Theresa Smith's Blog, page 65
October 4, 2020
Book Review: The Godmothers by Monica McInerney
About the Book:
Eliza Miller grew up in Australia as the only daughter of a troubled young mother, but with the constant support of two watchful godmothers, Olivia and Maxie. Despite her tricky childhood, she always felt loved and secure. Until, just before her eighteenth birthday, a tragic event changed her life.
Thirteen years on, Eliza is deliberately living as safely as possible, avoiding close relationships and devoting herself to her job. Out of the blue, an enticing invitation from one of her godmothers prompts a leap into the unknown.
Within a fortnight, Eliza finds herself in the middle of a complicated family in Edinburgh. There’s no such thing as an ordinary day any more. Yet, amidst the chaos, Eliza begins to blossom. She finds herself not only hopeful about the future, but ready to explore her past, including the biggest mystery of all – who is her father?
Set in Australia, Scotland, Ireland and England, THE GODMOTHERS is a great big hug of a book that will fill your heart to bursting. It is a moving and perceptive story about love, lies, hope and sorrow, about the families we are born into and the families we make for ourselves.
My Thoughts:
I’ve been reading Monica McInerney’s novels for a long time now and each new release delivers what I can only describe as a literary hug – comfort reading with all the feels.
In The Godmothers we meet Eliza, daughter of Jeannie, a woman who was clearly not well, but also just as clearly not willing to do anything about it. While Eliza grows up feeling loved by her mother and adored by her two godmothers, the erratic behaviour of her mother, culminating in a tragedy during Eliza’s seventeenth year, leaves its mark on her long into adulthood. There are more questions in Eliza’s history than answers, and when her life gets turned upside-down inside a fortnight, she decides it might be time to get those questions answered.
Set in Australia, Scotland, Ireland and England, this novel is just filled to the brim with delightful characters and atmospheric settings. It’s just gorgeous. New friendships are formed – Sullivan! I just adored this boy and the way he latched on to Eliza; and Celine, as atrocious as her behaviour was, the way Eliza managed her was brilliant. All of the characters were so authentic and original, I enjoyed meeting and spending time with all of them. And as always after reading a novel by Monica set in the UK and Ireland, I really want to just get on a plane and go exploring there myself. One day…
The most precious relationship within the story was that of Eliza with her two godmothers, Olivia and Maxxie. The love these two women had for Eliza was just beautiful and their protectiveness of her instinctive. Monica skilfully explores the lines around telling someone the truth about their past: the whole truth and nothing but the truth. At what point does knowing the full story offer more harm than healing? Guilt and what ifs are also examined and the way in which they can plague a person indefinitely.
All in all, The Godmothers delivers all that it promises. Warm, funny, honest, deeply sad at times, but ultimately hopeful. Classic Monica McInerney, and I mean that as the highest of praise.
Thanks is extended to Penguin Random House Australia for providing me with a copy of The Godmothers for review.
About the Author:
One of the stars of Australian fiction, Monica McInerney is the author of the internationally bestselling novels A Taste for It, Upside Down Inside Out, Spin the Bottle, The Alphabet Sisters, Family Baggage, Those Faraday Girls, At Home with the Templetons, Lola’s Secret, The House of Memories, Hello from the Gillespies, The Trip of a Lifetime and The Godmothers, and a short story collection, All Together Now. Those Faraday Girls was the winner of the General Fiction Book of the Year prize at the 2008 Australian Book Industry Awards. In 2006 Monica was the ambassador for the Australian Government initiative Books Alive, with her novella Odd One Out. Monica grew up in a family of seven children in the Clare Valley of South Australia and has been living between Australia and Ireland for twenty years. She and her Irish husband currently live in Dublin.
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The Godmothers
Published by Penguin – Michael Joseph
Released 29th September 2020
October 3, 2020
The Week That Was…
The end of the September school holidays! Nooo…
I can’t say they’ve flown by, I’ve actually been surprised at how much I’ve achieved, done everything I set out to do, but they were exhaustingly busy. These last four days have been spent blissfully reading, watching the odd bit of TV, and eating delicious food. At least I can end the holidays with a holiday!
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Joke of the week:
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The truth in this joke lies in this reply from my 14yo son when I showed him this picture:
“That would be SO much fun!”
Exactly.
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Book of the week:
Truthfully, I’ve read some excellent books this last week, so good in fact, I can’t just settle on one as the best:
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What I’ve been watching:
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After many recommendations, I’ve started watching this and immediately found out what all the fuss was about! Compelling viewing. And rather frightening.
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Good news story of the week:
My little porky Husky Zeus is no longer a porker! His annual vet check shows he’s lost 6kgs in the last year through strict portion control and daily exercise. He’s now at his ideal weight of 22kgs after reaching a high of 31kgs two years ago. This is mostly owing to my son, Adrian, above mentioned 14yo who is happy to skateboard into the ocean. When it comes to petcare, he is a lot less reckless. Involving both my sons in the vet visits has been the best thing to nurture petcare within them. They’ve been accompanying the dogs to the vet for years now and it’s meant they really appreciate all that is involved in owning a dog. Adrian really stepped up in the last two years when we discovered just how overweight Zeus was for his breed. He supervises dinner time to ensure that Zeus only eats his own food, not trying to sneak and bully Diva (our German Shepherd) away from her bowl so he can scarf down her meal as well. And he’s the one taking both dogs for a brisk walk each day, no matter the weather or his busy schedule. In turn, they now regard him as their owner and do everything he says – which he loves!
Note: if you ever adopt a Husky, don’t feed them like a regular dog. If you do, they turn into a porky seal in a matter of weeks and it’s hard to shift. They have an entirely different metabolism to regular dogs. I know that now!
Behold! I give you…skinny Zeus:
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What I’m reading right now:
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Until next week… 
October 2, 2020
#6degrees of separation: from The Turn of the Screw to Gone With The Wind
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It’s the first Saturday of the month so that means it’s #6degrees of separation time! This month’s starting book is The Turn of the Screw by Henry James.
You can find the details and rules of the #6degrees meme at booksaremyfavouriteandbest, but in a nutshell, on the first Saturday of every month, everyone has the same starting book and from there, you connect in a variety of ways to other books. Some of the connections made are so impressive, it’s a lot of fun to follow.
My first link is to the one and only Henry James novel I have read, The Portrait of a Lady. From here I’m linking to Mrs Osmond by John Banville, a contemporary written sequel to the classic, which I haven’t yet read but very much want to.
I quite like these contemporary written sequels and one in particular that I enjoyed was Wild Island by Jennifer Livett, a sequel of sorts Charlotte Bronte’s magnificent Jane Eyre.
One sequel to a classic that didn’t work for me was Alexandra Ripley’s Scarlett, the sequel to Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind. It was just as enormous as the novel it was inspired by, but was pretty much entirely forgettable.
Do you like contemporary sequels to classic novels?
That’s my six degrees for this month. 
October 1, 2020
Book Review: The Survivors by Jane Harper
About the Book:
Kieran Elliott’s life changed forever on the day a reckless mistake led to devastating consequences.
The guilt that still haunts him resurfaces during a visit with his young family to the small coastal community he once called home.
Kieran’s parents are struggling in a town where fortunes are forged by the sea. Between them all is his absent brother, Finn.
When a body is discovered on the beach, long-held secrets threaten to emerge. A sunken wreck, a missing girl, and questions that have never washed away…
My Thoughts:
Jane Harper has returned with a thrilling new crime mystery, which in my opinion, is her best yet. I have enjoyed each of her releases as I love the way she writes, however, the outback is not my favourite setting, and two out of her previous three were set in the outback. She had already proven, with Force of Nature which was set in the forest, that she could bring any setting to life, and here she is again, turning her hand to a new setting, the wild Tasmanian coast, and it’s a dazzling tour de force.
The mystery within in this novel is twofold. A new crime blows the cobwebs off an old tragedy and as one is investigated, questions about the past come to the fore. I felt this really went a long way towards building that small town setting, where skeletons are not buried all that deep and memories are long. The wild coastal setting was brought to life so vividly, particularly the weather, the changing tides, and the way in which life was arranged around the seasons.
As always, Jane has crafted a cast of authentic and original characters. There’s a lot of baggage being carted around by many in this small town and I felt the weight of their individual histories, their burdens, their regrets, their failed hopes, and their secret longings. Often times fraught with emotion, tense and foreboding, Jane uses her characters in conjunction with her plot with masterful intent, unspooling the mystery, laying down new pieces to the puzzle, and stitching it all together with her trademark brilliance.
The title of the book has significance with regards to the setting, an element of the story that I particularly liked. Potential readers should note that this is a standalone novel and if you’re yet to try Jane Harper, this is an ideal one to start with.
Thanks is extended to Pan Macmillan Australia for providing me with a copy of The Survivors for review.
About the Author:
Jane Harper is the internationally bestselling author of the The Dry, Force of Nature, The Lost Man and The Survivors. Her books are published in forty territories worldwide, and The Dry has been adapted into a major motion picture starring Eric Bana. Jane has won numerous top awards including the Australian Book Industry Awards Book of the Year, the Australian Indie Awards Book of the Year, the CWA Gold Dagger Award for Best Crime Novel, and the British Book Awards Crime and Thriller Book of the Year. Jane worked as a print journalist for thirteen years both in Australia and the UK, and now lives in Melbourne with her husband and two children.
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The Survivors
Published by Macmillan Australia
Released 22nd September 2020
September 30, 2020
A Month of Reading: September
#aww2020: 6 books
Total books read for September: 10 books
Until next month…
September 29, 2020
Book Review: Home Stretch by Graham Norton
About the Book:
Shame and longing can flow through generations, but the secrets of the heart will not be buried for ever.
It is 1987 and a small Irish community is preparing for a wedding. The day before the ceremony a group of young friends, including bride and groom, drive out to the beach. There is an accident. Three survive, but three are killed.
The lives of the families are shattered and the rifts between them are felt throughout the small town. Connor is one of the survivors. But staying among the angry and the mourning is almost as hard as living with the shame of having been the driver. He leaves the only place he knows for another life, taking his secrets with him. Travelling first to Liverpool, then London, he makes a home – of sorts – for himself in New York. The city provides shelter and possibility for the displaced, somewhere Connor can forget his past and forge a new life.
But the secrets, the unspoken longings and regrets that have come to haunt those left behind will not be silenced. And before long, Connor will have to confront his past.
Graham Norton’s powerful and timely novel of emigration and return demonstrates his keen understanding of the power of stigma and secrecy – with devastating results.
My Thoughts:
I love The Graham Norton Show and ever since he released his first novel, I’ve been meaning to see if he writes as well as he performs. He does. He really does.
‘None of us are just the worst thing we ever did. We’re more than that.’
Home Stretch is a brilliant novel, layered and carefully arranged, rich in setting and intensity of emotion. The characters are flawed, crafted with an honesty that at times left me breathless. Graham knows how to tease out his story, breaking the narrative and shifting between eras with precision. He is a truly magnificent writer, far more so than I anticipated. There is wit within his work, but nothing comic, just a deep understanding of human nature and a love of all that is Irish.
‘This is what homecoming meant. Arriving in a place to discover you’re fluent in a language you’d forgotten you ever knew.’
This novel is a story about finding yourself and your place within this world, where you can exist easily within your own skin, without shame, regret, or longing. By the same token, it’s also a story about Ireland’s journey from intolerance through to progressive change and acceptance. This is done gently, alongside the main story, but reveals itself with significance. Home Stretch is a literary achievement that will appeal to fans of Irish fiction, both historical and contemporary. I loved it and will highly recommend it to all readers.
Thanks is extended to Hachette Australia for providing me with a copy of Home Stretch for review.
About the Author:
Graham Norton is one of the UK’s most treasured comedians and presenters. Born in Clondalkin, a suburb of Dublin, Norton’s first big TV appearance was as Father Noel Furlong on Channel 4’s Father Ted in the early 1990s. He then secured a prime time slot on Channel 4 with his chat shows So Graham Norton and V Graham Norton.
Known for his quick wit Graham began hosting a variety of talent shows on BBC One from Strictly Dance Fever and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? to The Eurovision Song Contest and BAFTAs. Graham was soon approached by the BBC to front his own self-titled chat show The Graham Norton Show in 2007.
Graham Norton has won 9 BAFTAs for Best Entertainment Performance, and Best Entertainment Programme. He presents The Graham Norton Show on BBC1, a show on BBC Radio 2 every Saturday, and is a judge on RuPaul’s Drag Race UK. Norton won the Special Recognition Award at the National Television Awards in 2017.
Graham’s third novel will be published in hardback, eBook, and audiobook in October.
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Home Stretch
Published by Hachette Australia—Coronet
Released 29th September 2020
September 24, 2020
The Week That Was…
Making me happy this week is my new shirt, ordered back in April, finally arriving, along with its replacement two days later, because the first was deemed lost in the mail. Turns out it was just sitting in Sydney since early June, courtesy of Australia Post, so now I have two of these:
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Joke of the week:
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What I’ve been watching:
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Ratched was compelling viewing. I loved the creepy, dreadful, ‘Hitchcock’ like atmosphere, the glorious costumes, the odd characters, the cleverly layered plot, and the cinematography. Just gorgeous. It’s pretty horrific though, be warned! Season two is already been signed, so the open ending will hopefully be picked up and further explored next year.
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Enola Holmes didn’t meet my expectations. Mildly entertaining but also mildly cliche and mildly ridiculous. The cast was a drawcard but even they couldn’t carry it.
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What I’m reading right now:
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Until next week…
Book Review: Dreams They Forgot by Emma Ashmere
About the Book:
Two sisters await the tidal wave predicted for 1970s Adelaide after Premier Don Dunstan decriminalises homosexuality. An interstate family drive is complicated by the father’s memory of sighting UFOs. Two women drive from Melbourne to Sydney to see the Harbour Bridge before it’s finished. An isolated family tries to weather climate change as the Doomsday Clock ticks.
Emma Ashmere’s stories explore illusion, deception and acts of quiet rebellion. Diverse characters travel high and low roads through time and place – from a grand 1860s Adelaide music hall to a dilapidated London squat, from a modern Melbourne hospital to the 1950s Maralinga test site, to the 1990s diamond mines of Borneo.
Undercut with longing and unbelonging, absurdity and tragedy, thwarted plans and fortuitous serendipity, each story offers glimpses into the dreams, limitations, gains and losses of fragmented families, loners and lovers, survivors and misfits, as they piece together a place for themselves in the imperfect mosaic of the natural and unnatural world.
My Thoughts:
Emma Ashmere’s short story collection, Dreams They Forgot, is creatively atmospheric, a series of ‘slice of life’ vignettes set in a variety of eras with a mostly feminist leaning. Emma writes with sublime texture, so much simmering beneath the surface. Fans of short stories will relish this collection. While I’m still not sold on short fiction (and probably never will be), I did appreciate Emma’s writing, the lush tones, and the vivid uniquely Australian atmosphere.
Thanks is extended to Wakefield Press for providing me with a copy of Dreams They Forgot for review.
About the Author:
Emma Ashmere was born in Adelaide, South Australia. Her short stories have been widely published including in the Age, Griffith Review, Overland, Review of Australian Fiction, Sleepers Almanac, Etchings, Spineless Wonders, #8WordStory, NGVmagazine, and the Commonwealth Writers literary magazine, adda. The short stories in her collection Dreams They Forgot have been variously shortlisted for the 2019 Commonwealth Writers Short Story Award, 2019 Newcastle Short Story Award, 2018 Overland NUW Fair Australia Prize, and the 2001 Age Short Story Competition. Her critically acclaimed debut novel, The Floating Garden, was shortlisted for the Most Underrated Book Award 2016.
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Dreams They Forgot
Published by Wakefield Press
Released September 2020
September 19, 2020
Book Review: The Last Migration by Charlotte McConaghy
About the Book:
A dark past. An impossible journey. The will to survive.
How far you would you go for love? Franny Stone is determined to go to the end of the earth, following the last of the Arctic terns on what may be their final migration to Antarctica.
As animal populations plummet and commercial fishing faces prohibition, Franny talks her way onto one of the few remaining boats heading south. But as she and the eccentric crew travel further from shore and safety, the dark secrets of Franny’s life begin to unspool. A daughter’s yearning search for her mother. An impulsive, passionate marriage. A shocking crime. Haunted by love and violence, Franny must confront what she is really running towards – and from.
The Last Migration is a wild, gripping and deeply moving novel from a brilliant young writer. From the west coast of Ireland to Australia and remote Greenland, through crashing Atlantic swells to the bottom of the world, this is an ode to the wild places and creatures now threatened, and an epic story of the possibility of hope against all odds.
My Thoughts:
What a magnificent novel, truly unlike anything I’ve read before. I loved this one so much, it’s destined to be a life long favourite.
‘Today there is a huge landmass to our left, and it surprises me because there is no land on the chart I’ve been studying. As we draw close enough to see, I realise that it’s an enormous island of plastic, and there are fish and seabirds and seals dead upon its shore.’
The Last Migration is like a quilt made of sorrow, each new patch revealed adds another dimension to Franny’s story, a devastated life that bears the effects of intergenerational trauma and unresolved grief. My heart broke over Franny and just continued to do so as more and more of her backstory came to light.
‘Nothing should have to struggle so much. If the animals have died it will not have been quietly. It will not have been without a desperate fight. If they’ve died, all of them, it’s because we made the world impossible for them.’
The Last Migration is set in a time unspecified, yet it reads like now, with one big difference: almost all the earth’s wild animals – land, sea and air – are extinct. Sightings of animals in the wild are rare, the only survivors held in captivity for conservation and research. It’s horrific to contemplate, yet entirely plausible. This doesn’t read like dystopian fiction. It reads like a contemporary novel, which makes it all the more sobering.
‘If it’s the end, really and truly, if you’re making the last migration not just of your life but of your entire species, you don’t stop sooner. Even when you’re tired and starved and hopeless. You go further.’
Franny is on a mission to follow the last of the Arctic terns on what is expected to be their last migration from the Arctic to the Antarctic. She convinces a fishing captain to take up her quest with the promise that the terns will show him where the disappearing fish are. It’s a contradictory journey; protecting one species at the expense of another. But the journey that unfolds becomes so much more than any on the ship could have foreseen. The friendship that develops between Franny and the ship’s captain, Ennis, one of those great and enduring unions that stay with you. The love story between Franny and Niall one that will leave an indelible print upon your memory.
This novel is a stunning literary achievement. It brilliantly captures the intersection between humans and wildlife, between devastation and hope. In a world on the brink of environmental catastrophe, even the ends of the earth is not too far. The Last Migration is Australian literature at its finest. I have been highly anticipating this one since I heard the author speak about it at this year’s Melbourne Writer’s Festival and it did not disappoint.
Thanks is extended to Penguin Random House Australia for providing me with a copy of The Last Migration for review.
About the Author:
Charlotte McConaghy has been writing from a young age. She has both a Graduate Degree in Screenwriting and a Masters Degree in Screen Arts, and has worked in script development for film and television for several years. She has written a number of speculative fiction books but The Last Migration is her first literary novel. She lives in Sydney.
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The Last Migration
Published by Penguin Random House Australia – Hamish Hamilton
Released 4th August 2020
September 18, 2020
Book Review: The Mystery Woman by Belinda Alexandra
About the Book:
Rebecca Wood takes the role as postmistress in a sleepy seaside town, desperate for anonymity after a scandal in Sydney. But she is confronted almost at once by a disturbing discovery – her predecessor committed suicide.
To add to her worries, her hopes for a quiet life are soon threatened by the attentions of the dashing local doctor, the unsettling presence of a violent whaling captain and a corrupt shire secretary, as well as the watchful eyes of the town’s gossips. Yet in spite of herself she is drawn to the enigmatic resident of the house on the clifftop, rumoured to have been a Nazi spy.
Against the backdrop of the turbulent sea, Rebecca is soon caught up in the dangerous mysteries that lie behind Shipwreck Bay’s respectable net curtains.
My Thoughts:
The Mystery Woman is a stunning new direction for Belinda Alexandra, and one she has navigated with precision. Known more for historical/romantic saga style novels set during WWII or earlier, The Mystery Woman is more contemporary in its history, set in the 1950s, and is firmly gothic noir in style, of which I highly approve!
Rebecca is a heroine with a few wrinkles in her past and she’s moved to Shipwreck Bay with a heavy secret. I liked Rebecca from the get-go and I was drawn into her challenges of fitting in; the small-town fishbowl aspect of community living was replicated so convincingly. How awful, for women to be under such close scrutiny, and to have to sit in church each Sunday, whether you wanted to or not, and listen to a priest wax lyrical about the evils of women since the dawn of time. The gossip and innuendo; the appraisal and judgement; the toxic interfering. The author painted a stiflingly precise picture of small town living in the 1950s, where men ruled the town and home and women’s aspirations were not supposed to extend beyond pleasing their husbands.
There are few mysteries woven into this story, intersecting at different points. The atmosphere is at times chilling, tense, and as the novel careened towards its conclusion, it spiralled into something quite horrific – much to my admiration. I do really love a chilling gothic tale. Themes of domestic violence and the abuse of power and male privilege are explored thoroughly within some thought-provoking contexts. The whaling sub-plot linked to the setting was also highly interesting. I have read quite extensively on whaling history in Australia and I felt that the author wove this topic neatly into her narrative without overwhelming the reader with too much history; nicely balanced.
All in all, this is one novel I can highly recommend. It was engaging and gripping right the way through with a varied cast of characters and a sophisticated storyline, all infused with a crackling atmosphere of mystery and dread.
Thanks is extended to HarperCollins Australia for providing me with a copy of The Mystery Woman for review.
About the Author:
Belinda Alexandra has been published to wide acclaim in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Holland, Poland, Norway, Russia, Spain, Turkey, Hungary and the United States. She is the daughter of a Russian mother and an Australian father and has been an intrepid traveller since her youth. Her love of other cultures is matched by her passion for her home country, Australia, where she is a volunteer rescuer and carer for the NSW Wildlife Information Rescue and Education Service (WIRES). An animal lover, Belinda is also the patron of the World League for the Protection of Animals (Australia).
Find out more at:
www.belinda-alexandra.com
Twitter: belinda_alexandra_author
Instagram: belinda_alexandra_author
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The Mystery Woman
Published by HarperCollins – AU
Released 2nd September 2020
