A Cold and Lonely Place by Sara Henry

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Genre - General Fiction

Freelance writer Troy Chance is snapping photos during a Winter Carnival in a little Adirondack mountain town. She discovers whilst snapping photos during an ice-cutting machine exercise on the Saranac Lake, a face under the ice is discovered and recognised as Tobin whom everyone thought just left the township.

The face belonged to a very wealthy son of a family whose parents did not have great feelings for, and Tobin’s sister Win arrives in the township to oversee the situation. All is not what is seems and a merry dance is led until the final discovery as to why Tobin died in such circumstances. Is his family to blame, or was it his girlfriend who resides in the same boarding house as Troy and has some pretty dark secrets?

---- Reviewed by Judy, Rowville Bookchat

This Life is in Your Hands by Melissa Coleman

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Genre - General Fiction, Family Relationships


This is a very moving and dramatic story of a memoir that makes you realize from a child’s to adult’s perspective, how a simple yet harsh lifestyle can affect adulthood.


Set in around the late 1960s, a family pack their children into their much worn VW a set out to a rugged coastal homestead change. They have their sights set in living off the land and building their own home by hand. In this light, the family attract national media and become icons of the back-to-land farming movement. As the book reads, not the easiest of ways to raise a family and the lay back lifestyle does come with a price for the family.


---- Reviewed by Judy, Rowville Bookchat

The Good Daughter by Honey Brown

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Genre -General Fiction, Australian Fiction


Brown lives in rural Victoria with her family and the background of the story is in rural outback Victoria, with the usual harsh conditions. It gives the reader a feeling of earlier times in a rural country town. A good Australian outback storyline and opens ones eyes to teenagers’ choices and interpretation of life around them as they live each day.


The main character is Rebecca Toyer is a 16yo living on the outskirts of a rural town and coming from the poorer side of the track. She has to deal with the death of her mother and her relationship with a father who is a truckie and away for days on end.


She also deals with virginity, local boys, together with the wealthy land owners (Kincaids) who are the owners of the property she lives on. Her first love is local lothario Aden Kincaid (step son) ignored by his father, and at 22 wants to ride his motor bike around Australia. Rebecca finds herself in danger of living up to schoolyard taunts together with Zach Kincaid (younger son), who is besotted with her and will do anything to get her attention and wanting to join Aden on his venture.


---- Reviewed by Judy, Rowville Bookchat

The Cat's Table by Michael Ondaatje

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Genre - General

This is a delightful little read, set in the early 50’s about a young boy who boards a huge liner on the Indian Ocean sailing to London to stay with his relations.

The Cat’s table is in actual fact the last table from the Captain’s level, and usually sits the scrum of the selection. A tale of intrigue of what goes on behind closed doors in this era, and how a young lad survived and learned possibly what he should not have. 

---- Reviewed by Judy, Rowville Bookchat

A Bitter Legacy by Lynda Page

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Genre - General Fiction

General fiction – good story with plenty of drama.

Story is in the 1930’s to 1961 and concerns a young girl who is attacked and raped and resulting in pregnancy with an unwanted baby during very hard times.
Quite bitter sweet and makes you feel for the main character.

---- Reviewed by Judy, Rowville Bookchat

Djibouti by Elmore Leonard

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Genre - General fiction

General fiction – excellent reading with a good story.

Concerns Dara Barr a documentary film maker who has already received an award for her filming of Bosnian Women.  Looking for a bigger challenge, she and her right hand man, 72yo African American – Xavier LeBo head to Djibouti, on the Horn of Africa to film modern day pirates hijacking merchant ships.

They learn almost no one in the Middle East is who he seems to be and the story lines make you want to keep reading until finished.

---- Reviewed by Judy, Rowville Bookchat

The Fates Will Find Their Way by Hannah Pittard

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Genre - General Fiction

A 16 year old girl disappears one night from a small tight-knit community. She leaves behind a group of boys who are all friends and who spend the next 30 years or so imagining Nora's life after her disappearance. A beautifully written story.

---- Reviewed by Judy, Rowville

Bereft by Chris Womersley

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Genre - General Fiction

Just after WW2 and during the Spanish flu epidemic, Quinn Walker returns, battle scarred and shell shocked, to the small country town where he grew up. He left the town as a young teenager, accused of the death of his younger sister, and had not been back since. A story of revenge, but so much more as well.

---- Reviewed by Judy, Rowville

Autumn Laing by Alex Miller

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Genre - General Fiction

During the 1930’s Autumn Laing meets artist Pat Donlon when her husband Arthur brings him home for dinner. Pat and his wife Edith come to stay for a weekend at Arthur and Autumn’s house in Ocean Grove. Autumn is bored with her marriage and enjoys playing the temptress and seduces Pat whilst he and his wife are visiting. In doing this not only does she compromise her own marriage but destroys the marriage of Pat and Edith and their unborn child. Fifty-three years later in old age Autumn regrets her actions of long ago and sets about writing her story to right the wrongs of the past.

The novel  Autumn Laing is loosely based on he life of Sunday Reed and her relationship with Sidney Nolan. The book is a good read and the correlation between Miller’s character Autumn Laing and Sunday Reed adds an interesting twist to the story .

At the end of the book Miller acknowledges Janine Burke’s biography of Sunday Reed, The Heart Garden (Vintage 2004) as being a useful source for the writing of his book.

---- Reviewed by Sharon, Healesville

Grace Williams Says it Loud by Emma Henderson

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Genre - General Fiction, Romance

What a wonderful book! Grace Williams, born in the 1940s with cerebral palsy lives in London with her parents, her brother and sister. At age 12 she is placed in The Briars which will be her new home for many years. It is here that she meets Daniel - a boy with no arms who also suffers from epilepsy - and who tells the most wonderful stories. This is a love story, but not like any other I have read before. Just wonderful!!

---- Reviewed by Judy, Rowville

Rescue by Anita Shreve

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Genre - General

Quite an enthralling book, one that makes you want to keep reading. A rookie paramedic pulls a young woman (Sheila Arsenault) from her totalled car, a first rescue that begins a lifelong struggle. Can you ever really save another person? Eighteen years later Peter (his wife having died) is raising his daughter who is dangerously veering off the track. All the love a father can give a daughter is not enough. At this time Sheila Arsenault returns to his town which may be a godsend or not.

---- Reviewed by Judy, Rowville Library Bookchat

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

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Genre - General fiction

Our book group loved this book. We all agreed that it was a little slow to start but were quickly were addicted. It does require some degree of concentration but well worth the effort. The main topics were religion, animal behaviour and an attempt to understand the psyche of human survival. So real at times we felt we were in the boat with Pi and the tiger.

A clever book well deserved of the Man Booker Prize.

---- Reviewed by Deborah, guest

When I found you by Catherine Ryan Hyde

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Genre - General

I could not put this book down. It is about a guy who finds a baby in the woods, he wants to keep him but the grandmother comes forward and takes him. Then years later he turns up on his door step. A great read.

---- Reviewed by Tracey, Boronia

Ed note - written by the author of Pay it Forward --webgurl

The Professor by Charlotte Bronte

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Genre - General

I thought this was her last novel but its actually her first, very different from Jane Eyre but its seen now as a prequel to Villette.

The story describes a man's journey who is without place or wealth in society, and how to make a living and find work that will encompass his whole soul and mind yet not comprise his moral principles. The narration is very descriptive yet the clashes with society and personal conflicts is still a very relevant piece of story telling for today.

---- Reviewed by Leonie, Ringwood

The Body in the Clouds by Ashley Hay

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Genre - General Fiction

A rather lovely story featuring the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Three men see a man falling from the bridge and miraculously he survives. But each man sees this event from different times - the beginning of colonization, the building of the bridge, and in 2010 - and in vastly different ways. This is a story about stories and how those stories play such an important part in your own identity and sense of home.

---- Reviewed by Judy, Rowville

Indelible ink by Fiona McGregor

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Genre - General fiction

This is an interesting story of contemporary family life. Marie King is newly separated from her husband and her children have grown up and away. Despite the concerns of her family she is preparing for the sale of their beloved family home and garden. She has also started to transform her body with tattoos and becomes friendly with Rhys a gifted artist who introduces her to a very different side of Sydney society.

---- Reviewed by Sue, guest

Trespass by Rose Tremain

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Genre - General fiction

A dark tale of revenge and lies set in a beautifully wrought landscape.

---- Reviewed by Judy, Rowville

The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives by Lola Shoneyin

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Genre - General fiction

Baba Segi is a very happy man. He has three wives and seven children and all is good at home. Then he invites Bolanle to be wife number four. She unwittingly becomes the catalyst for major change in the family. What began as a bit of a lighthearted romp, soon changed into a much more substantial story.

---- Reviewed by Judy, Rowville

Fall Girl by Toni Jordan

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Genre - General fiction

Fall Girl is a fun read about unconventional people who fall in love. Interesting characters, an unusual plot and set in familiar suburbs of Melbourne and Wilson's Prom. This is a humorous and entertaining book.

---- Reviewed by Sue, guest

By Nightfall by Michael Cunningham

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Genre - General Fiction

A great read about how we deal with middle aged angst and how we come to terms with roads taken in our lives.

It deals with marriage and the difference values held by younger generations.It has a great emotional punch with a bit of a twist.

Enjoyxxx


---- Reviewed by Leonie, Ringwood