Book Review: Billings Better Bookstore & Brasserie by Fin J Ross

 Billings Better Bookstore & Brasserie

by

Fin J Ross

Publisher: Clandestine Press

 

Publication date: 22nd June 2020

 

Genre: Historical Fiction

 

Pages: 278

 

RRP: $24.99AU (Paperback)

 

Source: Courtesy of the publisher

 

My review of Billings Better Bookstore & Brasserie

Fin J Ross is a remarkable wordsmith and Billings Better Bookstore & Brasserie is filled to the brim with eloquent writing and fun alliterative verse.

 

You don't need to be a true logophile to enjoy Ross's writing as it's written in a light-hearted, fun way. However, if you are a lover of words this is the book for you.

It's very easy to love nine-year-old Fidelia Knight, a small girl with a big vocabulary, she is bright and full of life. Fidelia's father is a lexicographer and the family journeyed from England to Australia where he was to take up a position at Melbourne University. Suddenly orphaned on the long trip to Melbourne, Fidelia is taken to an orphanage. She refuses to believe her father is dead and dreams they will be reunited one day. Fidelia satiates her love of words by hiding in a bookstore and reading all the books she can.

Fidelia changes the lives of everyone she meets with her positive attitude and insight well beyond her years. At the ripe old age of 10 she acquires her dream of becoming a teacher when she is asked to tutor two illiterate women, one being Billings' wife, and two orphaned boys.

Billings Better Bookshop & Brasserie is a delightful read with themes of bettering yourself and believing everyone has a talent, you  just need to tap into it.

Set in 1870's Melbourne the area is brought to life through Ross's beguiling descriptions of the streets and buildings visited by her characters.

Each chapter, one for each letter of the alphabet, is headed by an alliterative poem. There is also an appendix of rhymes found in the story and a glossary of all those remarkable words you will be curious to know the meaning of. 

Follow Fidelia Knight, a most extraordinary young girl, from the tender age of nine, as she sets out to forge the way for women of the future.

Billings Better Bookstore & Brasserie is a delightfully uplifting story that will stay with you long after you turn the last page.

My rating 5 / 5  ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

About the author

Fin is a journalist and creative writing teacher who runs a boarding cattery in East Gippsland and breeds British Shorthair cats.

She is co-author, with her sister, of the true crime anthologies, Killer in the family and Murder in the Family (not their family). Her first novel AKA Fudgepuddle is the journal/memoir of the oh-so-true adventures of a demanding cat called Megsy.

Fin has won eight category prizes in the annual Scarlet Stiletto Awards for crime and mystery short stories. The competition has been run by Sisters in Crime Australia since 1994.

In her spare time Fin compiles cryptic crosswords.

Book Review: Second Fleet Baby by Nadia Rhook

 Second Fleet Baby

by

Nadia Rhook

Publisher: Fremantle Press

 

Publication date: 2nd August 2022

 

Genre: Poetry 

 

Pages: 104 (Paperback)

 

RRP: $29.99AU

 

Source: Courtesy of the publisher

 

My review of Second Fleet Baby

Second Fleet Baby is a collection of poems that examine birth and motherhood spanning the centuries from 18th Century convict women to women of today,  conceiving and giving birth during a pandemic.

 

These poems are of a literary nature and I found them hard to understand. It was helpful that some came with a footnote explanation. I feel the poems are something to be read in a group setting, leaving an avenue for discussion which would bring greater understanding.

I am going to just leave it here with the back cover blurb which describes the book much better than I can.

Drawing on the energies of 18th century English convict women, including Rhook's own ancestors, Second Fleet Baby opens raw questions on belonging. In this collection, 'mother' is narrated as a long process of becoming. Through stories of childhood, fertility, and of nurturing new life during a pandemic, Rhook casts off the patriarchal weight of history, pulling origins 'from the seabed to the surface'.

Praise for the book

Extraordinary craftswomanship, tender yet piercing stories of nation-building and child bearing, intricately woven together by hand of an astute and fearless poet. - Elfie Shiosaki

In these wide-ranging, self-questioning, imaginative poems, Rhook tracks how colonisation works against and through the bodies of women. The poems are shaped by a rare combination of judgement and compassion - Lisa Gorton

Book Review: Blue Wren by Bron Bateman

 Blue Wren

by

Bron Bateman

Publisher: Fremantle Press

Publication date: 2nd August 2022

 

Genre: Poetry

 

Pages: 96

 

RRP: $29.99AUD

 

Format read: paperback

 

Source: Courtesy of the publisher

 

My review of Blue Wren

 

Blue Wren is structured around poems inspired by paintings by artist Frida Kahlo. I did google Frida Kahlo's art after reading the poems and seeing the paintings gives a further insight into many of the poems featured.

 

Bron Bateman's poems are raw and emotional. Confronting and in turns contemplative. Her words flow beautifully from the page to sink deep into your heart.

The poems reflect on still birth, miscarriage, pain and loss, the passing of life, an unburdening of life's memories.

This is not the style of poetry I would normally read however I feel it would make a good study piece alongside Frida Kahlo's paintings. There is much that can be taken from Bron's poems on her perceptive memories of life.

 

My rating 3.5 / 5   ⭐⭐⭐½  

 

About the author

 

Bron Bateman is a poet, academic and mother of nine. She is a researcher in Crip and Disability Studies at the University of Newcastle and her research interests include Crip and Disability Studies, Queer and Gender Theory, cultural studies, creative writing, Feminisms, and the body. She has her work published in collections and journals in Australia, the UK and the US. 

 

Praise for the poet

'Erotic feminist sensitive and skilled Bateman is a poet who wants and deserves to be widely read.' - Saturday Age

 

Spotlight: I Asked the Wind - A Collection of Romantic Poetry by Valerie Nifora

 

There is no better day than Valentines Day, the day of love, to spotlight this beautiful collection of romantic poetry.

I have asked author Valerie Nifora to  share with The Burgeoning Bookshelf her favourite poems and what they mean to her.

I Asked the Wind: A Collection of Romantic Poetry

by

Valerie Nifora

Publisher: The Unapologetic Voice House LLC
Publication date: 3rd December 2019
Genre: Poetry
Pages: 108

Book Summary:

I Asked the Wind: A Collection of Romantic Poetry is a journey into romance, love and loss through poetry. The poems published in this collection span over 15 years of writing. Often starting with short rhythmic patterns, each poem’s lyrical tone is filled with inspired words to express the deep emotion experienced in the intricacies of romance.

Handwritten in a journal and hidden away until this publication, the poems chronicle the journey into and out of love. Written in three parts, the book enables the reader to transverse the intensity of romantic love, from the first moment of falling in love, to the intense pain of heartbreak.

Beautiful and powerful in its lyrical and simple verse, the reader is immediately immersed in a world of sensuality, passion, desire, and innocence; all woven together into a tapestry of human emotion. Each poem transports the reader to a story through the art of poetry. Drawing on natural elements such as the sun, sand, wind and moon, this collection explores the light and darkness of romantic love, leaving the reader questioning if love was ever real at all.

A selection of poems chosen by the author and why they have special meaning to her:

LET THE CLOCK HAND KEEP ITS TIME
Let the clock hand
Keep its time
Let its bell ring
Let it chime .
Let the moon face
Pass above
Let it watch us
Close, my love.
Let the darkness
Come and pass
Let it creep
Through window glass.
Let the seasons
Change and turn
Let them make
This hard earth yearn.
Let them all do
As they need
Mind them not
Pay no heed.
Let us stand here
Heart made whole
Bound together
As one soul.

I was listening to the ticking sound of the clock on the wall while I was writing this one. I was hoping to capture the sound of the metronome... methodical, perpetual, ceaseless ... It had been a long time since I had seen this person and it was painful. That sound... the counting the minutes until he arrived. So I thought, you know.. what if I turn that around and say that this love will outlast time? And this waiting is inconsequential.   

SWING ME ROUND
Swing me round
In this dance
Leave me breathless
In a trance
Let the laughter
Spin us still
Round and round
Against our will.
Let the light
Flash on by
To fill the darkness
In the sky
Let us fall
Still in embrace
To vanish slowly
Without a trace.             

This is one on my husband's favorite pieces. I wrote it for him. We had just started dating and I thought how much fun it would be to go to a square dance in a barn. The poor man! It was Halloween and I glimpsed over and saw him swinging a woman dressed as a cow and I thought to myself -- this man must really like me! I spent the entire evening enamored with his kindness and wonderful spirit, and I knew in my heart this was it. 

I LOVE YOU. ETERNAL.
I love you. Eternal.
Until time does cease.
For in your soul,
I have found,
Perfect peace.

This is how I start the collection. For me, that's what true love is about -- finding peace in another and knowing this is love. As Saint Thomas Aquinas once said, “Love is willing the good of the other.”

Praise for I Asked the Wind: A Collection of Romantic Poetry

“...a breathtaking compilation of tender poetry .“

- Jessica Tingling, The San Francisco Book Review

“Valerie’s poetry evokes images of tangled butterflies caught in a breeze, leaves falling too soon, and speaks with a deep, deep tenderness.”

– Troy Turner, Poet

“A beautiful tribute to reflective thoughts of love and losses suffered…this was well done… ”

– Wanda Firman-Cooper, Reviewer

“Valerie’s poems are not only magnificent to read, but they stick with you.”

– Robert Robinson, Executive Producer, The Dinner Salon

“In today’s age of fast-food thinking, attention-deficit scanning, and thumb scrolls past click-bait, it’s refreshing to find a relatable, digestible read that harkens back to an era of leather-bound literature’s reign in terms of meter and word choice.“

– Amaani F. Lyle, Military Journalist

“Val’s poetry goes deeper…into a mosaic of sensuality that leaves you hearing love as if it were a song.“

– Myra Jo Martino, Writers Guild Award Winner for Ugly Betty

About the Author, Valerie Nifora

Valerie Nifora was born and raised in New York to Greek immigrant parents. For over twenty years, Valerie was Marketing Communications Leader for a Fortune 50. She served as a ghost writer for several executives and has executed award-winning campaigns using her special gift as a storyteller to inspire. Her first book is a collection of romantic poetry that explores innocence, sensuality, passion, desire, heartbreak and loss through the lens of her personal experience spanning over 15 years. Her beautiful and powerful voice immediately calls forth a time of leather-bound books and invites the reader to find a comfortable chair and begin their journey through the powerful human emotion of love. Valerie holds a B.A. in Communications from Emerson College and an M.B.A. from Fordham University. She is married and a mother of two amazing sons.

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