From Goodreads: Sussex,
England. A middle-aged man returns to his childhood home to attend a
funeral. Although the house he lived in is long gone, he is drawn to the
farm at the end of the road, where, when he was seven, he encountered a
most remarkable girl, Lettie Hempstock, and her mother and grandmother.
He hasn't thought of Lettie in decades, and yet as he sits by the pond
(a pond that she'd claimed was an ocean) behind the ramshackle old
farmhouse, the unremembered past comes flooding back. And it is a past
too strange, too frightening, too dangerous to have happened to anyone,
let alone a small boy.
Forty years earlier, a man committed
suicide in a stolen car at this farm at the end of the road. Like a fuse
on a firework, his death lit a touchpaper and resonated in unimaginable
ways. The darkness was unleashed, something scary and thoroughly
incomprehensible to a little boy. And Lettie—magical, comforting, wise
beyond her years—promised to protect him, no matter what.
Thoughts: Why has it taken me so long to discover Neil Gaiman? Why did no one grab me by the shoulders, shake me and shout YOU NEED TO READ THIS!! Gaiman has definitely become one of my go to authors. I listened to this, read by Neil Gaiman himself. I love when an author does a talking book, you get to hear it the way they intended.
Gaiman's writing is just beautiful. His storytelling draws you in, takes you back to childhood where you were sure monsters were real, but so were heroes; friendships were forever, even if you ended up living miles apart and adulthood was something a long way away. Each of the characters is real and tangible. Even those characters which aren't central to the story such as the mother are clearly seen and observed without intruding.
This book has the ability to cross age groups - complex enough to engage adults, with a story enthralling enough to capture kids. I plan to listen to this again as we take the long drive south for Christmas - something a little bit different to break up the monotony of the trip.
Soon, very soon I plan to do a list of books that would make good Christmas presents. This one will make the list. Read it - I know very few people who will regret it.
From Goodreads: Forgive me, Dorothea, for I cannot forgive you. What you do, to this child, to this child's mother, it is wrong...
Roberta
likes to collect the letters and postcards she finds in second-hand
books. When her father gives her some of her grandmother's belongings,
she finds a baffling letter from the grandfather she never knew - dated
after he supposedly died in the war.
Dorothy is
unhappily married to Albert, who is away at war. When an aeroplane
crashes in the field behind her house she meets Squadron Leader Jan
Pietrykowski, and as their bond deepens she dares to hope she might find
happiness. But fate has other plans for them both, and soon she is
hiding a secret so momentous that its shockwaves will touch her
granddaughter many years later...
Thoughts: I'm sure I came across this book on another blog, but I can't remember which one! It sounded interesting enough to request at the library and then wait ages for it to come in.
While nothing to set the world on fire, Mrs Sinclair's Suitcase was a good read. The story moved along at a reasonable pace, the premise was believable. Walters doesn't clutter her story with unnecessary characters. All the characters in this book play an important part in supporting and moving the story along. Walters also jumps from modern day back to WW2 without the clunkiness this transition can sometimes be handled with.
I'd recommend this book for those who are looking for a well written easy read.
From Goodreads: Larrikins
or patricians, socialists or silvertails - in the century following
Federation, Australia's prime ministers were as diverse as the nation
they served. Some came from backgrounds of rural or urban poverty and
were largely self-educated, looking to the ballot box as a tool of
social justice; some were drawn to politics as their destiny; still
others regarded high office as no more than their due. One or two
demonstrated that, as well as being the art of the possible, politics
can also be the art of the unlikely.
In this lively and
authoritative book, 21 historians, biographers and political analysts
discuss and profile the men who have attained Australia's highest public
office and the forces that shaped them. In doing so, Australian Prime
Ministers obliquely considers the nature of Australian democratic and
political power.
Thoughts: With the recent death of Gough Whitlam I found myself wanting to know more about the people who had lead Australia over the past 100+ years. My information above (the cover and the blurb from Goodreads) is a bit of a mish-mash. I read the most recent edition, which is the cover I used. As it was not available on Goodreads, I took it from Booktopia. The blurb comes from Goodreads, but doesn't include Julia Gillard or Tony Abbott who are included in the most recent edition.
This was a really fascinating read. Most chapters were no longer than 30 pages, making it easy to read a chapter a day which was my aim. I can now say my knowledge of my country's leaders is a lot stronger and I have a much better idea of how our parliament and the parties within it have developed. As always with history, hind sight is a wonderful tools. A few years distance can see a Prime Minister judged very differently to they way they were perceived in office. One thing they all have in common though is that under their leadership, both good and bad decisions were made. As to what you yourself see as a good or bad decision may depend largely on your own personal politics.
From Goodreads: When
Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy took their first steps into the world
behind the magic wardrobe, little do they realise what adventures are
about to unfold. And as the story of Narnia begins to unfold, so to does
a classic tale that has enchanted readers of all ages for over half a
century.
Thoughts: For me, one of the marks of a good book is one that can survive time. I don't think there will ever be a time when The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe goes out of circulation - at least not in my lifetime. I downloaded this as an audio book after we finished The Series of Unfortunate Events series and I'm thrilled to say the kids seem to have loved it as much as I did. It's one of those books that you get a whole different view of as a adult. As a child I never saw the religious connotations of the book and even now with a few weeks between finishing it and writing this review, all of the things I went "oh" at have vanished from my memory. All that is left is the knowledge that I enjoyed revisiting this book immensely and I don't think any childhood would be truly complete without it.
