10 Books to help you stay optimistic and motivated

STAY IN PLACE

 

The wonderful and well read people at Pan Macmillan Australia have compiled a list of books to help us Stay at Home and stay optimistic and motivated in this time of uncertainty. 

Below, is a list of works by some of Pan Macmillan’s most brilliant minds to help you navigate the coming months. 

Whether you’re looking to learn a new skill, seeking guidance around mental health, or simply looking for a distraction, there is a book for you. 

  

STAY...WELL FED FOR LESS

 

SIMPLICIOUS FLOW
Sarah Wilson  In Simplicious Flow, Sarah blends the kitchen wisdom of generations past with her own stunningly fresh vision of how to be a conductor of good health and zero waste for every single meal you make.

 

STAY...CREATIVE IN THE KITCHEN 

 OSTRO

Julia Busuttil Nishimura 

Simple, delicious, generous food for every day, from salads and roasts to handmade pasta and pizza to simple bakes and show-stopping desserts all from the creator of inspirational website and Instagram feed, Ostro.

STAY...ECO

  A FAMILY GUIDE TO WASTE-FREE LIVING
Lauren and Oberon Carter

A Family Guide to Waste-free Living makes it simple and sustainable for families to eliminate waste in the home, at work and out in the world. This is a practical and inspiring resource for anyone wanting to live more sustainably.

STAY...AN ACTIVIST 

2040: A HANDBOOK FOR THE REGENERATION
Damon Gameau
Based on Damon Gameau's 2019 documentary, 2040: A Handbook for the Regeneration is a practical manual that provides you and your family with the tools and inspiration to live a more sustainable life - NOW. 

 STAY...HEALTHY 

HEAL
Pete Evans
So many of us are looking for practical changes we can make to nourish our body, be more active and find meaningful connection - ways to be stronger, happier and healthier, in a fast-paced world.  

STAY...SELF SUFFICIENT 

 THIS CHICKEN LIFE

Fiona Scott-Norman & Ilana Rose
A heart-warming celebration of chickens and the Australians who love them, featuring striking photography and stories that will move, delight and inspire you.

 

STAY...STRESS FREE

STRESSLESS
Matthew Johnson & Michael Player Fully illustrated, easy to follow and based on the latest medical science, StressLess is your go-to guide to identify and reduce your own stress and help others do the same.

 

STAY...PHILOSOPHICAL 

THE SUBTLE ART OF NOT GIVING A F*CK
Mark Manson In this generation-defining self-help guide, a superstar blogger cuts through the crap to show us how to stop trying to be "positive" all the time so that we can truly become better, happier people.

  

STAY...SANE

FIRST, WE MAKE THE BEAST BEAUTIFUL
Sarah Wilson Practical and poetic, wise and funny, this is a small book with a big heart. It will encourage the myriad sufferers of the world's most common mental illness to feel not just better about their condition, but delighted by the possibilities it offers for a richer, fuller life.

 

STAY...CONNECTED

 FAMILY, FOOD & FEELINGS
Kate Berry
Family, Food and Feelings charts the ebb and flow of family life around the four school terms, with recipes, activities and stories to keep you inspired throughout the year.

 Thank you to Pan Macmillan Australia for the above recommendations.

 

 

 

The Winners of a copy of Red Dirt Country announced

Once again I would like to thank everyone who entered my giveaway for a copy of Red Dirt Country . The giveaway closed on the 8th April and the winners were randomly selected (using Random org) from all correct entries. 



Congratulations to.....    Michelle P & Gloria A

Please see my Giveaway tab for more chances to win great books.

Book Review: The Cobra Queen by Tara Moss

The Cobra Queen

by

Tara Moss

Publisher: Echo Publishing 
Publication date: 3rd March 2020
Series: Pandora English #4
Genre: Young Adult / Paranormal
Pages: 298
RRP: $29.99 AUD
Format read: Paperback
Source: Courtesy of the publisher

In the months since Pandora English left the small town of Gretchenville to live with her mysterious great aunt in a supernatural Manhattan suburb, her whole world has been turned upside down.

Pandora has discovered she is the chosen one, the Seventh Daughter of a Seventh Daughter, and during the impending Revolution of the Dead, she alone will have the power to save all life as we know it. The Agitation is unfolding, building towards the Revolution, and Pandora can no longer deny the truth in these incredible prophecies. But what will she do when the moment comes? How can she stand against the army of the dead?

Pandora’s relationship to her spirit guide, Lieutenant Luke, is intensifying. She’s had to grapple with ghosts, vampires and necromancers. Now, with the Blue Moon approaching and a new exhibition opening at The Met, which celebrates an ancient female pharaoh done wrong in antiquity, powerful forces threaten to upend the balance of life and death. Pandora is given the chance to find out what happened to her parents all those years ago, but first she must put her own supernatural gifts to the test.  

I don’t do paranormal or vampires but seeing as this was sent to me as a review request I thought I would give it a go.

First of all it’s the fourth book in the Pandora English series so I wasn’t sure if I would find myself totally confused. I’m happy to say it was really easy to follow the story even though I hadn’t read the first three books.

Pandora works for fashion magazine, Pandora in her human life. She state the name similarity is purely coincidental. However Pandora English is also The Seventh, chosen to save all humankind against the rise of the undead. Pandora’s two worlds are distinctly separate in this book and her thoughts and fears are still mostly human. She hasn’t fully accepted her role as The Seventh although she has accepted the other world and its inhabitants. We follow Pandora as she navigates both worlds, somewhat awkwardly at times.

I enjoyed the character of Pandora. She was a bit scared about this whole saving the world scenario and even a little reticent. These are traits I like in a ‘chosen one' as it makes the story more realistic and we get to see more character growth.

I loved all the history, myths and legends of Ancient Egypt.

I did enjoy the story and Pandora was very likeable. I couldn’t quite do the ghosts and the sanguine/vampires and yes, the book gave me nightmares. Thank you Tara Moss.

Readers who devour paranormal will love this series.

My rating 4/5          ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 

Tara Moss is an author, novelist, documentary maker and presenter, speaker and human rights advocate. Since 1999 she has written 11 bestselling books, published in 19 countries and 13 languages, including the acclaimed Mak Vanderwall crime fiction series and Pandora English paranormal series. Her first non-fiction book, the critically acclaimed The Fictional Woman, was published in 2014 and became a number one national non-fiction bestseller, and her iconic cover design, featuring her face labeled with ‘fictions’ or stereotypes about women won Best Non-Fiction Book Design. She is PhD Candidate at the University of Sydney and has earned her private investigator credentials (Cert III) from the Australian Security Academy.

This review is part of the Book Lover Book Review Aussie Author Challenge  and the Australian Women Writers challenge

 

 

Books and Bites Bingo - catch up #BooksandBitesBingo2020

This bingo challenge is with Facebook group Books and Bites with Monique Mulligan

This week I am doing a catch-up round with the following categories.

'Written in the First Person'
 How it Feels to Float is narrated by Biz and is a heart-felt story of loss and mental illness.
My review of How it Feels to Float 

'Short Story Collection'
A Lovely and Terrible Thing is a collection of 20 short stories.
My review of A Lovely and Terrible Thing 

 'A Book With Bad Reviews'
I don't read many books with a lot of bad reviews but Before I Let Go has 265 one star and 798 two star reviews but it also has a lot of good reviews and I quite liked it.
My review of Before I Let Go is on Goodreads

  









 'A Title Longer Than Five Words'
The Truth Pixie Goes to School is a cute little story about being a true friend and being yourself.
My review of The Truth Pixie Goes to School 

   

Mailbox Monday - April 6th

Mailbox Monday is a meme started by Marcia of To Be Continued. Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week. It now has a permanent home at the Mailbox Monday blog. Head over and check out other books received during the last week. 


Happy Monday!

It's been an interesting few weeks as we continue practicing social distancing as the country remains in lockdown. Members of my family are all  coping and adjusting to this new normal. Uni for my daughter has moved online and she is finding it easier as she would normally spend 45 minutes each way for travel. Not being able to go out and socialise she is not finding quite so easy. We have been doing lots of walking and cooking (comfort food).

Dot celebrated her 6th birthday and didn't mind that her party had to be cancelled. Instead celebrating with her parents and grandparents only.

Cake and cookies were made by Dot's very talented mum.

I also celebrated my birthday over the last fortnight and had a quiet affair of cake and tea with my children and grandchildren. And made my own cake! I'm saving a lot of money by being stuck in the house.

My eldest daughter had to cancelled her engagement party. We have had cancelled events, job losses, reduced wages, cancelled holidays and I am continually amazed how all my children seem to take these disappointments in their stride and get on with life. I am proud of them all.
The weather has been glorious and Dot and Ditto have enjoyed spending lots of time out in the garden. 

I have also resumed knitting but I will leave that for another post.


Books received over the last two weeks.

The Boundary Fence by Alissa Callen
The scars country vet Ella Quinlivan hides are not solely on the outside. Men are off limits.
With a broken marriage behind him, Saul Armstrong is determined to recapture his dreams by bringing American bison to the Australian bush. 
When Saul calls out Ella for a bison emergency she isn't just thrown out of her comfort zone by dealing with an unfamiliar animal. Slow-smiling and guarded Saul stirs emotions she'd long ago discarded.  

 Fool Me Once by Karly Lane
Farmer, Georgie Henderson manages a cattle farm in the New England region of NSW, but her dream has always been to buy back her family property, Tamban.
When an unlikely meeting with Michael Delacourt at a rowdy B&S Ball sends them on a whirlwind romance, Georgie can't believe it's possible for life to be this good and her dream of buying back Tamban has, for the first time, taken a backseat to happiness.
But her world shatters when she discovers the shocking secret Michael has been trying to keep from her.

The Viennese Girl by Jenny LeCoat

Hedy Bercu, a young Jewish girl from Vienna who fled to the isolation and safety of Jersey two years earlier to escape the Nazis, finds herself once more trapped, but this time with no way of escape.

Hiding her racial status, Hedy is employed by the German authorities and secretly embarks on small acts of resistance. But most dangerously of all, she falls in love with German lieutenant Kurt Neumann -- a relationship on which her life will soon depend.


 Murmurations by Carol Lefevre
This exquisite novella explores the complications of intersecting lives and the harbouring of secrets. It is about the absence of women. In these intricately woven lives, we hear the sage advice of the absent yet ever present Erris to fly far, be free. At its heart this is about the fight for reclaiming of stories and for the right to tell the truth about one's own life.





I would love to hear what you received in the mail lately!

Book Review: A Lovely and Terrible Thing by Chris Womersley

A Lovely and Terrible Thing

by

Chris Womersley

Publisher: Pan Macmillan Australia
Imprint: Picador
Publication date: 23rd April 2019
Genre: Fiction / Short Stories
Pages: 288
RRP: $29.99 AUD
Format read: uncorrected paperback
Source: Courtesy of the publisher

In bestselling author Chris Womersley's first short fiction collection, twenty macabre and deliciously enjoyable tales linked by the trickle of water that runs through them all will keep readers spellbound until their final, unexpected and unsettling twist...

Collections of short stories are hard to review. There will always be stories you loved and others you didn’t.

My interest in short story collections came after reading Roald Dahl’s Kiss Kiss, a collection of truly macabre short stories. There is an element of instant gratification with short stories.

A Lovely and Terrible Thing, a collection of 20 short stories, although entertaining didn’t quite live up to my expectations. The stories were strange and unsettling centred around drugs, mental illness, death, loss, family and relationships. Womersley’s characters are quite often bereaved, a loved one simply missing without explanation.

The stories will leave you with unanswered questions as he leaves the endings hazy, you are left to imagine what happens next. As is the case with my favourite story, The House of Special Purpose, where a couple’s son-in-law is left locked in a backyard compound he helped his in-laws build.

As you are left to read between the lines it is quite often what is not spelled out in the story that is most macabre.

A Lovely and Terrible Thing will appeal to readers who already enjoy anthologies and those who are struggling to concentrate on a full length novel.

My rating 3/5           🌟🌟🌟 

Photo credit: Goodreads

Chris Womersley's debut novel, The Low Road, won the Ned Kelly Award for Best First Fiction. His second novel, Bereft, won the Indie Award for Best Fiction, the ABIA Award for Literary Fiction and was short-listed for the Miles Franklin Award, the Gold Dagger Award for International Crime Fiction and the ALS Gold Medal for Literature. His third novel, Cairo, was longlisted for the Dublin IMPAC Award. Chris's short fiction has appeared in Granta, The Best Australian Stories, Meanjin and Griffith Review and has won or been shortlisted for numerous prizes. He lives in Melbourne.

 

This review is part of the Book Lover Book Review Aussie author challenge