Posted in reviews, tagged eli glasman, family, first love, friends, jewish, religion, school, sexuality, spirituality on February 19, 2015| Leave a Comment »
The Boy’s Own Manual to Being a Proper Jew by Eli Glasman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This was a really good read, and although I didn’t know what it was about when I started it, it didn’t take me long to jump right on board Yossi’s story. Nancy Garden’s blurb says it all,’The journey of a gay Orthodox Jewish boy towards his own religious, spiritual, and sexual truth – a poignant, courageous, thought-provoking and sweet coming-out story’.
Posted in reviews, tagged archimede fusillo, crime, family, friends, melbourne, relationships, violence on February 19, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Dead Dog in the Still of the Night by Archimede Fusillo
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This was an easy read but it wasn’t the type of book that had me flipping through the pages, hanging onto every word and holding my breath to find out what was going to happen next.
Primo is a teenage boy, who makes some bad decisions but I did feel empathy for him and what he was working through with his family. As the story went on, the more you got to understand his family and why he does some of the things he does. He has an awesome best mate and tolerant girlfriend and the ending is very satisfactory.
A very Australian, Melbourne suburbs setting was the background to a good, solid story.
Posted in reviews, tagged drugs, family, first love, head of the river, melbourne, parents, pip harry, rowing, swoon on February 19, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Head of the River by Pip Harry
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Who would have thought a book about rowing could have grabbed me like this one did!! I loved the alternating chapters between sister and brother Leni and Cristian, it was extra interesting to hear from both of them. They were both under so much pressure to win, even though I don’t think their parents were purposefully trying to put pressure on them, i felt that both parents wanted the best for Leni and Cristian and wanted them to be happy, but they didn’t actually stop to find out what it was that would make Leni and Cristian happy.
The way that the book started out, you know that something bad has happened to someone and throughout the story, I was trying to put the pieces together to work out who it was, and when it happened, it wasn’t shocking but it hit hard.
Overall, this was a story about family and friends, what you do for other people and what you do when you are trying to find yourself. A good, hopeful story tinged with sadness.
Posted in reviews, tagged brothers, Doug MacLeod, family, first love, grandparents, grief, tigers on the beach on February 19, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Tigers on the Beach by Doug MacLeod
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
An easy read, filled with stories about brothers, parents, first love, jokes and the death of a grand parent. Adam is thirteen years old and I think, for me, this age is a bit too young to really capture my interest.
Although this book was dealing with grief and heartbreak and family tensions, I didn’t find that it went deep enough to hook me and maybe that wasn’t the intention but I do like my family/grief/heartbreak books to make me cry.
Posted in reviews, tagged cornwall, family, first love, history, indigenous, library, research, secrets, south australia, Zenna Dare on February 19, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Zenna Dare by Rosanne Hawke
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This was a great read that kept me interested with every page. Alternating between Jenefer in present day Kapunda, South Australia and her ancestor Gweniver in 1850’s Cornwall/South Australia, it was like reading through layers of a story, slowly unravelling the mystery that appears to have been a family secret.
Jenefer was a nice character who seemed to mature throughout the story and I loved how she jumped right into the job of researching her family history, using the internet as well as local library and State Library to get as much information as she could to find answers. There were a few times I really wanted to jump to the end to find out what the big secret actually was, the suspense was written well.
Caleb was a fantastic addition to the story with his relaxed and honest attitude as well as bringing with him, his connection to indigenous stories, the land, stolen generation and his experiences with reconciliation. It added a different element to the story and gave me more to think about.
Overall, I really enjoyed this story and thought it made researching family history somewhat exciting (something that I wouldn’t have thought previously!)
Posted in reviews, tagged book love, books, comics, Contemporary, first love, Manhattan, Paris, school years, Stephanie Perkins, swoon on February 2, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Isla and the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Pg. 81 Update : “You know that I like you. Right?’…… Pure Stephanie Perkins swoon <3"
Pg. 173 Update: Isla & Josh, Josh & Isla….. I don't need anything else but these two
Book Finished Update: I literally have tears running down my cheeks right now, my heart is bursting from the love in this book.
Everything about it is beautiful, the romance, the friendships, the love and the heartbreak.
And it was lovely to reconnect with some special people, St. Clair, Anna, Cricket and Lola – hello, looks like I am going to be doing some re-reading!
A perfect happily ever after.
bookswooning 