tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-49817839440176742522024-02-19T18:47:16.183+11:00cread | read & seeCread is about reading, writing, books, ebooks and authors and the ideas, faith, creeds, beliefs and stories they perpetuate.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger121125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4981783944017674252.post-47795817213311959722018-10-08T17:50:00.001+11:002018-10-08T17:50:37.321+11:00Book review: The life to come by Michelle de KresterOne of the characters I most enjoyed in Michelle de Krester's The life to come is Sydney's inner west.
I arrived in Newtown on a yellowy January morning in the early 1980s and lived above King St near the start of Erskinville Rd for six months before a succession of terrace houses across Newtown, Emmore and Macdonaldtown.
Coming from the country to study 'Communications' I could easily have Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4981783944017674252.post-71903328873329957212018-09-28T08:33:00.000+10:002018-09-28T08:33:23.072+10:00Book review: The Nowhere Child by Christian WhiteLittle Sammy Went is gone, and while The Nowhere Child tells us where fairly quickly - who, how, why and at what cost takes the rest of this fast-paced book to uncover.
I use the cliche 'fast-paced' on purpose because like most genre books, except for the exceptional few, the 'fast-pace' does rely on cliches to a fair degree.
Which is not to say The Nowhere Child is a poor novel. Rather Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4981783944017674252.post-70388407191665738502018-08-27T07:11:00.001+10:002018-08-27T07:13:10.788+10:00Book review: The Choke by Sophie LagunaThe Choke tells the story of a young girl raised by her war-ravaged grandfather in a beat-up house near the fictional Victorian town of Nullabri on the banks of the Murray River.
Nullabri may well be located across the water from fictional Bellington and Riversend from Chris Hammer's Scrubland as we find ourselves in another rendition of dystopian rural Australia where the river (or lack of) isUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4981783944017674252.post-83525201743412524972018-08-09T08:20:00.001+10:002018-08-09T08:20:08.205+10:00Book review: Scrublands by Chris HammerThere's a rhythm to Chris Hammer's Scrublands that could easily have become monotonous in the same way driving to and from the small parched town of Riversend to the larger river town of Bellington again and again could be monotonous.
Except that both rhythms are edged with beauty and tragedy and cornered by the possibility of salvation or damnation which is why we are often addicted to the Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4981783944017674252.post-86135677341967395982018-08-07T08:01:00.000+10:002018-08-07T08:01:21.316+10:00Book review: The Shepherd's Hut by Tim WintonFifteen-year-old Jaxie urgently flees his motherless home and what is left of his abusive father, taking his chances on foot in the vast and desolate West Australian desert, hoping for the solace of an unlikely reunion with the girl he loves.
With the undaunted, brutalised but majestic voice of a teenager on a desperate journey and the dust-in-your-eyes realism of Tim Winton's landscapesUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4981783944017674252.post-78357074474629721222018-08-06T13:08:00.002+10:002018-08-06T13:11:02.945+10:00Author Richard Flanagan's speech to the Garma Festival 2018: full transcriptWhen my father died at the age of 98 he had largely divested himself of possessions. Among what little remained was an old desk in which he had collected various writings precious to him over the years: poems, sayings, quotes, a few pieces he had written, some correspondence.
Photo: From Garma Festival 2017
Among them my elder sister found a letter written by one of my father’s cousins Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4981783944017674252.post-34396716991003924892015-06-10T17:26:00.001+10:002018-08-02T23:15:56.638+10:00Book review: Everything I Never Told You by Celeste NgThis is one of the saddest books I've read in a long time although most popular literary books I've read of late make a good effort at being reasonably depressing.
Which is not to say Everything I Never Told You is a poor read. On the whole it is eminently readable but I found myself constantly trying to peel back my own experience of family to see if secrets, silent shame and unspokenUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4981783944017674252.post-78374143879833878502015-01-14T22:11:00.000+11:002018-08-03T05:00:04.585+10:00Book review: I'm not crazy I'm just a little unwell by Leigh HatcherLeigh Hatcher’s book about his years suffering with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome nearly had a completely different name.
But all along he’d felt the Matchbox 20 lyric I’m Not Crazy, I’m Just a Little Unwell seemed to resonate with his experience and so he went with his heart and it became the title of his best selling book.
And that’s something Leigh is good at, going with his heart, and he bares Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4981783944017674252.post-4941112244933450222015-01-11T22:07:00.000+11:002018-08-03T05:08:18.876+10:00Book review: The Girl on the Train by Paula HawkinsThe comparisons for The Girl on the Train and Gone Girl are coming thick and fast and will do sales of the former no harm as it is published in Australia this month.
And there are plenty of similarities - the gradual denuding of all of the main characters in The Girl on the Train, so that their worst (and perhaps for some, their best) is gradually and in some cases terrifyingly revealed Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4981783944017674252.post-11304482576431955492014-10-27T22:15:00.000+11:002018-08-03T21:01:36.517+10:00Book review: Misfits Welcome by Matthew BarnettWhen Matthew and Caroline Barnetts' story first broke into Christian consciousness across the globe, it inspired many pastors and leaders to finally acknowledge the part of themselves they had been often taught to ignore.
It was unusual to hear of a large, popular, American, Pentecostal church that centralised radical engagement with the poor.
Most church experts would teach us that you can'tUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4981783944017674252.post-88865725659589351022014-10-07T19:55:00.001+11:002018-08-03T04:26:49.056+10:00Book review: The Goldfinch by Donna TarttTheo Decker, a 'god of layers' perhaps, and that is what he is, surviving a bomb blast that kills his mother, comforting a dying antique trader and following his delirious urging to take hold of a treasure that takes hold of him in so many layered ways.
There are times this book infuriates when characters fail to do what 99 per cent of people would do - what you the reader are urging them to doUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4981783944017674252.post-60000342930918397162014-09-21T21:36:00.001+10:002018-08-03T21:15:02.641+10:00Book review: The Rosie Project by Graeme SimsionThe Rosie Project's lead character, Don Tillman, would be satisfied that I read on the Kindle
platform of his project to find a wife. While reading I was informed of
what percentage of the book had been completed and also was given the
estimated time in the current chapter so I could adjust my optimal
reading speed.
Despite these and other efficiencies I found my
reading broke into my Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4981783944017674252.post-62030733048687013562014-07-19T14:05:00.001+10:002018-08-03T21:17:34.595+10:00Novelist Liam Davison among Australians killed on MH17The devastation of a disaster like the shooting down of MH17 is indiscriminate and ruthless - with people of all walks of life cut off in an instance in the most horrific of circumstances.
Australia's literary community is particular mindful of the loss of novelist Liam Davison, who with his his wife Frankie, a much-loved teacher, were passengers on the doomed flight.
Mr Davison published Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4981783944017674252.post-37170194496315694892014-07-13T21:45:00.000+10:002018-08-03T21:23:49.097+10:00Book review in brief: The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard FlanaganFor an Australian author like Richard Flanagan, there is material enough for a great novel just telling of the lives and suffering of Australian prisoners of war during World War 2. Even more so considering his father was just such a prisoner on the Burma railway, something Flanagan speaks of 'imbibing' while growing up.
Instead he settles for a broader and more difficult panorama. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4981783944017674252.post-53721495919265962432014-07-12T20:51:00.002+10:002018-08-05T05:54:49.702+10:00Real time 'FingerReader' assists the visually impaired to read
Reading is as easy as pointing your finger at the text with the prototype FingerReader being developed by scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Unlike other readers available for visually impaired people, which first need to process and translate text, the MIT finger reader reads in real time, and uses remarkable technology to assist the reader follow line after lineUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4981783944017674252.post-25067068027106507702014-07-11T23:04:00.000+10:002014-10-11T22:27:06.153+11:00Book review: I am Malala by Malala YousafzaiThe obvious attraction of I Am Malala is the inside story of this young women's violent struggle with the Taliban but there are even greater, quieter wonders on offer for the patient reader.
Malala Yousafzai tells her story with a refreshing lack of self-consciousness so that we are given not only a deeply personal insight into her own soul, but into the intricacies of her family and her Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4981783944017674252.post-16354546256167743202014-03-15T11:26:00.001+11:002018-08-05T06:07:57.865+10:00Book news: early release of The Undesirables: Inside Nauru by Mark IsaacsAustralian publisher Hardie Grant has moved forward the release of The Undesirables which is a whistle-blower's account from inside the asylum-seeker camp on Nauru.
Available from March 17, 2014 the rushed release is in response to the recent violence and death of one asylum-seeker at Manus Island.
Author Mark Isaacs was just 24 when, as the Sydney Morning Herald reports, he was hired as a Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4981783944017674252.post-32466343042137304942014-03-13T22:32:00.003+11:002018-08-05T06:15:40.221+10:00Book review: The Tournament by Matthew ReillyProbably the most interesting thing about The Tournament is how I received my copy.
Which is not to say Reilly's departure into historical fiction is bland or boring, but that fact is often stranger then fiction, even when the fiction is by one of Australia's leading action authors.
Returning from my favourite Sydney CBD coffee shop, Vella Nero on Clarence St, I saw relaxing in the sunshine on Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4981783944017674252.post-88711892389417525312014-03-06T23:01:00.000+11:002018-08-05T06:27:49.099+10:00Spritz: new text streaming application which reinvents reading one word at a time
A patent-pending reading application included with two new Samsung products streams single words with an optimal recognition point and claims to increase reading speeds dramatically.
Spritz was launched at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on February 23 after three years of 'stealth mode' research and development.
Using a display called a 'Redicle', Spritz displays a single word at a Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4981783944017674252.post-17336332384664684782014-01-24T08:14:00.001+11:002018-08-05T06:36:18.608+10:00Amazon launches Christian publishing imprint, Waterfall PressAmazon Publishing today (January 24, 2014) announced the launch of Waterfall Press, a new Christian imprint that will specialize in faith-based non-fiction and fiction.
An Amazon media release says, 'Waterfall Press non-fiction will aim to provide spiritual refreshment and inspiration to today's Christian reader, while fiction will include stories in the romance, mystery, and Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4981783944017674252.post-25364574696218046712013-11-07T22:36:00.000+11:002013-11-08T07:01:17.155+11:00Are Australians buying less books from overseas or just less books?
Australia's latest trade data suggests Australians may have curbed their overseas spending on items such as books and toys.
According to Business Insider Australia, the Australian Bureau of Statistics' latest trade data shows a narrowing in the deficit on the Balance of Goods and Services to a seasonally adjusted $284 million from $693 million last month.
A key to this was a fall in imports Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4981783944017674252.post-61464761056344076322013-11-03T23:19:00.003+11:002013-11-04T19:34:26.607+11:00Book review: Sycamore Row by John Grisham
In Luke 19, a rich man climbs a Sycamore tree to get a closer look at Jesus who is passing through the city of Jericho. Inspired to acts of justice after Jesus visits him for lunch, the man, Zaccheus, gives away much of his wealth to those he has previously robbed as a tax collector.
In John Grisham's latest legal thriller, Sycamore Row, a rich man climbs a Sycamore tree and hangs himself, and Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4981783944017674252.post-88594432462738782292013-10-26T21:32:00.002+11:002018-08-05T07:01:50.824+10:00Millions buy Sarah Young's Jesus Calling but theologians aren't so sure
The Christian devotional, Jesus Calling, which is one the best-selling books in the world today, out-selling Fifty Shades of Grey in the first half 2013, has a strong Australian connection.
Author Sarah Young, who first released Jesus Calling: Enjoying Peace in His Presence in 2004, has been a missionary in Australia since 1977 with her husband Stephen and most recently they moved to Perth in Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4981783944017674252.post-27941828046118036752013-10-15T21:59:00.001+11:002013-11-04T20:32:10.366+11:00Book review: Open House - Conversations with Leigh Hatcher
Learning from the lives of others is one of the great opportunities we have for personal growth, as we see ourselves reflected in their stories.
Just such an opportunity, multiplied 30 times, is presented to readers of Open House - Conversations with Leigh Hatcher launched this week.
Open House is the popular Sunday night radio interview program hosted by well-known media personality and Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4981783944017674252.post-50425201111410701352013-08-20T14:15:00.001+10:002013-11-04T20:34:24.003+11:00Book review: Longbourn by Jo BakerAlthough Jane Austen may be known as a writer who cut through the veil of manners that surrounded English landed gentry, she was still a woman of her time and is unlikely to have ever imagined a book such as Jo Baker has written.
Longbourn covers the same set of events as Pride and Prejudice but from a firmly 'downstairs' perspective - although we should also include the attic where the servantsUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0