Category Archives: Non-Fiction

Review: Lola Lafon – The Little Communist Who Never Smiled

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The Little Communist Who Never Smiled
Lola Lafon

A merging of fiction and non-fiction to fill in the gaps, this novel follows the early life and career of Nadia Comaneci, a pioneering Romanian gymnast who broke the scoring system by receiving the first 10 in the history of gymnastics.

9781781255148The first half of the novel kept me enthralled, but this petered out in the second half. I was fascinated by the gymnastics, not by the politics. In the end, I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to take away from the novel. Translated from French, I think this novel may have lost some of its charm.

At times I felt like the narrator and Nadia spent too much time fighting – and I was really confused about the intersection of the conversations they had. Were these actual conversations the author had with Nadia? Or something else? Nadia has also written an autobiography which I think could also be interesting.

Off the back of this novel, I watched Nadia’s performance at Montreal on Youtube. It is amazing the things they used to do on bars (they weren’t separated as they are now). My breath stopped every time it looked like she was going to fall. What many of the commenters on these videos were saying were that the tricks back then were easier than they are now. Having read this novel, I can confirm that is not the case. Many of the moves have changed, due to changing equipment or banning of particularly dangerous moves.

I’ll give this novel 3 stars – 4 stars for the first half, and 2 stars for the second half!

3star

Allen & Unwin | 27th July 2016 | AU $27.99 | Paperback

Review: Terry Ledgard – Bad Medicine

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Bad Medicine
Terry Ledgard

Terry Ledgard joined the Australian Army because he thought it would be pretty awesome, and chicks liked guys in a uniform. While being a chick magnet seemed to be the major thing on his mind, his career as an acting medic during the war in Afghanistan is fascinating reading.

9780143797272As long as you can get past the extreme amounts of explicit swearing in the prologue and first chapter, you’ll be golden for reading this novel. If that sort of thing bothers you, I advise skipping straight ahead. I put the book down and tried to take a nap instead of keeping reading at that point. Anyway, I persevered and it got better from there.

Ledgard has come through war and PTSD and emerged the other side an excellent writer. There were sections where I thought it was a little unclear or stilted, but overall the writing was great. It felt like you were within those war scenes. Something I found interesting was that he never (or at least I don’t remember) talked about ‘the War on Terror’. It was simply us against them.

I’m going to give this four stars, by pretending I didn’t read the beginning of the novel. It’s not the usual style of things I would read, but it was really enjoyable, if rather confronting.

4star

Penguin Random House | July 2016 | $35.00 | Paperback

Review: Don C Reed – Stem Cell Battles

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Stem Cell Battles : Proposition 71 and Beyond: How Ordinary People Can Fight Back Against the Crushing Burden of Chronic Disease
Don C Reed

Stem Cell legislation in the USA has been here and there for many years. This novel is now slightly out of date, but it still provides an accurate picture of how legislation for and against stem cells has developed. In fact, I might take that back. It could still be current – legislation can take a long time to change, even if the science tries to keep moving forward.

27187830This book was actually enjoyable. I was hesitant. As I say though, Reed is from the people angle. After his son’s accident, he’s one of the people who have pushed forward from the ground up to make a difference in politics to change ordinary people’s lives. As a geneticist, this gets into all sorts of ethical ideas and messes, some of which are discussed here.

I recently taught a class on stem cells (three of them actually, all the same but with different students). This was a book I wanted to bring in and get them all to read. In Australia, the stem cell laws are just as annoying as far as I can see. There is so much potential in them (but also many hazards).

I received this novel a very long time ago now, and it was a Galley Proof, not for sale. I’m really not sure why I put off reading it for so long. I think I was sick of science, and didn’t want to read more about it in my free time! This is less about the science, and more about the people though.

Non-fiction, I’m not rating it. But if you have an interest in science, please go and get yourself a copy. It’s pleasurable reading, even for people who hate laws.

Review: David Dyer – the Midnight Watch

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the Midnight Watch
David Dyer

John Steadman is a body man. His reporting for the Boston American newspaper involves finding those bodies, and writing a story of them that brings their lives back. When he gets caught up in the story of the ship that watched the Titanic sink, he finds himself losing himself in the story – to the loss of his own job.

25666052What I loved was that the blending of fact and fiction made me feel at home in the novel. I didn’t object that I never really understood everything behind Lord’s motives. I didn’t mind that there was no happy ending.

I did feel a little confused towards the end, when John’s story of the Titanic is published. There is a disconnect between John’s words and the story, despite this being in chronological order as far as I could see. I felt that John’s newspaper story could have come at the very end of the novel, and I still would have been happy – as I would have seen it as an overall conclusion.

Confession – I’ve never seen The Titanic! Nor do I ever hope to have to sit through it. As far as I can tell, it’s a ‘classic timeless love story’ and I barely have the patience to sit through one of those in novel form, let alone a movie!

Giving this beauty 4 stars. It was surprisingly gripping, despite already knowing the major outcome (pretty much everyone on the Titanic died). Kudos to Dyer for this fantastic and well written novel, and my absolute condolences on it being from your Doctorate!

4star

Review: Marina Go – Break Through

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Break Through
Marina Go

Marina started out as editor of Dolly at age 23. From then on, she worked her way up the ranks of editor of various magazines to the Chair of boards that she is on today. This is a snapshot of the stages of her journey there, and her advice to other young women who want to be major players in the working world.

break-through-9781925183542_lgAs always, I preferred the personal stories rather than the advice given in this novel. I think if you are going for a more ‘traditional’ career (not a university and teaching focussed career like mine) this novel is going to be perfect for you. I’d choose it as a gift for someone just starting out at their first job.

This is in line with inspiring next generation leaders – even if it is aimed at young women, young men might appreciate it (if they have open minds) in order to realise what it is like is a still male dominated business ‘the old boys’ club’. I can think of many cases where this novel will be something that someone needs, without even knowing they need it.

If I got anything about having a career about this novel it was to not be afraid, stand up for yourself, and be driven! Just because you are a woman doesn’t mean you should stand for anything less, and that you should prove yourself better than a man.  Go on and ‘smash those stereotypes’!

I didn’t have any strong feelings either way after completing this novel. I had intended to read a chapter each night, and try and think about the contents of each, but I didn’t manage that. I did one night of 2 chapters, then the next day I binge read the rest. I’m not sure exactly what that means about quality!

Review: Neil M Hanson – Pilgrim Wheels

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Pilgrim Wheels
Neil M Hanson

Neil has taken on the challenge of riding across the USA, sometimes with a friend, and sometimes without. He quickly learns the challenges and rewards of doing it on his own, as well as enjoying some time with old friends. Let me clarify here: He’s riding a PUSH BIKE across the desert.

24820176This novel covers only part of Neil’s journey! It is astounding how much he has travelled on his trusty bike. I can’t believe it, but then I think of other people who have cycled around the exterior of Australia and straight across the middle. Still though, its amazing what one man on a tiny bike can do if he is determined.

I interviewed Neil quite some time ago (I’m too afraid to look at the date), but the novel simply hadn’t taken my fancy to read until lately. I’m on a mission to get through all the novels authors have sent me personally – if you’ve sent me a novel and I haven’t reviewed it, pop me an email please!

This is non-fiction, and as such I’ll not be giving it any stars. That being said, I think this novel would be good for people who have a passion for a ‘singular’ sport – one like cycling or running where you spend a lot of time with the scenery.

Review: David Adam – The Man Who Couldn’t Stop

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The Man Who Couldn’t Stop
David Adam

There’s no such thing as ‘a little bit OCD’. People with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder can’t stop their thoughts. They might obsess about germs, AIDs or burning the house down. Or they might fear they will steal money or stab their own baby. They perform compulsive rituals in order to prevent their thoughts from coming true, but it never goes away. Nor do the thoughts usually come true. It’s just a bit of brain biology / mind psychology gone wrong.

9781447259374This novel is a bit of a mix between memoir, textbook and examples. It doesn’t profess to provide any concrete answers. Instead it explores the history of OCD, different interesting cases of OCD and indeed the almighty DSM-5 that is used for categorizing mental illness everywhere.

I learnt about the difference between OCD and OCPD. So many people who say they are ‘a little OCD’ might have OCPD (obsessive compulsive personality disorder), but in fact they have nothing like OCD. For an OCD sufferer, their life is hell. I’ll keep that in mind, and next time someone gives me that line, maybe instead we can have an honest conversation about mental illness and how things are. It is one thing to accept mental illness, and another to trivialise it.

You don’t have OCD? You don’t know anyone with OCD? You’ve somehow never heard about it? Seriously. Get on and read this novel. You won’t be disappointed.

Review: Tara Winkler – How (not) to Start an Orphanage

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How (not) to Start an Orphanage
Tara Winkler

Tara first came to Cambodia over 10 years ago on a long-needed vacation. What she found there were horrific orphanage conditions and suffering that she knew shouldn’t exist. When she returned home, she was determined to raise funds and help those children in need. The process ended up to be slightly more complicated than she expected, and this is the story of that 10 years.

29556438Wow. This novel. Non-fiction is winning at the moment. This was fantastic and well-written. I felt myself at Tara’s side, and I absolutely empathised with every situation she found herself in, likely or not. We are walked through her childhood and highschool years, and then her ‘career’ after that. There are so many situations that Tara found herself in, and it feels like she has done justice to describing them in this novel.

Tara learns a bit of everything, she has to! And so does the reader. I had never really been interested in child attachment psychology, but wow, it is so obvious. I was reading recently about another novel I think where there was a room full of babies in an orphanage – and the room was silent. When asked what was wrong with the babies, the manager replied that the babies had learnt that crying didn’t do anything.

In reading this novel, you’re going to have to look at both the positive and negatives of orphanages. The main take home of this novel is to remember that orphanages are not actually in a child’s best interest. The best is to have them in their own family, and then provide support services to help them remain there.

This is non-fiction, so I won’t be rating it. It’s well worth the read.

 

Review: Johnny Actonis, David Glodblatt and James Wyllie – Time Travel Handbook

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Time Travel Handbook
Johnny Actonis, David Glodblatt, James Wyllie

Always wanted to go back in time? Perhaps the Fall of the Berlin Wall? Or the eruption of Vesuvus (you know, that volcano that preserved an entire village for centuries…)? Now you can, with illustrations in your tour handbook.

27212449Honestly, this novel wasn’t quite right for me. It’s history, written in a sort of fictional, accessible format. Unfortunately I’m not interested in history at the best of times. I was hoping that this novel would pull me in a bit, but it wasn’t quite powerful enough to overtake me. I read selections of this, and enjoyed those. I made sure to just pick those ones though, English history bores me silly (but I can totally go for the Berlin Wall).

It’s like a modern ‘Where’s Wally’! Except it is more writing focused (although there are suitable pictures). I’d see this as a great gift for teenagers getting into history studies, or younger people. It’s got a great overview and witty take on history that is going to get people less jaded than me into it.

I’m not putting this book down at all. It would really be a fantastic addition to any library that might come in contact with young people. If you’re trying to get someone into history, and you can’t use ‘The Last Samurai’ movie (that’s what we did in high school) to do it, this novel might do the trick.

Review: Fiona McArthur – Aussie Midwives

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Aussie Midwives
Fiona McArthur

This collection of stories about Australian midwives couldn’t come at a better time than for Mother’s Day. The role of midwives in looking after mothers from conception to birth and beyond is something that should be inherently built into society. This non-fiction work unpacks some of the roles of midwives around Australia.

251675For me, this had a lot of backstory of each of the midwives so that you got a good feeling for who they were as people, as well as within their jobs. I would have loved to have more about the actual mothers and children. Every birth story is different, and I have a strange fascination with reading about them.

It’s fascinating how many different midwifery roles there are – in a plane, a tiny fishing shack or somewhere else remote. That’s the wonder of working in Australia – there’s always some odd place that a nurse or midwife will find herself going.

All of this was very birth positive, and trying to put women back in control of their bodies. After all, birth is a process which has been taking place for years without medical intervention. Midwives are there to put the brakes on obstetricians that want to force a baby – even if that shouldn’t be their role.

I don’t know whether I can give this stars. It’s non-fiction, and its very enjoyable. It will leave people smiling. That being said, I have a feeling it is more written for women than men. That was such a sexist thing for me to say, but I don’t think most men are comfortable thinking about child-birth, as evidenced by the number of fainting husbands there were in this novel!