Australia is home to many species of cockroaches that can infest different areas on your property. The kitchen, bathroom, garden, and yard are common areas cockroaches are found, but these pests can … [Read more...]
Book Review: Cat & Fiddle by Lesley Jørgensen
[rating:4.5] Cat and Fiddle is a witty tale of appearance and deception. Mrs Begum and her husband Dr Choudhury have moved to a small English village so he can advise on the restoration of nearby … [Read more...]
Book Review: Unnatural Habits by Kerry Greenwood
[rating:4] After returning from her summer holiday in Queenscliff, Phryne Fisher finds herself caught up in yet another mystery that will delight fans of the elegant cocktail-sipping sleuth. Pretty … [Read more...]
Book Review: Mary Bennet by Jennifer Paynter
[rating:3] Poor plain bookish Mary Bennet, caught halfway between pretty Jane, clever Lizzy and silly Lydia and her shadow Kitty. She is a dim presence in Pride and Prejudice, a foil for the … [Read more...]
Book Review: Ruby Blues by Jessica Rudd
[rating:4] Ruby Stanhope, the delightfully imperfect star of last year’s chick lit sensation Campaign Ruby, returns to answer that perennial question – what happened next? It’s two years since Max … [Read more...]
Book Review: House of Sticks by Peggy Frew
[rating:4] What does it take to blow your house down? Does the big bad wolf need to huff and puff, or have you already invited him in to sit at the table with you? Or, instead, will the flimsy … [Read more...]
Book Review: Cooking the Books by Kerry Greenwood
[rating:4] How does an artisan baker get up close and personal with a tiger named Tabitha? Corinna is on holiday and she’s looking forward to some quality time with a jug of cocktails and the … [Read more...]
Cookbook Review: Mangia! Mangia! by Teresa Oates and Angela Villella
[rating:5] “When we told Nonna Villella that sun-dried tomatoes were selling for $40 a kilo at the local supermarket, she thought we were joking. She had quietly gone about making her filled sun-dried … [Read more...]
Book Review: Little People by Jane Sullivan
[rating:4.5] “One day she will ask me the inevitable question. There is much to tell, and I am not certain how to tell it. At least I know where to begin...It began with a game a gentleman taught … [Read more...]
Book Review – The Indigo Sky by Alison Booth
[rating:3.5] The Indigo Sky is the sequel to last year’s Stillwater Creek (reviewed here). Author Alison Booth has revisited the fictional town of Jingera on the New South Wales south coast. It is now … [Read more...]
Book Review – The Lightkeeper’s Wife by Karen Viggers
[rating:4] Mary’s health is failing and the arrival of an unexpected visitor bearing an unwanted letter – a letter with hideously destructive potential – catapults her into action. She returns to … [Read more...]
Book Review – Mennonite in a Little Black Dress by Rhoda Janzen
[rating:3.5] “I think that the Lord appreciates a man on a tractor more than a man smoking marijuana in his pajamas,” Mom said earnestly. “I know I do.” When Rhoda Janzen’s husband leaves her for a … [Read more...]
Book Review: Introducing the Honourable Phryne Fisher by Kerry Greenwood
[rating:4.5] Then she got on the tram and sat near me. A lady with a Lulu bob, feather earrings, a black cloth coat with an Astrakhan collar and a black cloche jammed down over her exquisite eyebrows. … [Read more...]
Book Review: The Great Australian Book of Limericks by Jim Haynes
[rating:3] The cover of The Great Australian Book of Limericks shows a bishop standing next to a sign to Nantucket – giving a good indication of what to expect between the pages. This is unashamed … [Read more...]
Book Review: New Australian Stories 2 edited by Aviva Tuffield
There’s a story for most readers in this absorbing new collection of new short fiction. Dark, humorous, quirky and many other descriptive labels besides – pick your preferred writing style and there’s … [Read more...]
Book Review: The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson
[rating:5] Winner of the Man Booker Prize 2010 Julian Treslove is a man whose life has been “one mishap after another”. He is addicted to tragedy - he imagines almost everything in the context of an … [Read more...]
Book Review – Dead Man’s Chest by Kerry Greenwood
[rating:4] Phryne Fisher is heading to the resort town of Queenscliff for her summer holiday. Accompanied by her faithful companion Dot, Molly the dog, and her two adoptive daughters Ruth and Jane; … [Read more...]
Book Review: What is left over, after by Natasha Lester
[rating:4.5] This is a book about mothers and daughters; about what it means to be both a mother and a daughter and what this familial bond means for a woman’s sense of self. Gaelle has fled her … [Read more...]
Book Review: Madam Lash by Sam Everingham
[rating:3.5] Gretel Pinniger, along with her larger-than-life alter ego Madam Lash, has outraged, titillated and enriched the Australian cultural scene over the past forty-odd years. The publicity … [Read more...]
Book Review: Otherland – a journey with my daughter by Maria Tumarkin
[rating:5] Sometimes the gulf between reality and imagination is vast. Often it is at its greatest when it involves those things closest to our hearts, for here the possibility of self delusion is at … [Read more...]
Book Review: Trust by Kate Veitch
[rating:4] Susanna Greenfield appears to have the perfect life. She has a handsome architect husband, Gerry; two gifted teenage children, Seb and Stella-Jean; as well as a teaching career and an art … [Read more...]
Cookbook Review: Heston’s Fantastical Feasts by Heston Blumenthal
[rating:4.5] Heston Blumenthal is the modern master of the truly fantastical. His restaurant, The Fat Duck, is regularly rated as one of the top eateries in the world. Specialising in molecular … [Read more...]
Book Review: Book of Lost Threads by Tess Evans
Life is full of loose ends. Some are merely dusty cobwebs of regret that hang limp and forgotten in the shadowy corners of our past, others are the barbed rusty wires of unfinished business that bind … [Read more...]
Cookbook Review: Abla’s Lebanese Kitchen
The saying t’fadalou, or ‘come eat at my table’ guides the preparation of every meal at Abla’s Lebanese Restaurant in Carlton, Melbourne. For this is the food of family and friends. It is all about … [Read more...]
Book Review: A Year in the Valley by Jackie French
As I read A Year in the Valley I can almost smell the honeyed scent of early summer’s blushing peaches hanging heavily in the air. Sun ripened to a delicate bloom they ooze sweet nectar and their … [Read more...]
Book Review: Happily Ever After by Benison Anne O’Reilly
Eleanor (Ellie) Cooper is a woman who, on the surface, seems to have it all. However after marrying the man she believes is her handsome prince she finally reaches the place ‘where fantasy and reality … [Read more...]
Book Review: Grace Kelly Style by Kristina Haugland et al
If you’re lucky enough to visit London before the 26th of September 2010, then you can go and see the exhibition of Grace Kelly’s wardrobe currently being held at the Victoria and Albert Museum. For … [Read more...]
Cookbook Review: High Tea at the Victoria Room
The Victoria Room is a restaurant and bar in Darlinghurst, Sydney. It is all about sophisticated, fine dining in an opulent atmosphere redolent of the British Raj. And they do High Tea – something … [Read more...]
Cookbook Review: Maggie’s Kitchen by Maggie Beer
Maggie Beer has become synonymous with local, high quality ingredients used to produce gorgeous inspirational food. Her passion for uncompromising excellence has given her a position as one of … [Read more...]
Cookbook Review: The Real Greek at Home – Dishes from the Heart of the Greek Kitchen
I must start this review with a confession. Greek food is, for me, the ultimate comfort food, and it can be hard to review a book about one of your favourite things – how do you make an impartial … [Read more...]
April Book of the Month: Lunch in Paris by Elizabeth Bard
On her first date with her husband, Elizabeth Bard takes a bite of a pavé au poivre that melts on her tongue in a symphony of pleasure. He was, she says “half way to home base as soon as I cut into … [Read more...]
Book Review: Stillwater Creek by Alison Booth
It is 1957, recently widowed Ilona Talivaldis and her young daughter Zidra move to the small fictional town of Jingera on the south coast of New South Wales. Ilona is a pianist and her love of music … [Read more...]
Book Review: The Chase by Samantha Brett
The Chase is a fast paced, entertaining book, which purports to tell you ‘Everything you need to know about men, dating and sex,’ from ‘Australia’s Number 1 sex, dating and relationships columnist,’ … [Read more...]
Some Girls Do: Australian women writers share the story of their teenage years
Your teenage years are a roller coaster ride of hormones and uncertainty - a time when you know everything and nothing; a time when you are waiting for life to begin. The 51 short pieces in Some Girls … [Read more...]