Theresa Smith's Blog, page 88
December 11, 2019
Book Review: Remembering Bob by Sue Pieters-Hawke
About the Book:
A warm, moving and revealing collection of stories and memories about Bob Hawke from across the nation, edited by his eldest daughter
Bob Hawke’s death in May 2019 sparked national mourning across the country as we remembered just how important Bob had been in the shaping of modern Australia. In an age when political personas have become increasingly formulaic and predictable, Bob was a man of glorious contradictions. He was a Rhodes Scholar who also had a deep affinity and understanding for mainstream Australia. He was a passionate ACTU officer and president who also knew how to work with big business. He loved his sport, a drink and a bet, yet was also deeply intellectual in his approach to policy. In an age when our respect for politicians has never been lower, we respected Bob. The huge public outpouring of grief after his death showed that we loved him too.
Remembering Bob, instigated and edited by Bob’s eldest daughter, Sue Pieters-Hawke, is a collection of stories and memories about Bob by his friends, colleagues, old political foes, and ordinary Australians whose paths crossed that of their everyman Prime Minister. They are by turns funny, serious, warm, illuminating and inspiring, and, taken together, they offer a true reflection of the extraordinary person he was, and what he meant to us all.
A royalty on every copy sold will go to The Exodus Foundation, one of Bob Hawke’s favourite charities.
My Thoughts:
‘He is the green card in your pocket. He is the superannuation you will retire with. He is the architect of so much of what is Australia today. His invisible fingerprints are all around us. And we are a better country for it.’ – The Hon. Jason Clare MP.
‘He was also the bold architect of some of our most significant reforms, especially when it comes to our responsibility to our society’s most marginalised.’ – Catia Malaquias.
Remembering Bob is a book for those who want to do exactly that: remember Bob. This is not a biography that ‘tells all’, nor is it a comprehensive memoir. It’s a rather simple book that is made up of a collection of memories about Bob Hawke, told in their own words by a variety of people who either knew him, encountered his generosity, or have benefited from his legacy. I enjoyed it immensely, particularly the submissions from those who knew him in the later years. A few even made me shed a tear. Sue Pieters-Hawke explains the intent of this book as such:
‘Circumstance maybe render this remembrance ‘unbalanced’, not necessarily because of rose-coloured glasses, but from the desire to preserve the best of someone we have loved and whose memory we honour in this telling of his life. This book focuses on the positive – and my god, there was so much positive to focus on!’ – Sue Pieters-Hawke.
If you’re looking for a book that exposes secrets, dishes out dirt, rakes over the past and points fingers, then this is not the book for you. If instead, you want to take a look at the life of a truly great man through the eyes of others, then add this book to your summer reading list. What a wonderful thing to have done in memory of a father who also meant so much to a nation. Well done Sue Pieters-Hawke. Very well done.
‘The essence of power is the knowledge that what you do is going to have an effect, not just an immediate but perhaps a lifelong effect, on the happiness and wellbeing of millions of people, and so I think the essence of power is to be conscious of what it can mean for others.’ – Bob Hawke.
Thanks extended to Allen & Unwin for providing me with a copy of Remembering Bob for review.
About the Author:
Sue Pieters-Hawke is Bob Hawke’s eldest daughter. She’s the author of two previous bestselling books: Hazel’s Journey: A personal experience of Alzheimer’s (2004), and Hazel: My Mother’s Story (2011).
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Remembering Bob
Published by Allen & Unwin
Released 20th November 2019
December 10, 2019
Book Review: Cry of the Firebird by T.M. Clark
About the Book:
In the badlands of Africa, a resourceful doctor fights to save her patients’ lives. Australian thriller writer T.M. Clark returns with a vivid, action-packed adventure in the tradition of Wilbur Smith.
South African-born Doctor Lily Winters, a consultant with the World Health Organization, has been in the thick of some of the worst humanitarian disasters across the globe. But when she’s posted back to South Africa following the suspicious death of an ex-colleague, she faces the biggest medical mystery she’s ever seen.
The resettled San community of Platfontein is exhibiting a higher-than-average HIV infection rate, and their people are dying. The cases Lily takes over are baffling and despite her best efforts the medicine doesn’t seem to be helping.
To save this unique community, Lily and a policeman from the Kalahari, Piet Kleinman, join forces to trace the origins of the epidemic and uncover the truth. Their search drags them into the dangerous world of a corrupt industry driven by profit while the authorities meant to protect their community turn a blind eye. In a race against time Lily and Piet will put not only their careers but their lives on the line…
My Thoughts:
T.M. Clark returns with another gripping African adventure/crime thriller. Set in South Africa, Cry of the Firebird dives into the grim world of tainted pharmaceuticals, corruption, gang violence, and the AIDS epidemic. This novel is exactly the type of gripping crime I favour within the genre. And as is the way with T.M. Clark, the beauty of Africa’s wildlife makes its mark upon the page, along with a cast of characters who demonstrate that it is possible, even in the most dire of circumstances, for humanity to prevail. With cutting edge themes and high action, Cry of the Firebird is one of my recommended Summer reads.
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Thanks extended to HarperCollins Publishers Australia for providing me with a copy of Cry of the Firebird for review.
About the Author:
Born in Zimbabwe, T. M. Clark completed her primary school years at boarding school in Bulawayo. She attended senior school in South Africa, where she lived in the boarding school hostel as her home.
She began writing fiction in the UK while a stay-at-home mum to her two sons and she hasn’t looked back.
Now living on a small island near Brisbane in Queensland, Australia, T. M. Clark combines her passion for storytelling with her love for Africa.
Her first novel, My Brother-But-One, was shortlisted for the Queensland Literary Award 2014. She is also the author of novels Shooting Butterflies, Tears of the Cheetah and Nature of the Lion, as well as a novella, The Avoidable Orphan, and a children’s picture book, Slowly! Slowly!, a 2018 CBCA Notable Book, which are companion books to her novel Child of Africa.
Readers can find T.M. Clark on Facebook (tmclarkauthor), Twitter (@tmclark_author) or visit her website at tmclark.com.au.
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Cry of the Firebird
Published by HarperCollins Publishers Australia – Mira AU
Released on 18th November 2019
December 7, 2019
Book Review: Pushing Her Luck by B R Maycock
About the Book:
Holly Caulfield has won the Irish National Lottery and sets in motion a plan to save the village of Abbeyglen. But who would have thought that giving money away could be so difficult?
With a resident’s association that’s clamouring for more and more money, an old lady who’s decided that a dream cruise is in her grasp and a couple who may not want that dream wedding after all, Holly’s finding it hard to keep it together!
And with a new love interest and an ex-husband hot on her heels, it’s up to Holly to figure out what can truly make her happy.
My Thoughts:
Chick lit is not really a genre that you see pop up on this blog very often. I do however occasionally dabble in it, and maybe on account of how selective I am – and believe me when I say that I am VERY selective when it comes to chick lit – I usually strike gold when I do. Pushing Her Luck was a really enjoyable read and a great lead in to my summer holidays.
Holly Caulfield is a true gem of a human being. She’s kindness personified and not even a tiny bit selfish. In a bit of a financial slump, she misreads the well-meaning advice of a kind stranger and spends her last few euro on a lottery ticket…which wins. It’s the stuff of pipe dreams of course, who hasn’t bought a ticket with secret hopes and then simply rolled their eyes at the waste of money after. But people do win, and in this story, it’s Holly: the entire four million euro.
Holly’s first instinct is to start giving it away. Fortunately, she listens to a friend and engages the services of a financial planner, who helps her distribute the money in a somewhat organised fashion. First port of call though, is Holly’s husband, whom she is separated from. Holly happily hands over half of her winnings without even trying to find out if it’s necessary. This was an example where Holly’s kindness had me grinding my teeth in frustration!
As Holly gives and gives, her financial planner is getting a vibe that the people Holly is giving money to aren’t necessarily on board with being dictated to about what they should be spending it on. This in turn leads Holly to question their gratitude, whilst trying to remain anonymous as the lottery winner. There are some lessons learnt along the way, for all involved, and plenty of mayhem and good times. There’s also a more serious undercurrent that examines who Holly really is and what exactly is motivating her unbridled generosity.
I admire the focus on kindness and giving that is spotlighted within this novel. We live increasingly shallow and selfish lives. Instead of giving our unwanted belongings to charity, social media is now filled with groups geared at selling it all second hand. If I have clothes that no longer fit me, or my children, I donate them, regardless of how many, or how few times, they’ve been worn. If I have unwanted books that I know I’ll never read again, I give them away to friends or charity. This is the way I was brought up and the way I hope my children will be as adults. I give gifts often, possibly too much so, but it makes me feel good to see how much being thought of cheers a person. So, while some may find Holly’s generosity over the top, I thought she was delightful and entirely refreshing. I could relate to her and I enjoyed how her giving also began to give her financial planner a bit of a happy high.
As is the way with chick lit, there is new romance and old flames popping up, but there is also new friendships and old family rifts being healed. All in all, Pushing Her Luck is a lovely novel, a truly enjoyable read. The author has set it up well for the next instalment in what she hopes will be a series about a quaint little Irish village named Abbeyglen – I’m looking forward to book two. Highly recommended.
Thanks extended to the author for providing me with a copy of Pushing Her Luck for review.
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Pushing Her Luck
Released 22 November 2019
Available from Amazon
December 6, 2019
#BookBingo – Round 25
Drumroll…this is the end! A full bingo card for 2019, finishing on the square:
A book written by an author with the same initials as you
For this one, I picked Bitter Leaves by Tabatha Stirling. But I didn’t actually finish it.
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I think my issue with this novel is mostly to do with the way it’s executed. It’s told entirely in the first person, which sometimes can work really well, but in this case, it’s just coming off as very monotone and stilted, a reiteration of events that aren’t moving forward. And it’s rather miserable, which is of course in keeping with the theme of the story, but I can’t help but feel as though it is a grim train to nowhere, for want of another expression. There is so much cruelty and abuse, too much so, it overwhelms and left me feeling quite drained, and the cast is far too large to keep track of without effort. As far as topics of writing go, it’s a very valid one with many interesting threads of possibility. It’s heartbreaking, how these maids are treated, so don’t for a moment think that I am dismissing the validity of this story or nullifying its importance. The story is one I’m interested in, I just don’t want to read it in its current state.
And, that’s enough about that. I really should have gone with Tricia Stringer…
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For 2019, I’m teaming up with Mrs B’s Book Reviews and The Book Muse for an even bigger, and more challenging book bingo. We’d love to have you join us. Every second Saturday throughout 2019, we’ll post our latest round. We invite you to join in at any stage, just pop the link to your bingo posts into the comments section of our bingo posts each fortnight so we can visit you. If you’re not a blogger, feel free to just write your book titles and thoughts on the books into the comments section each fortnight, and tag us on social media if you are playing along that way.
Six Degrees of Separation from Sanditon to The Forgotten Letters of Esther Durrant
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It’s the first Saturday of the month, which means a new round of #6degrees, and this month’s starting book is Sanditon by Jane Austen, her last novel, which was also unfinished. Despite loving Jane Austen, I have never read Sanditon. The unfinished aspect of it has always bothered me. I don’t want to read something finished by someone else, nor do I want to read something that isn’t complete as Jane intended. It’s a conundrum.
You can find the details and rules of the #6degrees meme at booksaremyfavouriteandbest, but in a nutshell, everyone has the same starting book and from there, you connect to other books. Some of the connections made are so impressive, it’s a lot of fun to follow.
The internet tells me that the main character in Sanditon is named Charlotte, so the first book I’m going to link to is Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White, an eternal favourite. From here, I’m linking pigs, and going from Wilbur (aka ‘Some Pig’) to Napoleon from George Orwell’s Animal Farm. Jumping across now to another Napoleon, in particular Napoleon Bonaparte, whose rise is charted in the forthcoming release by Stephanie Parkyn, Josephine’s Garden (which I am currently reading). While I’m not really overly taken with Napoleon and Josephine in this novel, I am enjoying the early explorer/botany aspect, which is an area of interest of mine. I could link to quite a few books using this aspect, but the one I’ll settle on is The Blue Rose by Kate Forsyth, in which early explorers travel to China with the intent of securing tea plants and a cutting of the original red rose. From here I’m going to stick with botany and link to The Botanist’s Daughter by Kayte Nunn, another early explorer/botany historical adventure. And now I have arrived at my last link, and I’m going to be honest with you, this has been the hardest 6 degrees for me so far. It’s taken me three days to write this post and I’m still at a loss for my last link. I give up, I’m taking the easy way out and linking based on author, so my last link is to The Forgotten Letters Of Esther Durrant, which is of course by Kayte Nunn.
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Until next month…
December 4, 2019
Book Review: The Christmas Witch by Carla Caruso
About the Book:
Misfiring spells. A gorgeous new boss. Looks like this Christmas will be magic…
The festive season isn’t Mina Rosso’s favourite time of year. It reminds her that as a descendant of La Befana – Italy’s Christmas witch – she’s cursed to forever be unlucky in love… Her plan this Christmastime is to lie low, keeping her secret identity under wraps as usual, and do what comes naturally: spread goodwill.
Unfortunately, the arrival of her boss’s son, Jadon Eder, puts a spanner in the works. Fresh from working in Milan, Jadon’s full of big-city arrogance and plans to overhaul the antique shop Mina loves. Pity he’s also sinfully attractive. Despite her best intentions – and even though he’s human, a no-no in the witchy world – Mina finds herself falling for him.
Then she finds out some bad news. Some of the spells she’s sold online have backfired … horribly. While she’s critical of the dark witches in her neighbourhood, is she really the good witch she thinks she is?
A fresh, funny story of love and the chaos and joy Christmas can bring from the ever-popular Carla Caruso.
My Thoughts:
Who doesn’t love a good old-fashioned Christmas rom-com? Well, normally me, to be honest, but this one was a little bit different. Think Bewitched, think Practical Magic, think Charmed, and you’ll be coming close to the themes of The Christmas Witch.
Mina, our main character in the Christmas Witch, is a descendant from a legendary Italian Christmas Witch called La Befana. She’s considered a red witch, which is in layman’s terms, a good witch. Mina is very much a Mother Earth type of witch. She’s really in tune with nature, very nurturing and empathetic, choosing to surround herself with greenery. She seemed to have a special talent for communicating with plants and keeping them alive. I liked this aspect of her characterisation. She was a very likeable character with a good heart, and in traditional Christmas rom-com fashion, I was cheering her on from the sidelines.
This novella was a lot of fun. It’s a romantic comedy on the one hand, but with a dash of supernatural quirk on the other. There’s a lot of little funny moments, particularly with Mina’s family – her nonna and her mother – along with some rogue spell casting that leads to a few very amusing outcomes. And of course there is romance, the magical Christmas sparkly kind that typifies hallmark movies and keeps us coming back year after year for more. All in all, The Christmas Witch is an enjoyable novella, perfect for those who like to indulge in a bit of Christmas love and laughter while they countdown to the big day.
Thanks extended to the author for providing me with a copy of The Christmas Witch for review.
About the Author:
Carla Caruso was born in Adelaide, Australia, and only ‘escaped’ for three years to work as a magazine journalist and stylist in Sydney. Previously, she was a gossip columnist and fashion editor at Adelaide’s daily newspaper, The Advertiser. She has since freelanced for titles including Woman’s Day, Cleo and Shop Til You Drop. These days, she writes fiction in between playing mum to twin sons Alessio and Sebastian, making fashion jewellery, and restoring vintage furniture. Oh, plus checking her daily horoscopes, jogging, and devouring trashy TV shows! Find out more on Carla’s website, or follow her on Instagram and Facebook.
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The Christmas Witch
Published by Escape Publishing
Released November 2019
December 3, 2019
Book Review: The Family Gift by Cathy Kelly
About the Book:
Freya Abalone has a big, messy, wonderful family, a fantastic career, and a new house.
But that’s on the outside.
On the inside, she’s got Mildred – the name she’s given to that nagging inner critic who tells us all we’re not good enough.
And now Freya’s beloved blended family is under threat. Dan’s first wife Elisa, the glamorous, manipulative woman who happily abandoned her daughter to Freya and Dan’s care and left the country, has elbowed her way back into their lives.
But Freya knows that when life gives you lemons, you throw them right back.
..Can Freya put her family – and herself – back together? Find out in Cathy Kelly’s warmest, wisest and funniest book yet…
My Thoughts:
I’ve been a long-time fan of Cathy Kelly’s books but I have to say that in this instance, I disagree with the blurb for this book. The Family Gift was, in my opinion, not even close to being Cathy Kelly’s wisest or funniest book; unfortunately, for me, it was her most boring.
The majority of Cathy Kelly books that I’ve read previously have always alternated between a few women, however with this one, we were stuck with Freya, the main character, the entire time. The story is also told in the first person, and while sometimes this works, in this case it really didn’t. This was a clunky kind of read, repetitive and constantly listing the same things over. There seemed to be this real need to remind the reader what Freya always looked like and what everybody else always looked like, and it just got boring quite frankly. There were also some really awkward observations made by Freya which made the narrative seem very unnatural. Here’s an example:
‘I hugged her for a full minute, feeling her lovely ballerina style bones against mine and I marvel at how quickly she’s growing up.
She has small breasts now, although they embarrass her. She gets regular periods: “Every month?” she said when I explained menstruation when she was younger.
She wants privacy too, now. My eldest child is moving further away from me and it hurts so much.’
Just zero in there on that middle paragraph about the size of her daughter’s breasts. I’m not quite sure where this is even coming from, and it’s this kind of thing that just really hampers my ability to let go and get into a story. I find myself instead questioning where the author’s head is at and why I’m even reading such a thing. You might also be able to note from this example that clunkiness that I was talking about, where the narrative just doesn’t flow with the nice natural ease that usually ensures success with use of a first-person perspective.
Freya herself was a pretty annoying character if I’m perfectly honest. I really tried to get into her but there was just something about her that was just getting on my nerves. Being constantly in her head and not having the ability to switch to another person to get a break really hampered my ability to just settle in and enjoy this novel.
The Family Gift is a novel of domestic drama, set in Ireland, but distinctly lacking that trademark Irish humour that I usually look for from Irish authors. This could just be a case of ‘it’s not the book, it’s me’, as on Goodreads there’s quite a lot of high ratings for this novel, many around the four star mark. I tried, I really did, but sometimes even an old favourite just doesn’t work out.
Thanks extended to Hachette Australia for providing me with a copy of The Family Gift for review.
About the Author:
Cathy Kelly is a number one international bestselling author. She worked as a journalist before becoming a novelist, and has published eleven novels. She is an Ambassador for Unicef in Ireland, helping to raise awareness of the plight of twelve million children orphaned across Africa through AIDS. She lives in Wicklow with her family.
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The Family Gift
Published by Hachette Australia – Orion
Released October 2019
December 2, 2019
#BlogTour: Josephine’s Garden by Stephanie Parkyn
About the Book:
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A captivating story of love, nature and identity in Napoleon’s France
France, 1794. In the aftermath of the bloody end to the French Revolution, Rose de Beauharnais stumbles from prison on the day she is to be guillotined. Within a decade, she’ll transform into the scandalous socialite who marries Napoleon Bonaparte, become Empress Josephine of France and build a garden of wonders with plants and animals she gathers from across the globe.
But she must give Bonaparte an heir or she risks losing everything.
Two other women from very different spheres are tied to the fate of the Empress Josephine – Marthe Desfriches and Anne Serreaux. Their lives are put at risk as they each face confronting obstacles in their relationships and in their desire to become mothers.
From the author of Into the World comes a richly imagined historical novel about obsession, courage, love and marriage.
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My Thoughts:
Sometimes it is interesting to note how you can look back over your reading for the year and see certain trends in releases. I find this particularly relevant with historical fiction. Of course, this is in the most part coincidental. Books take authors different lengths of time to write and the topics of these books are kept reasonably close in the initial planning and writing stages. This year, I have read three new historical fiction releases set in France either before, during, or just after the French Revolution. I have a fourth waiting for me on my TBR. It is an interesting period of history, but it is not without its more repulsive aspects. Josephine’s Garden is an ambitious novel, covering the relationship between Napoléon Bonaparte and ‘his’ Josephine, from just before they met up until their divorce – about sixteen years. It is a long and involving novel, so not one to dip in and out of. While I probably liked the second half far more than the first, overall, it is well worth the read, particularly if you, like me, enjoy early explorer botanical history.
This novel is infused with atmosphere and it wears its research well. The decadence and debauchery of the post-revolution period is one of those repulsive aspects I was alluding to previously. The way people carried on was just disgusting. And so crude. There were times when reading the first half of this novel where my stomach actually felt like it was turning over at the image of what was being portrayed on the page. And this is where Stephanie Parkyn really shines as a writer of historical fiction. She recreates her setting to perfection, warts and all, and does not shy away from the ridiculous, nor the obscene. And in doing this, her work is coloured with an authenticity and attention to detail that any lover of historical fiction will appreciate.
‘He felt disconnected from this new France. The people had thrown all decency aside. They cared for nothing other than selfish pleasures. The mark of highest status was not one’s learning, as he had hoped, but how many months one had spent in prison during the Terror. When he’d left five years earlier, people spoke of patriotism and liberty, but on his return all he saw was desire for power and riches, an intoxication with glory and vanity. The aristocracy was gone, but what replaced it made him shudder with disgust.’
Josephine is not the only character that we follow in this novel. Two other women round out the narrative and act as points of reference for displaying French society at other levels. Marthe Desfriches and Anne Serreaux are both wives of botanists. It took a very long time to see the connection between all three of these women, and I will admit that this was one of the times that I felt the length of the novel bearing down a bit too much. Another was in the few loose threads that were not actually tied up. In particular, I felt that the orang-utan, Rose, was introduced but not fully utilised, more mentioned as a novelty, yet brought in enough to make the reader feel as though they were left wanting in terms of knowing Rose’s fate. Marthe was a very interesting character for me, but again, I feel as though we really only just scratched the surface with her. There was so much of Josephine that I could have done without in preference to spending more time with the others.
‘The ape stretched up her chestnut arm and scratched beneath her armpit. Marthe watched transfixed as the ape turned her head to her and lowered her arm to point directly at Marthe’s heart. I see you.’
I did not realise many things about Napoléon and Josephine prior to reading this novel. There’s probably a few things now that I wish I still didn’t know! Napoléon, as depicted within this novel, was a disgusting man, both publicly and privately. It really doesn’t say much in favour about the French for putting up with him for so long. I took a long time to warm to Josephine and it really wasn’t until she was elbow deep in her gardening that this happened. I have a particular interest in the history of botany though, so it makes sense that I would find these parts more interesting over any others. I did admire the way Stephanie Parkyn arranged this novel into its various parts. The way she headed these sections showed the transformation of Josephine throughout the various stages of her life. One thing we can take away from Josephine’s story is the powerlessness of women during this era, and the danger associated with being female. I feel that Stephanie Parkyn captured this concept extremely well. I stated at the beginning of this review that Josephine’s Garden was an ambitious novel. Was it overly ambitious? I think not. In the end, Stephanie Parkyn fulfilled her ambition with this one rather well. Recommended reading for fans of sweeping and involved historical fiction.
‘Her collection was to be featured in a book about the best modern gardens in France by the celebrated author Alexandre de Laborde who praised Malmaison as the only genuine botanical garden in France. A botanical garden. A garden in service to botany. It had pleased her to her fingertips. Finally she would be seen not as a scandalous socialite, or an empress, but as a collector of consequence.’
Thanks extended to Allen & Unwin for providing me with a copy of Josephine’s Garden for review.
About the Author:
Stephanie Parkyn’s first novel, Into the World, was published to wide acclaim in 2017. Stephanie always wanted to write fiction, growing up in a book-loving family in Christchurch, New Zealand. She had a rewarding career as an environmental scientist, but is now living her dream of writing stories and travelling to find them. She is fascinated by the human motivations behind the events of history and is particularly drawn to illuminating women’s stories. After enjoying ten years living and exploring in Australia, she now writes from her home in a bush-clad valley in Coromandel Peninsula, New Zealand. Josephine’s Garden is her second novel.
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Josephine’s Garden
Published by Allen & Unwin
Released December 2019
#JosephinesGarden #BlogTour
December 1, 2019
Challenge Check In – November
I just realised that it’s already December. I mean, I registered this over the weekend of course, because I started opening my T2 advent calendar and drank December 2nd’s tea this morning with my breakfast. But it wasn’t until seeing all of the monthly check in posts on my word press feed that I thought, ‘huh, it’s December. Better see how my reading’s been going.’ So let’s take a look.
Challenge Stats:
#aww2019: 4 books
Book Bingo with Mrs B’s Book Reviews and The Book Muse: 1 book – ALL FINISHED!
The Classics Eight: 2 books
Total Books Read in November: 10 books
Until next month…
November 28, 2019
The Week That Was…
Christmas is coming!!
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The decorating is done, or at least, my part is. Mr 13 is still working on the tree. It’s only partially baubled at present…
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Highlight of the week:
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Having a back cover quote for children’s picture book, Claire Malone Changes the World, by Nadia L King. This is my second cover quote for one of Nadia’s books, but they were both published by different publishers so it’s entirely coincidental.
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Book of the week:
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#TheWeekendBuddyRead
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Joke of the week:
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What I’m reading right now:
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Until next week…
