Theresa Smith's Blog, page 61
December 20, 2020
Book Review: How to Think Like Shakespeare by Scott Newstok
About the Book:
A lively and engaging guide to vital habits of mind that can help you think more deeply, write more effectively, and learn more joyfully.
How to Think like Shakespeare offers an enlightening and entertaining guide to the craft of thought — one that demonstrates what we’ve lost in education today, and how we might begin to recover it. In fourteen brief, lively chapters that draw from Shakespeare’s world and works, and from other writers past and present, Scott Newstok distils vital habits of mind that can help you think more deeply, write more effectively, and learn more joyfully, in school or beyond.
Challenging a host of today’s questionable notions about education, Newstok shows how mental play emerges through work, creativity through imitation, autonomy through tradition, innovation through constraint, and freedom through discipline. It was these practices, and a conversation with the past — not a fruitless obsession with assessment — that nurtured a mind like Shakespeare’s. And while few of us can hope to approach the genius of the Bard, we can all learn from the exercises that shaped him.
Written in a friendly, conversational tone and brimming with insights, How to Think like Shakespeare enacts the thrill of thinking on every page, reviving timeless — and timely — ways to stretch your mind and hone your words.
My Thoughts:
‘Mere data transmission doesn’t induce deep learning. It’s the ability to interact, to think hard thoughts in the presence of other people.’
The description above for this book gives a certain self-help ‘how to’ feel, yet that’s not what this book is. Rather, it’s a lively discussion on the state of education today, and as all educators instinctively know, we aren’t necessarily getting it right. This is an American book, but its content is valid for Australia, and many other parts of the world, I daresay. There were so many times I found myself nodding, understanding exactly the author’s despair in the education system: standardised testing, curriculum tailored to assessment, the death of creativity within the classroom, a devaluing of arts over STEM, the rise and rise of depersonalised online learning; the list goes on. Considering our recent hike in university fees for arts and humanities degrees whilst anything STEM related had its prices slashed; then I see this, written by an author on the other side of the world, the same thing happening in America. Why, why is this happening?
‘Today both “liberal” and “arts” suffer from narrow connotations that don’t convey the vital ambitions of this program of study.
But “liberal” just means “free”, and “arts” means something far more comprehensive, like science, or knowledge, or craft.’
By drawing on the principles of a Renaissance Education, the author, a teacher of much experience himself, points out the large and gaping holes in the modern education system. But he doesn’t stop there, using a wealth of sources and critical thinking to make connections on how ‘thinking like Shakespeare’ should be the ultimate goal of any education system. This book is well researched, cleverly written, entertaining as well as informative. For a book on thinking, it does a great job at getting the reader thinking throughout.
‘A Shakespearean education gives us the chance to build habits of mind that individuals (and cultures) need if they’re to flourish. We all need practice in curiosity, intellectual agility, the determination to analyse, commitment to resourceful communication, historically and culturally situated reflectiveness, the confidence to embrace complexity. In short: the ambition to create something better, in whatever field.’
You don’t need to be an educator to benefit from reading this book. Educators will, of course, appreciate it immensely, but it’s really a book that can be read widely, particularly by those who love words, history, literature, learning, and … Shakespeare. It will get you thinking about thinking, in a whole new way.
‘Education ought to exercise us in the crafts of freedom, helping us reach out fullest capacities to make by emulating aspirational models, stretching our thinking as well as our words. Anything else is a curtailment of our birthright.’
Thanks is extended to Newsouth Books for providing me with a copy of How to Think Like Shakespeare for Review.
How to Think Like Shakespeare
Published by Princeton University Press (Princeton ANZ Paperbacks)
Released September 2020
December 19, 2020
The Week That Was…
I am now on holidays for three weeks. As far as Christmas school holiday breaks go, it’s my shortest in forever, but it is what it is and I intend on making the most of it. 
December 16, 2020
Book Review: Tell Me Lies by J.P. Pomare
About the Book:
Psychologist Margot Scott has a picture-perfect life: a nice house in the suburbs, a husband, two children and a successful career.
On a warm spring morning Margot approaches one of her clients on a busy train platform. He is looking down at his phone, with his duffel bag in hand as the train approaches. That’s when she slams into his back and he falls in front of the train.
Margot’s clients all lie to her, but one lie cost her family and freedom.
My Thoughts:
It’s not often I read a book from start to finish in a day, much less an afternoon, but Tell Me Lies was not leaving my white knuckled grasp until the end. This is not a long novel, coming in at a concise 230 pages, but it’s utterly gripping from start to finish, my speed in reading it owing more to that than its actual page count. This novel was originally published as an Audible Original and I can imagine how tense it would be to listen to; for those, like me, who prefer to read their books than listen to them, it’s about to be released from Hachette in paperback and ebook. Perfectly timed for reading between Christmas and New Year.
I don’t mind a twisty psychological thriller and this one was certainly well thought out. All the clues pointing one way towards a foregone conclusion until the moment when they don’t. But wait, there’s more. I found aspects of this story truly frightening. The way in which someone who is a true psychopath can insinuate themselves into the lives of others, particularly if they have the financial means to aid in their deception. It was a long game too, that this particular person had been playing, which just made it all the more frightening; how well thought out everything had been, the patience of it all.
Another captivating and gripping release from the brilliant J.P. Pomare. Highly recommended.
Thanks is extended to Hachette Australia for providing me with a copy of Tell Me Lies for review.
About the Author:
J.P. Pomare is an award winning writer who has had work published in journals including Meanjin, Kill Your Darlings, Takahe and Mascara Literary Review. He has hosted the On Writing podcast since 2015 featuring bestselling authors from around the globe. His first novel, Call Me Evie, was critically acclaimed and won the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best First Novel. In The Clearing, Pomare’s second novel, was also a critically acclaimed bestseller.
He was born in New Zealand and resides in Melbourne with his wife.
Tell Me Lies
Published by Hachette Australia
Released 29th December 2020
December 15, 2020
Book Review: The Harpy by Megan Hunter
About the Book:
From the acclaimed author of The End We Start From, The Harpy is a fierce tale of love, betrayal and revenge.
Lucy and Jake live in a house by a field where the sun burns like a ball of fire. Lucy works from home but devotes her life to the children, to their finely tuned routine, and to the house itself, which comforts her like an old, sly friend. But then a man calls one afternoon with a shattering message: his wife has been having an affair with Lucy’s husband, he wants her to know.
The revelation marks a turning point: Lucy and Jake decide to stay together, but in a special arrangement designed to even the score and save their marriage, she will hurt him three times. Jake will not know when the hurt is coming, nor what form it will take.
As the couple submit to a delicate game of crime and punishment, Lucy herself begins to change, surrendering to a transformation of both mind and body from which there is no return.
Told in dazzling, musical prose, The Harpy by Megan Hunter is a dark, staggering fairy tale, at once mythical and otherworldly and fiercely contemporary. It is a novel of love, marriage and its failures, of power and revenge, of metamorphosis and renewal.
My Thoughts:
I really enjoyed this novel. Told in a style of hindsight, we experience the story entirely from Lucy’s perspective, in such an intimate way, it’s almost as though we are inside Lucy, experiencing her pain, her anger, her insight, her self-doubt, and her self-loathing. I liked Lucy a lot, I understood her, the way in which she had given up her individual existence for motherhood and home-making, putting her own work last, her own needs to the bottom of the list. She did this without resentment, without self-pity; this I could understand as well.
When she finds out her husband is having an affair, lying to her about breaking it off, and then subsequently inferring that she has brought it onto herself, a dormant part of her character uncoils. The Harpy begins to rise within. A mythological creature that has long fascinated her since childhood, the Harpy taunts Lucy as she begins to unravel the mess her life has rapidly become. A repressed anger moves within her and she is motivated to hurt her husband as a form of reparation. He agrees, somewhat patronisingly, in my opinion.
I enjoyed this tale of revenge, and yes, I will admit it, I feel he got what he deserved in every instance. I have no time or sympathy for cheaters, so this story appealed to me instinctively. Lucy’s introspection of how her past may have shaped her present is broken up with passages about the Harpy: memories, facts, musings, until eventually, within herself, Lucy becomes the Harpy. The ending was surrealistic; open to interpretation. I would have preferred something more concrete and assured, although I certainly understood where the author was coming from: the illusion of an untethering, a ceremonial letting go, a reckoning between Lucy’s past, present, and her future.
I love the way in which Megan Hunter writes; her narrative is warmly intimate, engaging and immersive. I read this novel rather quickly without even realising I was doing so; the best kind of fiction. I’ll definitely be reading more of her work.
Thanks is extended to Pan Macmillan Australia for providing me with a copy of The Harpy for review.
About the Author:
Megan Hunter’s first novel, The End We Start From, was published in 2017 in the UK, US, and Canada, and has been translated into eight languages. It was shortlisted for Novel of the Year at the Books Are My Bag Awards, longlisted for the Aspen Words Prize, was a Barnes and Noble Discover Awards finalist and won the Forward Reviews Editor’s Choice Award. Her writing has appeared in The White Review, The TLS, Literary Hub, BOMB Magazine and elsewhere. The Harpy is her second novel.
The Harpy
Published by Picador
Released on 29th September 2020
December 14, 2020
Book Review: The Dressmaker’s Secret by Rosalie Ham
About the Book:
It is 1953 and Melbourne society is looking forward to coronation season, the grand balls and celebrations for the young queen-to-be. Tilly Dunnage is, however, working for a pittance in a second-rate Collins Street salon. Her talents go unappreciated, and the madame is a bully and a cheat, but Tilly has a past she is desperate to escape and good reason to prefer anonymity.
Meanwhile, Sergeant Farrat and the McSwiney clan have been searching for their resident dressmaker ever since she left Dungatar in flames. And they aren’t the only ones. The inhabitants of the town are still out for revenge (or at least someone to foot the bill for the new high street). So when Tilly’s name starts to feature in the fashion pages, the jig is up. Along with Tilly’s hopes of keeping her secrets hidden…
My Thoughts:
This was a lot of fun, spiky with sarcasm and dripping with dark – sometimes very, very dark! – humour. I wouldn’t recommend reading it though unless you’ve already read The Dressmaker. This is firmly sequel territory and not a whole lot will make sense without the backstory and context offered by the first book.
If you enjoy reading about fashion, particularly design from bygone days, you will relish much of this book. I adore reading about fashion, so these parts were my favourite. I was less interested in the goings on back in Dungatar, they were all mad as cut snakes and I felt the inclusion of this sub-plot resulted in the story being overly busy. Whilst most of the villains in the story had fairly transparent motives, the welfare officer was a puzzle. Overly zealous in his job, he seemed to have a baseless personal vendetta against Tilly and the McSwiney family. With the story jumping all over Melbourne and back to Dungatar, there were a lot of characters to keep track of and many scenes that made my head spin. I also found it a bit on the longish side, to be honest.
This entire novel is outlandish, absurd, slightly horrific, and endlessly entertaining. It didn’t quite measure up to its predecessor, The Dressmaker, but as a way of marking the 20th anniversary of that iconic novel, it’s a worthy salute. I’ll be interested to see if it’s adapted into a film as well, it would be worth it for the fashion alone.
Thanks is extended to Pan Macmillan Australia for providing me with a copy of The Dressmaker’s Secret for review.
About the Author:
Rosalie Ham is the author of four previous books, including the bestselling novels The Year of the Farmer and The Dressmaker, now an award-winning film starring Kate Winslet, Liam Hemsworth, Judy Davis and Hugo Weaving. Rosalie was born and raised in Jerilderie, New South Wales, where her family still farm, and now lives in Melbourne, Australia. She holds a master of arts in creative writing and teaches literature.
The Dressmaker’s Secret
Published by Picador Australia
Released on 27th October 2020
December 12, 2020
The Week That Was…
Joke of the week:
This is me for one more week and then…HOLIDAYS!
~~~
What I’ve been watching this week:
I’m actually not a fan of musicals but this was enjoyable with an important underlying message. Terrific performances from the cast too.
~~~
Making me smile:
When your friend knows you so well…
The perfect gift!
December 11, 2020
#BookBingo2020 – Round 12: A classic you’ve never read before
At last! I have read an Agatha Christie novel. Seemed like a fitting choice for this category. This particular one was recommended to me by someone here on the blog a few months ago. If it was you, please put your hand up in the comments so I can express my thanks.
That’s a wrap for #BookBingo2020 
December 8, 2020
Top 20 for 2020 – Books to gift this Christmas
The year is not over yet, so it’s a little early for best book lists, but I’ve seen them beginning to pop up and of course, that leads one to question what my own favourite reads of the year have been. I thought it might be fun to put together the list a bit early after all, with the intent of sharing with those of you who might be looking for some ideas on what books to gift your bookish loved ones this year for Christmas. Or, even better, what books are so good they might entice your non-bookish loved ones to pick up a book and give reading a go? These were all released this year and were all five star plus reads for me – the ones that I gave five stars to but really wished there was a six star option, reserved for the best of the best. All are linked back to my original review. Enjoy!
December 7, 2020
Book Review: The Betrayals by Bridget Collins
About the Book:
If everything in your life was based on a lie would you risk it all to tell the truth?
At Montverre, an exclusive academy tucked away in the mountains, the best and brightest are trained for excellence in the grand jeu: an arcane and mysterious contest. Léo Martin was once a student there, but lost his passion for the grand jeu following a violent tragedy. Now he returns in disgrace, exiled to his old place of learning with his political career in tatters. Montverre has changed since he studied there, even allowing a woman, Claire Dryden, to serve in the grand jeu’s highest office of Magister Ludi. When Léo first sees Claire he senses an odd connection with her, though he’s sure they have never met before. Both Léo and Claire have built their lives on lies. And as the legendary Midsummer Game, the climax of the year, draws closer, secrets are whispering in the walls…
My Thoughts:
The Binding by Bridget Collins was a standout release for me and as is the natural order of things, this second adult release from Bridget Collins was always going to have a heavy amount of expectation attached to it. The similarity between these two novels stops at the gorgeously coordinated covers. The Betrayals is a very different read to The Binding, another highly imaginative and uniquely crafted story, yes, but not quite as easy to get wrapped up in – for me, at least.
Everything within The Betrayals is a little bit on the obscure side. The era is not disclosed (I couldn’t even get a bead on it, although the publisher’s website has it listed as historical fiction), the location is not identified (although by deduction I’m guessing ‘somewhere in France’ but this is not confirmed anywhere in the novel), and despite my best intentions, I just still, after finishing, have no idea what the Grand Jeu even was; perhaps I am suffering from a severe lack of imagination, I don’t know, but I just couldn’t envisage what it actually was. I couldn’t see how it was performed, or played out, or even written. In this particular aspect, I think there was possibly a crossover with the sort of themes you see popping up in YA fiction, but in this case, targeted specifically to adults. The author mentions in her author note that her grand jeu was inspired by another novel containing a game such as this; I haven’t read, much less heard of that novel, so in terms of visualisation, that did nothing to help me. While these factors didn’t give me any reason to abandon the novel, they did lead me to taking much longer than normal to get through it. It was like each of these unknown factors presented a barrier to get through. I really do like to know the when and where of what I’m reading, and in truth, perhaps this novel should have been billed as fantasy rather than historical fiction, for the ‘game’ does seem to fall into that realm of storytelling.
Anyway, moving on from all that. I did actually still enjoy the novel overall. This is entirely owing to the way in which Bridget Collins writes. She crafts her characters with depth and presents all aspects of them with authenticity: their flaws, their strengths, their morals, their talents. Likewise, her story plays out with just the right amount of tension, intrigue, and mystery, clues laid down for the reader at key points, some things taking their time to be revealed, others coming swiftly and with shock for the reader. In terms of quality of writing, you can’t fault her. She knows how to tell an unconventional love story, and also knows how to take it to the next level, making her story, and the essence of it, about so much more than the relationship between the key players. I think that if readers of The Binding go into this with adjusted expectations, they should be able to enjoy it in its own right. Bear in mind that it’s an entirely different sort of story, and think more along the lines of fantasy than historical magical realism, and you should find it to be enjoyable and intriguing. I look forward to seeing where Bridget Collins takes us next.
About the Author:
Bridget Collins trained as an actor at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art after reading English at King’s College, Cambridge. She is the author of seven acclaimed books for young adults and has had two plays produced, one at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The Betrayals is her second adult novel.
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The Betrayals
Published by HarperCollins – GB
Released 12th November 2020
December 6, 2020
Pre-Release Book Review: The Truth & Addy Loest by Kim Kelly
About the Book:
Truth is not a destination – it’s a magical ride.
Addy Loest is harbouring a secret – several, in fact. Dedicated overthinker, frockaholic and hard-partyer, she’s been doing all she can to avoid the truth for quite some time.
A working-class girl raised between the Port Kembla Steelworks and the surf of the Illawarra coast, Addy is a fish out of water at the prestigious University of Sydney. She’s also the child of German immigrants, and her broken-hearted widower dad won’t tell her anything about her family’s tragic past.
But it’s 1985, a time of all kinds of excess, from big hair to big misogyny, and distractions are easy. Distractions, indeed, are Addy’s best skill – until one hangover too many leads her to meet a particular frock and a particular man, each of whom will bring all her truths hurtling home.
Told with Kim Kelly’s incomparable warmth and wit, The Truth & Addy Loest is a magical trip through shabby-chic inner-city Sydney, a tale of music and moonlight, literature and love – and of discovering the only story that really matters is the one you write for yourself.
My Thoughts:
This is Kim Kelly’s second contemporary release – I refuse to consider the mid 1980s as historical fiction, no, definitely not yet! – and I have to say, she’s hit a homerun yet again. Not all authors can easily walk from genre to genre, era to era, but it seems for Kim that nothing is out of reach. I think this comes down to the story, the essence of Kim’s work. She’s not writing about an event, with the character’s lives playing out in front of an epic backdrop. Rather, she’s telling a yarn, a story that’s playing out in familiar neighbourhoods with familiar people; a slice of Australia, served up with both the bitter and the sweet accompaniments. Nevermore has this been true than with The Truth & Addy Loest. Before we get deep and meaningful, I just want to point out that Kim’s natural wit is in top form throughout this novel.
‘The Jay Club was Sydney Uni’s marijuana club, where the coolest of the cool hung out collectively growing their hair in lieu of doing anything socially useful.’
The beating heart of this story is Addy Loest herself, young and on the cusp of the rest of her life, yet hopelessly lost and searching desperately for those elusive answers to the questions asked by all intergenerational migrant children at some point in their lives: ‘Who am I and where did I come from? Where is my home? Where do I belong?’ Addy will be familiar to many Australians who are now in their 40s and above, whose parents and grandparents migrated post WWII, leaving the pain and scars behind for a new life in a new sunshiny land. Many began again so completely that it’s as though their former selves ceased to exist once they stepped off that boat, but their reinvention in some cases reverberated down through the generations, so that their children and even grandchildren found themselves caught in an identity crisis, similar to that of Addy, where you’re neither here nor there, you’re a little bit other, but not entirely sure what that even means.
‘She was nothing – really. She was not a real Australian; she was not a real German. She was not a real Illawarra surfie chick; she was not a real Sydney University student. She fell between the cracks of everything, and it was desperately lonely there – everywhere.’
I’m not one for romance novels, but I do like a good love story – there is a difference, believe me! – and here in The Truth & Addy Loest is a tale of a beautiful love, of the grandest kind, just waiting to unfurl. It’s a little unconventional, with Addy fighting her inner critic all the way to the point where she comes to the realisation that not only does someone else love her, but that she’s also completely worthy of it. The close-knit family unit of Addy, her brother, and her father, was lovely; I enjoyed their interactions, from their father worrying about them to Addy and her brother bonding over their father worrying about them! There are plenty of social and political issues tightly woven into this novel, but with the precision of a master storyteller, Kim packages it all up and delivers it with aplomb.
‘She saw him swipe off a tear with the heel of his hand, smiling again – and it was there, right there, she finally let herself fall completely and irretrievably. She fell right to the garden floor, she landed softly on the tender grass, inside that loving, laughing tear.’
The Truth & Addy Loest is released in February 2021 and I highly recommend you add it to your reading lists for the New Year, or better yet, pre-order a copy today.
Thanks is extended to the author, Kim Kelly, for providing me with a copy of The Truth & Addy Loest for review.
About the Author:
Kim Kelly is the much-loved author of eleven novels, including the acclaimed Wild Chicory and The Blue Mile. With distinctive warmth and lyrical charm, her work explores Australia, its history and people, its quirks and contradictions, from colonial invasion times to the present, and from the red-dirt roads of the outback to its glittering shores. She is also a well-known book editor and reviewer. Originally from Sydney, today Kim lives on a small but endlessly inspiring patch of paradise in the central west of New South Wales.
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First Chapter Preview of The Truth & Addy Loest: here
Publishing in paperback, ebook and Bolinda audiobook 1st February 2021
