Category Archives: Book Reviews

Review: Alex Gino – George

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George
Alex Gino

George has never seen herself as anything other than a girl. That’s just a small problem when she has been assigned as a male at birth. She doesn’t even like what’s in between her legs, and wishes she could play games with the other girls. When a chance to perform might give her the chance to be herself, she will take anything she can to be in it.

24612624For the first chapter of George you don’t actually know what’s happening in the story. George could be a girl or a boy’s name. Instinctively the problem is that George knows that she is a girl, it’s just explaining it to other people. Sometimes it is the least likely of people that believe.

There’s a bit of George concerned with understanding different adults, but it doesn’t seem too packed in. Especially poignant is George finding allies are in unexpected places and sometimes feeling the joy of being just herself without fear.

This book is a great intersection between children and teenage transgender literature that I don’t think has been properly explored in fiction. I think it’s accessible to primary school level (I think Bridge to Terabithia is just as moving, and that was a primary school novel for me), especially since the characters within it are all in grade 4.

In all honesty, I wouldn’t reread this. But I can see it as a definite reread for a young person questioning their sexuality, gender or anything else not ‘normal’. This novel makes those things accessible, and suitable for a school library. Get out there, buy it for your young person.

5star

Review: Kaz Delaney – The Reluctant Jillaroo

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The Reluctant Jillaroo
Kaz Delaney

Harper and Heidi are identical twins that are anything but alike in personality. After an accident at the last minute prevents Harper from going to her dream summer week, Heidi steps in to create instead a week of awkwardness.

27161175There’s too much reliance on obvious differences between Heidi and Harper to get some good characterisation happening. I couldn’t have cared less which one wore the pants or the skirt (and isn’t that cover awful? There wasn’t a pink tutu to be seen, thank goodness). Or which one is epic with guys, and the other is completely oblivious.

The guys themselves are just as predictable. There’s the comic duo, fighting over one unlikely lady, and the dark, steely Chaz who Heidi of could has to fall for. You could tell from the first page that he was going to be the love interest, and you would have been super disappointed if they didn’t get to be together.That’s not even a spoiler.

I would have really enjoyed more depictions of outback life, which would have made it possible for this novel to provide some interest to USA or UK markets. The things referenced weren’t in nearly enough detail. I think that could have been made more of in the campfire scenes, but Heidi was too busy staring at the sexy Chaz to pay attention.

On a final note, I’m not sure why there was intrigue added. It honestly didn’t do much for the novel, and I would have given a lot to have some more realistic characters in that page space. Or more character background. Or different perspectives.

What frustrated me the most was the too-neat, super annoying ending. Of course! Ah yes! Why didn’t I see that? Oh, because it wasn’t hinted about at all. Or it wouldn’t fit the romance. Before that point, I might have been generous to the novel, but that just dropped my opinion completely. I’ll give it 3.

3star

Review: Isobelle Carmody – The Red Queen

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The Red Queen
Isobelle Carmody

Elspeth is reaching the end of her quest. She has travelled across the land, but suddenly been halted – for no reason that she can work out. Not to mention she seems to be destined for death sooner rather than later. The question is, will she be able to work out the remaining clues before everyone dies?

Article Lead - narrow1002356196gkwzavimage.related.articleLeadNarrow.353x0.gkryzo.png1447991145658.jpg-300x0This is the finale of The Obernewtyn Chronicles. It was originally intended to be 5 books, it extended to 6, and then 7. The 7th book in particular was delayed several times. I expected it to be polished and beautiful, and for the most part it was. Having just read the other 6 books though, I could see plot holes and unfinished business. Also Elspeth spent a lot of time ‘gnawing’, relaxing, ‘gnawing’, relaxing. It got a bit repetitive.

I don’t know whether I felt disappointed in this novel or not. In the end, the very end was a bit of a let down after all the trials of coming there. I wanted to know more about the future. Ah, Rushton and Elspeth. What will happen? What about the other characters? How many of them will survive?

I made the mistake of looking at a couple of other reviews after having finished reading it, because I felt confused about how I felt. Other people complained about the section in Habitat, but I personally enjoyed that. The repetition did drive me pretty nuts though.

I didn’t feel comfortable with the idea that machines would come back. Sentinal and Ines were too aware. Even if the law is not to harm humans, I would always feel nervous trusting a machine. A future teller can’t see everything after all. But is that really what the ending suggests?

I will reread it – eventually. Even with its unanswered questions, I’ve invested too much in the series, and enjoyed the first 4 books so much that it’s not a question of if, but when.

4star

Review: Philippa Christian – Nanny Confidential

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Nanny Confidential
Philippa Christian

Lindsay is an elite nanny working in the homes of the rich and famous, looking after their kids so they can present their best face to the world. As an Australian far from home, her family worries about her rich lifestyle. Lindsay on the other hand has her feet firmly on the ground.

23680856I really don’t remember requesting this novel, and I can’t find evidence for it in my inbox. But I picked it up with a positive will, thinking it would be perfect pool-side reading.

Personally, I wanted less asides into the other nannying positions she had had, and more focus on a main family. I would have been enthralled by more details. As it was, it was a little too skinny for me. The blurb writes it up as a dashing romance vs a hard life of looking after children not your own, but that wasn’t the case.

The problem may have been that I’m not familiar with any of the celebrities that were mentioned, or hinted about. I understand about the limitations of working with famous people and writing not always positive things about them!

Unfortunately I felt a bit empty after reading it. Where did that time go? Did I learn something useful? Not really. Is it perfect for a light read? Yeah, maybe, if you like to peep into ‘Celebrity lives’ at home. I”m going to be generous and grant it 3 stars, because it wasn’t awful.

3star

Thanks to Allen & Unwin for this complimentary copy. As always, my views are my own.

Review: Keren David – This is NOT a Love Story

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This is NOT a Love Story
Kerin David

The world never seemed to revolve around Kitty. But when she finds herself in an entirely new environment with two hot boys to chase (not that she would ever admit to liking them), she creates a new persona for herself.

22838328This novel started out with so much promise, but failed to deliver. What you think is a horrifying lovers spat gone wrong is nothing more than a joke – on both the reader and the characters. Kitty! You stupid, selfish character. You’re so busy being ‘cool’ that you missed everything. And being cruel to the other characters is just ugh. Did not endear me to you despite you being the main character.

And this Instagram thing, which I assumed was included to ‘keep up with the times’? It just dated the novel for me, and didn’t actually do anything to further the story. Maybe if images were included, then it would have been more useful. As it was, I could have done without it, and more character development.

Considering that more than one point of view is shown in the story, you would expect to get a good grasp of the characters. But I didn’t feel like I knew any of them. Ethan was ‘moody’, Theo was ‘clever’, but apart from Ethan being constantly rude and Theo focussing on London Jewish politics, that was it. It had promise, it really did. Ah, but it was all lost.

Oh! And did I mention some of the characters were gay? Just goes to show that you need some solid story as well as some queer references to get my vote. 2 stars from me, with a sympathetic 3 if I must.

2star

Review: Victoria Scott – Salt and Stone

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Salt and Stone
Victoria Scott

Tella has survived a jungle and a desert. Now she faces stormy seas and frozen mountains on her quest to save her brother. With others in the race with ulterior motives and those just trying to survive, it’s a battlefield of interesting portions.

20657437The novel breaks open with a bang, and continues along at a relatively fast pace. This is interspersed with confused love scenes and meaty blood letting. And of course, depictions of friendships that can rise and break in a moment. Don’t think it’s just love and games in their boat, there’s more than that going on.

The reason I perhaps enjoy this slightly more than the Hunger Games is that there isn’t too much killing of people, only Pandoras. I mean, almost everyone is attached to their Pandoras, Tella in particular, but it’s not quite the same as the wanton killing of humans.

Personally, I found the first novel, Fire and Flood, more than this one. It had the juicy details and the threat of death being much closer. Instead in this one, Tella is so comfortable in her role that it is impossible to see anything going wrong for her and her guy (see what I did there, readers of the first novel?)

I received the first novel in this series from the publisher, and it hooked me enough that I requested the second. It didn’t come my way though, and since I have more than enough books to read at the moment, I didn’t buy this one. Luckily for me, my partner bought me this for Christmas!

4star

Review: Frank Bunker Gilbreth and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey – Cheaper by the Dozen

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Cheaper by the Dozen
Frank Bunker Gilbreth and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey

Let’s preface this by saying that I wouldn’t normally have time for this novel, unless it came super super recommended and with a free copy. But! My girlfriend read me this novel as my bedtime story. I couldn’t have hoped for a better one!

99406This novel documents the best parts of Frank Gilbreth’s life with his 12 children. His saying was always that children were ‘cheaper by the dozen’.That being said, he did end up having less than that.

I really enjoyed the discussions of what life was like back then, and it was presented in a positive, casual way which made it very accessible.

Frank practiced efficiency in every part of his life – at work and at home. He’s best know for beginning the crazy of ‘motion study’ and he and his wife Lillian were responsible for a lot of management improvements.

I wasn’t really sure whether to categorise this as fiction or non-fiction. It was so enjoyable that I didn’t know what to rate it either. My recent trending towards not starring non-fiction is going to remain true for this novel. Even if you don’t have someone to read it aloud to you, it’s worth a read if you like to see into real people’s lives, and have a bit of humour on the way.

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Review: Ann Walmsley – The Prison Book Club

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The Prison Book Club
Ann Walmsley

This non-fiction grabber reads like a fictional book. Who could imagine going into a prison in order to read literature with inmates convicted of murder, drug dealing and robbery. That’s what Ann did, somehow getting over her fear of tattooed men who might want to hurt her.

24876660I’ve never really thought about prison settings, not since my review of Peacock Blue, and of course that isn’t a Western prison. This prison is harsh, and grimy, and that’s what makes the transformation of the men within the book club surrounds more profound. They have high, intelligent thinking, despite what they might have done on the outside.

I wished I knew more, or perhaps less, about the affluent book club that Ann is part of in the outside world. I couldn’t imagine the fancy cheeses or anything else being attractive to me. Ann’s standing in the world wasn’t clear to me at all – did she have a day job? Does that actually matter?

I’ve sort of wanted to join a book club, but I think in general I read the wrong genres of novels. I’m not really a high literature or even mostly adult fiction reader. This didn’t go to prove me wrong, but maybe since I am reading more adult fantasy at the moment (Brandon Sanderson, drool), I could get into that. But then again, I have so many other good novels to read…

More could have been made of the benefits of the book club. There were some places for statistics that wouldn’t have gone astray for me. I did like how Ann followed the men outside prison after their release, and how it made her feel more comfortable in her own skin. Insights into her own life were welcome too.

I requested this novel. I was looking for something a bit more ‘meaty’ to read, and this was it. Non-fiction is not usually my thing, but this novel was really great. I’d put it on a book club reading list any day!

Review: Mimi Sinclair – Ginger Bread Wonderland

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Ginger Bread Wonderland
Mimi Sinclair

I’m not sure what I expected from this non-fiction recipe book! Mm, but the cover makes me drool. I’m a fan of both sweet gingerbread (think the gingerbread men you can buy from bakeries) and spicy gingerbread (more like a biscuit).

gingerbread-wonderland

What I liked most about this was that it was easy to make the base recipes, but you could fancy it up if you liked – there a templates for producing all kinds of cool houses. Sinclair explains why the timing in the oven is important and other such baking tips – which are so important for a beginning baker feeling like they can succeed.

Despite making a couple of really simple gingerbread men, I don’t really have time to do all of the recipes – and I think you’d be best saving your favourite ones, because I’m not sure how long you’d want to keep this book. The varieties are good, but it’s not an exhaustive source of cookies.

I’ll be giving this as a Christmas gift to a close family member. They love baking, and have young kids that will really benefit from the cute gingerbread houses.

 

Review: Angelia Kinston – 1+2= What School Never Taught Me ABOUT MONEY

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1+2= What School Never Taught Me ABOUT MONEY
Angelia Kinston

I really enjoyed the tone of this book. It took me very little time to read this non-fiction, and I think other people would find it just as accessible. It’s certainly not appropriate for well-established adults, but is going to be of great benefit to teenagers and college students.

27302447I’m not quite sure what I expected out of this book. I guess I was hoping for some general money rules that could apply globally. There are some here, but don’t be mistaken – this is a very American based set of suggestions.

The question here shoudl be – did I learn anything from this book? Nope, not really. Do I think other people could benefit? For sure. Not everyone has had parents like mine that drilled into me about responsible money handling, and so other people can get a lot more out of this.

And remember – don’t try keep up with the Jones! Tread your own path.