Month: April 2014

REVIEW: THE INVENTION OF WINGS BY SUE MONK KIDD

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THE INVENTION OF WINGS Author: Sue Monk Kidd Headline Fiction RRP $29.99 Review: Monique Mulligan Thought-provoking and compassionate, The Invention of Wings is a powerful novel of friendship set against a background of slavery, abolition and religion. By chance I followed this book up with the movie 12 Years a Slave, making for an eye-opening, educational weekend that left me pondering how humans could treat each other so badly. The Invention of Wings was inspired by real-life events and two sisters, Sarah and Angelina Grimke, who made important contributions to the history of America’s troubled Deep South. At 11, Sarah Grimke (the ‘difficult’ middle daughter) is given a birthday gift – a young slave girl, removed from her mother and wrapped in lavender ribbons. Hetty, or ‘Handful’ as she is known, is to be Sarah’s waiting maid, but despite growing up in a family in which slavery is a given and a right, Sarah does not agree that ‘owning people’ is ‘as natural as breathing’, and she rejects the gift. Told that the guardianship is legal and binding, Sarah resolves to find a way …

SHORT AND SWEET REVIEW: THE VISIONIST BY RACHEL URQUHART

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Note, the format of my Short and Sweet reviews differs in that they simply comprise the book blurb and a short response (hence, the short and sweet). Sometimes I have too many books to do a full-length review!  I knew very little of the Shakers before I read The Visionist … and if you’d asked what I knew, I would have said furniture. Yes, the Shakers are well known for their simple, practical but beautifully made furniture, but less is known about the religious movement itself. Reading The Visionist provided me with some insight into the movement, which is why I was initially drawn to the book. Here’s the blurb:   ‘It was years before a Visionist came to the City of Hope. How could I have fathomed that her presence in our small, remote sanctuary – as unforeseen to her as to anyone – would change everything?’  Massachusetts, 1842. Fifteen-year-old Polly Kimball sets fire to her family farm, killing her abusive father. With his fiery ghost at her heels, Polly and her young brother seek refuge in a local Shaker community – …

SHORT AND SWEET REVIEW: AFTER I’M GONE BY LAURA LIPPMAN

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Note, the format of my Short and Sweet reviews differs in that they simply comprise the book blurb and a short response (hence, the short and sweet). Sometimes I have too many books to do a full-length review!  I haven’t read any of Laura Lippman’s crime novels before, even though she has a backlist of nearly 20 novels. The blurb sounded intriguing, and the fact that it was inspired by the real-life disappearance of a wanted man who left behind a wife, three daughters and a mistress, intrigued me even more. Here’s the blurb: When Felix Brewer meets nineteen-year-old Bernadette ‘Bambi’ Gottschalk at a Valentine’s Dance in 1959, he charms her with wild promises, some of which he actually keeps. Thanks to his lucrative if not always legal businesses, she and their three little girls live in luxury. But on the Fourth of July, 1976, Bambi’s world implodes when Felix, newly convicted and facing prison, mysteriously vanishes. Though Bambi has no idea where her husband – or his money – might be, she suspects one woman …

SUNDAY SHOUT-OUT: A FIRST PLACE

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Is there ever such a thing as too many books? I don’t think there are too many books to read, but there can definitely be too many to review. Often I’m sent books and, with an already sagging review shelf, these unsolicited books often often don’t fit in to my schedule. Other times, I am unable to finish a book I intended to review (for various reasons), or I don’t have time for a full review. Sunday Shout-Out aims to acknowledge these books and the publishers who have sent them to me. Sunday Shout Out is a bookish meme hosted by Monique of Write Note Reviews. If you’re a book blogger and you want to join in, just: Share the title, author, blurb and image from a book (or more than one) you want to acknowledge Share the genre, price and link to the publisher so readers can follow up if they like the sound of the book Ping back to Write Note Reviews in your post. ♦♦♦ A First Place by David Malouf, Knopf Australia …

REVIEW: TIDDAS BY ANITA HEISS

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TIDDAS Author: Anita Heiss Simon & Schuster RRP $29.99 Review: Monique Mulligan Some good friends and I have been meaning to start a book club for well over a year. The trouble is, we all have teenagers and we’re having trouble settling on dates, so for now, I’m a proxy member of book clubs in books … I always seem to come across a book about a book club when I’m bemoaning our inability to get our act together! Tiddas by Anita Heiss is the story of five women who meet once a month to talk about books … and everything but books. Above all, it’s a story about friendship and the things that affect one’s ability to be a good friend. I love the idea of women who’ve known each other since childhood getting together decades later to hang out – it’s always a good hook for me, and reading Tiddas left me with a renewed desire to get my book club sorted once and for all! Izzy, Ellen, Xanthe, Veronica and Nadine are more like sisters than friends. The …

REVIEW: TIME WILL TELL BY FIONA MCCALLUM

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TIME WILL TELL Author: Fiona McCallum  Harlequin RRP $29.99 Review: Monique Mulligan  **GIVEAWAY ALERT – I’m giving away a copy of this on my FB page to an AU reader. Comp closes Easter Sunday** Time Will Tell is the second in Fiona McCallum’s The Button Jar series, which is romantic rural fiction set in South Australia. I read the first in the series, Saving Grace, last year, not realising it was part of a series (I’d been sent an advance copy that made no mention of this); although that book left me feeling a little flat, I was keen to see how Time Will Tell progressed the story. For those who haven’t read the first novel, it’s probably best to do so, otherwise Emily’s growth as a character and the events that shape this book won’t have as much impact. The story picks up where it left off: Emily Oliphant has recently separated from her abusive husband and has moved into an old farmhouse that needs plenty of TLC. The elderly owners of the house have made her an …

REVIEW: BEFORE WE MET BY LUCIE WHITEHOUSE

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BEFORE WE MET Author: Lucie Whitehouse  Bloomsbury Publishing RRP $27.99 Review: Monique Mulligan Once I’d read the blurb on the back of Before We Met, I was keen to get stuck into what promised to be a thrilling, keep-you-guessing read … exactly the type of book I love to get my hands on. Give me a taut psychological thriller that I can’t put down and I’m lost within the story until the last page. It’s a pity that sleep and work had to interfere with my reading of Before We Met, because once I’d started, I was reluctant to stop. Unfortunately, when a book lands on your face because you fell asleep reading, it’s a sign that sleep wins! Hannah and Mark’s whirlwind romance was everything Hannah had hoped love would be … and everything she’d given up on. Moving from affair to affair, she almost gives Mark the flick despite her attraction to him, but there’s something about him she can’t resist. The story opens when the couple are married and making a comfortable life …

REVIEW: BIG BAD WOLF BY NELE NEUHAUS

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BIG BAD WOLF Author: Nele Neuhaus Macmillan RRP $29.99 Review: Monique Mulligan Author Nele Neuhaus brings the chilling issue of child sexual abuse to the forefront in Big Bad Wolf; her author’s notes at the end make no apology for the disturbing content and instead stand firm in the belief that this issue must no longer be covered up. The result is a disturbing crime thriller in which a web of despicable characters do whatever it takes to protect their revolting interests. It’s the first Nele Neuhaus book I’ve read (it’s only the second translated into English – the first being book #4) and this one is apparently book #6 in the series involving investigators Pia Kirchhoff and Oliver von Bodenstein. Sometimes in police procedurals the protagonist has a troubled or complicated history that it helps to follow from the start, but I had no problems reading this one as a standalone. The body of a 16-year-old girl is pulled from the river Main near Frankfurt. Initial investigation leads to nothing, not even the identity of …

TEASER TUESDAY: BEFORE WE MET BY LUCIE WHITEHOUSE

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Neesha hesitated. ‘Really, it’s nothing,’ she said. ‘It’s just … I’ve got my wires crossed again, that’s all. I didn’t think he was in New York.’ ‘Where did you think he was?’ Another pause. ‘Neesha?’ ‘Look, I … I thought you were going to Rome this weekend.’ (Before we Met by Lucie Whitehouse, p35) Before we Met has been likened to Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, albeit a British one. It’s a psychological suspense focusing on a marriage that isn’t what it seems. The only reason I put it down last night is because I had to sleep (when the book you’re reading in bed falls on your face, it’s a good sign that sleep is needed) … and then I had to wait until after work. I’m off to finish it now. Here’s the blurb: A whirlwind romance. A perfect marriage. Hannah Reilly has seized her chance at happiness. Until the day her husband fails to come home … The more questions Hannah asks, the fewer answers she finds. But are the secrets that Mark has been keeping designed to protect …

SUNDAY SHOUT-OUT: POWER PLAY

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Is there ever such a thing as too many books? I don’t think there are too many books to read, but there can definitely be too many to review. Often I’m sent books and, with an already sagging review shelf, these unsolicited books often often don’t fit in to my schedule. Other times, I am unable to finish a book I intended to review (for various reasons), or I don’t have time for a full review. Sunday Shout-Out aims to acknowledge these books and the publishers who have sent them to me. Sunday Shout Out is a bookish meme hosted by Monique of Write Note Reviews. If you’re a book blogger and you want to join in, just: Share the title, author, blurb and image from a book (or more than one) you want to acknowledge Share the genre, price and link to the publisher so readers can follow up if they like the sound of the book Ping back to Write Note Reviews in your post. ♦♦♦ Power Play by Danielle Steel, Bantam Press RRP …