Category: Interviews & reviews

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If you can’t beat ’em, read ’em – Australian Women Writers Challenge 2012

Woo hoo Elizabeth Lhuede for initiating this challenge. What a champion, promoting Australian women’s fiction across the blogsphere. This is another wonderful opportunity to support our writers.

The challenge: help counteract the gender bias in reviewing and social media newsfeeds that has continued throughout 2011 by actively promoting the reading and reviewing of a wide range of contemporary Australian women’s writing.

I’m accepting the challenge for 2012, although not aiming too high. ‘Stella’ level sounds pretty good to me (read 3 and review at least 2 books) even though there are sooooo many good authors with books due out next year (not to mention this year): Helene Young, Rachael Johns, Lisa Heidke, Rae Roadley, Bronwyn Parry, Fleur McDonald, Fiona Palmer, Cathryn Hein, Kylie Griffin, Jaye Ford, Mandy Magro, Annie Seaton, Karly Lane, Jenn J McLeod … no, not really. Just seeing what it would look like 🙂

My motto for 2012: if you can’t beat ’em, read ’em!

 

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Uh oh!

Every day we discover a new author, and the way it works is this….

First we find a great book, then we become ‘friends’ (delighted to be able to rub cyber shoulders with well-known authors through their fan site, blog, Facebook etc). If the author ever lets you down, writes a crappy story, starts boring you, etc, you simply ‘un-friend’ yourself and move on. Problem solved!

But what happens if you have a friend (first and foremost) who then publishes a book? What if they let you down? What if their book is a crappy one? How do you face them and say ‘Well done!’, ‘Congrats!’, ‘Farrrr-bu-lous story, darling’ and look like you really mean it? (Well…you don’t with a face like mine! Poker is sooooo not my game and my friend knows it!)

You see, I do have a friend (first and foremost) who is also an author. Her name is Karly Lane and over the last 12 months I have had the opportunity to witness the birth of her first Australia-wide print release. I remember the night, just over 12 months ago, when she emailed (it was like 10pm or something) to say she was about to submit to Allen & Unwin publishers and to cross my fingers.

Well, I have just finished reading Karly Lane’s ‘North Star’ and I am so pleased to say…openly and honestly…I LOVE IT; not that she needs my seal of approval as North Star is included in this year’s ’50 Books You Can’t Put Down’ list. How cool is that!

I am so thrilled. North Star is such a lovely story with well paced and delightfully real characters that will make you smile, laugh out aloud, and even groan a little if you’ve ever raised a 15 year-old daughter. I truly could not put this book down until the main character, single mother of two Kate Thurston, found the happiness she deserved.

You’ll be happy too if you pick up a copy of North Star. Am Im not saying this becasue the author is my friend. Rarely have I found a book I want to read more than once. I am delighted (and a little relieved – LOL) to say North Star is definitely one of those books for me.

Find out more or to buy North Star, publsihed by A&U, see Karly’s website.

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Lisa Heidke’s ‘Claudia’s Big Break’

Again, author Lisa Heidke has hit the perfect note with her latest novel Claudia’s Big Break.

Claudia’s plight, both funny and tragic, plays out amidst the picturesque Greek playground of Santorini; and something in the way the author paints the unique and always fascinating Greek lifestyle suggests to me she’s travelled the same pathways of this postcard-perfect village in real life.

Granted…in this story you’ll meet a dodgy character or two along the way and discover not all is as it seems, but this is what allows the funny to err on the tragic as we witness Claudia meeting her forties head-on.

In this funny, heart-warming and surprising take on the bond between three best friends struggling to deal with each other’s achievements, but at the same time realising their failures, Claudia’s Big Break is a great read with a surprising and very satisfying plot.

This latest story from Lisa Heidke, about how Claudia, Tara and Sophie discover something about themselves and each other, will leave you smiling.

And that, I’m discovering, is the nicest thing about Lisa Heidke’s books.

Thank you Lisa.

Lisa is published by Allen & Unwin, Australia.