Category Archives: Recommended Reading

What days are for

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what days are for

What days are for by Robert Dessaix

 

Abstract

One Sunday night in Sydney, Robert Dessaix collapses in a gutter in Darlinghurst, and is helped to his hotel by a kind young man wearing a T-shirt that says F… YOU. What follows are weeks in hospital, tubes and cannulae puncturing his body, as he recovers from the heart attack threatening daily to kill him. While lying in the hospital bed, Robert chances upon Philip Larkin’s poem ‘Days’. What, he muses, have his days been for? What and who has he loved ? and why? This is vintage Robert Dessaix. His often surprisingly funny recollections range over topics as eclectic as intimacy, travel, spirituality, enchantment, language and childhood, all woven through with a heightened sense of mortality.

Comments

Collapsed on a pavement, Robert Dessaix was helped by a young man wearing a t-shirt that says F… YOU and a hotel staff member. He suffered a major heart attack but thanks to those kind people, he was saved. Continue reading →

The Yellow Birds

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The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers

 

Abstract

“The war tried to kill us in the spring,” begins this breathtaking account of friendship and loss. In Al Tafar, Iraq, twenty-one-year old Private Bartle and eighteen-year-old Private Murphy cling to life as their platoon launches a bloody battle for the city. In the endless days that follow, the two young soldiers do everything to protect each other from the forces that press in on every side: the insurgents, physical fatigue, and the mental stress that comes from constant danger. Bound together since basic training when their tough-as-nails Sergeant ordered Bartle to watch over Murphy, the two have been dropped into a war neither is prepared for. As reality begins to blur into a hazy nightmare, Murphy becomes increasingly unmoored from the world around him and Bartle takes impossible actions.

Comments

Took a while to get into the book but enjoyed it. Very good portrayal of what it means to go to war and the consequences. Sterling was a very interesting character. Heart of gold but very rough exterior. Continue reading →

Chasing Tomorrow

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chasing tomorrowChasing Tomorrow

Sidney Sheldon and Tilly Bagshawe

Abstract
Sequel to ‘If tomorrow comes’.
Tracy Whitney never thought she wanted to settle down. With her suave and handsome partner, Jeff Stevens, she’d been responsible for some of the world’s most astounding heists, relishing the danger and intensity of life on the wild side. But there is still one thing missing from Tracy’s perfect life: a baby. At first “going straight” feels like a new adventure. But as the months pass and Tracy’s longed for pregnancy doesn’t happen, she finds herself yearning for the adrenaline rush of the old days. When a mysterious and beautiful stranger enters their lives, Tracy and Jeff’s once unbreakable partnership is suddenly blown wide open.

Comments
Sidney Sheldon’s ‘Chasing Tomorrow’ makes good reading for a person who is after ‘sitting on the edge of a cliff’ feeling. Just when you have thought that you have crossed an escarpment, there is already another one lined up. The cleverly crafted heists with generous dozes of suspense, revenge and breathtaking twists are a delight to read.

I would strongly recommend this book not only because it is gripping, but also because it is so full of passion that you fall in love with the characters in this book.

Read by – Anse

2 States: the story of my marriage

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2 states2 States: the story of my marriage

Chetan Bhagat

Abstract
Welcome to 2 States, a story about Krish and Ananya. They are from two different states of India, deeply in love and want to get married. Of course, their parents don’t agree. To convert their love story into a love marriage, the couple have a tough battle in front of them. For it is easy to fight and rebel, but it is much harder to convince. Will they make it?

Comments

This book by Chetan Bhagat vividly portrays the struggles of many young people caught in inter-caste marriages in India. In a country, where love marriages are frowned upon and arranged marriages are the norm, Chetan’s hilarious depiction of the trials and tribulations faced by Krish & Ananya is a treat for the readers.

Chetan’s style of writing is commendable in that he has the knack to get down to the character’s level. Even non-writers get inspired and motivated by his style. So turn to Chetan’s books if you want to read something that is easy to comprehend, hilarious from the start to finish. To sum up, his books are filled with all the essential ingredients that make a great novel.

Read by – Anse

Losing Kate

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Losing Kate by Kylie Kaden

Summary

This mesmerising debut is part love story, part mystery, telling the captivating story of two lovers torn apart by tragedy and the secrets they kept of one devastating night.

I’m the most authentic version of myself when I’m around Jack. We’ve known each other since we were kids, and our relationship was always one of mudpies and mocking.

Then everything changed.

Beautiful Kate, my best friend, disappeared on a moonlit beach after Jack dumped her for me. Jack was a suspect and, sure of his innocence, I lied to protect him. I know Jack didn’t kill her. Our betrayal did.

Thirteen years later, I am thirty, childless and single, attempting to renovate my life rescuing a rundown worker’s cottage. All is as it should be in my safe little world – until Jack buys the vacant lot behind my house… and the feelings that we buried all those years ago – the guilt, the love and the pain – resurface.

We can’t keep running away from the past – and to move forward we have to know what really happened to Kate.

Comments

What a FANTASTIC book! I can’t believe it is a debut novel.

I couldn’t stop reading it and finished it in one sitting.

The author very skillfully switches between past and present, pulling you from one time to the other at just the right moment.

This book has everything a great book should have; interesting plot, great characters, romance, mystery and family ties.

A MUST read.

Another great addition to enjoyable Aussie Fiction.

Read by

Jody

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