Stella Prize Longlist 2014 & Shortlist

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We are thrilled to know the 2014 Stella Prize longlist has been announced:

Letter to George Clooney by Debra Adelaide

Moving Among Strangers by Gabrielle Carey

Burial Rites by Hannah Kent (shortlisted)

Night Games by Anna Krien (shortlisted)

Mullumbimby by Melissa Lucashenko

The Night Guest by Fiona McFarlane (shortlisted)

Boy, Lost by Kristina Olsson (shortlisted)

The Misogyny Factor by Anne Summers

Madeleine by Helen Trinca

The Swan Book by Alexis Wright (shortlisted)

The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka by Clare Wright (shortlisted)

All the Birds, Singing by Evie Wyld

For more details you can look up

http://thestellaprize.com.au/the-stella-prize/2014-2/longlist-2014/

Book Review – The Sultan’s Eyes

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aaaThe Sultan’s Eyes by Kelly Gardiner

Young Adult Fiction

BOOK SUMMARY

The year is 1648 and life in Venice is serene for Isabella Hawkins and her friends Willem, Al-Qasim and Signora Contarini. Together they publish fine books like the controversial encyclopaedia, The Sum of All Knowledge.

When a new Inquisitor declares war on free speech however, they are forced to flee across the seas to the wondrous capital of the Ottoman Empire, Constantinople, which is ruled by the infamous Sultanate of the Women.

Old friends and new, including the boy Sultan and his sister, welcome them to the world’s greatest city. But Isabella is soon entangled in poisonous palace intrigues, while her friends secretly play perilous games of their own.

The fascinating and page-turning sequel to Act of Faith, which was shortlisted for the 2012 NSW Premier’s Literary awards, the 2012 Gold Inky awards and highly commended in the 2012 Barbara Jefferies Awards.

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Book Review – Act of Faith

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aaaAct of Faith by Kelly Gardiner

Young Adult Fiction

 

 

BOOK SUMMARY

England, 1640. Sixteen-year-old Isabella is forced to flee her home when her father’s radical ideas lead him into a suicidal stand against Oliver Cromwell’s army. Taking refuge in Amsterdam and desperate to find a means to survive, Isabella finds work with an elderly printer, Master de Aquila, and his enigmatic young assistant, Willem. When Master de Aquila travels to Venice to find a publisher brave enough to print his daring new book, Isabella accompanies him and discovers a world of possibility – where women work alongside men as equal partners, and where books and beliefs are treasured. But in a continent torn apart by religious intolerance, constant danger lurks for those who don’t watch their words. And when the agents of the Spanish Inquisition kidnap de Aquila to stop him printing his book, Isabella and Willem become reluctant allies in a daring chase across Europe to rescue him from certain death.

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