Six Degrees of Separation: The Post-office Girl to Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens

 Welcome to this month's edition of Six Degrees of Separation, which is a monthly meme hosted by Kate from Books Are My Favourite and Best. The idea is to start with a specific book and make a series of links from one book to the next using whatever link you can find and see where you end up after six links. I am also linking this post up with The Sunday Salon, hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz and A Good Book and a Cup of Tea hosted at Boondock Ramblings.

This month the starting point is The Post-Office Girl by Stefan Zweig

The first book I thought of when I saw the title was The Postmistress by Alison Stuart, set in the goldfields of Victoria in the late 19th century. (my review)

Alison Stuart has written a mystery set in colonial Singapore under the name of A M Stuart. Singapore Sapphire is the first book in the Harriet Gordon series which is set in the early 20th century. 

A recent release that I really want to read is The Singapore Secret by Clare Willis which is set in WWII Singapore

I had some Singapore books in a recent Six Degrees post, so I wanted to make sure I didn't choose those same books again. Therefore, instead of choosing another book about Singapore, I am going a different route (pun intended). The last time I travelled via Singapore I was reading The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi de Lampedusa, which was the first time I had participated in the Classics Spin. (my review)

I am participating in the Classics Spin again this time and the book I will be reading is Careful, He Might Hear You by Sumner Locke Elliot which is set in 1920s Australia and won the Miles Franklin Literary Award in 1963.

A recent Miles Franklin Literary Award winner that I have read is Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens by Shankari Chandran, which won the award back in 2023. 

Next month's starting point is Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke

Will you be joining us?

Spell the Month in Books: September

 

Reviews From the Stacks

For 2025 I have decided to have a go at Spell the Month in Books which is hosted at Reviews From the Stacks. The link party opens on the first Saturday of the month, but I won't be posting until after that as I already have other things scheduled every Saturday and for the first two Sundays of the month. I will be sharing this post with Sunday Salon hosted at Readerbuzz.

The idea is that you use the titles of books to spell the month name. The theme for September is Something to Savor – longer books (define as you will) OR ones that have been on your TBR for a long time. I am going to do something a bit different from the theme this month. My twist is that I am going to use the concept of long in a few different ways

Let's get started!

S - Song of the Sun God by Shankari Chandran - I chose this one because we are about to visit Sri Lanka. It is a destination that has been on my bucket list for a long time and I am really looking for

E - Emma by Jane Austen - Written so long ago but I still haven't read it

P - Persuasion by Jane Austen - Although I have read both Persuasion and Pride and Prejudice

T - Two for the Dough by Janet Evanovich - I have been keeping a spreadsheet of all of the books I have read for the last 21 years which is a long time! This is the first title that is on my list of books read that starts with T (not counting the ones that begin with the word The)

E - The Endless Forest by Sara Donati - This is the final book in the Into the Wilderness series, which are all long books!

M - Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides - I listened to this so long ago it was on cassette tapes. Funnily enough I got to the last cassette, and it was damaged, so I ended up having to go to the library to read the last few chapters!

B - Bitter Greens by Kate Forsyth - Part historical fiction but also part retelling of Rapunzel fairy tale where she has to let down her long hair

E - The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde - I loved the Jasper Fforde books especially the Thursday Next books, but it has been a long time since I read this author

R - The Red Tent by Anita Diamant - one of the first books I ever reviewed around 20 years ago which is so long ago

October's theme is Trick or Treat – Books that you feel strongly about whether positively or negatively. Should be a bit easier month with the only challenge being two O books that meet the prompt!

Top Ten Tuesday: That smells so good!

 Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is Literary/Bookish Candles I’d Make (Pick a book and assign it a fragrance or fragrance combo that would make a nice candle.) (Submitted by Heather @ The Frozen Library)

Originally, I wasn't 100% sure I would do the topic as written but then I remembered that there are plenty of foodie scents that would work in a candle. I have also been meaning to do a foodie books post so I am combining the two! Not all of these books are foodie as such but they do have food items in their title!

The Magic of Lemon Drop Pie by Rachel Linden - I just recently read this and really enjoyed it! The main character, Lolly, makes a lot of Lemon Drop Pie in this book. Think lemon meringue pie with a small twist!

A Faraway Smell of Lemon by Rachel Joyce - This is a short story and the only thing I have read by Rachel Joyce. I do mean to read more as I love the sound of this book. Bonus is that it is set at Christmas and so we can combine the smell of lemon with the smells of Christmas.

A Crown of Bitter Orange by Laura Florand - I love Laura Florand's books so it is a real shame that she isn't publishing any more. They mostly are foodie or about perfumes and set in France. This is the third book in the La Vie en Roses series.

White Mulberry by Rosa Kwan Easton - I read this earlier this year before our trip to Japan and Korea and learnt so much about the history in the 20th century between these two countries. (my review)

Strawberry Shortcake Murder by Joanne Flake - You could use just about any book by in the Hannah Swensen series for this prompt

It was the Pie's Fault by Elizabeth Sa Fleur - This was a super fun romance that I read a while ago now which features fake dating, grumpy/sunshine tropes and delicious sounding cherry pies!

Chai Time at the Cinnamon Gardens by Shankari Chandran - This is a two for one book. Chai and Cinnamon could both be candle flavours right. It is also an excellent read!

Cinnamon and Gunpowder by Eli Brown - I mean if someone likes the smell of gunpowder this could be a two for one too! I started reading this ages ago but other things go in the way and I never finished it! One day I will. 

The Tea Rose by Jennifer Donnelly - My favourite in this trilogy was The Winter Rose but this was a great read too. And another two candle flavours title.

The Full Moon Coffee Shop by Mai Mochizuki - If I am going to do tea then it is only fair that I do coffee too! This was such a fun read when I read it last year. The next book in the series is being released in English next month and I am looking forward to it! (my review)

Do we have any candle flavours in common?

Top Ten Tuesday: Books with Autumny Covers

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is Books with Springy Covers (Pastel colors, flowers, baby animals, sunshine, etc.)Books with Springy Covers (Pastel colors, flowers, baby animals, sunshine, etc.) Given that we are now in autumn in Australia I am doing books with Autumny Covers instead. 

Red Leaves by Paullina Simons - This was the first book I thought of when I saw the theme. When went to search for it on my blog, I realised that I read it in my pre-blogging days. It wasn't even on my spreadsheet where I keep my list of reads going back to mid 2004! I read this book a very long time ago!


Red Leaves by Thomas H Cook - When I was filtering on my spreadsheet for the title Red Leaves, I came across this book, which I don't remember a thing about. I read this back in 2007. 


Pumpkin Spice Cafe by Laurie Gilmore - When I think of American Fall, then one word that comes up a lot is pumpkin. I just read this book while I was away so it is a very, very recent read. 

Full Moon Coffee shop by Mai Mochizuki - This book doesn't have anything to do with autumn really, but the colours feel autumny to me.

In Italy for Love by Leonie Mack - By contrast, this book is all about living in Northern Italy during autumn!

The Yellow Wood by Minnie Darke - When you go for a drive to check out the autumn colours in nature then yellow and reds dominate, so a yellow wood fits the theme for me!


The Family Tree by Susan Wiggs - Look at that tree! Doesn't it scream autumn in the colour of it.

Song of the Sun God by Shankari Chandran - The next three books don't have anything in the subject to do with autumn, but the colours on the covers feel like they fit in this post. This book is set in Sri Lanka which is very tropical and doesn't really have autumn as a season as far as I know.


Fire Study by Maria V Snyder - The colours of fire and the colours of autumn feel very similar to me!


The Place on Dalhousie by Melina Marchetta - It might be time for me to relisten to some Melina Marchetta books! It's been a while.

Top Ten Tuesday: Not new!

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is Oldest (aka Earliest Published) Books On My TBR (submitted by Nicole @ BookWyrm Knits)

As I have a tendency to do, I have twisted this week's topic just a bit. Like most of us, I have a tendency to read new books, so my post this week is all about the books I have read this year that were published before 2020.

The Kamogawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashiwai - originally published in 2013. I have the follow up book ready to read on my Kindle. (review)

Before Your Memory Fades by Toshikazu Kawaguchi - originally published in 2018. Seeing this author at Melbourne Writers Festival is one of my highlight for this year. (review)

Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa - originally published in 2010. Interesting that the first three are all Japanese books.

Sylvester by Georgette Heyer - originally published in 1957. One of my all time favourite audiobook experiences is listening to Richard Armitage narrate the books of Georgette Heyer. I tend to listen to them every couple of years ago. Audible bliss!

Relish by Lucy Knisley -  originally published in 2013. This was a Cook the Books selection and a re-read for me. (post)

The Woman Who Walked in Sunshine by Alexander McCall Smith - originally published in 2015. It had been a good few years since I had listened to or read one of the Precious Ramotswe books. Highly recommend the audio versions. Might be time for the next one.

Family Tree by Susan Wiggs - originally published in 2017 - Another Cook the Books selection (review)

Song of the Sun God by Shankari Chandran - originally published in 2017. I loved the first Chandran book I read so I decided to give this one a go on audio.

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd - originally published in 2001 - This is another Cook the Books selection. (review)

The President's Hat by Antoine Laurain - originally published in 2012 - I did do a bit of a Antoine Laurain binge this year. Another book I read by him was published on 4 January 2020 so just missed out on being counted for this purpose 

So, what have I learned from this? I am likely to read older books thanks to Cook the Books. I am also likely to read older books in translation or to listen to them on audio. And it must just be a coincidence that so many of the surnames of these authors start with a K right?

Six Degrees of Separation: Kairos to A Nurses Life

Welcome to this month's edition of Six Degrees of Separation, which is a monthly meme hosted by Kate from Books Are My Favourite and Best. The idea is to start with a specific book and make a series of links from one book to the next using whatever link you can find and see where you end up after six links. I am also linking this post up with The Sunday Salon, hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.

This month's starting point is Kairos by Jenny Eckenberg. This book was recently announced as the winner of International Book Prize for 2024. The book was translated from German.

The last book I read that was translated from German was Carsten Henn's The Door-to-Door Bookstore which I read last year. (my review)

Another translated book about bookstores is Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-Reum who is a Korean author. I am reading this at the moment.

A couple of years ago I read Island of Sea Women by Lisa See, which is set on the Korean island of Jeju. We are doing a cruise next year which will take us to Jeju which we are very excited about.

Recently I have been listening to Song of the Sun God by Shankari Chandran. What is the connection? Well, this book is set in the island nation of Sri Lanka so they are both set on islands.. We know that we will visit Sri Lanka in the next couple of years. We know who we are going with, we just have to find the date! So the other connection is Jeju and Sri Lanka are both places we intend to visit.

For the next connection, I am using the sun connection as my link and choosing Tiny Sunbirds Far Away by Christie Watson, which is partially set in Nigeria.

For my last choice, I am selecting a book I just learned about the day I was writing this post, so I haven't actually read it yet. The book is A Nurses Tale by Ola Awonubi and it feaatures a Nigerian nurse in WWII London. Christie Watson used to be a nurse, so that's another connection between these two books.

I need to stop here which is a shame as I straight away thought of another book about WWII nurses.

Next month the starting point is with The Museum of Modern Love by Heather Rose

Where did your chain take you this month?

This Week...

Life

We have had a very pleasant weekend. If we start with Sunday, we went into the city and visited the Pharoah exhibition which is currently on at the NGV. Every year, they have a winter masterpiece exhibition and it is always good, and this one is no exception! Part of the joy of going to the exhibitions held at NGV is to see how they are staged, and this one was once again excellent!!

Friday was Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year. I wouldn't normally do anything to celebrate solstice, but I happened to see an ad for a Winter Solstice event at the winery down the road and thought why not! We have driven past this winery so many times and had never been there. There was live music, fires and a fire guy who came and did tricks for the crowd! It was a different way to spend Friday night.

I'm reading

I finished reading Midnight Blue this week. I then promptly started another translated book, Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-Reum. This is a Korean book, and will be my fourth book in translation this month! I'll have to convince my fellow book clubbers to have this as a theme again!

I haven't mentioned my audiobook for a while, but I think I will finish Song of the Sunbird by Shankari Chandran this week. This is a book that covers around 60 years of Sri Lankan history. If you know anything about the recent history you might recall that there was a civil war in this island country so there were times when listening was quite confronting. I have enjoyed the book, but I do think I will be listening to something a bit lighter next!


I'm watching

A few weeks ago my sister mentioned a show called Home Town when we were talking about feel good shows. I started watching this week and it definitely qualifies as TV that you can watch and be left feeling better about life afterwards. The show features a couple who renovate homes. The twist is that all the houses are in their small home town of Laurel in Mississippi.  I will definitely be watching more.

A friend mentioned a documentary called Mont St Michel: Resistance Through the Ages. We visited Mont St Michel when we were in France 18 months ago. In fact, we were there on New Years Eve and we had an amazing night! Even without having visited, the documentary would have been fascinating but it was even more so seeing as we have visited.

Posts from the last week


Top Ten Tuesday: Books on my Winter 2024 To-Read List

Cook the Books: Family Tree by Susan Wiggs
Sunday Salon: Rachael Johns Book Club Reader Retreat 2024



I've linked this post to It's Monday, what are you reading? as hosted by Book Date

Sunday Salon: Melbourne Writers Festival

Last week it was Melbourne Writers Festival. I do try to attend a least one event each year at the festival, although sometimes it is easier than others to find sessions which sounded interesting. When I first saw the program for this year, the two authors I really wanted to see were Toshikazu Kawaguchi and Shankari Chandran. Whilst I was able to see Toshikazu Kawaguchi, the Chandran session was sold out. Maybe next time. 

We ended up going two sessions. The first session was Irish writer Paul Murray, author of The Bee  Sting and American writer Bryan Washington, author of Family Meal,  who were talking to Australian author Toni Jordan. The theme for the Festival this year is Ghosts, and this session was Familiar Haunts, and so the authors spoke about literal and figurative ghosts in their respective books. Interestingly, at book club today, one of the members had read The Bee Sting and highly recommends it, so that is the book out of these two that I am most likely to read.

The session I was most looking forward to, and that I most enjoyed, was the session with Toshikazu Kawaguchi. It was an absolute pleasure from the moment he took to the stage with a cheeky wave to the crowd, until the very end! The whole crowd hung on every word. Of course, he was there to talk about the very popular series that starts with Before the Coffee Gets Cold. 

The conversation was really interesting, ranging from talking about Kawaguchi's work on the stage to his disbelief of being in Australia. He also shared a number of secrets about the book. For example, the first book,  Before the Coffee Gets Cold, was originally a screenplay which makes perfect sense when you think about how the book is only set with in the four walls of the cafe. He also shared how the ghost in the story came to be, and that he never really intended to write books. 

One of the interesting things he talked about was the rule in the books which says that even going back to the past can't change what has already happened. When asked about this Kawaguchi talked about it not being about changing the future but rather about being able to move to a different acceptance about what has happened when you return to the present. It's a lovely sentiment.

Obviously, Kawaguchi is Japanese, and so there needed to be a translator and he did such a great job, and was part of what made the session so much fun. The host would ask a question that would be translated, and then you would see Kawaguchi laughing as he responded, and then the translator would laugh, and then when the crown got the translation we would also laugh! 

There was a suggestion that there maybe some kind of TV or movie in the offing, but apparently there is already a Japanese movie version which I am going to need to try to find.

I have just finished listening to the fourth book in the series, so I was very excited to hear that the English translation of book number five is on it's way and should be out in a few months, and that he is currently writing book number six.

And what do you do after a session like this. Well, of course you go for ramen! Delicious!

I am so glad that I did make the effort to attend these sessions!

Have you attended a writers festival in your home town?

Six Degrees of Separation: The Anniversary to Equal Rites

Welcome to this month's edition of Six Degrees of Separation, which is a monthly meme hosted by Kate from Books Are My Favourite and Best. The idea is to start with a specific book and make a series of links from one book to the next using whatever link you can find and see where you end up after six links. I am also linking this post up with The Sunday Salon, hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.

This month the starting point is The Anniversary by Stephanie Bishop, which was longlisted for the Stella Prize this year.

My starting point is last year's winner of the same prize, Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens by Shankari Chandran

Another book with the word cinnamon in the title is Cinnamon and Gunpowder by Eli Brown

A book that I read recently about the famous Gunpowder Plot is The Secrets of Crestwell Hall by Alexandra Walsh

I love a good book which features the house as almost a character. Another book where that happened for me was Peacock Summer by Hannah Richell

A book by another Hannah that is the very opposite of summer is Burial Rites by Hannah Kent..

And that title gives me the opportunity to finish with a Terry Pratchett book, Equal Rites.

Next month our starting point is Butter by Asako Yuzuki. I am very excited by this choice. I had requested it from the library but wasn't able to go pick it up! I am not sure that I will get to read it before June but it will be a good reminder to me to request it again.

Will you be joining us?

This week....

I'm reading

This week I finished reading Summer at the Santorini Bookshop by Rebecca Raisin, which I really enjoyed. I reviewed this last week. 

I also started and finished Invitation to Italy by Victoria Springfield which I will review later in the week. Lets just say that after finishing this book I might have gently mentioned to my husband that we didn't make it to Procida so maybe we should think about going back to Naples. Don't like my chances anytime soon though.

After a few books set in locations like Italy and Greece, I started reading Making Memories at the Cornish Cove by Kim Nash. This is set in Cornwall and is part of the Cornish Cove series. 

I can definitely see an escapist theme in my reading at the moment, which is probably understandable given how stressed I am at work. 

On the audiobook front, I finished Before the Memory Fades by Toshikazu Kawaguchi which counts as a bookclub selection. Last week I mentioned that the theme for our next read on a theme bookclub is related to Writers Festivals,  which could be an author you have seen at a festival before or one who is coming to a writers festival soon. I have tickets to see Toshikazu Kawaguchi at Melbourne Writers Festival in May.

Another author who is appearing at Melbourne Writers Festival is Shankari Chandran. I wasn't lucky enough to get tickets to her session. That didn't stop me from starting her latest book Song of the Sun God on audio, which will also count for bookclub. This audio is around 12 hours long which is longer than I have been listening to given that I have such limited listening time. I imagine it is going to take me a couple of months to get through this book.

I'm watching

This week we watched the first episode of a couple of series. We started Three Body Problem and also Nell Renegade. Two very different series.

Continuing on the escapist theme, I also watched My Big Fat Wedding 3. It was entertaining enough but does rely on the same old jokes. I did laugh out loud once.

Life

Like most of Australia, I have been shocked by events in Sydney over the weekend, and I think that this is just another example of events around the world that are affecting my stress levels. Work is very intense and then when you hear of events like this happening it just makes things worse. 

We had a very quiet weekend. The only thing that we did was going to brunch when we did the food shopping. I don't know if not doing anything was just what I needed, or if it gave me too much time to think about things.

Posts from the last week

Blog Tour: Summer at the Santorini Bookshop by Rebecca Raisin

Weekend Cooking: Figolli (Take 2)

Sunday Salon: Historical Fiction Reading Challenge - March statistics

I've linked this post to It's Monday, what are you reading? as hosted by Book Date

Top Ten Tuesday: April reads

 

 

  

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is April Showers — Pick your own title for this one to reflect the direction you choose to go with this prompt (books with rain on the cover/in the title, that have rainstorms in the story, or that have anything to do with rain)


I expected to find quite a few titles on my list of books I have read with the word rain or showers or something like that but I was wrong. Therefore, my twist is that instead of focusing on the word Showers, I am going to share 10 books I have read in April over the years.

April 2023 - The Lost Daughters of Ukraine by Erin Littekin

April 2022 - Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens by Shankari Chandran

April 2021 - The Warsaw Orphan by Kelly Rimmer

April 2020 - Chocolate Cake for Breakfast by Danielle Hawkins

April 2019 - Lacey by Fiona McArthur

April 2018 - Year One by Nora Roberts

March 2017 - Barbed Wire and Cherry Blossoms by Anita Heiss

April 2016 - Quarterback Draw by Jaci Burton

April 2015 - Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld

April 2014 - Sylvester by Georgette Heyer 

It is interesting to see how my reading has changed over the years.

Six Degrees of Separation: Romantic Comedy to All That I Am

 

Welcome to this month's edition of Six Degrees of Separation, which is a monthly meme hosted by Kate from Books Are My Favourite and Best.  The idea is to start with a specific book and make a series of links from one book to the next using whatever link you can find and see where you end up after six links.  I am also linking this post up with The Sunday Salon, hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz. 

 

This month's starting point is Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld. When this was announced as the starting point I was pretty pleased. I mean, I read plenty of books which might be counted as romantic comedies. Except when it came to making the first step when I was writing the post I got very stuck. And the theme I ended up following wasn't particularly romantic or funny!

One author who came to mind when I thought about romantic comedy is Emily Henry. Her book Happy Place was also released in April 2023, the same month as the Sittenfeld book. Emily Henry's next book is going to be called Funny Story so that must surely be a romantic comedy. She announced that this week.

Also announced this week was the winner of the Miles Franklin award for 2023 which was Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens by Shankari Chandran. I read this book last year and liked it a lot, which isn't always the case for me and award winners.

Another Miles Franklin award winner I have read and enjoyed many years ago now is That Deadman Dance by Kim Scott who is an indigenous author. (my review)

I mentioned above that I am not always enamoured by award winners. One Miles Franklin award winner that I tried unsuccessfully to read was Carpentaria by Alexis Wright. She too is an indigenous author.

So I have given you two Miles Franklin Award winners I have read and enjoyed, one I DNF'ed so my next step is another winner by another indigenous author, Tara June Finch which is called The Yield. I own this book but I haven't read it yet!

My final link in the chain for this month is another Miles Franklin award winner that I have read which is All That I Am by Anna Funder. I really wanted to finish with this book because the starting point for next month is Anna Funder's new book, Wifedom. (my review)

Are you joining in on Six Degrees this month? Where did your chain take you?

Top Ten Tuesday: Favourite Books of 2022

 

 

 

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week the theme is Favourite Books of 2022. I have linked to reviews where I have one, bu as usual, I didn't write reviews for most of them. Will try to do better in 2023.

I am pretty stingy when it comes to handing out 5 star grades. There were only two but as I look at the list there are several of the 4.5 stars that should probably have been 5 stars. Oh well. First the 5 star reads.

The Island Of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak - I loved this book so much. It wasn't what I expected at all and it was so good! (My review)

The Beautiful Words by Vanessa McCausland - My one word review of this book for an earlier TTT was "beautiful"

Now for some of my 4.5/5 reviews

Book Lovers by Emily Henry - I listened to this on audio and loved it! The way that the narrator has Charlie saying "Stephens" when he is addressing the main character. Ooh la la!

With Love from Wish and Co by Minnie Darke - Darke's previous book, The Lost Love Song was one of my favourites last year. This one was really good too!

The Happiest Man on Earth by Eddie Jaku - What an extraordinary story. Eddie was a Jewish prisoner of war in WWII and then built a life for himself in Australia after the war.

Taste: My Life Through Food by Stanley Tucci - Do yourself a favour and listen to this one on audio. And then maybe borrow it from the library, and then buy the book.

The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune - I was definitely getting FOMO so I had to read this one, and now I know what all the fuss is about.

Escape to the French Farmhouse by Jo Thomas - I read this by accident. I had another similarly titled book that I had to read for a blog tour and I read this one instead. I have since read another of her books and just bought another one, so I guess it worked out well.

The Codebreakers by Alli Thomas - This was about a group of Australian women who worked as codebreakers from a garage in the Brisbane suburbs during WWII.

Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens by Shankari Chandran - Set in an aged care home, this book tells the story of how an extended family came to Australia from Sri Lanka, and about the current challenges they face in terms of dealing with age and racism. 

Honourable mentions to The Stand In by Lily Chu, and both The Christmas Party and The Last Summer by Karen Swan