Category Archives: Recommended Reading

Best Wishes by Richard Glover

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When I purchased my copy of Richard Glover’s latest book Best Wishes, I set myself up in my favourite chair on the decking and didn’t really move again until I was finished the whole book.

Best Wishes was an enjoyable, relatable, laugh out loud read. Filled with Richard Glover’s usual wit, sass, and humour. I found myself wishing (excuse the pun) for another few hundred wishes. Somehow, 365 didn’t feel like nearly enough.

If you are looking for the perfect book to lose yourself in on a sunny Saturday morning in your favourite spot, then Best Wishes is that book. I guarantee you will feel a warm glow inside when you have finished.

Should you enjoy Best Wishes as much as I did, do yourself a favour and listen to the eAudiobook version; narrated by Richard Glover himself, it is brilliant! I read the book and listened to eAudiobook.

Listen to this book online [Borrow Box]

If you enjoy Richard Glover’s books as much as I do then why not pop along to his Author Talk on Saturday 18th November 2023 at Parramatta Library at PHIVE.

Happy reading everyone, I hope you all enjoy Best Wishes as much as I did.

Jody

Popular Australian Reads 2023

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What great Australian authors have you discovered this year?

There is nothing we like better here at City of Parramatta Libraries than discussing and recommending Australian authors to our community of readers. Below is just a small selection of some of our current favourites.

Enjoy!

Seven days by Fleur Ferries

Winner of Best Young Adult novel, 2023 Davitt Awards.

When Ben is dumped with his country relatives for the holidays, he starts counting down the days until it is over, loathing every second.

However, Ben’s stay takes a sharp turn when he comes across his great-great grandfather’s journal – the final entry being from one hundred years ago, right after he was shot. With his cousin, Josh, Ben starts unravelling mysteries, lies and shocking crimes. Can the two boys beat the odds to resolve a century of bad blood between two families?

Fleur Ferries diverse background as a Paramedic and Police Officer has provided a unique narrative into current society.

https://www.penguin.com.au/books/seven-days-9781761043352

Stone town by Margaret Hickey

With its gold-rush history long in the past, Stone Town has seen better days. And it’s now in the headlines for all the wrong reasons . . .

When three teenagers stumble upon a body in dense bushland one rainy Friday night, Senior Sergeant Mark Ariti’s hopes for a quiet posting in his old home town are shattered. The victim is Aidan Sleeth, a property developer, whose controversial plan to buy up local land means few are surprised he ended up dead.

However, his gruesome murder is overshadowed by a mystery consuming the entire nation: the disappearance of Detective Sergeant Natalie Whitsed.

Natalie had been investigating the celebrity wife of crime boss Tony ‘The Hook’ Scopelliti when she vanished. What did she uncover? Has it cost her her life? And why are the two Homicide detectives, sent from the city to run the Sleeth case, so obsessed with Natalie’s fate?

Following a late-night call from his former boss, Mark is sure of one thing: he’s now in the middle of a deadly game . . .

Margaret Hickey is a playwright & author who has a strong interest in rural communities.

https://www.penguin.com.au/books/stone-town-9781761048692

The all of it by Cadance Bell

Seven years ago, Ben was loveless, overweight, in debt and living in his parents’ rumpus room, trying to find a way to quietly die. Days passed by in a haze of marijuana smoke and self-loathing. Then, one day, Ben decided not to die. He decided to change everything – starting with the Ben bit. Becoming Cadance would be more than a gender transition. It would be a transition in every way. It would mean leaving behind a rural Mudgee childhood filled with Frogger, hot chips, Godliness, and a forbidden love of Sarah Parker’s My Little Pony; and the violence, drugs and secrecy that plagued her twenties. Choosing to live was just the beginning; what mattered was how she existed.

Cadance Bell is a storyteller whose various pieces have appeared in The Guardian, popular blogs – ‘Rainbow Roo’ and ‘I miss pockets’. Documentaries to explore include ‘Rainbow Passage’ and ‘Who I am’. Candances’ hobbies and interests include playing Pokemon Go and eating burritos.

https://www.penguin.com.au/books/the-all-of-it-9781761045028

Believe by Sam Frost

Believe a mental health initiative created by Sam Frost and supported by her sister Krister is an online community forum inclusive to everyone focussing on mental health subjects as depression, anxiety, unhealthy relationships and dealing with the challenges of social media.

Believe has progressed from an online community forum into a great book!

In Believe, Sam shares her own experiences navigating dark mental health periods and, alongside Kristine’s own insights, offers warm, gentle inspiration and tips to help you come through to the other side of your own. Believe is a personal story, a battle cry and a reassurance for the many of Sam’s fans who have struggled as she has.

https://www.believebysamfrost.com/about

https://www.hachette.com.au/book/believe

Book Review Silver

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Chris Hammer

Synopsis

For half a lifetime, journalist Martin Scarsden has run from his past. But now there is no escaping.

He’d vowed never to return to his hometown, Port Silver, and its traumatic memories. But now his new partner, Mandy Blonde, has inherited an old house in the seaside town and Martin knows their chance of a new life together won’t come again.

Martin arrives to find his best friend from school days has been brutally murdered, and Mandy is the chief suspect. With the police curiously reluctant to pursue other suspects, Martin goes searching for the killer. And finds the past waiting for him.

He’s making little progress when a terrible new crime starts to reveal the truth. The media descend on Port Silver, attracted by a story that has it all: sex, drugs, celebrity and religion. Once again, Martin finds himself in the front line of reporting.

Yet the demands of deadlines and his desire to clear Mandy are not enough: the past is ever present.

Comments

A page-turning thrilling crime novel set on the NSW East Coast of Australia, where Chris Hammers’ character Martin, from his previous book, Scrublands, grew up. His partner Mandy, inherits a house in the same town, prompting their move. They attempt to start a new life together, but when Martin arrives, he finds the dead body of a childhood friend. And Mandy seems to be the main suspect!

This clever style of writing draws the reader in from the start, wanting to know who did it! However, in order for Martin to solve the mystery he must confront his past. We meet a plethora of characters along the way, people that Martin had grown up with and people who have arrived while he was away being an award-winning journalist. All of which, kept us turning pages, eager to find more clues. We feel the ending may have been a little over thought; got a little confusing around the second murder. However, we still really enjoyed this book.   Another great holiday read for us!

Rating – 8/10

Read by Cultcha Club

Book Review A Spool of Blue Thread

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Anne Tyler

Summary

This is the way Abby Whitshank always begins the story of how she and Red fell in love that summer’s day in 1959. The whole family on the porch, half-listening as their mother tells the same tale they have heard so many times before.

From that porch we spool back through the generations, witnessing the events, secrets and unguarded moments that have come to define the family. From Red’s father and mother, newly arrived in Baltimore in the 1920s, to Abby and Red’s grandchildren carrying the family legacy boisterously into the twenty-first century – four generations of Whitshanks, their lives unfolding in and around the sprawling, lovingly worn Baltimore house that has always been their home…

Comments

Many of our readers really enjoyed this book while some were disappointed by the structure of the story. There was real division within our readers with this structural format.

The story centres around three generations of the Whitshank family and the house in which they live in Baltimore. The Whitshanks are an average family and the house itself is presented as a real character in the book. Each generation’s connection to the house is quite well detailed and each of the key inhabitant’s special feelings toward the house outlined.

Most readers agreed the book is well written. The author’s use of dialogue was excellent and the attention to descriptive character detail all throughout the book was very good. Some readers were transported easily to the time and place in the story while other readers found the abrupt transitions in time confusing and irritating, distracting them from the story line.

Some readers also found the story line laboured on and on at times and was really not taking them to anywhere that they felt was interesting.

There was also a feeling by many that the story had an anticlimactic ending with some readers feeling unfulfilled by the story.

There is definite humour frequently throughout the book and moments that are emotionally very touching. There is also one very big shock incident in the middle of the book that none of us saw coming.

For those readers who had read Anne Tyler before it was a good book but not her best.

Many readers however did enjoy the story, the characters involved and the descriptive skill of the writer.

A recommended read.

Read by MJ Readers

Book Review Apples Never Fall

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by Liane Moriarty

Summary

From the outside, the Delaneys appear to be an enviably contented family. Even after all these years, former tennis coaches Joy and Stan are still winning tournaments, and now that they’ve sold the family business they have all the time in the world to learn how to ‘relax’. Their four adult children are busy living their own lives, and while it could be argued they never quite achieved their destinies, no-one ever says that out loud.

But now Joy Delaney has disappeared and her children are re-examining their parents’ marriage and their family history with fresh, frightened eyes. Is her disappearance related to their mysterious house guest from last year? Or were things never as rosy as they seemed in the Delaney household?

Comments

A long and rather tedious family saga/ psychological thriller. The Delaney family appear to be a normal happy family however when the mother, Joy, suddenly disappears the whole family is scrutinised and their underlying characters are revealed and found wanting. Has Joy been murdered and if so is her husband Stan the killer? To complicate matters a young woman named Savannah arrives on the Delaney’s doorstep in the middle of the night in a distressed state. She has apparently been injured by her partner and has nowhere to go. Joy allows her to stay with them despite opposition from her four adult children and lukewarm suport from her husband.

The background of the Delaney’s obsession with tennis is a crucial factor in the relationship between Stan and Joy and the lives of their four children. They met at a tennis club and went on to own a coaching school. All the children played from an early age and were expected to be champions. Such pressure to succeed has blighted the lives of all four of them in various ways.

One suspects throughout that Savannah is in some way responsible for Joy’s disappearance but we are kept waiting, not in nail biting suspense, but wishing that the end is in sight. When it comes however, like all good fairy tales, the family all live happily ever after and the wicked witch Savannah has the satisfaction of slaying the dragon who ruined her life.

The underlying theme of the damage caused by ambitious parents imposing their dreams of fame and  success on their offspring is a positive in this otherwise rather ordinary novel.

Read by Dundas Readers