Booklover Book Reviews

The Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) will be announced on Friday night as part of the Sydney Writer’s Festival this week.

So before the winners are announced I thought it worth recapping which titles have been short-listed.

General Fiction Book of the Year 2013

Secrets of the Tides by Hannah Richell (Hachette Australia)

Jack of Diamonds by Bryce Courtenay (Penguin Group Australia)

Nine Days by Toni Jordan (The Text Publishing Company)

The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton (Allen & Unwin)

The Mother’s Group by Fiona Higgins (Allen & Unwin)

The Amber Amulet by Craig Silvey (Allen & Unwin)

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As part of the Aussie Author Challenge 2013, each month I will be highlighting a selection of the new books being released by Aussie Authors in the month ahead. As May is fast approaching it is starting to cool down at night here in Australia – perfect weather for snuggling up with a great book.

These features will by no means provide a comprehensive listing of all the titles by Australian authors being released, just the ones I have come across in my travels around the web. I’ll ask readers, authors and publishers to let me know of any other notable Aussie Author book releases that I have overlooked in the Comments Section.

Book Releases by Aussie Authors in May 2013

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The Amber Amulet Synopsis

Dear Sir/Ma’am,

Please find enclosed this AMBER AMULET. That must sound unusual to a citizen, but you will have to trust me on this count because the science is too detailed for me to outline here. All you need to know is that the AMBER AMULET will eliminate your unhappiness by counteracting it with POSITIVE ENERGY. This should see you straight. Fear not, you’re in safe hands now.

Take care,

The Masked Avenger

Meet twelve-year-old Liam McKenzie, who patrols his suburban neighbourhood as the Masked Avenger – a superhero with powers so potent not even he can fully comprehend their extent.

Along with his sidekick, Richie the Powerbeagle, he protects the people of Franklin Street from chaos, mayhem, evil and low tyre pressure – but can he save them from sadness?

This perfect jewel of a book by the award-winning author of the 2009 Book of the Year Jasper Jones will hold all readers in its irresistible power. (Booktopia)

BOOK REVIEW

At only 96 pages, and only 65 minutes in the audio format I consumed it in, The Amber Amulet is the most recent literary offering from talented Aussie author Craig Silvey. Although told from a child’s perspective, the mature vocabulary and the humour and poignancy of a child’s observations will be best appreciated by an adult audience.

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Perhaps I am a little behind the times, but did you know that Markus Zusak’s THE BOOK THIEF is finally being made into a movie?

Here is what it says on Zusak’s website, The City At Our Feet:

“In February, 2013, filming of The Book Thief began by Fox 2000 in Berlin, directed by Emmy award-winning Brian Percival (Downton Abbey). The cast includes Academy Award winner Geoffrey Rush (Shine, The King’s Speech) and Academy Award nominee Emily Watson (Breaking the Waves, Anna Karenina), as well as exciting new talent Sophie Nelisse (Monsieur Lazhar) as the book thief, Liesel Meminger.”

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The Wild Girl Synopsis

Dortchen Wild fell in love with Wilhelm Grimm the first time she saw him.

Growing up in the German kingdom of Hessen-Cassel in the early nineteenth century, Dortchen Wild is irresistibly drawn to the boy next door; the young and handsome fairy-tale scholar Wilhelm Grimm.

It is a time of war, tyranny and terror. Napolean Bonaparte wants to conquer all of Europe, and Hessen-Cassel is one of the first kingdoms to fall. Forced to live under oppressive French rule, the Grimm brothers decide to save the old tales that had once been told by the firesides of houses grand and small all over the land.

Dortchen knows many beautiful old stories, such as ‘Hansel and Gretel’, ‘The Frog King’ and ‘Six Swans’. As she tells them to Wilhelm, their love blossoms. Yet the Grimm family is desperately poor, and Dortchen’s father has other plans for his daughter. Marriage is an impossible dream.

Dortchen can only hope that happy endings are not just the stuff of fairy tales… (From the book cover)

BOOK REVIEW

The Wild Girl is another novel from Kate Forsyth that is terribly difficult to do justice to in a review. Just as in her previous novel Bitter Greens, Forsyth delves much deeper into the origins of the fairytales we grew up with, adding her innate sensitivity and passion for people to produce a very adult tale. She acknowledges the greatest characters are often born from hardship, and does not shy away from the brutality of life, in all its forms.

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Edna the Echidna, Aussie Author Challenge 2013 mascot

Hope the Easter Bilby left you a book!

No matter your beliefs, you cannot deny that the Easter long weekend provides even the busiest of us an opportunity to get stuck into a good book. Or for those enduring long car drives or stuck in traffic jams, a great audiobook can be a lifesaver…

What title(s) are you enjoying this weekend?

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As part of the Aussie Author Challenge 2013, each month I will be highlighting a selection of the new books being released by Aussie Authors in the month ahead and April is almost upon us.

These features will by no means provide a comprehensive listing of all the titles by Australian authors being released, just the ones I have come across in my travels around the web. I’ll ask readers, authors and publishers to let me know of any other notable Aussie Author book releases that I have overlooked in the Comments Section.

Book Releases by Aussie Authors in April 2013

Click on the covers to read book summary and publication details. (more…)