I bought this book for three reasons. The first was to support a friend, I’m fond of supporting friends in all their works, a glance at my Patreon and Ko-fi supports that. The second was because I was intrigued as to how you could write a book when you’re a ...
"You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me." C.S. Lewis
Est. 2009
Deborah Conway is a Jewish Melbourne born singer/song writer. I didn’t know her growing up, but that’s mostly because I didn’t attend youth groups or other communal events and not because she’s a few years older than me. She burst onto my radio as the lead singer of Do-Ré-Mi in ...
I don’t recall where I bought this book. I suspect it was second hand at one of the mini-conventions I attend from time to time. I’ve got some really good books at these places. Sometimes it’s people selling off parts of their collection, other times it’s authors selling copies of ...
This book was recommended to me by my mother. She was in a book club for my entire childhood and doesn’t flinch from reading challenging books. Like all books written about the Holocaust this one is a big challenge. Fania Fénelon joined the French Resistance in 1940 until she was ...
It’s not often that I get to read the ‘right of reply’ written by a descendent of the subject of another book I’ve read. Henrietta Lacks is a person whose name should never be forgotten. What she’s done for humanity is far more than one book can do justice to. ...
A while back I scribbled some words about What Cancer Said And What I Said Back by Kellie Nissen. In that book she survived her bout with cancer and wrote a book about it. Unfortunately, not every one survives cancer and in Days Like These Kristian Anderson doesn’t survive. It’s ...
I don’t recall where I bought this. It has a price inside so possibly a second-hand book shop in Adelaide, or one in Melbourne…either is possible. This was written in the 1920s and I feel that little has changed since then. It highlights how those people living on, or below, ...
I picked this up at Book Fair Australia in 2024. I was both intrigued by the title and enamoured with the author. She was vivacious, young and quite happy to be alive. This book was eminently readable despite the subject matter. I only stopped once to write one note because ...
Review by Jahanzeb Khan Backlund: From All-American Boy to Professional Wrestling’s World Champion is no ordinary autobiography. Most readers have likely read one by their favourite actor or athlete, but it’s unlikely they’ve read one by someone who was both of those at once. This is a book about a ...
This is another book that has the tag ‘return to Mum’. It’s a good thing I put these tags in books I’ve been loaned, I’d never remember to return them. This is one of those ‘must read’ books, one to be read over and over again until you’ve learned the ...
This is not your standard Discworld book. Yes, it has words, and it even has the wizards of the Unseen University. With both of those ingredients you’d expect it to be Discworld. And it is, but it isn’t. This is a book about the science that goes into making the ...
This is a book loaned to me by my Mum. She insisted I had to read it and a good thing too, as it turns out. Let’s just ignore the fact that I’d not heard of Elizabeth von Arnim until I read the book. Born on the shores of Sydney ...
I bought this book at the Book Fair Australia last year. This is an anthology of stories written by members of The Fellowship of Australian Writers NSW Inc. The stories within are a microcosm of the volunteers in the Port Macquarie-Hastings area. As with many communities it is made up ...
I bought this book at Benn’s Books in Bentleigh. It’s my favourite new book shop and has been for decades. I wandered in there to do some research on how other non-fiction books look. After doing my research I did my normal meander around the books and then asked for ...
One of the books I bought at Book Fair Australia last year. I have no idea what I was thinking when I bought it, but I’m so glad I did. It’s a memoir that’s a little off-beat by a person who’s been through the wringer and back. It’s not about ...