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

Posted on by
Reply

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: Sara Farizan – Tell Me Again How a Crush Should Feel

Posted on by
Reply

Tell Me Again How a Crush Should Feel
Sara Farizan

Leila has made it through school without crushing on anyone. That is, until wild-child, sophisticated Saskia turns up and starts to invade Leila’s school days… and then her life.

20312458Leila is challenged by her Persian background, and I learnt a lot about that culture just reading this novel. I particularly loved the way Leila’s older sister was characterised. I could have had more here!

There are so many other little stories going on in this. And the main thing is to note that things are hardly ever how they seem. Not only is Saskia not what Leila expected, her other friends, her family and her childhood best friend aren’t predictable. Seriously though, Leila’s friends were sometimes just a little too dumb and ignorant for their own good.

I wanted to love this book, I really did. It’s queer fiction, a coming-out story of a young lesbian. The thing is, that it was very repetitive and predictable, not to mention that the pace was glacial for the first half of the novel. If you’re just getting into queer fiction, this could be a novel for you. If you are desperate for reassurance that it’s ok to be gay, this book might be it. But everyone’s stories are different.

I’m giving this novel 3 stars, and recommending my forever-favourite of Keeping You a Secret or perhaps Read Me Like a Book for the beginning lesbian.

3star

Review: Emery Lord – When We Collided

Posted on by
Reply

When We Collided
Emery Lord

Vivi is off her medication and determined to feel the whole summer in her body. Jonah has lived his whole life in that one place, yet now he is going to discover that strangers can help in the strangest of ways.

27235365I think it is more that their lives have already fallen apart, and that the collision is going to bring only good things. A big mess can only start to clear up right? Vivi is a disaster some of the time, but she at least has a good grasp of life (to an extent). Vivi are so different in what they know about the world, and together they can conquer anything.

The cover you see to the left is way, WAY more brilliant and bright in real life. I wanted to read this the moment I received it, even without knowing that Vivi had a mental illness. Drool. I jumped in, and then I was stuck. Stayed up past my bedtime and it followed me to work.

I’m not sure I can agree with the ending. OK, summer is over. But why, why, why? That’s all I can say about that. Ugh. Rationally I might know it is for the best, but it’s also really sad. Why shouldn’t things work out for everyone?

I couldn’t be any happier with this book. It has a bit of everything, it didn’t give away too much at any time, and the story kept progressing quickly. You can see Vivi and Jonah both changing in ‘real time’, and it feels like you are just a stroll away from them in Verona Cove, California.

4star

Review: Kylie Formasier – The Things I Didn’t Say

Posted on by
Reply

The Things I Didn’t Say
Kylie Formasier

Piper is a selective mutist. No, not a selective Muslim, like I originally thought when I looked at the blurb. A mutist. Someone who finds it impossible to speak to people outside their own family environment, or a friend they are very close too. Piper would like to speak, but her anxiety is so strong that she cannot overcome it. After having a major fight with a friend, Piper has transferred schools to try have a new start…

26891896I cannot be thankful enough for the novels that are normalising uncomfortable issues at the moment, such as bipolar disorder, dementia, depression, anxiety. These are the novels that should have always been out there. It is not that the number of people with mental illnesses has gone up (although this is true for the adult population), but our rates of diagnosing it are improving.

I loved this novel. Piper is plucky and yet shy at the same time. She does things in her own way, and makes dents in the world just by being herself. For one so quiet, she has a very strong voice. As you go along with her to school and through her life, you notice how she gradually speaks more inside her head, and then outside.

Love story alert! But I’m totally buying it. The thing is that Piper has never spoken a word to West, but she has written notes. It’s not like they don’t talk at all! It is more of Piper’s fear that she will never be able to talk out loud to express love that is the problem.

I didn’t understand why the coma was Piper’s fault. You play sport, you get hurt. It just happens, no big deal. my explanation is that when your child is hurt, it has to be anyone else’s fault but yours. Fear makes everyone act strangely.

I felt a little unsure about how things magically worked out for Piper at school, but good on her for getting up there and facing the bullies. I can imagine how impossibly hard it was for her, and I’d like to think it made a big difference outside just the community of her school.

I’ll be giving this one 4 stars. Well worth a summer read.

4star

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

Posted on by
Reply

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: Terri Terry – Book of Lies

Posted on by
Reply

Book of Lies
Terri Terry

Quinn and Piper are sisters separated at birth. After the death of their mother, they run into each other for the first time – and all is perhaps not how it seems. Quinn knows she is destined for evil, while Piper ‘just’ wants to know everything.

25370363From the very beginning you already know there is something wrong about the way the twins have been treated. The more you read, the more you work out what is going on – even if it is exactly what the burb described and you aren’t ever really confused.

Sorry, but the curses spanning generations are really not the huge thing it’s made out to be on the blurb. Neither is the whole ‘Book of Lies’ that it is named after. There’s nothing new about this premise, and the setting leaves a lot to be desired too. Ooh, spooky moors. Wow. Original. Sorry. I’m obviously in a narky mood. I want to read something amazingly good!

I don’t understand what the final sister was doing at the end of the novel. Why would you do that? How does that make any sense at all? What’s wrong with knowing things?

This novel passed the time. The first 1/3 of the novel was just setting the scene with the two sisters trading places (3 stars), then the next 1/4 heats up a bit (4 stars), then it all turns out how you expect (3 stars) and then bleh, the ending was crap (2-3 stars). So no, I wouldn’t jump out and buy it, even if the cover looks beautiful. I’ll give it a begrudging 3 stars, but it is far better than Signs Point to Yes.

3star

Review: Sandy Hall – Signs Point to Yes

Posted on by
Reply

Signs Point to Yes
Sandy Hall

By trying frantically to avoid going to work with her mother all summer, Jane finds herself looking after the three kid sisters of her mortal enemy’s best friend – Tao. Who happens to have some issues of his own, but it’ll all be sorted by summer’s end. Won’t it?

24464110I kept putting off reading this novel for a very long time. The colour of the cover didn’t speak to me, the blurb put me right off… and it the end, it was 3 stars. It passed GO, but it certainly wasn’t any sort of master piece.

What is which that freaking Magic 8 ball? She doesn’t even need it! Honestly, even though it was obviously included in order to provide a title for the novel, it wasn’t really adding anything.

This was too light. Compared to all the other wonderful YA fiction I have been reading lately that tend to explore deeper issues than just cute ol’ love, this one is nothing special. It’s ticking boxes of being modern (gay character? working mom? check. check.) yet not giving anything new or exciting to the reader.

I can see a target audience for this – teenage girls who want a nice simple romance with not too much thinking required. That sounds so uncharitable of me doesn’t it? There is attempts to add depth and variety – Ravi hating Jane, Jane’s sister Margo, Jane’s college decisions – but overall it’s just about Jane and Teo’s cute little crush on each other.

I’d rather re-read Girls Love Travis Walker – also a light fiction romance but so much better written and with characters that make me want to come back for more. 3 stars from me.

3star

Review: Fiona McArthur – Aussie Midwives

Posted on by
Reply

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!

Review: Harriet Reuter Hapgood – The Square Root of Summer

Posted on by
Reply

The Square Root of Summer
Harriet Reuter Hapgood

Gottie is still grieving for her grandfather Grey’s death, while a boy she broke up with and a boy who moved away come back into her life. Her life is increasingly confusing as she drops into the past, and loses hours of her present days as a cost for revisiting last Summer.

imagesThe premise of this book is so cool. Gottie is studying physics at school, and is interested in how time-travel might occur. Underlying her enjoyment of school is her fear of moving on to university. In order to motivate her, her physics teacher asks her to come up with a theory of time-travel, and then she will write a bright recommendation letter to get her into any college.

It was fascinating to eventually find out what was going on with everyone. Damn, so people can be so insensitive! I could have killed Jason. You view everything from Gottie’s perspective, so you don’t realise what she looks like on the outside to others. Is she selfish? Is she self-absorbed? Does she mean to be? Since I was already aligned to Gottie from the beginning, I thought she was wonderful.

You can suspend your disbelief in time travel, or you can be as critical as you like. Either way, you’re going to enjoy this romance that isn’t really a romance, again it’s exploring how different people deal with grief and loss. Who is to say that these things didn’t really happen?

4 stars for a teenage romance with a bit of a twist and some science.

4star

Review: Jake Halpern and Peter Kujawinski – Nightfall

Posted on by
Reply

Nightfall
Jake Halpern and Peter Kujawinski

On the island, there are 14 years of light followed by 14 years of night. When the night years come, the villagers leave the island as quickly as they can – but leave everything behind as if there are unknown people returning to their homes. Marin doesn’t understand – but she knows that when Line goes missing she and Kana will have to be the ones to save him from the dark.

23846037Marin! You great idiot. What were you thinking? You caused alllllllll of those issues. And then you wonder why people are mad. I guess you do sort of redeem yourself.

Ooohh, I didn’t see one of the big twists coming. Eeei! I get so excited just remembering back to it. I guess that was the turning point of the novel, and after that the surprises sort of ended, but there was still some movement. Just not as much as I might have desired.

The blurb on this book is great (in comparison to some others I have read lately). It doesn’t give too much away, and it lets the authors build suspense naturally. You really don’t know what is coming next. Honestly, the blurb didn’t make me excited to read it, but then I got stuck in it…

I totally understood the side of the woods’ monsters. And I couldn’t understand why the villagers wanted to come back for the days of light. What’s wrong with living in the desert? It can’t be that bad if you survive 14 years there.

The ending left me lonely and sad, and not knowing what would happen next. What will Kana do? Line and Marin have their lives all good to go (you know, since they are in love and there’s a whole bunch of other things in the way that will be fine), but Kana has nothing.

I’m giving this 4 stars. I found myself unable to put it down. It called to me. It’s not 5 stars though, because now that I know the ending, there is nothing left for me.

4star