All Our Shimmering Skies – (Audiobook) – Trent Dalton – 24.02.24

This is my third Trent Dalton novel (the second that he published) and I have to say it’s my least favourite. I absolutely loved both Boy Swallows Universe (loved the Netflix adaptation as well) and Lola in the Mirror, but this one not so much. I don’t know if it is because of the narrator. On the whole, I thought the narrator was good at parsing sentences and conveying emotion and meaning, but the voice she did for the main character, 12 year old Molly Hook was so annoying. Molly lives through terrible abuse and hardship with courage and wisdom beyond her years, and yet the narrator gave her such a whiney obnoxious little girl voice that for me totally ruined the listening experience.

The book is set during WW2 when the Japanese were carrying out air strikes on Darwin and women and children were being evacuated (I never even knew that this happened in Australia during the war – I’ve read books about Australian prisoners of war in Japan, and of course I knew about the Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbour, but this is new to me).

If I had read rather than listened to this book I probably would have liked it more – I liked the descriptions of the Australian outback and the surreal quality of the odyssey that Molly takes through it to try and find the man who she believes can lift her family’s curse. The characters are well drawn – Molly’s companions are a wannabe actress who is mourning for the child she was forced to give up, and a Japanese pilot who is grieving from the death of his beloved wife and crashes his plane rather than fulfilling his mission of killing innocent civilians.

If they made a tv adaptation of this one I would definitely watch it.

The Golem and the Djinni – Helene Wecker – 20.02.24

This is a very good book. I have looked at lots of other reviews of it and they are almost all brimming with praise, and I totally agree. It is a very rich, thoughtful, heart wrenching, gripping, satisfying wonderful and beautiful story.

Set in New York at the turn of the twentieth century mostly in two immigrant communities – Polish/German Jews, and Syrian Christians. Chava is a Golem – a created creature of clay designed to be a dutiful, proper but curious and intelligent wife and awoken for the first time by her ‘husband’ on the sea crossing to America because he is near death from a burst appendix. After his death, she is cast adrift, with no master she is drawn to serve the needs of everyone around her, a cacophony of thought voices that nearly drive her mad. She is spotted in the street by a kindly old Rabbi, who realises her nature and takes her in to care for her.

Ahmed is a Djinni (Genie or Jinni) who is unwittingly unleashed from the prison of a metal lamp by a tinsmith who befriends him and takes him on as an apprentice/partner when he sees how skilful he is at working metal.

The book is full of in depth characters and historical detail. Chava and the Rabbi, and later Chava and the Djinni have lots of interesting philosophical questions about free-will verses slavery and if faith is a form of slavery and if it is good or bad to be content to do the bidding of others.

There is also a lot about the experience of being an immigrant, or just different and trying to fit in. (When I was sixteen, my family had a year in California and my best friend turned out to be a girl whose family moved just after us from New Zealand – both of us fish out of water and bonded by being new and different).

Chava and Ahmed eventually meet and form a very strong bond, in spite of their different characters – Chava being humble and servient, Ahmed being initially arrogant and driven by desires. They learn from each other and grow as people and their bond grows too.

There are of course dangers and struggles they must over come – a character who is linked to both of their pasts finds them and could be their undoing, making for an exciting ending.

I’m excited to read the sequel, but will wait until it gets cheaper or I can pick it up in a deal.

Lola in the Mirror – (Audiobook) – Trent Dalton – 14.02.24

After being completely blown away by Trent Dalton’s Boy Swallows Universe (my hubby and I are currently watching the Netflix series adaptations and loving that too) I bought his latest novel in audiobook form (I like Australian narrators!).

Like Boy Swallows Universe, Lola in the Mirror is set in Brisbane’s underbelly with characters caught up in homelessness (or as the protagonist would prefer us to say – houselessness), crime, and addiction and yet it is not a bleak book. One reviewer I read criticised the book for romanticising homelessness, and indeed in many ways the main character, sometimes referred to as ‘the artist’ (her lack of an actual name is a major theme of the book) does seem to have a somewhat idyllic existence in a loving and supportive community of rough sleepers. On the other hand, real terrible things happen and while the narrator’s tone is often light or optimistic, the story is dark and perilous.

Again, I really loved the book – it has an nice thread of magical realism, which I always enjoy in a book, more than enough mystery, intrigue and danger to keep the plot moving along and great empathetic characters. Nice sweet romance too.

As an audiobook, I missed out on the great illustrations (which I only discovered in the acknowledgements at the end of the book) but I looked them up online!

I instantly bought the other novel by Trent Dalton, which I am going to listen to next. 🙂

Red Side Story (Audiobook) – Jasper Fforde – 09.02.24

I first read Jasper Fforde’s Shades of Grey years ago, and loved it. The much anticipated sequel was finally released at the start of February, and so I re-read Shades of Grey to refresh my memory, and I’m glad I did, because this book continues pretty seamlessly from the first and wouldn’t make much sense as a stand-alone.

Set in some future dystopian version of mainland UK where humans are different in several ways to the mysterious ‘previous’ before the ‘something that happened’ and society is constrained by a hierarchy based on how much and which wavelengths of colour people are able to see and by following the strict and sometimes seemingly nonsensical rules from the ‘Book of Munsell’.

Things take a darker turn in this book when our hero, Eddie Russet and his love interest, Jane Grey discover more hidden secrets and how people who ask too many questions succumb to tragic ‘accidental’ deaths.

Jasper Fforde manages (with great skill) to deftly combine daft humour, fascinating character studies, sweet romance and complex and thought provoking dystopian sci-fi in a fabulous novel which more than rises to the challenge of satisfying the eager fans of the first book. Although I found the ending a little rushed and didn’t answer all my questions, I still thought it was outstandingly good. I’m not sure if there is going to be a third book in the series (and I’m not sure that it needs it – yes I’d like to further explore the reveal at the end, but only if it doesn’t take away from the (almost) complete feel of the story as it is).

Boy Swallows Universe – Trent Dalton – 06.02.24

Wow! I just finished this book yesterday evening (actually it was close to midnight because I couldn’t’ stop reading even though it was way past my sleepy time!) and I am still reeling from the beauty and emotional impact of this amazing book.

At first I didn’t know what to make of the writing style – it’s from the point of view of a twelve year old boy (at least to begin with) with a really profound and unique way of viewing the world. The sentences are all poetic and symbolic to the point that until I got my head around the style I was finding it difficult to follow what was going on.

Once I did though, I was so drawn in to the world of Eli Bell, with the absent father and drug addict mother and the big brother who had been mute since some unmentioned trauma a few years previous. They are raised by their mum’s boyfriend Lyle, who is a drug dealer, and are babysat by Slim, an ex-con famous for his many daring prison escapes, and yet Eli sees goodness and love in these people. It depicts a dangerous and in some ways hopeless childhood and yet is told with wonder and whimsy, a little magic and lots of unquenchable optimism . Apparently it is semi-autobiographical which is nice because you really want the good people to come through to better times.

I’m excited to check out the adaptation of the book that is on Netflix, and also to read more from this author.

Relight My Fire: The Stranger Times, Book 4 – C. K. McDonnell – (Audiobook) – 03.02.24

Version 1.0.0

I am still very much enjoying the Stranger Times series by Caimh McDonnell, especially the fabulous narration by Brendan McDonald (I am sure the author adds in as many accents as possible to take full advantage of the narrators incredible vocal dexterity giving life and colour to so many characters from so many regions!).

In this book, a disgraced doctor uses science and magic to reanimate the sort of people who could afford to have their bodies cryogenically preserved – so basically a horde of fabulous (darling) zombies!

Like all the book in this series it is funny and clever with great characters and just the right amount of heart. Roll on the next one!

Beyond Broadhall: The ’86 Fix Conclusion – Keith A. Pearson – 28.01.24

I was quite scathing in my review of The ’86 fix, which is the first in this two book series, although that could have been because the audible narrator was so dull. I wanted to know how the story resolved, so I bought this sequel on kindle, thinking my internal monologue narrator would do a better job!

Well, I have to say that taken as a whole with the resolution in this second book I feel much more favourable towards the story. I don’t know if I would agree with the book cover’s declaration of ‘page turning brilliance’ but I did quite enjoy the second book, and think it lifted the first book. It is a take on the old ‘if you change bad things in the past, other bad things might happen which are just as bad or worse, so you should have left well enough alone’ conundrum. I did think it was interesting and thought provoking and quite sweet. I’m not sure if I would seek out other books by this author though.

The Change (Audiobook) – Kirsten Miller (Author), January LaVoy (Narrator) – 22.01.24

I really enjoyed listening to this story!

The premise is that some women contain genetic predisposition to certain supernatural powers which only truly manifest once the they reach menopause. Nessa (the seeker) sees dead people – specifically people (usually girls) who were taken and murdered and Nessa’s roll is to find their bodies so their families can find peace. Jo (the protector) has this sort of explosive heat power that builds up and can be used as a weapon against bad men, and Harriet (the punisher) has a way with nature – she grows and nurtures all kinds of medicinal plants and makes powerful potions to heal or to harm and also seems to be able to communicate with and ask for help from insects and animals.

These women (and many others they meet) have been treated badly by men with power over them all their lives and are only now getting the means to redress the balance and give these men what they deserve.

It is certainly a feminist book, in that most (but not all) the male characters are bad men who abuse their power and most (but not all) of the women are innocent victims of that abuse. Saying that, it was great fun and very satisfying to read/listen to especially as a ‘women of a certain age’ myself! There’s a mystery to solve with some nice twists and I liked all the main characters. I loved it!

Kala – Colin Walsh (AUDIOBOOK), Narrated by: Frank Blake, Moe Dunford, Seána Kerslake – 19.01.24

I thought this book was enjoyable enough, without being blown away by it. The narration was excellent, which helped, so I wasn’t ever bored.

Old school friends meet up 15 years after tragedy in their small Irish town blighted their lives. We learn from memories and flashbacks the twists and turns of what happened and why so many people carry secrets. I didn’t see all the twists coming, and if you like mystery thriller type books then this is a good one, I think, although this is not my favourite genre so I’m perhaps not the best judge. (Often I hate this kind of book, so the fact that I enjoyed it at all is actually saying a lot!)

All My Mothers – Joanna Glen – 14.01.24

I recently re-read Joanna Glen’s first book: The Other Half of Augusta Hope for my book group and was reminded of how much I’d loved it, so immediately upon finishing I looked on Amazon for more from the author and bought this.

The main character, Eva, realises at an early age that her family are not ‘normal’. Her father is almost always away on business, and her mother, though physically present is off in her own world of depressed withdrawal. Eva’s suspicions are further aroused when there are no baby photos of her, and details of her early live are hazy.

She makes it her life’s work to find the truth and in doing so travels to Cordova in Spain (a region where the writer lived as a student and writes about with obvious love and knowledge).

I love Joanna Glen’s writing style, and I loved this book – a heat wrenching and beautiful story of finding one’s place in the world and the different ways people can be mothers.