It’s Fine by Me

It’s Fine by Me by Per Petterson
Reviewed by Mish @ fudgereads

click to go to catalogue

Audun is an 18year old boy and at his last year of school. He drifts though life not really knowing where it’s headed, and think that everything is fine. Audun is sensitive boy, and a little reserved, in that he likes to keep his childhood secret to himself. But every so often Audun has these unexpected outbursts of anger, and you’re baffled by what has triggered it off. It’s obvious that not everything is fine, but you do slowly come to understand what is troubling him as he gives you brief glimpses into his childhood memory, which is pretty brutal and freighting.It is great story and really emotional at times, when the author is writing about his past. I especially liked when Audun was staying with Leif and his family, and how overcome he was by their generosity and compassion. They were all new feelings for him, and I was deeply moved at these moments. I expected the author move along these lines and give us more of the past then the present. When he did, it felt like he got into the heart and soul of the characters and I was so engrossed.

All in all, I enjoyed it. I thought it was a pleasant read.

Science Tales

Science Tales by Darryl Cunningham
Graphic Novel reviewed by Ann

Click to go to library catalogue

“This book is pro-science and pro-critical thinking. What it isn’t is a book promoting a scientific elite whom we must all follow.”

Subtitled ‘lies, hoaxes and scams’ this intriguing graphic novel covers, amongst other topics, the science behind homeopathy, electro-convulsive treatment and revisits that perennial chestnut of whether man did or not did walk upon the moon.

It is a delight for the rationalist and a complete waste of time for anyone who chooses to believe that facts do not matter.

I loved it, the spirit behind it and the challenge contained therein.

“ Science isn’t a matter of faith or just another point of view. Good science is testable, reproducible, and stands the test of time. ”

Excellent stuff!!

Mice

Mice by Gordon Reece
Reviewed by Mish @fudgereads

Click to go to library catalogue

Shelley is a 16 years old student, lives with her single mum, Elizabeth whose husband left her for a younger woman. Shelley said she inherited her mum’s personality; timid, placid and will shy’s away from any confrontation. She describes herself as being a mouse.In Shelley’s senior years at school, she was a victim of a severe case of bullying, inflicted on her by her former friends. Shelley kept all this hidden from her mum for years, not wanting to add any additional worry to her due to her marriage breakup. But the bullying got way out of hand. One incident the abuse was extremely violent that it left Shelley hospitalized, suffering from internal injuries, scars to her body and face, and left her with physiological distress.

Elizabeth decided to move them both from their suburban home to an isolated county side cottage to start a new life. Shelley had finally found peace, normality and quiet place to heal and all was going well for the two ladies for a while. However one night an intruder enters their home and threatens them with abuse and violence and from that point in on it throws their peaceful life into utter chaos.

I was in two minds as to whether I like it or not. As an adult I was quite caught up in the physiological tension & thrill of the plot. When all is calm, you can never tell when something was about to happen to disrupt their lives all over again, but you constantly felt it, had a sense that it is near, just lurking in the background like a cat ready to pounce. The whole bullying incident was written quite realistic which made it harrowing as a parent to read.

However I do have to question the moral aspects of this book. The content is highly graphic and extremely violent. Without giving too much away, I felt the mothers’ actions were disconcerting. When situations was going bad for the two women, Elizabeth convinces Shelley to make illegal decisions throughout the second part of the book and I found it difficult avoid it or over look the message that it was trying to say. The book is classified as a young adult book and I do have to wonder what the writer is trying to tell his young readers – when in strife or in a difficult situation, go down the illegal path? I know that majority of young readers at this age will indentify what is right or wrong, but there are still the small few out there who would believe this is an easy way out. It left me with a bad taste in my mouth

This is the only issue I had but otherwise I thought it was a great novel, highly intense, gripping and would recommend it for adults ‘only’. 

Open

Open by Andre Agassi
Reviewed by Silvana.

Click to go to library catalogue

If you are a big lover of tennis, like me, you will be impressed with this book containing all things Agassi on and off the court.

If you are not interested in tennis, but love a good biography, this is a must read! It is a complicated and frequently painful story.

This book is about drugs, rivals, big love for Stefanie Graff, failed marriage to Brooke Shields; love for family and friends – this is one real life story.  You cannot stop reading. Every page has something new and different, about a man searching for himself.

He was the best player of his time and the person who hated tennis all the time, every day…

I’m Not Scared

I’m Not Scared by Niccolo Ammaniti
Reviewed by Mish @fudgereads

Click to go to library catalogue

Set in an Italian countryside, a group of children challenge themselves to a race. The first one to reach the top of the hill is the winner and the loser must carry out a dare determined by the winner. Michele, a 9 year old boy, was the last one to reach the hill. On his dare Michele stubbles upon an abandoned cottage and it is there that he discovers this horrendous secret.

The book is very short so that is all I can say as much as secret is concerned without revealing any spoilers. But what I can say is that it’s an amazing, gripping story of a group of young children that are caught up in a cruel and greedy adult world.

The story is told though the eyes of Michele, who is young and naïve and doesn’t fully comprehend the severity of the situation he is in, but none the less he knows it wrong and is scared out of his wits. You are incredibly fearful for him as he put himself closer and closer in the line of danger without being aware of it. You, as an adult, are fully aware of the situation and what is to come, but as you’re reading it you feel helpless for poor Michele – I felt myself wanting to protect him or scream out to him ‘don’t do it’.

An excellent little book that is dark, raw and very suspenseful.

Where is the Green Sheep?

Where is the Green Sheep? by Mem Fox
Reviewed by Anna.

Click to go to library catalogue

Here is a great sheep book for children who love sheep!There is a red sheep, a blue sheep, a star sheep, a bath sheep and many more!

“Where is the Green Sheep?”  is a very simple picture book by Mem Fox.   This is a picture book that children will love. Children grasp the concept of the book, searching for the green sheep.  Vocabulary for opposites and colours are used to describe the different sheep. The illustrations are self-explanatory so children will start reading the book as well just by looking at the pictures.

Where is the green sheep? Where could it be?

Children will want to read this again and again. This is a great simple picture book for story-time and a bedtime story.  Children will also start memorising the story themselves and want to read it themselves to you.

The World Beneath

The World Beneath by Cate Kennedy
Reviewed by Mish @fudgereads

Click to go to library catalogue

The World Beneath won the People’s Choice Award for the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards 2010 and I think she did a splendid job in exploring the life of a dysfunctional family. Rich and Sandy went through a bitter separated almost 14 years ago, leaving her to raise their only daughter Sophie single-handedly. Rich has been virtually estranged from Sophie’s life with only the occasional letter here and there. It is only on Sophie’s 15th birthday that Rich decides he would like to get to know his daughter better and build a relationship that he invites her on a hiking trip through the Tasmanian wilderness. Sandy is furious that Rich has come back in their lives, bring back memories that she would rather forget. She is hesitant about letting Sophie go – Can she trust this man after all these years to look after her daughter? Rich assures her that he can and Sophie is determined to go.

The story is told by the point of view of these three characters and I think the author did an amazing job in allowing you to get an in-depth understanding of their personalities and getting inside their heads. But I must warn you that they are not all likable. I thought the parents were weak and pathetic idiot. Many times I just wanted to thump over the head and knock some sense into them. They were so self-absorbed in their own lives, stuck in a time warp that they were completely oblivious to what is happening to Sophie and her needs and wants. I like Sophie and had a lot of sympathy for her. She was perhaps the strongest and most sensible character out of the 3, yet for a 15 year old she carried far too much of her mothers’ burden of insecurity and responsibility which caused significant distress to her wellbeing.

The only let down of the book was the authors was a bit too vivid with the description of the landscape. Even through it was beautiful to read in some parts, I felt in some parts it was just too long and drawn out. Otherwise it was a lovely story about family life of love, loneliness and then hope, and looking beyond yourself and rediscovering the most important people in our lives.

Revenge

Revenge by Stephen Fry
Reviewed by Georgina

click to go to library catalogue

Revenge, by Stephen Fry was originally titled “The Star’s Tennis Balls”, a rather more awkward yet infinitely more apt description of the text. Although much of the second half of the novel is indeed a revenge plot, the real intrigue of this story is the experience of Ned Maddstone as he is pelted and beaten by others’ jealousy, humiliation, political agendas and bigotry.

Ned is the seventeen-year-old son of a conservative British MP, and an outstanding and promising student at a prestigious boys’ school. Friendly with everyone and believing himself universally well-liked Ned becomes the subject of a cruel manifestation of his peers’ tall-poppy syndrome. Seeking to shame Ned and his father Ashley Barson-Garland – an unpopular, though extremely intelligent classmate from a working class background – along with two others, plant marijuana on Ned and inform the police.

The situation quickly escalates as Ned finds himself by chance the harbinger and victim of a variety of offences far more significant than drug possession. Ned is eventually committed to a foreign mental asylum where, after a decade in isolation, he befriends brilliant and eccentric inmate, Babe.

Under Babe’s guidance Ned is equipped with all the knowledge and skills he requires to exact his revenge.

 This novel is an excellently written psychological thriller and impossible to put down. The text lacks much of Fry’s famous humour, but all of his wit and profound knowledge, so that it is a rich and engaging read.

The Secret Keeper

The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton
Reviewed by Molly

click to go to library catalogue

The Secret Keeper is another great read by Kate Morton.  I have read all of her books and this novel would have to be my favourite. I was enthralled from cover to cover with this adult fiction, mystery/crime novel.

The story starts with 16 year old Laurel hiding in a tree house from her younger siblings on her family’s country property in England.  The horrifying event she witnesses between her mother, Dorothy, and a complete stranger leaves a very large question mark in her life.  She decides to follow up this family mystery some fifty years later when her mother is nearing her last days.  All the detective work she becomes involved in makes for an engrossing read.

 Though the storyline jumps from present day back to the early 1960′s and back further to the 1940′s it was very easy to follow. The twists and turns right throughout the book will keep you mystified to the very end.  Although I found a couple of the characters extremely unlikeable this only added to the intensity of the story.

I was compelled to read this novel in a very short time as it was hard to put down and would highly recommend it for lovers of mystery.

Brandwashed: tricks companies use to manipulate our minds and persuade us to buy

Brandwashed: tricks companies use to manipulate our minds and persuade us to buy by Martin Lindstrom
Reviewed by Ann

Click to go to library catalogue

Ahhh, Advertising! Marketing, Branding, like it or not all of us in the Western World are constantly being sold to. We may think that we are aware of the many manipulations used by advertising agencies to sell their clients’ wares but we are wrong. Read Brandwashed and be very afraid.

There have been many books about advertising over the years, from Vance Packard’s The hidden persuaders (copyright 1957 and still in print) through to The Gruen Transfer by Jon Casmir, that explain the techniques, research and tactics used in order to give Consumers an insight into the tricks of the trade.

Brandwashed deals with the techniques of branding, how we tend to choose the brands our parents chose, how Advertisers market to babies in the womb, how they use nostalgia, celebrity, fame and fear to alter our perceptions of a product and persuade us to buy, buy buy.

The most terrifying tool in their arsenal is us. Our desires to be part of the group, to stay young and to have what others have, are a gift to Marketers and constantly exploited to hook us on Brands.

The author – a professional marketer – made the decision to not buy any new brands for one solid year. If you are thinking, ‘How hard could this be?’ Then think again: non-branded food, no labelled clothing and equipment with no logos. Not much left to buy, is there?

That year was the genesis of this book and it is well worth the time to read, I found myself waiting in the Post Office the other day staring at the image on the credit card terminal of a cheerful Postie and I realised, thanks to Martin Lindstrom that the picture is not just random. People, nothing in the world of buying and selling is random anymore and if the only chapter you read in Brandwashed is Chapter 9 (Every breath you take, they’ll be watching you: the end of privacy) then your online world will be safer and your purchases possibly more considered. Mr Lindstrom would be pleased.

Highly recommended.