Tag Archives: book review

Book Review Apples Never Fall

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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

We really enjoyed this book.  The Joy and Stan Delaney are recently retired after running a tennis school for many years, when Joy suddenly goes missing.  Forcing her four children, to face up to whether their father could possibly have anything to do with her disappearance. Liane Moriarty knows to write about families and all their complexities.  We can never really know what goes on when everyone else goes home.  While for the most part we enjoyed the way the story unravelled, flipping from ‘past’ to ‘now’, at times we did get a little confused.  We loved all the little character stories and how they all came together in the end, linking back to the main story.  Definitely a more engaging read than her last novel.  We would definitely recommend this book. 

Rating 7/10 read by Cultcha Club

Book Review The Lost Man

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The Lost Man by Jane Harper

Summary

The man lay still in the centre of a dusty grave under a monstrous sky.Two brothers meet at the stockman’s grave, a landmark so old, no one can remember who is buried there. But today, the scant shadow it casts was the last hope for their middle brother, Cameron.Something had been troubling him. Did Cameron choose to walk to his death? Because if he didn’t, the isolation of the outback leaves few suspects…For readers who loved The Dry and Force of Nature, Jane Harper has once again created a powerful story of suspense, set against a dazzling landscape.

Comments

A well written and suspenseful mystery. The protagonist, Nathan, is the
eldest of three sons in a family on a vast and isolated cattle station
in far outback Queensland. When the body of the second son, Cameron, is
found near the grave of a stock man, three generations of the
family and three workers are aware that someone knows more than they are
admitting. Was Cameron really the upstanding family man and successful
property manager he seemed to be? The history of this family is slowly revealed as the story progresses. The author captured the sense of isolation as well as the atmosphere of the Australian outback.                                                                                                               We all enjoyed this well-paced story which keeps you guessing until the very end.

Read by Dundas Readers

Book Club Review The Book Ninja

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The Book Ninja – Ali Berg & Michelle Kalus

Summary

Frankie Rose is desperate for love. Or a relationship. Or just a date with a semi-normal person will do.It’s not that she hasn’t tried. She’s the queen of online dating. But enough is enough. Inspired by her job at The Little Brunswick Street Bookshop, Frankie decides to take fate into her own hands and embarks on the ultimate love experiment. Her plan? Plant her favourite books on trains inscribed with her contact details in a bid to lure the sophisticated, charming and well-read man of her dreams. Enter Sunny, and one spontaneous kiss later, Frankie begins to fall for him. But there’s just one problem – Frankie is strictly a classics kind of gal, and Sunny is really into Young Adult. Like really. A clever, funny and wryly observed story about books and discovering who you really are.

Comments

The Book Ninja is not a book that we would recommend. Although it began well with some excellent writing it was not maintained throughout the novel. We found the idea of leaving the books on trains interesting, but the story seemed to morph into teen angst with the search for a boyfriend. We found the characters shallow, self absorbed and, at times, ridiculous. We also felt there was a lot of ‘book snobbery’ when discussing young adult novels.

Read by MJ Reader

Book Review A Man Called Ove

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A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

Summary

At first sight, Ove is almost certainly the grumpiest man you will ever meet. He thinks himself surrounded by idiots –  neighbours who can’t reverse a trailer properly, joggers, shop assistants who talk in code, and the perpetrators of the vicious coup d’etat that ousted him as Chairman of the Residents’ Association. He will persist in making his daily inspection rounds of the local streets.But isn’t it rare, these days, to find such old-fashioned clarity of belief and deed? Such unswerving conviction about what the world should be, and a lifelong dedication to making it just so?In the end, you will see, there is something about Ove that is quite irresistible…

Comments

A Man Called Ove was loved by each member of our book club. At its heart it is an unconventional love story that gradually reveals itself and enfolds you in its beautifully crafted characters. Ove is perceived as a ‘grumpy old man’, routine driven, friendless, mourning the loss of his wife. When a family moves into his community they have an immediate impact on his life and the true, caring Ove emerges. This is a story where one sentence can make you cry and laugh at the same time. It is tragic but hopeful and humourous.

We recommend it – MJ Readers

Book Review First Person

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Dundas Readers recently read….

First Person by Richard Flanagan

About the Book

Kif Kehlmann, a young penniless writer, is rung in the middle of the night by the notorious con man and corporate criminal, Siegfried Heidl. About to go to trial for defrauding the banks of $700 million, Heidl offers Kehlmann the job of ghostwriting his memoir. He has six weeks to write the book, for which he’ll be paid $10,000.But as the writing gets under way, Kehlmann begins to fear that he is being corrupted by Heidl. As the deadline draws closer, he becomes ever more unsure if he is ghostwriting a memoir, or if Heidl is rewriting him – his life, his future. Everything that was certain grows uncertain as he begins to wonder: who is Siegfried Heidl – and who is Kif Kehlmann?As time runs out, one question looms above all others: what is the truth?By turns compelling, comic, and chilling, this is a haunting journey into the heart of our age.

Book Club Comments

A combination of history, satire and autobiography by accomplished Tasmanian writer Richard Flanagan. Aspiring young author, Kif Kehlmann is contacted in the middle of the night by a notorious corporate fraudster, Siegfried Heidl to take on the job of ghost writing his autobiography in only six weeks.  With a wife and young daughter and twins on the way, the ten thousand dollar fee seems too good to miss so he flies to Melbourne to meet Heidl and his publishers and begin work. However, it soon becomes clear that Heidl is a manipulative liar who has cheated the banks out of millions of dollars and may even be a killer.


Kif becomes more desperate as time passes and he is no closer to learning anything useful about Heidl although his boyhood friend Ray, who has worked with him provides some possible insights into his murky background. After pages and pages of exasperating, repetitive attempts to understand this thoroughly obnoxious man and the increasing hold he has over him, most readers would give up on these very unlikeable characters. On reflection however, I realised that Flanagan had cleverly succeeded in bringing out in the reader the very feelings Kif is struggling with!

In a last ditch attempt to get some answers to specific questions and a signed document to allow the publishing of the proposed book, Kif travels to Heidl’s remote house and an inevitable violent, bloody showdown results in Heidl’s death.  However, as we learn in the remaining chapters of the book, Kif cannot free himself from the pernicious influence of Heidl. His marriage to the only sympathetic character, his wife Suzy, eventually fails and he moves from Tasmania to work in television as a writer and producer of “pulp” television. He is professionally successful and wealthy but in his quiet moments he knows that he is nothing other than a pale copy of the immoral and hated con man Heidl.

This complex novel may be admired as a literary tour de force but it’s certainly not light and enjoyable reading!