Tag Archives: book review

Julie Braithwaite – Author of the month

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To finish off a great program of interesting and diverse author talks for 2012, our last one for the year promises to be very entertaining.

Don’t miss it! 

Thursday 15th November 2012 @ 1-2pm

Parramatta City Library

1B Civic Place, Parramatta

FREE – Bookings. Ph: 9806 5159

 

 

ARE YOU BORED AND LOOKING FOR AN ADVENTURE?

Switching Suits – The Year I became a Poker Shark might be just what you need.

 Julie Braithwaite is a respected clinical psychologist and a single mum of two. Her life was safe, conventional and dull. Until one night she inadvertently tuned into Celebrity Poker on TV and her life was dramatically changed.

THIS IS NOT ABOUT PROBLEM GAMBLING!

It’s about revitalising your life. You’re never too old to take up a new hobby to venture outside your comfort zone.

 

Second Tuesday Reading Group read The happiest refugee by Anh Do

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A memoir of a young family that escapes from Vietnam, the book tracks their journey to Australia and their experiences “settling in” to Australia.

The group knew Anh Do as a comedian and knew parts of his story so were keen to read the “full story”. The book was as funny as expected and extremely easy to read. We all wanted to keep reading and got absorbed by the storylines.

Anh Do’s most admirable quality is his positivity and ability to be thankful or see value in all his experiences.

Some readers thought that the negative and difficult experiences may have been glossed over, but as he is a comedian, the writer wanted to keep the book funny and “happy”.

Readers were surprised at the lack of racism that Anh says he wasn’t exposed to. All readers thoroughly enjoyed the book and highly recommend it.

Sweet tooth – book review

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Author: Ian McEwan

Title: Sweet tooth

 Yan’s pick

 Young, innocent, gorgeous and recently graduated fromCambridge, Serena is recruited by MI5. But she finds herself in a low paid job and the income hardly enough even to purchase hardcopy books. She’s determined to stay on and tries to make it through dull tasks every day.

 That’s why she’s grateful and excited when one day she’s interviewed and given a spy task, codenamed ‘Sweet tooth’ by the guys from the top floor. The job is simple. The top bosses want her to see a new writer, TH Haley. MI5 wants to fund writers like Haley to write for their cause. It’s 1972 and the Cold War is on with the propaganda machine in full swing. Continue reading →

Ist Wednesday book group read Where men win glory by Jon Krakauer

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The group discussed how this was a very interesting book which focuses on the policies of the Bush Government, and how that government manipulated the incident of Pat Tillman’s death.

The history of Afghanistan over the last 100 years is very well researched and presented.

The subject of the biography, Pat Tillman, was a man of incredible integrity who was not pro-war but felt it was his patriotic duty to fight for his country. The cause of his death was due to an army bungle which was covered up by the administration.

Continue reading →

Book review: Hour of the wolf by Hakan Nesser

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Title: Hour of the wolf

Author: Hakan Nesser

 Yan’s pick

 He drives home, very drunk. Then he runs over a 16 years old boy on the road. The boy is dead.

 Under the cover of midnight’s darkness and heavy rain, he thinks he can get away with the hit and run. True, the police scramble and desperately ask for public help and the driver to come forward.

 Then he receives a blackmail letter which demands money for silence. Continue reading →