Emily Paull

The Engagements J. Courtney Sullivan Virago August 2013 9781844089352 From the Blurb EVELYN has been married for forty years, since her husband slipped off her first wedding ring and put his own in its place. DELPHINE knows both sides of love: the ecstatic high of seduction, and the bitter fury of an affair turned to ashes. JAMES, down on his luck, knows his wife's family think she could have done so much better. KATE, who has lived with Dan for ten years, has seen every kind of wedding, and vowed never to have one of her own. And MARY FRANCES GERETY, a young copywriter in an up and coming advertising agency in 1947, has to convince the world of two things: that marriage means a diamond ring on every woman's finger, and that she is as capable of doing her job as any man. Review This whopping 400 page book is about love and engagement, but it is not about happily ever after.  Told in five different voices, it is an exploration of the ways that the idea of ...

Book Q&A Rules 1. Post these rules 2. Post a photo of your favourite book cover 3. Answer the questions below 4. Tag a few people to answer them too 5. Go to their blog/twitter and tell them you’ve tagged them 6. Make sure you tell the person who tagged you that you’ve taken part! I got a new copy of The Great Gatsby this year, because the one I had was one of those $6.95 blue classics, and it just didn't look ritzy enough.  Strangely, I loved the book more once it was beautiful and green, as above, although that may have more to do with my being older and wiser perhaps... What are you reading right now? J. Courtney Sullivan's The Engagements The Joy of X  by Steven Strogatz, which is a book about understanding maths which I got for my birthday from my partner, who is, among other things, a mathematician. The Plot Thickens  by Noah Lukeman Do you have any idea what you'll read when you're done with that? I have an ARC of the new Tim Win...

When Emily kindly invited me to write a post about my bookshelf, I realised that I'd need to do a little bit of a clean up. Which meant rounding up all the books that had escaped from their my shelves and return them to their rightful places. Can you spot Michelle's trusty tea cup?  (It's not hiding.  But you might be distracted by the leaning tower of books behind it...) So I started hunting. I found a little pile of three books under the coffee table. There were a further four books on the coffee table itself. On the dining table, there were at least two, and sitting on the stairs, waiting to be transferred upstairs, there were around six books. The Slap was under the couch, for some reason. That's not all. Outside the door to my study, there's yet another little pile of books. There are more books next to my side of the bed. My desk has a stack of books that I'm currently writing about. In the time it's taken me to write this post, a...

Me and Rory Macbeath Richard Beasley Hachette 9780733630309 From the Blurb Adelaide, 1977.  It's the year Elvis died, but for twelve-year-old Jake Taylor that doesn't really mean much. His world revolves around school; Rose Avenue, the street where he and his mum Harry live; and the courthouse where Harry is a barrister.  His best friend, Robbie Duncan, lives only a few houses away and for them Christmas Holidays are for cricket, tennis and swimming at the pool or the beach.  But then Rory Macbeath movies into the red brick house at the end of the avenue and everything starts to change. Review They're calling this book the next Jasper Jones .  Okay, so they're not, they're saying that you'll love it if you loved JJ, which I did, but still...  Having been told that I was both itching to read this book in case they were right, and apprehensive about reading it in case it was dismally disappointing.  The truth lay somewhere in the middle.   Me ...

The Local Wildlife Robert Drewe Penguin/ Hamish Hamilton 9781926428482 From the Blurb Welcome to the Northern Rivers, where the 'local wildlife' can refer to more than just the exotic native fauna.  After a decade spent in this picturesque corner of Australia, home of chocolate-coated women, pythons in the ceiling, online Russian brides, deadly paralysis ticks, and the mysterious Mullumbimby Monster, Robert Drewe wiped the green zinc cream from his face and set down some of his unusual wildlife experiences that the far North and New South Wales- home of the world's greatest variety of ants- had to offer. Pre- Review I'd like to start this review with a little story. A few weeks ago, I was working in the bookstore, and I'd been downstairs for something.  As I came up the stairs, I noticed that a man was admiring our staff picks stand.  He had his back to me, but I could tell that he was holding in his hands a copy of The Local Wildlife. "Fantastic...

Honoured to be asked to participate in this week's Friday Faves over at Annabel Smith's blog.  Click here  to read about my undying love for Jasper Jones, and learn just WHY reading is so sexy...

just_a_girl Kirsten Krauth UWA Publishing 9781742584949 From the Blurb Layla is only 14.  She cruises online.  She catches trains to meet strangers.  Her mother, Margot, never suspects.  Even when Layla brings a man into their home. Margot's caught in her own web: an evangelical church and a charismatic pastor. Meanwhile, downtown, a man opens a suitcase and tenderly places his young lover inside. Review It's incredibly hard to write correctly the ways that people interact on the internet.  Surfing online, talking to your friends, even blogging... sometimes the experience is a little like exporting consciousness into the vastness that is the web and leaving your body behind.  Just ask anyone who's ever tried to go on Facebook for a short amount of time, then looked at the clock to discover hours have passed. just_a_girl  is a novel that is of and within the digital age.  It explores the accelerated sexuality of teens online, with ...

The Middlesteins Jami Attenberg Serpent's Tail/ Allen and Unwin (Review copy) From the Blurb They say the family that eats together stays together... but nobody eats like Edie, the matriarch of the Middlesteins. Edie and Richard have been married for over 30 years, living in the Chicago suburbs.  Everyone who knows them- even their own children Robin and Benny- agree that Edie is a tough woman to love, but no one expects Richard to walk out on her, especially not in her condition.  Edie is 59 years old, she weighs over 300 pounds, and she's eating herself into the grave. As Richard is shut out by the family and seeks solace in the world of internet dating, Robin is dragged back from the city and forced to rebuild a relationship with her mother.  Meanwhile, Benny and his neurotic wife Rachelle try to take control of the situation.  But have any of them stopped to think about whether Edie wants to be saved? Review I once read that it's only necessary to ...

The Bookman's Tale Charlie Lovett Text Publishing 9781922079336 From the Blurb Shattered by the death of his wife Amanda, antiquarian bookseller Peter Byerly is drifting through life aimlessly when he stumbles on the Victorian miniature that so forcefully reminds him of her. Peter becomes obsessed with learning the picture's origins.  But as he follows the trail back, first to the Victorian era and then to Shakespeare's time, he learns much more than that.  The truth about his own past, for example; and even possibly the key to the mystery of who really did write Shakespeare'e plays. The Bookman's Tale is a novel of timeless love and dangerous obsession by a writer at the peak of his powers.  It will enthral and delight readers everywhere. Review Enthralling this book certainly is, but I don't know about delightful.  There are several things about this book that failed to have the desired effect.  For example, the main character Peter Byerly. ...