The Night Library on the outskirts of Tokyo isn’t your ordinary library. It’s only open from seven o’clock to midnight. It exclusively stores books by deceased authors, and none of them can be checked out — instead, they’re put on public display to be revered and celebrated by the library’s visitors, akin to a bookContinue reading “Review: Cosy, bibliophile friendly vibes in Dinner at the Night Library”
Tag Archives: Blog-exclusive book review
Review: ‘How to Dodge Flying Sandals’ and other advice to balance culture and self-acceptance
Meet Daniel Nour: Egyptian and Australian; loud and painfully awkward; conservative and very confused (especially about other boys). He’s never quite pulled off normal, but ‘not-normal’ is where the best stories are. Now he’s made his peace with that and is ready to share his wisdom in this highly unreliable ethnic memoir. Told as aContinue reading “Review: ‘How to Dodge Flying Sandals’ and other advice to balance culture and self-acceptance”
Review: Exploring healing in Jade Timms’ ‘Golden’
Golden is a warm-hearted optimistic story about friends and friendship and art and beauty—and the power of letting yourself be loved… When you work in the juice bar of your small coastal town. When your twin brother is the fun one with all the friends. When something happened a year ago that you can’t talk about,Continue reading “Review: Exploring healing in Jade Timms’ ‘Golden’”
Review: Hour of the Heart – what can one-hour therapy sessions offer?
What does ‘the father of group therapy’ do at the age of 90, when he is still advising patients in the therapy sessions that have been his life’s work, and yet must face his increasing frailties and even his own mortality? Rather than melt into retirement, Dr Yalom develops another revolutionary approach. In Hour of theContinue reading “Review: Hour of the Heart – what can one-hour therapy sessions offer?”
Review: The Paperbark Tree Committee
Twelve-year-old Art and his younger brother Hilary are great friends, best friends. When they move to the city from a small rural town, Art struggles to fit in. His dad is too busy to give him much attention, but his stepmum is always ready to listen. And there’s the paperbark tree. Art and Hilary holdContinue reading “Review: The Paperbark Tree Committee”
Review: You Must Remember This – a journey through time and memory
Grace can’t settle. She can’t shake the feeling that someone is missing. You Must Remember This is an eloquent jumble of a family story, as experienced by Grace, an elderly woman with dementia trying to get her moorings in a worsening storm. It contemplates the perils of remembering and forgetting, making your own way inContinue reading “Review: You Must Remember This – a journey through time and memory”
Eat Your Heart Out: A Foodie Rom-Com with an Unfortunate Villain
Chloe Bridgers, Australian food blogger in Paris, has landed an interview to write the tell-all memoir of controversial celebrity chef Carla Duris. The only catch? To nab the role, she has to compete against a group of cut-throat, world-class food writers during a weekend-long job interview at the Duris family villa on the glistening CôteContinue reading “Eat Your Heart Out: A Foodie Rom-Com with an Unfortunate Villain”
The Paradise Heights Craft Store Stitch-Up: A modern, cosy(ish) mystery
Tilly navigates grief over her grandmother’s death, family lies, and unreciprocated love on her sixteenth birthday. “Never, Not Ever” explores teenage identity and emotional growth through challenges and family dynamics.
Never, Not Ever: A quintessential teenage romance with a psychological layer
Tilly navigates grief over her grandmother’s death, family lies, and unreciprocated love on her sixteenth birthday. “Never, Not Ever” explores teenage identity and emotional growth through challenges and family dynamics.
Tell Me Lies leans on tired tropes around psychology
Psychologist Margot Scott has a picture-perfect life: a nice house in the suburbs, a husband, two children and a successful career. On a warm spring morning Margot approaches one of her clients on a busy train platform. He is looking down at his phone, with his duffel bag in hand as the train approaches. That’sContinue reading “Tell Me Lies leans on tired tropes around psychology”