Monday 4 May 2020

Mailbox Monday - May 4th


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!


Happy National Star Wars Day - May the Fourth Be With You! I will have to confess though that I've never seen Star Wars. 
 
How is everyone holding up? Australia has started to ease its isolation restrictions. Each state has different rules but in New South Wales we are now allowed two adult visitors and their children. I was happy to get a visit from my son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren and we also went and visited my  daughter. We are just keeping it to family at the moment. My younger daughter still hasn't seen any of her friends.

We've been baking and walking. There isn't really much else to do.

I cooked ANZAC biscuits for ANZAC Day.


ANZAC Day is a national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand that broadly commemorates all Australians and New Zealanders "who served and died in all wars, conflicts, and peacekeeping operations" and "the contribution and suffering of all those who have served".

Caramel slice 



Books received over the last two weeks.


 From the publisher:

 The Edible Garden by Paul West

Paul shares practical gardening advice, with guides on building a no-dig garden, composting and keeping chooks, and an A-Z guide of the veggies that are easiest to grow. There are also more than 50 of Paul's favourite family recipes - simple, produce-driven dishes that are bursting with freshness and flavour.  
We have already started our own garden so I'm hoping this will have some good advice. I don't think we will be doing the chooks though 😃

 
  An Alice Girl by Tanya Heaslip

An Alice Girl is Tanya Heaslip's extraordinary story of growing up in the late 1960's and early 1970's on a vast and isolated outback cattle property just north of Alice Springs.



Mammoth by Chris Flynn

Narrated by a 13,000-year-old extinct American mastodon, Mammoth is the (mostly) true story of how the skull of a Tyrannosaurus bataar, a pterodactyl, a prehistoric penguin, the severed hand of an Egyptian mummy and the narrator himself came to be on sale at a 2007 natural history auction in Manhattan.

I love the cover of this book and it sounds fascinating.



Find Them Dead by Peter James

When Roy Grace is called in to investigate a murder that has links to an accused person on trial, and the suspicion that an attempt has been made to intimidate jurors, he finds the reach and power of the accused’s tentacles go higher than he had ever imagined.  





  From the author:

The Coconut Rebellion by Mark Stary

The lagoon at Sea Devil Island is an idealistic place for a colony of fish to live and raise a family … peaceful and quiet. A little too quiet for young Jack Herron, who yearns to explore the world beyond his lagoon. But it is forbidden for junior fish to venture outside the lagoon. So when Jack stumbles across a secret passage to the outside world, he sneaks out and leads his three closest friends on an adventure of discovery. Unfortunately, they discover more than they bargain for. Caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, Jack is framed for a crime he did not commit and the whole colony suffers a terrible curse as a result. A curse that turns the fish of Sea Devil Lagoon into landlubbers!

Author Mark Stary has generously sent me two copies of The Coconut Rebellion (suitable for Middle Grade readers). One to keep and on the giveaway. So keep an eye out for this giveaway coming shortly.

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

 
 



Thursday 30 April 2020

Book Review: Murmurations by Carol Lefevre

Murmurations
by
Carol Lefevre


Publisher: Spinifex Press 
Publication date: 1st April 2020
Genre: Contemporary Fiction / Short stories
RRP: $19.96 AUD
Pages: 112
Format read: Paperback
Source: Courtesy of the publisher via R M Marketing Services 

Lives merge and diverge; they soar and plunge, or come to rest in impenetrable silence. Erris Cleary’s absence haunts the pages of this exquisite novella, a woman who complicates other lives yet confers unexpected blessings. Fly far, be free, urges Erris. Who can know why she smashes mirrors? Who can say why she does not heed her own advice?

Among the sudden shifts and swings something hidden must be uncovered, something dark and rotten, even evil, which has masqueraded as normality. In the end it will be a writer’s task to reclaim Erris, to bear witness, to sound in fiction the one true note that will crack the silence.


Occasionally you will find a gem of a book that will give you cause to stop and think. Murmurations is that book!

I loved this little book of stories and once I had finished I read it all over again. I needed to capture those little details that can be missed in a first reading.
Characters ebb and flow through each story, their lives moving and flowing in formation, unknowingly lead by Erris.

There is the receptionist, Erris’s close friends, the landscaper, the writer, the cleaner, all touched by Erris and her cry for help. The question that runs through the readers mind is; ‘Was Erris mentally unstable or was something more sinister at play here?’

Each story reflects on a significant moment in that character’s life. Moments of revelation and despair, when their life was altered forever.

Carol Lefevre’s prose are lyrical, insightful and heartbreaking. Although coming in at only 112 pages it packs an emotional punch.

Murmurations is one of the best novellas I have read!


My rating  5/5      ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

 



Photo credit: Spinifex Press
Carol Lefevre holds both a M.A. and a Ph.D in Creative Writing from the University of Adelaide, where she is a Visiting Research Fellow. Her first novel Nights in the Asylum (2007)  was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers Prize and won the Nita B. Kibble award. As well as her non-fiction book Quiet City: Walking in West Terrace Cemetery (2016), Carol has published short fiction, journalism, and personal essays. She was the recipient of the 2016 Barbara Hanrahan Fellowship, and is an affiliate member of the J.M.Coetzee Centre for Creative Practice, where she was writer in residence in 2017. Her most recent novel, The Happiness Glass, published by Spinifex Press in 2018. Carol lives in Adelaide. 






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