Category Archives: Reviews

The Blood Countess by Tara Moss

Posted on by
4

One of the best parts of the Australian Women Writers Reading and Reviewing Challenge is the list of reviews by participants (and anyone can participate). There are some wonderful books out there that I suspect I’d never have stumbled across without this challenge. There are also some wonderfully talented authors out there whose work, this challenge has reminded me, I haven’t tried. Tara Moss is one.

After reading some enthusiastic reviews of Tara’s work, I decided to start with The Blood Countess. It helped that the book was available for kindle and at a really good price, under $6, bargain!

The Blood Countess is a fairytale. Orphan girl grows up “different” in a small town. Great-aunt invites her to the big city. Great-aunt transforms her life. Girl has to discover her power (linked to discovering her identity) and use it. There are villains to defeat.

What gives this story life beyond the fairytale framework is the confident yet vulnerable voice of the heroine and the fabulous use of New York as the setting. New York is perfect for fairytales.

Two handsome princes was a nice touch…each with their own issues. As you read the book, you can see Tara setting the scene for future stories.

The style and plot are light, easy to read fun. The world created is appealing. If you like your paranormal romance with a touch of fashion, you’ll adore this first-in-a-series.

Share

The Griffith Review

Posted on by

At the end of 2011 I prepared for the new year by buying a couple of digital zine subscriptions. The Griffith Review was one of them and I received its 35th edition a couple of weeks ago. The theme of this issue is “surviving”. I expected mostly fiction and got mostly fact. It made for some serious, thoughtful reading. There’s lots in this edition, but picking some highlights:

Mara Bun had an interesting article, “The Path to Resilience”. She includes reference to Greensburg, the American town rebuilding itself sustainably after total tornado destruction. The notion of resilience is one that has intrigued me for years. For me (though this isn’t the element explored in Mara’s article) the defining feature of resilience is redundancy. Critical activities/necessities need to be achievable by more than one method.

Michael Gaurenda reflected on journalism and ethics in “Informed Consent”. A couple of ideas he discussed were new to me…but then, I’m not a journalist. The first was that victims of tragedy will generally talk freely with journalists, even producing photos, in the immediate aftermath of a devastating event. However, after 48 hours, this changes and they tend to refuse to deal with the media. So, how informed is their consent in that first, vulnerable and shocked 48 hours? The second idea questions whether a journalist tells other people’s stories or his or her own–in the sense that other people’s experience is filtered through the journalist’s (and editor’s) writing. To quote Michael, “The stories I wrote about them were not their stories, but mine.”

Finally, Kathy Marks has a terrible but important article on the sexual abuse on Pitcairn Island. “When Bystanders Fail” discusses exactly what its title suggests: the wilful inaction of outsiders, temporary residents of the island who were unconstrained by family or community ties or by habits of acceptance. This article, after outlining the abuse, raises the ethical challenge: Why did no outsider raise the issue of the sexual abuse of women and children? There is ample evidence that they knew it continued. Why was it left to a 15 year old Pitcairn Island girl to find the courage to speak out, and in so doing, to lose all contact with her family, community and homeland? Do we really live in a society where looking away absolves us of responsibility to protect the vulnerable and to fight evil?

Share

Savage or Civilised? by Penny Russell

Posted on by

For all its wealth of well-researched detail, Savage or Civilised? Manners in Colonial Australia by Penny Russell is a subtle book. It opens with mention of Norbert Elias’s notions of manners and power, and this theme underpins the history. The reader isn’t hit over the head with discussions of power, but the reality of the turbulent colonial period is evident. Power was constantly shifting and with it identity, social status and security.

Manners expressed these shifting power relations and people’s discomfort with the uncertainty of the time.

Penny Russell uses individual stories to explore the changing realities and the raw expressions of power that manners attempted to both sugarcoat and validate – the dispossession of Indigenous people from their land, the harsh lives of convicts (slave labour), the fortunes made and lost. The result is an interesting and very readable account of the Australian colonial experience.

I like the acknowledgement that manners went beyond behaviour to be tangibly expressed in clothing. Thus, costume was a major signifier of social position and of threats to the status quo — something Penny Russell discusses on the goldfields and in ladies’ cycling costumes and the new etiquette of that technology.

She discusses the impact of transportation technologies on manners — whether ship, rail or trams. All presented challenges of association, and therefore, of privacy, distance and identity for their users.

I’d have liked some discussion of communication technologies’, such as telephones and telegrams, impact on manners and customs, especially since Penny Russell relies so heavily on older communication forms of letters, diaries and newspapers as her primary sources. How was the disruption of telephones dealt with by different parts of society? The party line sounds infamous as a source of gossip and nosiness when you read old novels.

The book is wide ranging in time and social groupings, but still its narrative is coherent and  well argued. I enjoyed it.

Share

Me, Antman and Fleabag by Gayle Kennedy

Posted on by

This is such an easy review to write. I loved the collection of short stories that is Me, Antman and Fleabag. Gayle Kennedy captures the language and story telling style of the people she writes about. The stories are wry, joyous, heartfelt, sometimes painfully real. The characters wandered off the page, pulled out a chair and sat down at my kitchen table. They asked for a cuppa, milk with two sugars, ta love, and stirred vigorously.

I defy anyone to read the first story, “How ta drink in the park”, and not immediately turn the page for more.

This collection has such a strong voice, the humour and courage of Indigenous Australians’ experience. Like the best stories anywhere, the powerful identity of the characters doesn’t exclude, but rather welcomes us into their world.

 

Share

Dark Vow by Shona Husk

Posted on by

Who else grew up watching Little House on the Prairie? I read the books, too. And then there were all the John Wayne Westerns Dad watched. When I opened Dark Vow by Shona Husk the setting sprang vividly to life — Western but with a fantastic distopian twist. I was immediately hooked.

No, that’s not true. It wasn’t the setting that hooked me…brilliantly conveyed though it was, using enough of the stereotypes plus a twist to have all the world building rocking in a novella length story. What made it impossible to put the book down was the heroine and the conflict she was plunged into from the opening. Jaines Cord is a strong woman, a survivor, in a world of danger and, as it turns out, heartbreak.

Summarising a story is not my strength, besides in Dark Vow, the unfolding drama really doesn’t need spoilers. The twists in the plot are unexpected, but natural. Jaines’s journey is an emotional one as much as a physical one. For the reader, there is also the fascination of discovering the world Shona Husk creates.

The story gripped me. Be warned: You won’t want to put it down once you’ve started — and you’ll remember it after you’ve finished.

Share

Notorious Australian Women by Kay Saunders

Posted on by

I should have paid more attention to the title. You know, the “notorious” bit. I went looking for a history book by an Australian woman writer that I could read on my kindle. I don’t know quite what I expected from “Notorious Australian Women”.

The book is very readable.

The opening chapters, dealing with Indigenous and convict women from the early years of European settlement, were strong. They were fantastic in the wealth of period detail and history woven into their biographies.

The style of the later chapters would suit inclusion in a magazine as feature articles. I was fascinated by the varied achievements and daring of the women described. But…it wasn’t my cup of tea and I’ve spent a few days thinking about why not.

A major element of the Australian Women Writers Reading and Reviewing Challenge is to read outside your normal reading. Well, now I realise why I read a few autobiographies but seldom touch a biography (like this collection). The biographies feel voyeuristic. This is purely my perception. “Notorious Australian Women” isn’t a nasty or lip-licking book. But I didn’t like the sense of the narrator coming through the story and telling me how the woman thought, loved and hated.

Share

A Hole in the Pavement by Tahlia Newland

Posted on by

I’m so excited to be part of the Australian Women Writers Challenge 2012 — this is a challenge for READERS — and that’s me! Sure, I write, but I read a heck of a lot more than I write. I love reading :)

I’m kicking off my review challenge with a short story. I think this is going to be the year of the short story for me. I’ve subscribed to Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine and The Griffith Review — both to arrive digitally, which is bliss. So simple, no straying postal deliveries, no trying to track down a copy at the shops.

But, on to the review…

“A Hole in the Pavement” by Tahlia Newland was originally published as part of her collection, “A Matter of Perception“. I’ll get back to you on a review of the collection as a whole because the quality of this story means I HAVE to read more :)

What makes it so good? Well, the writing first. It has an easy, assured quality that makes it a pleasure to read. Then there is the fact that I ventured out of my comfortable reading rut to discover what “Magic Realism”, which is how Tahlia’s writing is described, feels like. It feels wonderful. Do you remember how much you loved Aesop’s Fables as a kid? “A Hole in the Pavement” gave me that same sense of a gifted storyteller guiding us through a fable, albeit in a contemporary setting — and with no talking animals.

Maybe “fable” is the wrong word. I’m looking for a descriptor for a story that delves into life and adds a touch of magic to illumine how to live it — with courage.

The characters, Norris and his goddess, are warm and appealing. They could so easily have been left as undeveloped stereotypes to advance the plot and story message. Instead, Norris charmed me.

Trying to write my first review for 2012 I realise that the magic of “A Hole in the Pavement” was the strength with which relationships were portrayed and developed, including the relationship a person has with themselves, the element of self-perception.

A delightful read, perfect for the lunch hour.

Share