Emily Paull

One: For the burgeoning chef... Delicious Home Cooking or Nigellissima Two: For the fiction reader.... The Secret Keeper or The Casual Vacancy (Both out in beautiful but pricey hard cover- the perfect gift for people who can't wait for the paperback!) Three: For the crime lover... The Racketeer Four: For the Young Adult... Looking for Alaska Five: For the Sport fan... This is Me  (Ian Thorpe) or Malthouse Six: For the historically minded... Pacific 360  or Eureka These titles can all be sourced here.

The Vintage Teacup Club Vanessa Greene 9780751548501 Goodreads The popular 'club' novel has been around for some time now, with several examples including Karen Joy Fowler's The Jane Austen Book Club  being adapted into movies based on their great critical reception.  Like TJABC, The Vintage Teacup Club  follows multiple viewpoints and story lines with the club providing a centre and point of discussion and relief for each of the characters.  There is Alison, who is a retro queen with two daughters and a husband, who makes her money through vintage handicrafts- but she is facing the difficulties of raising teenagers-, Maggie who is unlucky in love and Jenny, whose impending marriage has her freaking out about a missing mother.  These are the key story lines.  For me, this book falls flat because these plots are allowed to take a back seat in comparison to the mission of the club, the finding of 100 vintage tea cups for the group to share. It is ...

The Secret Keeper Kate Morton 9781742374376 I know a lot of people who are thinking about splurging on this one for Christmas.  It is a whopping $35 a copy, which is exorbitant for a book, I know!  Luckily, I got my copy free from Allen and Unwin- I won it by retweeting a link and I couldn't believe my luck.  This means that I, poor starving student (well actually, not anymore...hmm...) can review this lovely tome for you all before you part with your cash. I've met Kate at a launch of her last book, The Distant Hours  which was hosted by my local Dymocks. She also replied to a rather squee-ing fangirl email I sent her a few years back after I devoured her first two novels.  She's Queensland's very own Glamazon author.  Gorgeous, a mother, and a fabulous author, it was almost too much that she was nice as well, but she was. But far be it from me to try and win your support of this book with a discussion of it's author.  After all, some of the...