Shambolic Living

Reading This Week – Watercolours – Adrienne Ferreira

Janine — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 03:40:22 +0000

A gifted child, a quirky family, an inexperienced teacher, a mysterious death all jumbled together in a small, country town that’s the essence of Watercolours. This is the debut novel for Adrienne Ferreira and in it she creates an engaging story with a group of likeable characters. Watercolours is a gentle book which meanders through the...

Reading this Week – The Testimony – Halina Wagowska

Janine — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 23:57:23 +0000

As time passes The Holocaust of World War II moves further into the pages of history. The tragedies and atrocities are at risk of becoming facts, figures and statistics on a page taught to disinterested students who would rather be at the beach than in a stuffy classroom. Eighty-one-year-old human rights activist Halina Wagowska counters...

Reading This Week – The Happiest Refugee – Anh Do

Janine — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 18:30:48 +0000

In Australia there is a long-running debate on what to do about asylum seekers. In particular, the people who pay money to people smugglers to take to the open sea in a bid to seek refuge in Australia. It’s a political hot-potato, with the issue whipped into a frenzy by a variety of shock-jocks and...

Australian Women Writers Challenge

Janine — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 01:47:12 +0000

In honour of 2012 being designated the national year of reading I’m signing up for a new challenge. This one is to read and review books by Australian Women Writers. I figure if I can’t be an Australian Women Writer I can at least support the ones who have toiled and struggled to finally get...