Category Archives: Paper

February 14, 2025 · 2:46 pm

Anne of Green Gables, My Daughter & Me – Lorilee Craker

Anne of Green Gables, My Daughter & Me – Lorilee Craker

I am a super-fan of L. M. Montgomery. I have read all of the books (by her and about her), seen the various adaptations, completed a cross stitch, and visited Green Gables (and given that I live in Australia that is quite the journey). I also like a book memoir – for example this one, or this one, or this one. This book was perfect for me.

Here’s the blurb …

A charming and heartwarming true story for anyone who has ever longed for a place to belong.“Anne of Green Gables,” My Daughter, and Me is a witty romp through the classic novel; a visit to the magical shores of Prince Edward Island; and a poignant personal tale of love, faith, and loss.

And it all started with a simple question: “What’s an orphan?” The words from her adopted daughter, Phoebe, during a bedtime reading of Anne of Green Gables stopped Lorilee Craker in her tracks. How could Lorilee, who grew up not knowing her own birth parents, answer Phoebe’s question when she had wrestled all her life with feeling orphaned—and learned too well that not every story has a happy ending?

So Lorilee set off on a quest to find answers in the pages of the very book that started it all, determined to discover—and teach her daughter—what home, family, and belonging really mean. If you loved the poignancy of Orphan Train and the humor of Mennonite in a Little Black Dress, you will be captivated by “Anne of Green Gables,” My Daughter, and Me. It’s a beautiful memoir that deftly braids three lost girls’ stories together, speaks straight to the heart of the orphan in us all, and shows us the way home at last.

This was beautifully written – very heartfelt. I enjoyed how the personal bits interleaved with the Anne of Green Gables bits. It’s about finding family (biological and chosen), and making peace with life’s difficulties.

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February 5, 2025 · 2:20 pm

Camille’s Bread – Amanda Lohrey

Camille’s Bread – Amanda Lohrey

I bought this one in Tasmania (Hobart). I wanted something by a Tasmanian author and I had previously read The Labrinth, so I was familiar with her work.

Here’s the blurb …

After too many nights of takeaway pizzas, Marita wants just one year off to look after her daughter, Camille. then she meets Stephen, a public servant in the complex process of reinventing himself, training as a shiatsu masseur. As their relationship grows, so does the drama of parenting Camille, in this elegantly crafted, warmly appealing novel of contemporary Australian life.

This was a very thoughtful book about relationships; with one’s self, with a romantic partner, parenting, step-parenting, and friendship. It is also about compromise or the lack of compromise.

Stephen is very rigid in his views of the best way to live. He is trying to find ‘poise’ and he thinks it is to do with the body and the body’s energy – how you feed it and how you treat it. He thinks words are the enemy. Marita, on the other hand, is all about words. She has a personal project where she records people talking (telling stories etc.) and then she listens to them and tries to rework them into some kind of prose. Stephen finds Camille’s love of trashy white bread horrifying (all that dead white flour) and is always trying to improve their (Marita and Camille) diet.

Here’s a quote that sums it up for me

In bed that night, Stephen ponders the question of cake. It’s that nurturing hysteria again. Eve took the apple from the Serpent and she’s been making up for it ever since by feeding everyone cake. But when we bake flour it becomes oxidised and oxidation is the Ling process, the beginning of death … of rust, and breaking down. Once again this is a strong materialist position, of the kind Sanjay had warned him against. Of late, he has modified his thinking on this and is inclined to argue now that it’s not the cake as such but what goes into it, the quality of the energy, which includes not only the character of the ingredients but the energy of the cook as well. Marita believes it to be the other way around – what is important is not the reality but the idea.

It’s beautifully written with a visceral sense of place. The minor characters are fabulous and add heft to the story.

A review

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February 3, 2025 · 4:43 pm

The Bad Bridesmaid – Rachael Johns

The Bad Bridesmaid – Rachael Johns

I found this at the Launceston airport and read half of it on the flight home. I enjoyed The Other Bridget, and I had been waiting for this one to be released.

Here’s the blurb …

When serial dater Winifred Darling – Fred – is asked to be the maid of honour at her mother’s sixth wedding, she’s determined to do everything in her power to stop it. As the author of a forthcoming book called 21 Rules for Not Catching Feelings, she knows better than most about the perils of falling in love.
On arrival at the island wedding destination, Fred is delighted to discover that the groom’s hot muso son Leo is just as set against the wedding as she is. Together, they come up with ‘Operation Break-Up’ to prevent their parents from making what they believe will be a catastrophic mistake.
But as Fred and Leo get to know each other better, their unexpected feelings for each other create further complications, and Fred is forced to rethink her own rigid rules about romance and family. Maybe not every relationship has to play by the book, and could Fred become the star in a romcom of her own?
A heart-warming friends-to-lovers romance about the magic and mayhem of weddings – and what happens when everything you thought you knew about love is turned upside down.

I do like a friends-to-lovers romance. I live in Perth, so I enjoyed all of the references to Perth and Fremantle (and I could appreciate the very long flight to London!). It is witty, well-written, and I like the fact that Fred is a ‘player’ and Leo wants to find true love (just flipping the stereotype around a bit).

The Other Bridget is still my favourite, but I thoroughly enjoyed this one.

A review.

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February 1, 2025 · 5:55 pm

Dusk – Robbie Arnott

Dusk – Robbie Arnott

I was going to Tasmania for a holiday and I wanted to read a Tasmanian author (I think Robbie Arnott is from Launceston). I read The Rain Heron, so I was familiar with his work.

Here’s the blurb …

In the distant highlands, a puma named Dusk is killing shepherds. Down in the lowlands, twins Iris and Floyd are out of work, money and friends. When they hear that a bounty has been placed on Dusk, they reluctantly decide to join the hunt. As they journey up into this wild, haunted country, they discover there’s far more to the land and people of the highlands than they imagined. And as they close in on their prey, they’re forced to reckon with conflicts both ancient and deeply personal.

This is set in Australia because there are kangaroos, but I couldn’t say where. I laughed about the pumas being imported to hunt something else introduced, but preferring to eat the sheep instead – very Australian, cane toads anyone?

The descriptions of the landscape are magnificent, and I particularly enjoyed Iris’s connection to the highlands (her sense of peace and stillness).

The conflict between pastoralists and nature, pastoralists and the first people is a feature of this novel, but not in an overt manner (we’re not being beaten over the head here).

It does have an ambiguous ending, but I am imagining everyone happily living in Brazil.

Some quotes

And perhaps it was this mixture of wine and song; perhaps it was the hours spent in the company of cold mountains and still water, perhaps it was her lingering awareness of the ghostly grove surrounding the tavern; perhaps it was because she was momentarily free of Floyd, while knowing he was safe; perhaps it was the fatigue at the end of a hard day; perhaps it was all of it combined that made Iris lean back on her stool and feel a thin but taut connection to these things that were new to her, that were bright and strange, that she did not understand.

But it was not a claustrophobic feeling; there was pleasure in moving through it all, as if she was slowly discovering the right way – or perhaps just her way – to move through an old world.

She felt like a broom had been pulled through her, stiff bristles raking her straight, clean, her mind filling with a sense of unhurried purpose.

That last one in particular! How good is he at putting words together?

A review

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January 7, 2025 · 3:06 pm

Molly – Rosalie Ham

Molly – Rosalie Ham

This was my book flood book. I have read The Dressmaker and scene the movie (Kate Winslet is fabulous – best Australian accent I have heard).

Here’s the blurb …

It’s 1914 and Molly Dunnage wants to see at home, at work and in underwear.

Her burgeoning corsetry business is starting to take off, thanks to some high-profile supporters. She’s marching with Melbourne’s suffragists for better conditions for women everywhere. And her family – her eccentric, confounding, adored father and aunt – are turning their minds to country retirement.

But as the clouds of war gather and an ominous figure starts skulking in the shadows of her life, Molly’s dreams begin to falter. Then, when true love drops out of the sky and into her arms, her hopes for her life and the world are entirely upended.

With the dark humour, richly detailed settings and vividly drawn characters we’ve come to expect from Rosalie Ham, this prequel to the international bestseller The Dressmaker is an unforgettable story of hopes lost, love found – and corsets loosened.

From The Dressmaker, we know the end of Molly’s story, so I was interested in the start. Her family (father and aunt) are delightful, but life is tough, and despite being talented and ambitious, things don’t go well for Molly. I was captivated by the story – the descriptions of poverty, but also joy and comfort, the corsets and costumes, the suffragette movement, the lovely Leander, the flamboyant Horatio, and finally the small mindedness and cruelty of rural Australia. Rosalie Ham is a great writer and this shows a slice of Australia in the early twentieth century just prior to World War One.

This quote really stuck with me, I have a friend who always says ‘you just need someone to love you’.

And all we need in this life is a single friend

A review.

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January 2, 2025 · 3:00 pm

Just for the Summer – Abby Jiminez

Just for the Summer – Abby Jimenez

I have a paper copy and an audible version of this novel – in the end I listened to it.

I have to say I think the cover is misleading – there wasn’t frolicking in the water.

Here’s the blurb …

Justin has a curse, and thanks to a Reddit thread, it’s now all over the internet. Every woman he dates goes on to find their soul mate the second they break up. When a woman slides into his DMs with the same problem, they come up with a plan: They’ll date each other and break up. Their curses will cancel each other’s out, and they’ll both go on to find the love of their lives. It’s a bonkers idea… and it just might work.

Emma hadn’t planned that her next assignment as a traveling nurse would be in Minnesota, but she and her best friend agree that dating Justin is too good of an opportunity to pass up, especially when they get to rent an adorable cottage on a private island on Lake Minnetonka.

It’s supposed to be a quick fling, just for the summer. But when Emma’s toxic mother shows up and Justin has to assume guardianship of his three siblings, they’re suddenly navigating a lot more than they expected–including catching real feelings for each other. What if this time Fate has actually brought the perfect pair together?

I enjoyed this novel, it has more heft than you would expect from the cover. It’s witty, well-written, and moving. It touches on some serious issues – abandonment and mental illness, but does so in a respectful thoughtful manner. And Justin is a fabulous hero.

A review.

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December 28, 2024 · 3:41 pm

Cuddy – Benjamin Myers

Cuddy – Benjamin Myers

As I read and enjoyed The Offing, I was keen to read this one.

Here’s the blurb …

Cuddy is a bold and experimental retelling of the story of the hermit St. Cuthbert, unofficial patron saint of the North of England. Incorporating poetry, prose, play, diary and real historical accounts to create a novel like no other, Cuddy straddles historical eras – from the first Christian-slaying Viking invaders of the holy island of Lindisfarne in the 8th century to a contemporary England defined by class and austerity. Along the way we meet brewers and masons, archers and academics, monks and labourers, their visionary voices and stories echoing through their ancestors and down the ages. And all the while at the centre sits Durham Cathedral and the lives of those who live and work around this place of pilgrimage – their dreams, desires, connections and communities.

This is definitely experimental – each section is written in a different style.

The first part is like the image above, plus there are quotes from (genuine) history books – that are ordered in a way that keeps the story moving.

There’s a section that’s in second person, a play, a diary, and contemporary fiction.

I think it’s successful, an alternative history of Durham Cathedral through the eyes of some of the people involved in its long history.

The writing is beautiful, here are some of my favourite quotes;

Down there, getting grubby on the bed of waxen leaves. Drunk on the flavour. Dizzy on the fist of it. Sweaty in the grip of it. Biting on the bone of it.

Sanctury is granted and the Galilee bell rung to mark the moment, and the seeker then made to wear a robe that bears the yellow sign of our Cuthbert sewn onto one shoulder to show the world the generosity of our saint who offers his home without judgement. The fugitive is then given quarters and food and the time in which to pray for forgiveness, give confession and make peace with himself, then say farewell to the city, for then he is made to leave and guaranteed safe passage by a chaperone acting on the king’s orders.

He made this for you, over many hours, days, many weeks, maybe. You have never before been given something that serves no purpose other than to express – what exactly? Love? His love for you?

Counting imposes a system of order and breaks the day into increments. Counting is a form of control. It is calming, like prayer.

I was a little bit disappointed it the ending. I wanted more for Michael, but I guess that is the point, events (history) moves inexorably forward. This is a fabulous book, full of great detail, characters and descriptions. Written (successfully) in a variety of styles.

A review

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December 16, 2024 · 4:14 pm

I Have Some Questions For You – Rebecca Makkai

I Have Some Questions for You – Rebecca Makkai

I bought this novel last year some time, and then it languished (same old story). I have moved my TBR to a more obvious place and I am hoping that encourages me to read them.

Here’s the blurb …

A successful film professor and podcaster, Bodie Kane is content to forget her past—the family tragedy that marred her adolescence, her four largely miserable years at a New Hampshire boarding school, and the murder of her former roommate, Thalia Keith, in the spring of their senior year. Though the circumstances surrounding Thalia’s death and the conviction of the school’s athletic trainer, Omar Evans, are hotly debated online, Bodie prefers—needs—to let sleeping dogs lie.

But when the Granby School invites her back to teach a course, Bodie is inexorably drawn to the case and its increasingly apparent ?aws. In their rush to convict Omar, did the school and the police overlook other suspects? Is the real killer still out there? As she falls down the very rabbit hole she was so determined to avoid, Bodie begins to wonder if she wasn’t as much of an outsider at Granby as she’d thought—if, perhaps, back in 1995, she knew something that might have held the key to solving the case.

I preferred part one to part two, in fact, part two dragged a bit for me (although there were still surprises). This was a very clever literary crime novel – a young victim, several possible suspects, is an innocent man in gaol? It’s also a boarding school story, and a story about outsiders, plus it comments on the vulnerability of women.

The characters were well-written, and the plot was very believable.

Here are some quotes

Research has always been my happy place. It might be related to my sometime collecting of facts about my peers, an attempt to feel safer by mapping the world.

I have to resist the urge to self-mythologise, to paint my own journey as harder than everyone else’s just so I can give myself credit for getting out.

And then Thalia dies – the way her body had been mangled – the way she had been tossed in the water – the way every girls was just a body to be used, to be discarded – the way that if you had a body, they could grab you – if you had a body, they could destroy you –

A review

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December 8, 2024 · 4:12 pm

The History of Mischief – Rebecca Higgie

The History of Mischief – Rebecca Higgie

I bought this because the cover is beautiful (and it was published by Fremantle Press – a local publisher). It then languished in my TBR until I met the author’s mother and I decided it had to be read.

Here’s the blurb …

When Jessie and her older sister Kay find a book called The History of Mischief, hidden beneath the floorboards in their grandmother’s house, they uncover a secret world. The History chronicles how, since antiquity, mischief-makers have clandestinely shaped the past – from an Athenian slave to a Polish salt miner and from an advisor to the Ethiopian Queen to a girl escaping the Siege of Paris. Jessie becomes enthralled by the book and by her own mission to determine its accuracy.

Soon the History inspires Jessie to perform her own acts of mischief, unofficially becoming mischief-maker number 202 in an effort to cheer up her eccentric neighbour, Mrs Moran, and to comfort her new schoolfriend, Theodore. However, not everything is as it seems. As Jessie delves deeper into the real story behind the History, she realises it holds many secrets and unravelling them might be the biggest mischief of all.

I loved all of the references to Western Australia – Guildford (I know that war memorial), the lighthouse near Augusta (I have been up it several times – so windy).

This is beautifully written – we have a chapter from Jessie (our 9 year old heroine) and then a story from The History of Mischief. Jessie lives with her older sister Kay in their Grand mother’s house (she is in a nursing home). Jessie’s grieving and a bit lost and the History provides direction. She researches the characters and places she reads about in it. I enjoyed these sections, particularly the Paris and Ethiopian sections.

Some of my favourite quotes

Some of the stories are sad because people or animals die and lots of princesses have to marry the heroes, even though no one asks them if they want to.

One’s own language never feels foreign. It is the language we start to speak before we form memories. It is the script we use to think, to dream, to feel.

To me this was about taking life’s experiences turning them into something good and joyful. About healing through story telling.

A review.

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November 30, 2024 · 12:07 pm

La Vie N’est Pas Un Roman De Susan Cooper – Stéphane Carlier

La Vie N’est Pas Un Roman De Susan Cooper – Stéphane Carlier

I have been learning french for a long time. I started at Alliance Française, and then Duolingo (I finished the French ‘tree’) and now Lingoda. While I was in Paris, I bought this novel. I struggled a bit because my vocabulary is not extensive, but I think I understood and appreciated the story.

Here’s the blurb …

Susan Cooper, romancière britannique établie à Paris, écrit des polars lus dans le monde entier. Alors qu’elle s’apprête à se rendre au Salon du livre de Monaco, une jeune femme qu’elle ne connaît pas la contacte via Instagram et lui annonce qu’elle a tué un homme quelques heures plus tôt. Que répondre à cet étrange message ? D’ailleurs, faut-il y répondre ? Le plus sage serait sans doute de l’ignorer. Mais, c’est bien connu, les écrivains sont par nature des gens curieux…

I will try to translate

Susan Cooper, a British novelist living in Paris, writes crime novels read all over the world. While she was getting ready to go to the Salon of Books Of Monaco, a young woman who she didn’t know contacted her via Instragam and she announces that she had killed a man a few hours earlier. How to respond to this strange message. Besides was it necessary to respond? The prudent thing would be without a doubt to ignore it. But it is well-Known that writers are by nature curious people …

It took me a while to read it, I started in August. The plot was interesting, but my french is not good enough to comment on the writing. I did enjoy increasing my vocabulary, particularly with words and phrases more informal than you learn in class.

Now I am reading La Vie Pourrie d’Ellie by Lucy Vine. I found my copy at the local school fête. I think it is an english novel translated into french.

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