Uplifting Reads

Can you believe it is February already? Time definitely seems to be moving along quickly in 2021.

Most people are back at work, the kids are back at school, and that relaxing holiday vibe seems like so long ago now. You might even be feeling a bit blah, I know I am missing my extra reading and craft time. Which prompted me to search for a nice uplifting book to read.

This means, I did what I normally do when I am looking for something to read, I asked my colleagues for their suggestions and I am so glad I did because now I have a huge list of books I can turn to when I just want to read something that makes me smile!

If you, like me are finding you need a little lift, why not check out some of the ‘Uplifting Stories’ below.

Happy Reading!

Jody

Keeping Mum by James Gould- Bourn

When We Were Vikings by Andrew MacDonald

The Other Bennett Sister by Janice Hadlow

The Rearranged Life of Oona Lockhart by Margarita Montimore

The Cake Maker’s Wish by Josephine Moon

The Authenticity Project by Clare Pooley

The Family Holiday by Elizabeth Noble

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

The Jetsetters by Amanda Ward

Come Again by Robert Webb

Death and Other Happy Endings by Melanie Cantor

Finding Henry Applebee by Celia Reynolds

Reasons to be Cheerful by Nina Stibbe

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb

Joyful: The Art of Finding Happiness All Around You by Ingrid Fetell

One Day in December by Josie Silver

Goodbye, Vitamin by Rachel Khong

The One Plus One by Jojo Moyes

The Light Years by Elizabeth Jane Howard

Crooked Heart by Lissa Evans

The Switch by Beth O’Leary

Five Steps to Happy by Ella Dove

Parra Reads Book Club Wrap-Up & September Pick!

I made it! Finally managed to finish one book club title for August just before we reach the end of the month. I am so happy with myself. I literally just finished reading ‘Six Minutes‘ by Petronella McGovern and thought to my self I had to hop straight onto Parra Reads and write about it.

If you haven’t already guessed by the tone of my writing, I thoroughly enjoyed it. In fact there wasn’t one section through the whole flow of the book that I did not enjoy. Sometimes when I finish a book and even though I have enjoyed it there are often some characters or story lines that I am not interested in. This wasn’t the case with ‘Six Minutes’, every character and every story line interested me and was relevant to the whole story.

On the cover of ‘Six Minutes’ best selling author Liane Moriarty describes the book as, ‘Impossible to put down. Full of twists and turns you won’t see coming! I loved this fabulous debut novel.’ I would have to agree with that description but I also think it is also so much more.

The setting, characters and their lives felt so real, like you are a part of the story watching the news or browsing through your Facebook feed. I haven’t experienced that with a book in a long time. Halfway through ‘Six Minutes’, I jumped online and ordered a copy of Petronella’s new book ‘The Good Teacher’, don’t worry we have ordered library copies too.

I am still reading our second August title, ‘Stranger Country‘ by Monica Tan. So far I am finding it an interesting and enjoyable read. I especially like reading about the Australian landscape.

To read something totally different in September we have chosen ‘A Thousand Ships‘ by Natalie Hayes which is a retelling of the Trojan War from an all-female perspective. And this month to take the pressure off everyone we will only be reading one book.

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Stella Prize Winner 2020

Congratulations! 2020 ‘Stella Prize’ Winner Jess Hill for her novel ‘See What You Made Me Do: Power, Control and Domestic Abuse’.

The ‘Stella Prize’ is one of our favourtie awards here at City of Parramatta Libraries. With each year being a celebration of the talent and quality of Australian women’s writing in our every growing community of Australian Writers.

Each year the ‘Parra Reads Group’ of book-crazy Librarian’s get together and read all the books that make it to the ‘Stella’ shortlist and of course discuss each one. For the past two years we have featured that discussion on our podcast, Parra Pods. This year in episode 33 Nisa and Sandra read and discussed ‘See What You Made Me Do’; which stood out among the other titles as a “gripping & essential read”. I can remember Nisa very passionately telling anyone who would listen that they had to read ‘See What You Made Me Do’.

If you missed our special ‘Stella Prize’ episode of Parra Pods you can listen anytime on Podbean, Apple Podcasts and Google Play, or here!

As a special promotion for Book Clubs and our wider reading community, ‘See What You Made Me Do’ is available as an eBook with NO WAITING, NO HOLDS! Available to download from our rbDigital app. Just download the app to start ‘Reading Together’, at home!

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Book Review – The Lost Man by Jane Harper

Jane Harper’s books continue to be popular among our City of Parramatta Libraries book clubs. With all three titles out each month. In February Cultcha Club book club read ‘The Lost Man’, and thoroughly enjoyed it! Which is great because they have waited very patiently for their turn.

Happy Reading!

A twisted tale that kept us guessing all the way through. Lots of twists and turns with a few red herrings that kept the pages turning. We absolutely loved it! Now the third book of Jane Harper’s that we have read and thoroughly enjoyed.

Harper knows how to sell the scene. A wonderful turns of phrase that makes the reader feel the environment as if they were living it. In ‘Force of Nature’, we could feel the closeness and density of the forest, and in ‘The Lost Man’, we could feel the heat and remoteness of the Queensland outback. The unrelenting heat and neighbours that are three hours way.

We loved the relationships between all the characters, and the way their secrets unfolded. How our opinions of each of them changed as they changed and grew throughout the book. In particular, we loved the story lines and relationship between Nathan and his son, Xander.

We loved this book! Highly recommended!

8.5/10

Cultcha Club

Available as eBook from our BorrowBox Library

Available as eAudiobook from our rbDigital Library

Parra Pods – Episode 30 – What is a Romance Novel?

Episode 30 – What is a Romance Novel?

Stories of love – romantic love – have been entertaining people for thousands of years. Shared through the written medium, stories within the romance genre have been one of the biggest publishing phenomena of the last century.

Join Katherine and Nisa as they discuss this vast and unwieldy category of books, home to a variety of sub-genres ranging from paranormal romance, fantasy romance and historical romance to contemporary romance,  (possibly) chick lit, erotic romance and religious/Christian romance novels. 

Books discussed include:

Pride and Prejudice / Jane Austen. T. Egerton, 1813

Love in the time of cholera / Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Alfred A Knopf, 1988 [originally publisher in Spanish in 1985]

Pride, prejudice and other flavours / Sonali Dev. Harper Collins, May 2019

Outlander / Diana Gabaldon. Delacorte Books, 1991.