Australian Women's Writers Challenge reading list

Today it is Australia Day which means a day off work and the opportunity to spend time with friends. A bit later today I am heading off to a barbecue, and then coffee with some bookish pals but before that I thought it might be time to actually look at the books I have sitting around on my various bookshelves (both real and virtual) and see what books I have that would be eligible for the Australian Women's Writer Challenge that I am participating in this year.

I haven't actually gone through my whole shelf for the Books I Own, but rather concentrated on the books that I have acquired during the last year or so. I will therefore have other books that might qualify sitting around as well.

I fully expect this list to change before the challenge finishes but I wanted to at least start to get a list together.


Library Books

Black Juice by Margo Lanagan
The Briny Cafe by Susan Duncan
Blood Song by Rhiannon Hart
Ridiculous Expectations by Merridy Eastman
Flood Tide by Judy Nunn
Grace and Glory by Sofie Laguna
Duet by Kimberley Freeman


Books I Own

Liar Bird by Lisa Walker
Tree Speaker by Katie W Stewart
Bad Power by Deborah Biancotti
The Three Loves of Persimmon by Cassandra Golds
The Push by Julia Lawrinson
The Courier's New Bicycle by Kim Westwood
Golden Earrings by Belinda Alexandra
Lola's Secret by Monica McInerney
Shadow Kin by MJ Scott
Boomerang Bride by Fiona Lowe
Thief of Lives by Lucy Sussex
Viper's Kiss by Shannon Curtis
Caleb's Crossing by Geraldine Brooks
Power and Majesty by Tansy Roberts Rayner
Soul by Tobsha Learner
Tremble by Tobsha Learner
Yearn by Tobsha Learner
The Wedding Shroud by Elisabeth Storrs
My Reckless Surrender by Anna Campbell
The Perfect Rake by Anne Gracie
Wings of Fear by Helene Young
Beneath the Shadows by Sarah Foster
The Company Articles of Edward Teach by Thoraiya Dyer

I guess you could say that I have enough to go on with then!

Library Loot: January 25 to February 1

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!

I wanted to start this week by saying thanks to Claire for hosting Mr Linky for the last couple of weeks as a result of my unexpected time away!

Taking an unplanned week away does really bad things to your library queue! To be fair, so many books had come in at the same time I wasn't really going to be able to pick them all up, but there were a whole heap that had come in and were sitting there forlornly waiting to be picked up but had to go back to the shelves instead. I will rerequest them eventually (if I can remember what they all are!).

Here is the loot that I did get when I finally ventured to the library on Saturday:

Down by the River by Robyn Carr - the third book in the Grace Valley series.

Twice Tempted by the Rogue by Tessa Dare - Second book in the Stud Club series.

Decent Exposure by Philippa Ashley - Recently I read Carrie Goes off the Map by this author and thought that her brand of British chick lit was quite good. I seem to prefer British chick lit to American chick lit a lot of the time.

Duet by Kimberly Freeman - I have borrowed this before but returned it unread. At the end of last year I read her latest book, Wildflower Hill, and now I am determined to work through her backlist!

What loot did you get? Share your loot by adding your Library Loot post link to Mr Linky below:

Affinity by Sarah Waters

From the award winning author of Tipping the Velvet and Fingersmith, shortlisted for both the Orange and the Man Booker Prize.

Now you know why you are drawn to me - why your flesh comes creeping to mine and what it comes for. Let it creep.

From the dark heart of a Victorian prison, disgraced spiritualist Selina Dawes weaves an enigmatic spell. Is she a fraud or a prodigy? By the time it all begins to matter, you'll find yourself desperately wanting to believe in magic.

Time for another joint review. This time it is with Kelly from The Written World (who has an awesome new blog template!). This time we are talking about Affinity by Sarah Waters - an author I have been meaning to read for ages but never quite managed to do so! Kelly's thoughts are in blue and mine in black!


Kelly: I am always happy to pick-up a book by Sarah Waters. What did you think of this book overall? What made you choose it over the other Sarah Waters that you haven’t read yet?
Marg: Actually, this is my first Sarah Waters, so the main reason for choosing it is that it is one of the Waters books that you haven’t read! How many have you read and how did this one compare to the others that you have read?


Kelly: Really? I totally had it in my mind that you read The Night Watch. Well, you are in for some treats! I really liked The Night Watch because it takes place during WWII. I knew little to nothing about Sarah Waters, but the setting appealed to me and I decided that I had to read it. Then, I actually discovered that Waters was very popular and I had been missing out. The other book I read by her was Fingersmith. It seemed a lot different than The Night Watch. If I remember correctly, it has been a while, The Night Watch started from the end and went to the beginning. There were no real mysteries compared to the atmospheric novel Fingersmith. This book was a lot more like Fingersmith, though. It was gothic in nature, there were twists and turns (but not like Fingersmith), and you may or may not know how it was going to all play out in the end. I really enjoyed it, though. Fingersmith remains my favourite, though, and I just feel like The Night Watch is not something that really can be compared because it is different.


What did you think of this book as your first taste of Sarah Waters, then?


Marg: I own Night Watch. Just haven’t read it yet!


I thought I had a fair idea of what to expect from a Sarah Waters book, but I found it quite a bit more literary than I thought it would be! The topic itself (spiritualism in the late 19th century) was fascinating but the strength of the book really was towards the end. The tension built and I couldn’t wait to see what happened.


Kelly: I consider that her true talent. She writes interesting beginnings, but as the book gets going it really comes into its own and you are flipping the pages to find out just what is going to happen next. So far I have enjoyed that with all of them.


I agree with this book that spiritualism in the late 19th century was a very interesting topic. She wrote so well that once in a while I almost believed in spiritualism. I was curious about how it was all going to be explained out in the end.


What did you think of the characters?


Marg: I thought the characters were really well done. The major characters were all multi faceted and I thought that the way that the reliability of the two main characters was written was interesting.  In a way, our main character Margaret seemed to be a bit of an unreliable narrator. We knew that she had had an illness (as described in the book) and she seemed to be unsure of herself, and especially of the things that were happening to her. She seemed to strengthen through the novel though. I felt so sorry for her at the end, especially in the light of the restrictions placed on women in Victorian society, especially those who don’t fit the mould of what is seen to be normal.


With Selina’s past story interwoven through the narrative, I certainly started off with the assumption that she was a charlatan and yet as the spooky events started her character was so compelling it was hard to have doubts about her!


I thought that the setting in the Victorian prison was totally a character in this book. The atmosphere was dark and brooding and very claustrophobic and the various warders helped create that feeling as well.


Were there any of the episodes that Selina caused that were a bit scary to you?


Kelly: I thought the characters were well done, too. Sarah Waters is very gifted at writing characters that stick with you long after finishing the book. Margaret and Selina are two such characters. I felt bad for Margaret. She was a lesbian in Victorian England. It was not exactly the accepted lifestyle. The first woman she loved married her brother and then the events of her relationship with Selina were heart-breaking at times. That was not exactly apparent from the beginning, but as we began to know Margaret better it became more apparent. This is the saddest book I have read by Waters so far.


I agree. I never entirely trusted Selina, but the events she conducted were explained in such detail it was hard to see them as untrustworthy. I think that is what makes a gifted charlatan. If she wasn’t good at what she did; she would not have any customers. She was gifted at selling her act and making people feel compelled to do things for her. She just basically creeped me out, though. I am thinking it was because I had read Waters in past and knew there were usually major plot changes that lead me to not entirely trust Selina. There were just moments where I couldn’t entirely explain why what she was saying was a lie. I look at all the episodes that Selina caused as a whole and think she was just scary in general. She seemed like such an innocent, but there was a calculating mind behind everything she did. She was gifted at manipulating.


Did you think the book was believable for the time in which it was set and the events that occurred?


Marg: I definitely thought it reflected the time it was set in. To be a women in Victorian times was restrictive enough, let alone a lesbian woman, and throw in her health issues and it is no wonder that she was quite unhappy at times. I can’t help but be anxious that she is going to continue to be very unhappy after the events at the end of the book, and having to face her family will be difficult for her.


Do you like the diary entry format of the story?



Check out part 2 of the review at The Written World

Threaded comments

Trying out the new blogger threaded comments to see if it works or not.

Sunday Salon: My unscheduled blogging break

Given that the last time I went fishing was probably 25 years ago and I don't really have any intention of doing so in the next 25 years, I should probably come clean and say that I didn't really go fishing in the last week.

Instead, my longest break from blogging in six years (I think anyway) was caused by the need to make an emergency dash to Perth to say goodbye to my grandfather who died on Wednesday morning at the age of 102.

A couple of years ago, on the occasion of his 100th birthday, I wrote a post that talked a little about his life, and this photo was taken at the 100th birthday celebration. It is one of the few that I have with him as an adult.

Photo by Chad Taylor Photography. If you are in Perth and need a photographer check him out  (my cousin)

It's been an interesting week really.

We knew that it was getting close to time, so we originally were thinking about heading over to Perth on the Friday night, but we held off booking, and then we talking about going on Wednesday morning, but then in the end we flew out in a massive rush on Tuesday night. At 4.50pm on that night we decided we were going, and at 7.30pm we were at the airport and in the intervening time, I had trained my boss how to do something that had to happen the next day, spent an hour getting home, packed and driven to the airport which is about 40 minutes away. Fastest pack ever....and I didn't forget anything other than hair ties! It was a good job that we did go on Tuesday night as we got to spend a couple of hours with my grandparents. We were just about to go back to the nursing home on the Wednesday morning when we got the call to say he had passed.

In some ways it was kind of an odd feeling that came over me at his passing. My mum moved us away from our family when I was 10 years old and so we only got to see my father and my grandparents for short times during holidays. Really, at the end of every visit for the last twenty years, I have walked out thinking that this will be the last time, trying to hold it together so that they couldn't see how upsetting it was each time, and I know that my grandfather, in particular, was doing the same. To know that this time was really the last time was hard, but also a relief as he had been in pain for a long time. His mind was quite active up until the last few months, but his movement was extremely limited and painful.

What also made this time quite emotional was that my cousin's eldest son was involved in a terrible accident the day after my grandfather died so there was lots of concern relating to that. He will be alright eventually, physically at least, but his best mate died and so there will definitely be a long road to recovery.

Overall, there was only a hint of family drama but it was pretty low key which was fantastic. In fact, one good thing that came out was that all of my cousins were in the same place at the same time, something that my grandfather would have loved. I don't think that has happened before, but I could be wrong. The oldest cousin has been estranged from the family for a long time and with us living interstate we weren't always at family events and my two youngest cousins weren't born before we left. I don't necessarily think that this will fix the estrangement but it was great to see him take his place at the grave and to have everyone together however briefly.

What I can't begin to imagine is how my grandmother is feeling. They have been married for 69 years and I just don't know how I would face the idea of going back home to know  that your husband is not going to be there. There is a chance that maybe she will decide to go to a care facility. She was also in the same hospice as my grandfather as she currently has a broken leg so they were able to share a room right up until a room.

I was a little bit cheeky while we were away. My grandmother and a couple of my cousins are real readers, and so my grandmother often has a pile of library books that my cousin gets for her. I walked into the hospice room and noticed the books there immediately - especially an old, out-of-print novel by Susan Carroll which is one of the few books by her that I haven't read! While we were sitting up with my grandmother on the first couple of nights I started it, and ended up finishing it while we were away. Other than that, I really didn't do a lot of reading while I was away - I just wasn't in the right space mentally.

I have started to make up for it since I have been back, but my library queues and Netgalley queue were all in a bit of a mess! Oh well!

Currently Reading

All the Flowers in Shanghai by Duncan Jepson - I was supposed to post a review of this last week but completely forgot about it in the rush to get to Perth. My review will now be posted in the next week.

Trouble at the Wedding by Laura Lee Guhrke

Reading Next

The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald - my next book club choice.

Bookish Quotes: The Maharaja's library

Like so many of my fellow readers, I love it when an author has their characters talk about their love of reading or libraries, or specific books from the past! I am guaranteed to stop reading and go back and reread a passage again if they do so that I too can savour the words and emotions expressed.

I therefore thought that I might start to share some of these bookish quotes on an irregular basis. It won't be with every book, but just when I remember or, you know, have nothing else ready to post or whatever! Sometimes the quotes will only be short and other times long but hopefully they will capture the imagination of my fellow readers. And if they happen to entice other readers to pick up the book in question then that is an added bonus!

The first of these quotes comes from pages 106-108 of Olivia and Jai by Rebecca Ryman and has the title character, Olivia, being invited into the library of the Maharaja. The book is set in colonial India, and if you like a good old fashioned saga then this could be a book for you!

An early night was called for, but, still charged with excitement from everything she had seen, experienced and heard, Olivia felt not the least sleepy. "I am in the habit of reading awhile before I got to bed. My uncle tells me you have an extensive library here with a fine collection of rare books. May I be permitted to browse there for a half hour?"

Olivia's request pleased the Maharaja, and an aide was immediately dispatched to unlock the library, housed in a separate building, and prepare it for her perusal. She bid Kinjal good night, for they would not now meet before the morning, and followed the Maharaja across the compound. During the slow, leisured walk they discussed books. "Bernier's travel diaries about India might interest you, Miss O'Rourke, and perhaps Kalidasa's epic poem, Shakuntala. I have translations of both in English." They chatted for a few more minutes on the steps of the library, a handsome white single-storied building with scarlet bougainvillea spilling over the portico, and then the Maharaja excused himself, pleading matters still to be attended to for the shoot. "We are truly delighted that you are with us, Miss O'Rourke," he said; then, with visible hesitation he added in a murmur something that was extraordinary, "but I sincerely hope you never have occasion to regret your visit."

For a moment Olivia stood rock still. There was a gusty breeze blowing and the Maharaja's voice had been low; after brief introspection Olivia decided that the two had combined to deceive her ears, for there could be no logical explanation for what she thought he had said. With a shrug, she abandoned her bafflement and went inside.

Like the evocative aroma of damp earth, there is also something universal in a room filled with old books. Glass-fronted cupboards lined with velvet stood open for her benefit; calf-bound volumes, neatly labelled and stamped in gold with the crest of Kritinagar, were arranged in order of language and subject. Ledgers, also bound and crested, gave cross references and relevant information in that immaculate, decorative calligraphy that was a natural product of Indian aesthetics. On the reading desk a paraffin lamp threw a bright pool of light in which were placed three or four books meant for her attention. With a discreet cough the aide walked into an adjoining chamber and left Olivia to her own devices.

As she slipped into the seat and cautiously fingered the bound volumes, Olivia washed over with nostalgia for her father's precious collection of books, which had been her responsibility to look after, and for Sally MacKendrick's one-room lending service, which went by the rather grand name of the "library". Sally too loved books and they had together spent many hours of contentment labelling, cataloguing and arranging the collection her father had helped Sally acquire as a small business after Scot MacKendrick had fallen prey to a band of claim jumpers at the mines where he worked. The lingering mustiness in the air of the Maharaja's library was like a whiff of home, but the rest of the environment she was in now contained an element of unreality, a dreamlike ethereality that seemed to remove her into quite another dimension, one she could not quite assimilate.

Deep in the Valley by Robyn Carr

Welcome to Grace Valley, California---where blood runs thicker...ties bind stronger...and love is all the more sweet. 

Visitors to the town often remark about the valley's peace and beauty---both of which are plentiful. Unlocked doors, front porches, pies cooling in the windows---this is country life at its finest. But visitors don't always see what lies at the heart of a community. Or just beyond... 

June Hudson grew up in Grace Valley, the daughter of the town doctor. Leaving only to get her medical training, she returned home and followed in her father's footsteps. Some might say she chose the easy, comfortable route...but June knows better. 

For June, her emergency room is wherever she's needed---or wherever a patient finds her. Always on call, her work is her life, these people her extended family. Which is a good thing, since this is a town where you should have picked your husband in the ninth grade. Grace Valley is not exactly the place to meet eligible men---until an undercover DEA agent suddenly starts appearing at all sorts of strange hours. 

Everybody has secrets down in the valley. Now June has one of her own.

Today, I am bringing the first half of a buddy review that I have done of Deep in the Valley by Robyn Carr with Bree from All the Books I Can Read. As I have mentioned before, Bree lives about ten minutes from me, so we meet up semi regularly and always have a lot of fun chatting about the books we are reading, and giving each other recommendations! It was fun to have a written conversation about a book too, even though the post took much longer to complete than it should have as a result of my unexpected hiatus! Sorry about that Bree!


Bree's thoughts are in italics. Don't forget to head over to her blog to check out the second part of the discussion too!

M: The obvious place to start really is with a comparison to the Virgin River series that we both enjoy reading a lot. For me this was almost as if all the drama of three or four Virgin River books was crammed into one book, and then mixed with half a relationship. What did you think?

B: That certainly did seem the case. This book seemed longer but with...less of a main romantic storyline at the front. It’s obviously going to span out over a couple of books rather than 1 couple hooking up in 1 book, VR-style. But there are many characters and situations in this novel that seem straight out of of VR - almost as if Grace Valley IS Virgin River and vice versa. They could easily be the same town actually. We get the same issues, the same population basically doing the same things. All that’s missing is Jack’s Bar!

M: It is interesting to see that there is no Jack type of character, although June, the town doctor certainly came close to being that unifying character that the town looks to for leadership and for direction. Did you like June? Did you relate to her? I could relate to some of her feelings, particularly those relating to being single and having people suggest that the life that you have should be enough, when there is still a big whole in your life.

B: I didn’t -not- like June. But I’m not entirely sure I liked her either because I think that she came off as just a little too condescending at times. The way in which she reiterates that she chose to come back to Grace Valley, that she knows the town, that she knows the way in which things work and her judgement of poor John Stone, the city doctor looking for a change. She really did not handle the situation that arose with him very professionally, or confidently at all. I did like her relationship with her father and her aunt (although I see similarities again between those two characters and town icons in Virgin River) and her friendship with the local sheriff (who you’ll remember from his cameo in a Virgin River book!). Do you think this book is different enough to warrant being another series? Or should it just have been incorporated in as a Virgin River book or special edition?


M: I guess the thing to remember is that Deep in the River was actually written a number of years before the first book in the Virgin River series and so if anything, it should have been the other way around! It seems to me, without having actually read the other two books in the trilogy, that this book provided the blueprint for Virgin River with the common themes, but the Virgin River books are more romance focused and tend to be mainly dealing with one major issue at a time rather than the several that we had in this book.

This is a purely hypothetical question seeing as we both did read VR first, but if you read this book before the Virgin River series, could you see yourself becoming as hooked on Robyn Carr’s books in the way that we both have become?

B: See, I’m so ingrained in VR that I forgot this was published first! It felt a little weird reading about characters who play bit parts in that series, as being full on MC characters in this series. I think that if I had of read these first, I may never have read the Virgin River series although I think her writing and storytelling has improved immensely between these books and the VR books, so I’m glad I read those first, and not this one. This book for me, was too long and a bit too rambling. It could’ve been trimmed down to 300-350p and not lost anything. Ok I’ll reverse my question - having read THIS one, do you now think that Virgin River series loses a little something that made it special? The small town feel, the community spirit, the ways of getting things done (ie doctors etc being paid in produce by the less well off farming folk, the benevolent wealthy resident who donates money/services that the town needs) seemed really different and original to me at first, but now I realise that it’s all been done before in this series! Grace Valley felt like a rehashing of Virgin River, because I’ve read all the VR books first...but is VR just a better written rehashing of Grace Valley?

M: If I had of read the Virgin River series which is possibly a big if if I had of read this book first because I may not have actually picked those up, then you still would have read it because I would have nagged you until you did! *grin*.

I don’t know that this impacted my feelings about the Virgin River series, although I guess I was a little surprised to realise how much some of the Virgin River books were a rehash of this series. The VR books are definitely better written than this one which was just so crammed with people and events that there wasn’t any space to relax into the story in the same way I do with a VR book! I think it helped that June and John haven’t appeared in many of the recent VR books. If they had of been in the most recent ones I read it might have been a bit more of a shock. Tom, the town policeman did appear in a later book but it was one that I wasn’t as keen on as usual in the series so he kind of wasn’t on my radar as such.

Shall we talk a little about the story itself?


Head over to Bree's blog to see part 2 of our thoughts

Discovery of Witches giveaway winner

I must start by apologising for the delay in announcing the winner of the Discovery of Witches giveaway. I had to travel interstate unexpectedly and so I had limited internet access through my phone and I wasn't going to try writing long blog posts on that! I arrived home at 3am this morning and had to go to work, so I am literally posting this and then going to bed to try to sleep.

Without further delay.....


I used a random number generator to determine the winner, and the person whose number came up is

Aarti from Booklust

I will be in contact with you shortly Aarti. I hope you enjoy your book.

Thanks to everyone who entered the giveaway.

A Brief Hiatus...

Marg will unexpectedly be gone until the weekend or early next week. 

Sunday Salon: National Year of Reading

Some Sunday's when I sit down to write my Sunday Salon post I have no idea what I am planning to post about. Other weeks I have the one idea so that makes it easier, but the best kind of weeks are those weeks when I have a myriad of ideas to choose from! This week is one of those weeks. I haven't yet posted my reads for December or my reading resolutions for 2012, and I intended to also create a list of possible reads for the Australian Women Writers Challenge and then there is a half written post about something else as well.

Instead though, I want to focus on something that is very exciting. This year in Australia is the ....

Sounds cool right?

There are a number of celebrities including sports people, politicians and authors who have been appointed as ambassadors to helps spread the word about reading.

The aims of National Year of Reading are (from the website):

The National Year of Reading 2012 is about children learning to read and keen readers finding new sources of inspiration. It's about supporting reading initiatives while respecting the oral tradition of storytelling. It's about helping people discover and rediscover the magic of books. And most of all, it's about Australians becoming a nation of readers.

Nearly half our population can't read with any fluency. It's a shameful and worrying statistic. We've identified three goals which will help us turn Australia into a nation of readers and encourage a reading culture in every home:

• For all Australians to understand the benefits of reading as a life skill and a catalyst for well-being;
• To promote a reading culture in every home; and
• To establish an aspirational goal for families, of parents and caregivers sharing books with their children every day.

Next year will see a whole heap of amazing, fun, reading activities taking place around Australia and online, so people of all ages, from different backgrounds, can discover and rediscover the joy of reading.

In addition, the organisation behind the National Year of Reading are raising funds for two very good causes - the Indigenous Literacy Foundation which aims to promote literacy to indigenous people in Australia, and the Pyjama Foundation which is actually a new organisation to me that aims to provide volunteers to read to children in care every day.

There are lots of activities that are going to take place during the year. So far, there has been a popular vote for the books that represent each state.

There's lots happening, and it is very exciting to see what happens next with this great opportunity to promote the value of reading here in Australia.

The last couple of weeks I have forgotten to add the details of what I am currently reading and what's up next!

Currently Reading

Olivia and Jai by Rebecca Ryman (set in colonial India) and Angel's Blood by Nalini Singh (for my romance book club).

Reading Next

The Scottish Prisoner by Diana Gabaldon.

All That I Am: A Novel by Anna Funder

As you may or may not know, I find the subjects of World War I and World War II to be completely fascinating. I love reading about the bravery of people who were put in desperate situations, about the relationships that they formed under such duress and so much more. Many of the stories that I have read and enjoyed over the years have taken place against the background of Nazi atrocities against the Jews and other minorities, and often feature those local people who took up against the oppressors in any way they could, often at great personal risk.

It is very easy to forget that those tools of oppression were turned first against the Germans themselves - those people who tried to oppose Hitler's regime as it came to power, again often at great personal cost. The first concentration camps were built not house Jews, but to house the growing numbers of political opponents in the 1930s.

Australian author Anna Funder has chosen to tell this story - one that I can't remember hearing much about before. Her story takes place during the 1930s as Hitler came to power. She chooses two storytellers to reveal the events that were happening - the first is Ernst Toller who is in a New York hotel room in 1939 writing his autobiography and the second is Ruth Becker, an elderly lady who is living in Sydney and who receives a copy of Toller's book bringing back all sorts of memories from those turbulent years - memories of those she loved, those she lost, those she was betrayed by.

And yet, even though Funder has these two different perspectives relating the events of that time to us, neither Toller or Ruth are the central character. That honour belongs to Dora Fabian who is Ruth's cousin and Toller's former employee and lover.  Even both Toller and Ruth acknowledge this (from page 358):

Toller was always kind to me, but it was clear he inhabited a different sphere. I was neither beautiful nor important enough to occupy a place in his world. But he did not send me this life of his with Dora put back in because I am her cousin. He has sent it because we had her in common. We were the two for whom she was the sun. We moved in her orbit and the force of her kept us going.

Ruth and her husband Hans, Toller, and Dora are all part of the vociferous opponents that the Nazis need to silence, anyway they can. Even when in exile though, they seek to keep trying to inform the world of the dangers of allowing Hitler to continue to reinforce his power unchecked.

Dora herself seemed to be quite the amazing figure. She took risks that seem quite unbelievable and yet the fact that they are true adds a great deal of poignancy. She loved freely if not always deeply, lived life to the full as much as possible and was able to gain access to some of the most influential people of her time in London and beyond in the course of her efforts to shed light on events taking place in Nazi Germany in the late 1930s.

I have to wonder what the author was trying to achieve by having Dora as the central character but using the two different voices to relate the events. They both did bring different aspects of the story to life, but at times their own stories distracted rather than enhanced the narrative. Of the two, I found Ruth's most interesting, especially in light of her story of how she came to be in Australia.

Most of the characters and events are based on real life which should lend the story a great deal more fascination, and yet for me, the narrative really didn't work all that well until probably the last third of the book. In that section, the adrenalin was pumping just a little bit as I realised who the ultimate betrayal would come from, what the final events of the book were going to be. Before that, however, I found the pace of the novel to be quite slow and ponderous and it was difficult to maintain all that much interest. There is some promise in the novel though. The author does have some lovely turns of phrase and seems to be able to identify forgotten stories that are very interesting.

Anna Funder enjoyed great success with her first book, Stasiland, which was a non-fiction account of life behind the Berlin Wall. Whilst this novel didn't work for me on every level, I will be making an effort to read Stasiland as I have heard lots of good things about it.

Synopsis

Ruth Becker, defiant and cantankerous, is living out her days in the eastern suburbs of Sydney. She has made an uneasy peace with the ghosts of her past - and a part of history that has been all but forgotten.

Another lifetime away, it's 1939 and the world is going to war. Ernst Toller, self-doubting revolutionary and poet sits in a New York hotel room settling up the account of his life.

When Toller's story arrives on Ruth's doorstep their shared past slips under her defences, and she's right back among them - those friends who predicted the brutality of the Nazis and gave everything they had to stop them. Those who were tested - and in some cases found wanting  - in the face of hatred, of art, of love, and of history.

Based on real people and events, All That I Am is a masterful and exhilarating exploration of bravery and betrayal, of the risks and sacrifices some people make for their beliefs, and of heroism hidden in the most unexpected places. Anna Funder confirms her place as one of our finest writers with this gripping, compassionate, inspiring first novel.

This book counts for the Aussie Author Challenge, The Australian Women's Writers Challenge and the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge and also for Australian Literature Month being hosted over at Reading Matters during January.

Library Loot: January 4 to 10

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!

I think the holidays have thrown me a bit out of kilter. I swear it was my turn for Mr Linky this week so when I suddenly realised that I hadn't been to the library yet and so would have no loot, I rushed off to pick up my library holds ... and then got home and realised that I had it last week so it is Claire's turn! Oh well. At least I have loot now. The kind of weird thing is that my library system had a 60 day check out period during December as a Christmas gift to it's patience. What this means is that all the books that I borrowed today are actually due back before any of the books I have borrowed in the last month!

Can't Stand the Heat by Louisa Edwards - I recently read the first book in Louisa Edwards second trilogy, but there are no other books available from the library in that trilogy just yet. This book is the first book in her debut trilogy.

Just Over the Mountain by Robyn Carr - The second book in the Grace River Valley series, and you know...it's Robyn Carr.

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley - I have been meaning to read this book for the longest time!

Instant Attraction by Jill Shalvis - Another author who is rapidly becoming a favourite. I have read all the books that are currently out in the Lucky Harbor and Animal Magnetism series so I thought I would try this series now.

By the way, I am currently giving away a copy of A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness. Check out all the details at the giveaway post (which also happens to be my list of favourite reads for 2011)!

Teaser Tuesday: Far Fly the Eagles by Evelyn Anthony

This week my teaser comes from Far Fly the Eagles by Evelyn Anthony which is the third book in the Romanov trilogy. This book was originally published in 1955 but the edition that I am reading was published in 1989 but I am having absolutely no luck in tracking down the cover that the copy that I am reading has. I really don't like it when I can't use the exact image in my posts! Might even have to scan it in before I send it back to the library. Instead I bring you a couple of the other covers I have been able to locate.

One kind of odd thing is that all of these covers show the title as Far Flies the Eagle, but the edition that I am reading has the title as Far Fly the Eagle. Anyway, enough about hard to find covers.

The book is set in the lead up and duration of the Russian war with Napoleon. The teaser comes from page 100:

"Either we stand and fight, Sire, or we make peace with Napoleon. The temper of the army and the Court won't stand another retreat."

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by Miz B at Should Be Reading. Head on over to find out all about it, and how to join in! 

Current Challenges

Historical Fiction Reading Challenge

End Date 31 December 2012

What's in a Name 5

Ends 31 December 2012

Australian Women Writers Challenge

Ends 31 December 2012

War Through the Generations

Ends 31 December 2012

Aussie Author Challenge

Ends 31 December 2012

2012 Sci-fi experience

Ends 29 February 2012

The Next Always by Nora Roberts

The historic hotel in BoonsBoro, Maryland, has endured war and peace, changing hands, even rumored hauntings. Now it’s getting a major facelift from the Montgomery brothers and their eccentric mother. As the architect of the family, Beckett’s social life consists mostly of talking shop over pizza and beer. But there’s another project he’s got his eye on: the girl he’s been waiting to kiss since he was fifteen…


After losing her husband and returning to her hometown, Clare Brewster soon settles into her life as the mother of three young sons while running the town's bookstore. But Clare is drawn across the street by Beckett's transformation of the old inn, wanting to take a closer look ... at the building and the man behind it. These stolen moments are the beginning of something new - and open the door to the extraordinary adventure of what comes next.

Once upon a time, the cover gods used to look down at Nora Roberts books and they figured that she would sell a gazillion books regardless of the terrible covers. Thankfully those days appear to be gone as both her previous series and this book have gorgeous covers that I would have stopped and looked at even if I didn't already count myself as a fan of her books.

For me, a Nora Roberts contemporary romance is a comfort read. It is a book that you can start late on a Friday night and just keep on reading into the early hours of the morning all the way through to the end of the book, which is exactly what I did with this one.

The basic premise of the book revolves around the restoration of an old inn in the town of Boonsboro. Beckett Montgomery and his brothers Ryder and Owen are working together on a project to lovingly bring the dilapidated old inn back to life. Beckett is the architect and the spaces that he imagines are slowly being crafted into fruition. Each of the rooms in the small inn are unique and reflect a literary couple - Eve and Roarke being the inspiration for one of the rooms.

Beckett has been had a serious crush on Clare Brewster for many years, but she only had eyes for another man. She ended up marrying him and having three boisterous boys, but is now a widow and has moved back to her hometown where she has bought the local bookstore.

She is intrigued by the changes that are being made to the inn, and also by the changes that start to occur in her relationship with Beckett.

There are certain things that I think Nora Roberts excels at. One example is the way that she is able to write friendships whether they be between girlfriends or as in this case between brothers. She captures the dynamics between the three brothers - the teasing, the bickering, the underlying affection they feel for each other - perfectly. It is hard not to like the characters and the relationships.

I enjoyed that the characters were real. Clare couldn't drop everything to go out on dates and the like because her kids were sick or she didn't have a babysitter. I love that Beckett was understanding of this and that he also respected the fact that it might be difficult for the boys to be comfortable with having him in their lives. He took the time to get to know them and to bond with them and that relationship development felt very organic.

There were other things that didn't work for me as well. I was underwhelmed by the suspense subplot. I would much rather have seen more of the development of the relationship between Clare and Beckett, especially taking into consideration her three kids. There was some of that in the book, but I do get a bit bored by suspense subplots that really seem to be there for no real reason.

There is also a paranormal element in the book with the very moody ghost that inhabits the inn. It isn't a new plot device in the author's books, and whilst it was fun at times, and I suspect we will see her again in future books in the series, I am not 100% sold on it, particularly given a key scene towards the end of the book which almost seemed a little bit too easy as a plot device.

By far my biggest concern about the book though was the setting of the book in the inn. I finished this book a few days ago now and I still can't make my mind up about it. Writers are often told to write what you know, and this is very much what Nora Roberts knows after spending a number of recent years renovating an old inn in Boonsboro. It felt like we were treated to every planning decision, every detail of the restoration, although I suspect that there might be enough left over for it to prominently feature in the next two books as well. Sometimes, it was too much and I found myself skimming through these details.

In addition, Nora Robert's husband owns the bookstore in the actual town which has the same name as the bookstore in the book, and the pizza place in town which is owned by one of the future heroines in the trilogy has the same name as the actual pizza parlour in the real town also owned by one of her family members. I couldn't decide if the book was written using the inn as the backdrop because it was interesting and fun and romantic or if it was one huge example of product placement!

In summary, this was the customary comfortable Nora Roberts read for me, but definitely not her best. Having said that, I will be lining up to get the second book in the trilogy when it comes out.

Rating 3/5

This review was originally posted at the Australian Romance Readers Association blog

Sunday Salon: 2011 Year in Review

Happy New Year to my blogging friends!

A couple of days ago I posted about my favourite reads of the year, but now it is time to dig a little deeper and see what I can learn from my reading this year.

I completed 228 books during 2011 which is my best reading year since I started blogging if you are only counting the number of books to define best!

It feels to me as though my reading changed quite a bit in 2011. For a start I read a lot more short stories than I usually do, and the majority of them were from Australian authors. I have another two of the Twelve Planets here to read and so I see that being something that continues in the coming year. I haven't quite figured out yet how to count individual short stories that I read in places other than anthologies. I don't feel like I can count them as a 'book' but I would also like to be able to record my normal data. Will have to ponder this one a bit more!

Another change was that I read a LOT more contemporary romance novels. Last year I read 18 contemporary romance novels, 12 of which were by Robyn Carr (11 of which I read in just one month). It's hard for me to fathom that 18 months ago there was really only one or two authors that I read. By contrast, I read very little paranormal romance or urban fantasy in 2011.

I also read a lot more non-fiction than I usually do. It kind of surprised me when I added them up the other day.

So, if I am reading this new stuff what gave way? Before I started looking at the breakdown of genres I would have said that I read only a few historical mysteries. It turned out that I read a few more than I thought, especially seeing as I read the first four books in the Julia Spencer-Fleming series which are all contemporary set. It also seems that the amount of historical fiction I read dropped too.

I usually don't have too much trouble deciding on a genre when I am recording my books read, but then I get to the end of the year and wonder what the heck I was thinking at the time. Here then is my breakdown of stats but there are quite a few books read that would definitely cross genre lines.

Crime - 17
Spec Fic - 21
Historical Fiction - 31
Literature - 17
Non Fiction 9 - 10
Romance - 94 (wow!) of which 49 were contemporaries, 35 historical
Women's Fiction - 9 (includes chick lit)
YA - 25

A few other interesting stats

Gender balance -  I lean very heavily towards reading books by female authors. I only read 24 books by male authors this year.
Pages read - 228 books read equates to 74500 pages read!
Rereads - I only reread 2 books
New to me authors - I read 115 new to me authors in 2011
Ebook vs paper book - I read 25% of books on my ereader
Where my books come from - 60% of my reads were from the library, 10% from Netgalley and the remaining 30% otherwise acquired
Best reading month - July when I read a whopping 31 books in a month
Worst reading month - March when I only read 10.

Let have a look at my reading resolutions for 2011 and see if I achieved those or not.

Read 150 books - To be honest I am now sure how I managed it, but I smashed this resolution out of the park!

Read 10 books that I owned as at 31 December 2010 - The total number here was 14. This is one of the resolutions that I really need to push myself on for next year. I have so many unread books in this house!

Read 12 books by Australian authors - Given that I read 8 by just one Australian author (thank you Kelly Hunter!) and 5 by another (thank you Sarah Mayberry) this was another goal that I met without too much difficulty. In the end I read 34 books by Australian authors. All up there were 20 individual Australian authors, and the most amazing thing about this number is that they were all new to me authors!

Read Jane Austen - Yes! This year I read my first Jane Austen book - Sense and Sensibility. I am scheduling my reading soon to include Persuasion in the not too distant future.

Read at least one book for each of the perpetual challenges I am "participating" in - Sometimes I surprise even myself. I read A Visit From the Goon Squad for the Pulitzer Prize Project, Pigeon English for the Complete Booker and three book for The Orange Prize Project (A Visit from the Goon Squad, The Personal History of Rachel DuPree and The Very Thought of You).

Finish War and Peace - Oh well I couldn't meet all of those goals now could I!

Review more - Whilst I didn't review as much as I should have this year, I did exceed the one book a week average that I was aiming for. I did have a good reviewing month in October to the point where actually had reviewed everything I had read and nearly everything that I had read in September as well. Of course, then I opened my big mouth and said that I had my reviewing mojo back, which promptly meant I didn't write a single review for weeks.

Some highlights of the year:

March - I went to Sydney for the second Australian Romance Reader Conference! A good time was had by all. I also attended a very successful Book blogger meetup in Sydney! I did try to organise one of these in Melbourne too, but the less said about that the better! I also went to the relaunch of the Inside a Dog website and an author event with Sara Foster.

April - I was very pleased to be involved in Aussie Author Month! Went to see Keith Urban in concert. I loved it! My son slept through the concert!

May - Rachel Caine came to our local library for an author event.

June - Attended an author event with Geraldine Brooks.

July - Paris in July fed my French obsession which continued unabated for the rest of the year.

August - Met both Maria V Snyder and Kelly Armstrong at author events.

September - I fed my soul at Melbourne Writer's Festival.

October - Readalong month! I participated in the Storm Front, Fragile Things and The Lantern readalongs as part of RIP, and also a readalong of Foal's Bread by Australian author Gillian Mears.

December - This year's Virtual Advent tour was a lot of fun with all the different quotes that I posted. We are already thinking about the next tour and we would love any feedback you have. Also attended BTL Live with Bree from All the Books I Can Read. Actually, getting to know Bree better has been one of my highlights for this year as well. It is awesome to be able to get to know a blogger that lives quite close by so we can meet up quite regularly even if it is just for a few minutes here and there!