[rating:3] No matter how long you’ve thought about having a baby, how many books you’ve read, and despite nine months of knowing that there is an imminent arrival, nothing – I repeat, nothing – can … [Read more...]
Book Review: Minding Frankie by Maeve Binchy
[rating:3] Binchy, the mother of character driven chick-lit, has just released her latest novel, Minding Frankie. It’s always a little nerve-racking reading a new book from a much-loved author, one … [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...]
Book Review: The Australian Veg Food Guide 2011
[rating:4] Vegetarians and vegans rejoice! After a sellout Melbourne edition, this pocket-sized book packs a powerful punch for vegos all over the nation - with over 150 reviews and listings of the … [Read more...]
Book Review: If You Can’t Stand the Heat by Judy Horacek
[rating:4] Judy Horacek is well-known for her observations of the small things in life, combining those with the big issues that concern us all. In her new collection of cartoons, If You Can’t Stand … [Read more...]
Book Review: 60 Second Secrets to a happy, healthy, more relaxed you
[rating:4] It was the tagline to 60-Second Secrets (to a happy, healthy, more relaxed you) that first attracted me to this book. How can any woman resist that? Modern life is busy – often crazily so … [Read more...]
Book Review: Menagerie of False Truths by Greg French
[rating:3] When Jack meets Cherry, they bond over a mutual love of literature and the outdoors, but head their separate ways. Keeping in touch through letters, they learn more about each other, and … [Read more...]
YA Book Review: Spinner – A Novel by Ron Elliott
[rating:5] Even if you don’t like cricket and you’re not sure if this book will appeal to you – stick with me here. I don’t care for the game, yet this book has managed to find a cosy little spot in … [Read more...]
YA Book Review: Does My Bum Look Big In This Ad?
[rating:3] They’re all around us: images of perfect bodies, flawless complexions, impossibly skinny waists. Ads claiming we too could look that way if we just use this particular product. People … [Read more...]
Cookbook Review: Healthy Family, Happy Family
[rating:4] Food is a hot topic at the moment. With shows such as Masterchef and Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution in our lounge rooms each night, it’s hard to escape this one simple fact: home-cooked … [Read more...]
Book Review: Real Money Advice for Divorce
[rating:4.5] From the team behind yourfamilyyourmoney.com.au comes this third advice-packed manual on conquering money matters - namely, surviving the complicated and oft devastating rift that is … [Read more...]
Review: At Home by Bill Bryson
[rating:5] Let's just get to the heart of the matter. It's going to be tough to explain how much I loved this book. This may help: my heart raced every time I saw its black, cloth-bound cover (the … [Read more...]
Book Review: Blokes Health by Dr Bernie Crimmins
[rating:4] Blokes' Health is written by Dr. Bernie Crimmins who has been a General Practitioner for 27 years and features cartoons by published illustrator and cartoonist Paul Harvey. Some of you may … [Read more...]
Book Review: Play by Stuart Brown MD
[rating:4] We all know how vital the experience of play is for children and their mental, emotional and physical development. Even the most basic playtime encases a world of wonder and advancement in … [Read more...]
Book Review: Blue Skies by Fleur McDonald
[rating:3] Having gained her agricultural qualifications, Amanda Greenfield is keen to help her parents manage the family farm. But when her mother is killed in a terrible accident, Amanda’s father … [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...]
Book Review: Major Pettigrew's Last Stand
It astounds and delights me when authors write first books that are totally enthralling and emotionally satisfying – as though they have been penning novels for many years and have the experience and … [Read more...]
Book Review: Beautiful Monster by Kate McCaffrey
Life is good for the Edwards family – Tess, her Mum and Dad and little brother Brodie live happily together. Until Brodie is killed suddenly in a car accident. That moment changes their life … [Read more...]
Book Review: Mary Poppins She Wrote by Valerie Lawson
Mary Poppins: the larger-than-life character we all know from the books and, of course, the famous Disney movie; the mysterious nanny who appears from nowhere and finds order from chaos; the strict, … [Read more...]
Book Review: The Essential First Year by Penelope Leach
What do newborns need their parents to know? Well, for a start – that life will never be the same again. Oftentimes those overwhelming first weeks and months of a baby’s life is all about going back … [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: Horrockses Fashions – Off the Peg Fashion in the 40s and 50s
You don't need to be a die-hard retro fashion fan to enjoy this stunning new book by Christine Boydell, showcasing the ground-breaking fashions of the Horrockses label of the 1940s and … [Read more...]
Book Review: If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This by Robin Black
If you are searching for a wonderfully enjoyable collection of short stories, allow me to introduce you to If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This, hot off the press. Some people love a collection of … [Read more...]
Book Review: I Say Tomato by Katie Wall
Australians in Hollywood – we read about every detail of their lives, from what they eat for breakfast to with whom they are sleeping. What we don’t often hear about is the sheer terror of moving to a … [Read more...]
Book Review: Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
Billed as the latest teen book sensation, Beautiful Creatures is the story of Ethan Wate, a teenager living in a small town where nothing ever happens. He longs to escape and is counting down the days … [Read more...]
Book Review: Susan Boyle – Living the Dream
Like many of you, I too shed a tear while watching Susan Boyle's audition for Britain's Got Talent on YouTube. The moment when Susan Boyle showed the world why we shouldn't judge a book by it's … [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: Beautiful Malice by Rebecca James
[rating:4] Even before it was published, the psychological thriller Beautiful Malice by Rebecca James, was an international sensation. The 39 year old Australian author and mother of 4, made … [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...]
The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama
Barack Obama's appointment as President of the United States has, of course, been one of the pinnacle moments in modern history, carving out an entirely new direction for the future of one of the … [Read more...]
Review: Our Family Table by Julie Goodwin
I remember watching Julie Goodwin face the judges in the final round of MasterChef, revealing what kind of cookbook she would write if she became Australian's first MasterChef winner. It was when she … [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: Fat Chance – My Big Fat Gastric Band Adventure
During desperate times, we call on desperate measures - and author Melanie Tait - a journalist and broadcaster with the ABC - certainly weaves a tale of weight loss desperation in her new book Fat … [Read more...]
Book Review: Body Blitz Diet by Anna Richardson
Ho hum and carrot sticks. Diet books seem to be ten-to-the-fried-egg dozen right now, coming out of every fat-gobbling orifice - as usual. Sure, it's because Australia is officially one of the fattest … [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...]