Laurinda, Alice Pung Alice Pung’s Laurinda is the brilliant Asian version of Looking for Alibrandi in some ways, and indeed Pung credits Melina Marchetta in the acknowledgements (along with John Marsden — what Aussie reader or writer of our generation wouldn’t?). On the surface, both are about an ‘ethnic’ girl […]
Two Brothers, Ben Elton I’m familiar with Ben Elton mainly through his writing of Blackadder but I’ll be going back for more of his novels. This one follows two boys who are brothers in every way except blood. One is adopted, which might not be such a big deal except […]
Mom Enough is a collection of articles, by various authors, that first appeared on Desiring God. You can get it as a free ebook. I got to it via Rachel Pieh Jones’ blog, and her contributions are the most consistently gospel focused. When mums feel inadequate, God calls us: Chosen, […]
Flying on Broken Wings, Carrie Bailee Bailee’s autobiography is not told chronologically. We’re piecing parts of her life together as she recalls the memories her brain has wiped out for her own protection. Horrific but not graphic, we learn that from the ages of 4-14 her father abused her in […]
The Fault in Our Stars, John Green Hazel has terminal cancer but she’s not dead yet. She thinks a lot about death until she meets Augustus at a cancer support group and he accuses her of being defined by her cancer. He shares her sense of humour and love of […]
A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth The ‘word of thanks’ to the reader at the start of this mammoth novel jokes that you’ll sprain your wrists reading it. At 600,000 words — almost 1500 pages in soft cover — the length would be prohibitive for most people, but the problem for […]
Monster, Walter Dean Myers Steve Harmon is on trial for felony murder. Was he part of the team whose robbery went wrong and resulted in the murder of a drugstore in Harlem, USA? A budding filmmaker, Steve’s story is mostly told through a screenplay he writes about his trial. He’s […]
Meet Jesus at uni 