Fly, Wild Swans
Jung Chang
Reviewed by Wendy Tucker
This is the long-awaited sequel to Wild Swans, published in 1991 to worldwide acclaim. Wild Swans told the story of three generations of Chinese women, Chang’s grandmother, her mother and herself and interwove the modern history of China into these very personal memoirs. This was the first insight that most of the West had into the cruelty, terror and insanity of China under … Read more »
Memorial Days
by Geraldine Brooks
Memorial Days is a memoir about grief by one of our most admired contemporary women writers. Memorial Day, the last Monday in May, is an American public holiday to remember those who died in wars. On Memorial Day in 2019, prize-winning author, Australian- American Geraldine Brooks, received a phone call that would forever change her. Brooks was working intensely and was halfway through her novel Horse, and so … Read more »
Funga Obscura:
Photo journeys among fungi
by Alison Pouliot
Reviewed by Annette Kennewell
Alison Pouliot, a world-famous expert on fungi, is coming back to the Triangle area to launch her new book during the Fungi Feastival on 20 June at the Bermagui Community Hall at 6.00 pm.
Alison spends a lot of time on forest … Read more »
by Raynor Winn
reviewed by Wendy Tucker
First published in 2018, this memoir/travelogue has had a new burst in popularity. It has been made into a much-hyped film and chosen by many libraries for their book clubs and for their Words and Music programs. It received glowing reviews and was shortlisted for the Costa Awards. It mainly attracted adjectives such as: inspirational, liberating, regenerative, courageous and, of course, life changing. And these adjectives usually mean that I won’t … Read more »
by Lech Blaine
reviewed by Wendy Tucker
Lech Blaine spent eleven years researching and writing his family’s story. He had access to his mother’s diary, thousands of official documents, and letters. He interviewed hundreds of people to ensure this work of creative non-fiction was balanced and nonjudgmental. It’s difficult to review this hilarious, heartbreaking memoir without making it sound like a potboiler about an Aussie battler family overcoming the odds. It is so much more.
Deb Worgan:
Prima facie by Susie Miller, an important and powerful read.
About Grace by Anthony Doerr, an odd but intriguing story, beautifully written, about exile and returning.
The conversion by Amanda Lohrey, a novel about a change of heart paralleled with the repurposing of a church.
Flick Ruby:
The valley, Chris Hammer’s latest tightly woven outback murder mystery, includes greenie protesters, good cops, bad cops, and greedy shysters, set in an imaginary town near us.
Doppelganger: a … Read more »