhere to go; thus were the refugee camps established – at first they were just tents but after years of exile became cities. This fictional account of a Palestinian family encompasses these tragic events and is written with righteous anger and passion. During the chaos of escape, Amal’s brother, Ismael, is stolen by an Israeli soldier and their mother never recovers from the shock. Ismael is raised as a Jew and becomes David, an Israeli soldier. Amal is born and raised in the slums of the Jenin refugee camp. There is too much heartbreak in Amal’s life which causes her to internalise grief (as did her mother) and push away the one she loves most in the world – her daughter. Only when Amal confronts her past can she connect with her daughter, with tragic consequences. I have read many moving stories of the Jewish holocaust and this is in the same genre. It is necessarily a biased story as it is from the point of view of a victim.

Written in 1946, but only recently translated into English, this novel tells the story of a Berlin couple who begin to leave handwritten postcards with subversive messages on them around the city after losing their only son, a reluctant soldier, in the invasion of France in 1940. Based on a true story, the book vividly conveys what it was like to live in a society where everyone was watching - and informing on - everyone else, where all your family and friends were tainted with suspicion if you stepped out of line, and the consequences included prison, concentration camps and the guillotine.

I found this book really interesting. It challenges our view of “Australian values” and, hopefully, will make us think of what is truly valuable in our history.

Annabelle thinks she’s happy living in Melbourne, with a good job at a university, sophisticated friends and a husband, Steven, who is devoted to her. Her life falls in a heap when Steven leaves her to have a midlife fling with one of his young students. Unable to face her problems, Annabelle flies back to North Queensland, where she was raised, finding refuge with her friend, Susan, and comfort in the memories of her parent’s home. When a handsome Aboriginal ringer, Bo Rennie, re-enters her life she is taken on a mental and physical journey that changes the way she thinks. She sees the outback through Bo’s eyes: To the outsider the bush looks like a trackless wilderness; Bo knows it like the back of his hand. As Bo and Annabelle grow closer it seems that her life will be forever changed; however, Annabelle finds that she cannot escape the shameful secrets of her pioneering family. Exploring the issues of land rights, mining, dams and cattle running, this brilliant book makes us confront uncomfortable facts about our history. Somehow, Kevin Rudd’s “sorry” doesn’t seem enough …

Positive responses from all members of our bookclub. Most found it easy to relate to the locations and situations portrayed. We appreciated the passion and honesty of the author. Good book that led to a good discussion.

“Don’t open a shop unless you like to smile” We all enjoyed the life story of Lily Kwok, it was easy to read, full of interest and told of a life very different from our own. As a writer, Helen Tse probably makes a good lawyer, so it wasn’t a riveting read. But nevertheless it is a good book club selection.

Enjoyable and well written, but a bit unbelievable at times. Time frames were fractured and not consistent. An interesting upbringing, but albeit quite embellished. The book seemed to end suddenly and the last chapter seems unbelievable considering it was pre-Vatican II.

Many in my bookclub were pleasantly surprised with this book. Only one of us was aware of Richard Hammonds' role in Top Gear or of his accident, but we all found the account of the Hammonds' trauma down to earth and accessible. We particularly enjoyed Mindy’s writing.

Hamilton rightly says that the world is in our hands. It is too easy to blame big business and governments for causing pollution or not regulating effectively, but why didn’t we stop them? He says it’s already too late to stop global warming – all we can do is limit the damage. Hamilton explores why we have ignored all the warnings and buried our head in the sand. We let our values or religion determine our response to the scientific facts. He feels that the greatest strengths of the human race – optimism, hope and faith – are also our downfall. We all profess to love nature but our greed, materialism and denial of reality have won out. Hamilton teaches ethics at the ANU and this book may be a bit too academic for some readers – I had to keep my dictionary handy to look up such words as anthropocentric! He gives us all the facts and figures on global warming and the book is meticulously researched but it makes for rather a depressing read

Professor Henriksson has collected some hilarious student mistakes from exam papers and homework assignments and presented them for our entertainment. There are the usual Spellcheck errors: “surfs were dentured and bonded to the ground”, “peas in our time”, “Gothic cathedrals had flying buttocks to hold them up”. Then the geographical confusion: “Ferdinand and Isabella conquered Granola, a part of Spain now known as Mexico and the Gulf States”. Some students are just terminally confused: “Plague death rates exceeded one hundred percent in some towns”, “many soldiers repeatedly gave their lives for their country”, and “the Russian revolution of 1905 began about 1907”. These are all real examples of students’ work, some taken from the best universities. Just when the reader has finished the book, sniggering and feeling rather smug, we are faced with a quiz (and, no, I couldn’t answer all the questions correctly)! This book is a little gem.

The Washington Post review says: “Like all great Russian novels, it is a study of the human condition, wise and insightful and startlingly universal. It is, throughout, an expression of Solzhenitsyn's own persistent refusal to be cowed by a terrifying police state that killed millions and could easily have killed him, too. This book makes clear how determined he was to bear witness, to make certain that the crimes committed and the criminals who committed them would be held accountable in history” by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.

The weather here has been bitterly cold this winter, so it’s been the ideal time to read a wonderful novel about the terrible 900 day siege of Leningrad during the Second World War, or the Great Patriotic War as the Russians called it. Anna is 23, and works at a kindergarten while caring for her little brother and her father, a writer who has fallen from grace with the Soviet Government. As the Germans advance towards Leningrad many people try to flee deeper into Russia, but lots also move into the city for more protection, unable to believe that such a great city could be seriously threatened. The city is quickly surrounded , all supplies are blockaded and hunger begins in earnest, just as the fiercely cold winter arrives. The descriptions of the cold and hunger are so vivid that you can almost feel what it was like to live in an unheated flat at 20 below zero, with nothing but starvation rations to eat, with the threat of complete famine and death never far away. Anna’s resilience and strength of character help her to survive somehow, in the darkened, bombed out streets of the city. If you enjoy this book – and the writing is wonderful, although the topic is so confronting – you’ll be happy to know that Helen Dunmore has just published a sequel called The Betrayal, telling Anna’s story in later years.

At first this looks like another run-of-the-mill vegetarian treatise but Foer includes his family’s Jewish holocaust story and concerns about being a good father to make this a uniquely personal journey. Packed with facts and figures about factory farming in the USA, the reader is forced to re-evaluate their eating habits. Foer spent three years researching this book and includes interviews with farmers, consumers, industry workers, slaughterhouse owners and animal rights activists. He doesn't spare us the gory details and dehumanising effect of working in meat processing. For those of you who can’t be bothered reading books full of facts and figures, the author suggests you watch the YouTube video “Meet your meat” narrated by Alec Baldwin. Well researched and informative, this is required reading for all consumers of animal products.

Before there was television and soap operas there were novels like this -- and still are! London Belongs to Me is a terrific romp of a read which traces the lives of an eclectic group of ordinary people. Set between 1938-1940, it describes life in London immediately prior to and at the commencement of the Second World War. A blockbuster when published in 1945, it sold nearly one million copies. The novel revolves around the residents of 10 Dulcimer, Street, Kensington, and their constant quest for survival: physical, emotional and financial. The lodging house is run by the cautious and conservative widowed Mrs. Vizzard, who depends upon the tenants for her livelihood. Boarders include the demure Mr Josser who is given the obligatory clock as a retirement present after more years of service than anyone can remember; his wife Mrs. Josser, a homemaker and mother; the sweet Mrs. Boon and her debonair son Percy, very much “a man about town”; Mr Puddy, a middle aged shift worker whose life seems to revolve around food and meals; Connie, an “actress”, who is losing her looks and seems to have frittered her life away ... and the devious Mr Squales – all characters that would make Dickens proud. Described with humour, and written in a style that hasn’t dated with time, the book charts the daily lives and loves of these characters, the mundane and the extraordinary. It’s a great read and I’m glad to have found it.

This is a touching and nostalgic portrait of Edwardian upper-class life, a life that largely disappeared after World War I, when it became harder to find people willing to devote their lives to being family servants. It’s easy to see why this book, written in 1928, has never been out of print. Maybe some of the hunting jargon does get a little longwinded in places, but all in all this is a bitter-sweet story of growing up, told with subtle humour and self-depreciation.

With over 500 pages of thought provoking suspense, I couldn't put this book down. Each chapter is told from the perspective of one of the main characters. House rules is basically the story of Jacob, an 18 year old boy accused of murder. Jacob is obsessed with forensic science, and enjoys beating the police at solving crimes. Jacob also has Asperger's Syndrome, a form of high functioning Autism. Why did he do this terrible crime? Jodi Picoult stories are always best sellers. She has often come in for a lot of criticism as she often touches raw nerves with moral, yet sensational, issues. There were times throughout this book where I wanted to shake the protagonists. However, the redeeming feature of this book is the portrayal of Jacob, as the boy with Asperger's Syndrome, and the relationship he has with his mother, brother and those who come into direct contact with him. Jodi Picoult has obviously done her research, and her insights are uncanny and very real. If nothing else, Picoult will bring the daily struggle of those with Autism, individuals and families to the fore.

Sturgis is retired from a successful career in the bank and living ‎comfortably in his flat in London. He has wealth, freedom and excellent ‎health for a man in his mid-seventies; yet he is deeply unhappy. Lonely ‎and unfulfilled, he feels that he has missed out on the important things ‎in life: love and friendship. ‎ When an attractive middle-aged woman breezes into his life and he ‎bumps into old girlfriend, it seems that he has been given two second ‎chances. Sturgis weighs up less-than-perfect companionship against his ‎freedom and makes a decision.‎ This portrait of an intelligent and reserved man is disturbing as there ‎must be many people like him. The opportunities for friendship exist ‎yet they are unwilling to settle for second best.‎ A brilliant piece of writing.‎

I'm a fan of her writing - it is original, concise, slightly off-beat, peopled by compelling characters and always very funny. The heroine of this tale is Flora Chapman a plain middle aged woman living in a village in England who discovers that widowhood is actually very liberating. She becomes immersed in the histoy of Anne of Cleves (Henry VIII's fourth wife whom he divorced for essentially being plain. Better than having your head cut off). She is determined to right the dismissive way history has viewed Anne. Cheek uses the parallel story lines to emphasise her defence of browbeaten and amenable women. If you like this, try her other titles. Each of her novels are quite different but all written with a deft and ironic touch.

The women in black work in Ladies Wear at a large Sydney ‎department store, F.G. Goode’s, and are obliged to wear ‎black uniforms which always smell faintly of sweat and dry ‎cleaning chemicals. The department is rife with personality ‎clashes and rivalry. At the top of the pecking order is ‎glamorous Magda (no-one can pronounce her frightful ‎Continental surname) who presides over Model Gowns.‎ Set in the 1950’s the attitudes towards women are sure to ‎provoke hilarity and shock. Equal pay for equal work was ‎unheard of; women were expected to be decorative, not too ‎bright and subservient to men. Men didn’t let their wives ‎know how much they earned and handed over a pittance for ‎housekeeping each week.‎ Patty is certainly not fulfilling her reason for being as she ‎seems unable to fall pregnant. Fay has had too many ratbag ‎boyfriends and now she’s approaching thirty is beginning to ‎despair of ever finding Mr Right. Lisa, real name Lesley, is a ‎clever school leaver who dreams of going to university (her ‎father is adamant his daughter won’t go near such a cesspit).‎ The women struggle heroically for happiness, accepting their ‎limited horizons and making compromises. ‎

Creates a compelling portrait of a family over 30 odd years weaving it around the iconic family home Allersmead. Alison is almost religiously committed to her role as mother in the sacred institution of “family” but I found it hard to warm to her in the dedicated pursuit of her role. It as if the whole is more important than any part of it.The grown up children visit rarely and seem unwilling to create their own families. The characters all spring to life off the pages and it is a captivating read despite the wincing at her lethal observations on relationships and family life. She is a spare but evocative writer.

Christine’s youth has been wasted by World War I: She lost her father and brother, the family business and her mother’s health was ruined. Poverty stricken, Christine works in a mind-numbingly boring job in the Austrian Post Office and feels all happiness is over for her. When Christine’s rich American aunt invites her to Switzerland for a holiday she has a tantalizing glimpse of what she is missing. She is thrown into the world of the rich hedonistic upper class, people who expect every privilege and pleasure without a thought for the suffering of others less fortunate. In Cinderella-style, Christine has to return to the drudgery and hopelessness of her life but there is no happy ending for her. Her taste of the good life leaves her bitter, enraged and despairing. When she meets Ferdinand, a young man similarly embittered by his war experiences and poverty, they make a desperate pact to end their misery once and for all. This tragic and beautifully written book shows how war can alter the lives of people irrevocably. It is particularly poignant as the author committed suicide in 1942 at the height of Nazi power and the manuscript was published posthumously.

Yrsa Sigurdardottir’s chilling new thriller ‘My Soul to Take’, embarks on a journey through Iceland’s harsh history involving madness, murder, mayhem and even Nazis. While ghosts wail, the numerous twists and turns in ‘My Soul to Take’ will keep you wondering “whodunnit”. A grisly murder is committed at a health resort which turns out to be notorious for being haunted. Attorney Thora Gudmundsdottir is called on by the owner of the resort, the prime suspect in the case, to represent him. Her investigations uncover some very disturbing occurrences at the farm decades earlier. ‘My soul to take’ is a chilling, dark and witty crime novel. If you enjoy crime from colder climates then I also recommend Henning Mankell, and Maj Sjöwall & Per Wahlöö, husband and wife team of detective writers from Sweden You can try these whilst waiting for the third installment in the Steig Larsson trilogy.

If you like authors like Anita Shreve and Anne Tyler, this book may be for you. Ladd is a local author and ‎this is her first and only novel so far and one which I found very readable. It is the story of a friendship ‎between two couples, changed forever by an affair which develops between the husband of one couple ‎and the wife of the other. The story unfolds its way to inevitable destruction with very short chapters ‎from each of their perspectives and managed to keep me engrossed and somehow in sympathy with ‎each of them. As the blurb on the book says, it is an "anatomy of an affair"‎

Alice, a highly respected Harvard University psychology professor, begins to notice lapses in her memory. Initially she puts these incidences down to overwork, stress and menopause. With mounting dread and disbelief, Alice is eventually diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s Disease – she is only 50 years of age. The story is written from Alice’s perspective as her memory deteriorates. Her husband and children (who have a 50% chance of inheriting the disease) have different reactions and coping mechanisms. The relationship between Alice and her youngest daughter is particularly moving. The author, Lisa Genova, is herself a neuroscientist so there is great credibility to this story. This is a remarkable book.

I was at a bookstore when I first noticed Pride and Prejudice and Zombies in the New Fiction section. At first I thought Penguin Classics had just re-released it with a new introduction, but then I looked closer and much to my childish amusement saw Elizabeth Bennet was an undead mutant. And that is exactly where this book aims at selling: people with a particularly kitsch and childish sense of humour. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is the rebellious work of a young man that, presumably, was forced to read Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice in high school. I suspect it will offend readers of the classic – which is the main thing driving sales and the reason I desperately wanted to read it. Naturally, as all parodies go, it is at first amusing, but soon becomes tiresomely predictable. It is not as frequent with the laughs as most parodies go, nor is it as sharp in wit. If anything, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies will make you want to read it alongside Pride and Prejudice, because you will want to compare the addition of a few witticisms, zombies, ninjas and violence with the original. The fact is that this parody is amusing but ultimately unsatisfying. What the zombies add comes at the expense of a comprehendible and interesting storyline. If anything, I found the whole while reading it I just wanted to go over to the Jane Austen original to follow the plot – the zombies can always be included in my imagination. Perhaps ‘Pride and Prejudice for Adolescent Boys’ would have been a more accurate title.

The Women by T.Coraghessan Boyle is one of the most interesting current American writers, and I’ve enjoyed everything he has written. Boyle says he is enjoys writing about “20th Century egomaniacs”, and so far he has dealt with Alfred Kinsey in The Inner Circle and Dr Harvey Kellogg in "The Road to Wellville". In a different vein, “Drop City” tells the story of a counterculture commune in California which, after run-ins with the law, moves to Alaska but finds life very different there, among the hunters and hard men of the back woods. It’s also very funny. “The Women” is about the famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright, and the women who loved him. He was certainly one of Boyle’s “egomaniacs”, a driven and supremely self confident artist and creative figure, and the house he build for himself, “Taliesin” is somehow a personality as big as Wright’s own. There is something of the commune about the way life ran at Taliesin, with Wright’s students milking cows and washing up for their keep; and as with a commune an Alpha personality held it all together. The women in his life were all very unusual characters but all were in awe of him as a creative genius, and their lives with him were as much about an artist and his disciple as they were about a man and a woman. Sometimes the fact that the book is written in reverse chronology makes it a bit difficult to follow as you’re not sure who knew what about whom, but it’s still a fascinating story.

Living a middle class Melbourne life can make it difficult to really understand the background and ‎experiences of so many of our refugees and I borrowed this book to learn more about this. I had read ‎‎"The Kite Runner" and "A thousand splendid suns" which gave me insight into the Taliban regime, but ‎this book is a true and personal account of a young man who had survived several regimes in ‎Afghanistan and eventually escaped to avoid being killed by the Talibans. What a terrifying existence to ‎be continually under attack by one enemy or another. ‎ ‎ ‎ Najaf started work at the age of twelve, first as a welder and then a rugmaker's apprentice. Life was hard ‎enough without constant warfare around him and his family. To escape he had to leave his wife, child, ‎mother and remaining siblings behind, travel on ill equipped boats through foreign lands always with the ‎threat of not getting past each leg of the journey. He arrived in a strange country, was placed in the ‎Woomera detention centre and not sure of his future for many months. Eventually he was released into a ‎foreign community with only his rugmaking skills and a wonderful personality to make good.‎ ‎ ‎ Along the way he met many people who helped and was able to build a life here in Melbourne which ‎eventually led to his family joining him and Australian citizenship.‎ ‎ ‎ This book was so insightful. Like so many people in his situation, Najaf has had to leave behind his ‎beloved heritage and his family, undertake a treacherous journey, deal with Woomera and then depend ‎on making good in Australia. It made me stop and think long and hard about the journey of refugees. It ‎also made me appreciate our democratic society where such constant and violent upheaval just doesn't ‎exist.

A few years ago, James McBride was asked to write a magazine article about his mother, to celebrate Mother’s Day. The public response to the article was overwhelming, and he realised his extraordinary mother deserved to have a book written about her. His mother was an embarrassment to him as he was growing up – she was white and he and his eleven siblings were black; she was strong minded and eccentric; she lived in the almost exclusively black “housing projects” in Harlem and refused to admit she was “white”, saying that she was “light skinned”; she was a committed Christian whose husband was a pastor and yet James finds out that she was born into an Orthodox Jewish family in Poland. This extraordinary woman raised twelve children, all of whom graduated from college, but her life was filled with challenges. James has written a fascinating and perceptive tribute to his mother; everyone I know who has read this book has enjoyed it.

A spectre is haunting Europe – the spectre of communism…The history of all hitherto existing societies is the history of class struggles…The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win. Working men of all countries, unite!... These famous lines from the Manifesto of the Communist Party continue to echo even over one hundred and sixty years later – albeit mostly around the Brunswick and Carlton area. Find out why the book that is quoted as passionately as the Bible and evoked by all sides of politics to pursue their arguments is so powerfully moving. Like your superannuation, ‘all that is solid melts into air’. In these current economic woes of the global financial crisis, do Marx and Engles have the answers? This gripping text will provoke your opinion one way or another. Today we see several of the Communist’s demands, to some extent, enacted in Australian politics: universal suffrage, payed representatives of Parliament, progressive taxation, and universal and free (public) education. And what influences/practices do the five communist states (China, Cuba, Laos, North Korea, and Vietnam) share with the Communist Manifesto?

Dog On It sets the scene for a new crime series which is narrated by Chet, canine partner of private detective Bernie Little. Bernie is a flawed but competent detective, a touch shambolic, with a few failed relationships and a dog for his best friend. Chet has failed police school after having been the best leaper in K-9 class. He is also a detective with his own off beat albeit sympathetic view of the human condition, and in particular, an unwavering loyalty to Bernie. The storyline has Chet and Bernie investigating the disappearance of a teenage girl who has become involved with some shady characters and may have been kidnapped. The usual intrigue develops and the story also investigates potential relationships for Bernie amid Chet's unpreparedness to be confined to the back seat. Spencer Quinn is an North American writer who shares his life with a dog, so he is obviously well versed in dog and the dog devotee will easily identify with Chet who is an endearing character in a well developed personality crime read.

British journalist Will Farnaby is shipwrecked and washes up on the shores of Pala, a seemingly utopian island where the people live in tranquillity and happiness. But as he discovers, even these peacefully isolated people are not exempt from the harsh twentieth century political challenges as the resource-hungry world powers seek Pala’s oil… Aldous Huxley’s final novel, Island, considered the sequel to and opposite of his magnum opus Brave New World, explores the themes of spirituality, the use of recreational drugs to achieve greater enlightenment, utopianism, and the age old conflict between the present and modernity. I strongly recommend Island if you have read Sir Thomas More’s Utopia, Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, Voltaire’s Candide, Huxley’s Brave New World, or Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle which was largely influenced by Island.

This was a pleasant few hours with my nose in a book. A cooking school is run every Monday night by the owner/chef of a small restaurant. She passes on her philosophy for preparing a meal with each chapter, which also tells the brief story of the class participants. Of course, each student comes looking for more in their lives besides a recipe. I felt I could just about the taste the meals prepared and also picked up a few cooking tips! This was a relaxing and satisfying light read.

The 30 stories in this collection tell of hardships and loss one can barely believe children could have survived, and yet these authors - and thousands more like them, scattered across the world - did just this. Each tale (and each person recounting it) is faced with two choices about the direction to take: to lament for the blood spilled and the childhood lost, or to be frank and open about the unfathomable grief, but to use the mere fact of survival as grounds for hope - hope that humanity has more to offer than the Holocaust. Thankfully for readers, the latter is the choice they all make. So while this book is horrendously sad in parts, it never leaves behind the taste of desolation and despair. All the stories are gripping and moving, and in many cases they teach us about not just the depths human beings can sink to, but the heights we are all able to reach.

This was an interesting and confronting novel. The Slap, by Christos Tsiolkas, begins with a group of extended family and friends at a suburban backyard barbecue in Melbourne. An adult slaps the young child of the host's friend. The repercussions from this act effect the lives of the people at the barbecue. Each chapter is written in the voice of a different person, not retelling the incident, but moving the story along. The novel looks at the loyalty of friends and family, jealousy, aspiration, multiculturalism, racism, identity, betrayal, parenting and sex. The crude and confronting language and descriptions of sex were at times off putting. However, the novel has many interesting themes about everyday life.

This story explores the relationships between terrorists and their hostages in a classic Stockholm Syndrome scenario. A group of wealthy international guests are invited to a party in honour of Mr Hosokawa, a Japanese business tycoon. The focus of the party is the beautiful American soprano, Roxanne Coss, who will sing for the guests. A band of terrorists crashes into the party through air conditioning vents and so begins a long seige. At first the guests are terrified for their lives, but as the weeks pass they forge a close alliance with their kidnappers that has far-reaching consequences for all of them. Only the Swiss Red Cross negotiator, Messner, distances himself emotionally as he knows the situation can only have one outcome. Like the hostages, the reader becomes attached to the terrorists. We see how they have drifted from injustice and poverty into joining the organisation. Their talents and kindnesses are in stark contrast to their mission. The story is written with humour and insight and, like the characters in the book, the reader lives for the moment, not thinking of how the story will be resolved. The climax is shocking and brutal but inevitable.

In 50 marathons 50 days : the secrets to super endurance Dean Karnazes describes what happened when he set ‎himself the goal of running 50 marathons in 50 consecutive days in 50 states of the US in 2006. Karnazes is an ultrarunner (ultras being anything above 42.2km i.e. marathon distance). Putting aside ‎the fact that he is reputed to be the fittest man alive (this man can run for days on end and has run 200 ‎mile races – 321kms – before) it is an inconceivable goal to any sane, reasonable person and one that ‎many didn’t think Karnazes could complete (including Karnazes himself at several points). What I liked ‎most about this book is how generous and humble Karnazes is during the marathons. He derives ‎genuine pleasure from watching many runners complete their first marathon alongside him, and many ‎of the chapters focus far more on other people’s success rather than his own. Karnazes is such a ‎positive, inspiring narrator that it is easy to understand how he now makes a living on the public-‎speaking circuit. ‎ This is a must-read for any runner or would-be runner - the book is packed full of tips that are ‎pertinent to any runner regardless of experience, capabilities or goals. Best of all, the book is so ‎inspiring that I defy anyone to not want to go outside for a run after reading this!‎

This ‘generation gap’ novel is about a family visit over the Christmas period on the Gold Coast. The main protagonists are quite unlikeable. Elizabeth, the forty-something artist with three children by different fathers, struggles to like or understand her parents. The rude and obnoxious patriarch Bob and perfectionist ‘company wife’ Nancy, are confused and disappointed with the choices their three children have made despite the advantages they have been given. The novel deftly weaves between the present Christmas holiday period and the past. We meet Bob and Nancy in the first flush of love and marriage in Sydney and Cooma, and during their lives as their children are growing up. We discover the choices Elizabeth has made in respect of her artistic career and in her personal life with the fathers’ of her children, and her frustrations with her relationship with her parents. At times I laughed out loud at the fighting between the main protagonists and was astounded by the behaviour of Bob, but in the end I found this novel very moving. I suspect this novel represents a true picture of the relationships between many families.

This collection of short stories, set in Canada, is about ordinary people and their lives. Three stories are about the same woman at different stages of her life but can be enjoyed independently. The casual cruelty of others, love, chance meetings, timing – all these can change our lives irrevocably. These stories are sensitively written and are sometimes heart-wrenchingly sad. Munro shows great understanding of human nature. Each story is a little gem.

‎27 year old Ash is in a rut, he has never left his home town of Perth and has been in the same boring job for ‎years. Ash doesn't care for change at all but that changes when he becomes friends with Miller who's ‎everything Ash feels himself not to be-worldly, dangerously good looking and effortlessly cool. Their ‎friendship is the catalyst for change that Ash needs and together they head overseas...‎ ‎ ‎This is a truly beautiful novel, gentle, funny, heartwarming and uplifting. It is so good I couldn't put it down- ‎it had me laughing out loud on public transport. The best novel I've read in ages. I also greatly recommend ‎Matt Howard's first novel Street Furniture. ‎