Book Reviews


9781741669640

Book Review: THE WINTER OF OUR DISCONNECT

Reviewed by Pippa

A compelling account of a 6 month experiment of living without TV or digital media for 6 months. A regular columnist for the Weekend Australian, Maushart has a witty and erudite style, incorporating the latest digital media language into her prose with flair. Smart, insightful and very well resea... (continued)
9780670916764

Book Review: Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain

Reviewed by Gillian, Berkelouw Books Mona Vale

Somewhere around the beginning of the twentieth century, Susan Cain argues, Americans changed from a "culture of character", where the ideal self was serious, disciplined and private, to a "culture of personality" where people began to focus more on how other people perceived them. This, in Cain'... (continued)
9781406339345

Book Review: Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

Reviewed by Sarah, Berkelouw Books, Mona Vale

Thirteen year old Conor is woken every night at seven minutes past midnight by a monster outside his bedroom window. Conor has been having the same nightmare every night since his mother started her treatments, but there's a twist - this monster is ancient and wild and has become a part of Conor'... (continued)
9781921977701

Book Review: The Paddock by Lilith Norman

Reviewed by Sarah, Berkelouw Books, Mona Vale

This is a book about Australia and how the land was formed. It describes the land's transformation as animals and humans inhabit and adapt it to suit their needs and like Window by Jeannie Baker there is the same environmental message that there is a cost to development. In this book though the l... (continued)
9781742760315

Book Review: Little Mouse's Big Secret by Eric Battut

Reviewed by Sarah, Berkelouw Books, Mona Vale

Little Mouse finds a delicious apple and decides to keep it a secret from his friends by burying it in the ground. A beautifully illustrated story aimed at 3-5 year olds, this book teaches us that it's far better to share amongst friends than keep things all to oneself. (continued)
9781926428154

Book Review: The Chemistry of Tears

Reviewed by Gillian, Berkelouw Books, Mona Vale

Opposite the title page of The Chemistry of Tears there is a list of 17 books under the heading "Also by Peter Carey". I've read 15 of them, usually falling on them greedily on the day of publication. In my opinion Carey writers two types of books - great ones and good ones. Parrot and Olivier in... (continued)
9781742232393

Book Review: 52 Suburbs by Louise Hawson

Reviewed by Gillian, Berkelouw Books, Mona Vale

Louise Hawson is an inspiring person who, in 2009-2010, produced a blog, that grew into an exhibition and finally blossomed into a beautiful book. Her project was to visit a new Sydney suburb every week for a year and to photograph the people, places and objects that interested her. Her particul... (continued)
9780439813785

Book Review: The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick

Reviewed by Gillian, Berkelouw Books, Mona Vale

I finally picked up this handsome volume when I realised it was the basis for the new film Hugo, direct by the venerable Martin Scorsese. What a treat was in store! Set in a time between the world wars, the story describes Hugo Cabret's life hidden in the bowels of the Montparnasse railway stati... (continued)
9781742378510

Book Review: Autumn Liang by Alex Miller

Reviewed by Gillian, Berkelouw Books, Mona Vale

It's 1938 and Pat Donlon is filled with the conviction that he can paint in a wholly new and Australian way. He is contemptuous of local art schools, newly married, extremely poor and ready to risk rejection he asks an art patron for money. Humiliated he finds himself in the office of Arthur Lain... (continued)
9781741661262

Book Review: Cold Light by Frank Moorhouse

Reviewed by Gillian, Berkelouw Books Mona Vale

I know of no other character in Australian fiction who has come so completely and plausibly into our lives as Edith Campbell Berry - the heroine of three Moorhouse novels written in the last 25 years. Journalist Annabel Crabb launched the third instalment in Edith's story dressed as Berry. In hi... (continued)
9781742702339

Book Review: Marque: A Culinary Adventure

  It is a long-standing landmark of culinary excellence, and after more than a decade of serving some of Sydney’s most innovative food, Mark Best and Pasi Petanan have finally created a cook book to match their cuisine. Full of beautiful photographs of many of Marque’s signature... (continued)
9780007441280

Book Review: The Marriage Plot Jeffrey Eugenides

  It comes weighted with a decade’s worth of anticipation. Yet Jeffrey Eugenides’ third novel comes as light relief, compared to his two earlier works of fiction, ‘Middlesex’ and the ‘Virgin Suicides’. It’s the early 1980’s, and American coll... (continued)
9781864712087

Book Review: Scenes from a Provincial Life by J M Coetzee

Reviewed by Berkelouw Newtown

  “Scenes from a Provincial Life” is a collection of Coetzee’s three earlier works – Boyhood, Youth and Summer time. All are memoirs, though the later has been categorised as ‘fiction’ despite its no-less obvious references to the author himself. It begi... (continued)
9780330513968

Book Review: The Stranger's Child by Alan Hollinghurst

Reviewed by Nicole Mansour, Berkelouw Newtown

  English writer Alan Hollinghurst is often classified as two things: the Henry James of his time, and an acute chronicler of gay experience in London. His latest work, “The Stranger’s Child”, is his first since winning the Booker prize for “The Line of Beauty&rdquo... (continued)
9781847083180

Book Review: The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt

Reviewed by George, Berkelouw Paddington

One of the better reviews I read about The Sisters Brothers (I think it was on the Guardian website) commented on the difficulty of making readers feel true empathy for the characters of a novel. And when your lead characters are two guns-for-hire - one a merciless psychopath, the other a temp... (continued)

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