Murder in the Dark (Kerry Greenwood)

Ah, the latest Phryne Fisher mystery - the perfect book to read, snuggled down on the sofa with a mug of hot chocolate. Murder in the Dark has all the familiar elements of Greenwood's Phryne Fisher books - beautiful descriptions of costumes, an enjoyable mystery, and the delightful Phryne being gorgeous. Lovely. Such a fun book.

Magic Lessons (Justine Larbalestier)

This YA fantasy novel is a sequel to Magic or Madness, which I read earlier in the year. Magic Lessons continues the stories of Reason, Tom and Jay-Tee, as is more fast paced than Magic or Madness, I think. There are a few quiet moments, when Reason talks about her childhood, for example, but mostly we charge frenetically through the story as a strange creature attacks the door between New York and Sydney, trying to get through to the other side. What is it and what does it want? These are the questions that Reason and her friends try to answer.

I felt a little lost at points within this book, trying to figure out what was happening, who to trust, and who the hell the good guys were - but this is how we're supposed to feel, I think. The characters are equally lost, and there are a couple of great instances of 'good' characters doing terrible things that they regret. Larbalestier's characters are very human - sometimes they make terribly bad decisions - and I really enjoyed that aspect of it.

I was a bit stunned by the ending - I probably should have seen it coming, but was shortsighted in that regard. I was confused by what these developments mean for Reason, and everyone else - confused in a good "come on, what happens next?" way, that is - and am consequently greatly looking forward to the third and final novel in the series.

Dirt Music (Tim Winton)

I enjoyed Dirt Music much more than I thought I was going to. For some reason, I had this false perception of Tim Winton as a difficult author, requiring rather a lot of effort from his readers. This perception has now been dispelled, after I was drawn into his wonderfully lyrical story. (I also loved the companion CD which he released - great stuff).

When I put down Dirt Music, I sighed a little enviously over Winton's skill as an author. His characters are fantastic, his evocation of landscape is sublime. It was very enjoyable to be so captured by his story. 5 out of 5.

(And I'm going to move on to more Tim Winton - next up, listening to an audiobook of Cloudstreet).

The Turning (Tim Winton)

My uncle sent this book to me with a post-it stuck to the cover that said, "If you want to write short stories, you must read these."

They are fantastic short stories, some of which share characters, at different stages in their lives. They all centre around a small town in Western Australia. They're amazing, wonderful little pieces, with characters that portray depression and ugliness and beauty in a way that makes it seem as if you're sitting in a cafe, watching them across the street. And yes, it's a big inspiration to read, especially if you're wondering about how to plot a short story in terms of length, and how to make a character live within the confines of a short story. Winton makes his characters live within two lines - what skill. This is definitely a five out of five book.

Devil's Food (Kerry Greenwood)

Another fairly light and fluffy mystery by Kerry Greenwood, starring her baker/detective, Corinna Chapman. You wouldn't read these books for the mystery, though - this novel had several little mysteries scattered through the text, and none of the characters devote their whole attention to them. There are far more important things to do, like baking divine date muffins, challah bread, and having a dinner made entirely of hors d'oeuvres.

The incredibly lucscious descriptions of cooking and baking are why I read these books - the writing is fun, and the food descriptions are so wonderful they make me want to leap into the kitchen and start baking bread. Or maybe chuck it all in and become a baker. It gets 3 out of 5, mostly for the food descriptions.

Tales of the Otori (Lian Hearn)

Tales of the Otori is a trilogy written by Lian Hearn, a pseudonym for Australian author, Gillian Rubenstein. It's a fantasy series, set in a mythical medieval Japan, where warlords feud for control of the land, and the Tribe, secretive people with extraordinary physical powers, hire themselves out as assassins and spies.

Tales of the Otori tells the story of Takeo and Kaede, a young man and woman who must fight for their future. There's a great deal of death in these books, and I found the propensity people have for killing themselves rather off-putting. The writing style is what I think of as Japanese - rich with description, but very spare and simple, especiially the dialogue and the emotional life of the characters. In fact, I didn't feel that I got very close to the characters, which was drawback. Their lives were so intensely dramatic that they didn't feel particularly real.

However, Hearn's descriptions are intensely beautiful, and she has created a beautiful world in Tales of the Otori. They veer between three and four out of five stars.

Cassandra; Medea; and Electra (Kerry Greenwood)

Each of these books tells the story of the titular character from what I would call a feminist perspective, in that the women are the centre of the stories. I love what Kerry Greenwood has done with these stories, and these characters. These three books have formed the foundation of Greek myths for me - I can't think of Cassandra without seeing Greenwood's visions of Troy burning, blood in the streets. Greenwood has done quite meticulous research, but doesn't apologise for her interpretation or changing of certain events - in fact, she explains her choices in detail in appendixes to each book, which are fascinating reading in themselves, and made me want to devour every version of these stories I can find.

(In a somewhat similar vein, Margaret Atwood has just published a story about Penelope, wife of Odysseus - The Penelopiad - which looks fantastic.)

Cassandra and Electra are slightly linked - it is better to read Cassandra first, as Electra is set after the conclusion of the fall of Troy, and it works better chronologically. Medea stands on its own.

If you are passionately attached to one version or the other of these stories, you might not enjoy these. Cassandra has two lovers and survives the fall of Troy, Electra was raped by her stepfather, and Medea doesn't kill her own children.

These characters come alive under Greenwood's pen - in fact, the world of Ancient Greece lives, visceral and breathing, in these books. They're some of my very favourite books - highly recommended, if you can find copies.

The White Earth (Andrew McGahan)

This novel won some sort of award, which is why I picked it up in the first place. However, I just Googled it, and can't figure out what award it was. Ah, there we go - shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award, and it won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize.

McGahan describes the book as being about political paranoia, and the Australian rural landscape. It evokes that atmosphere very well, and there's an undercurrent of tension and horror throughout the entire piece. I put it down and for the next couple of days I kept imagining I had an ear ache, and worrying about it - if you read the book, you'll understand why.

The main character is nine year old William, who after his father's death, goes with his mother to live with his mysterious great-uncle John. William is drawn into John's confidence, and slowly throughout the book he discovers more about the land his mother wishes him to inherit, and the dark history of his family.

This is a very Australian book - the atmosphere and the setting are very firmly Australian, and it was interesting to read a horror story that was so Australian, rather than the usual sagas that get characterised as such. An excellent book.

Phryne Fisher Mysteries (Kerry Greenwood)

This is a combined review of Cocaine Blues, Flying Too High, The Green Mill Murders, Murder at Victoria Dock, Murder on the Ballarat Train, Blood and Circuses and Death by Water.

It's a bit of a cop-out, reviewing seven books in one post. But there is a certain similarity to these Phryne Fisher mysteries (which doesn't detract from them, but makes it difficult to try and find something different to say about each one.)

These mysteries are set in Melbourne, Australia in the 1920s, and feature glamourous "lady detective" Phryne (pronounced Fry-knee) Fisher, enormously wealthy fashion plate and woman of many and varied lovers. She's a fabulous character, and if I had as much money as Phryne, I would aspire to be exactly like her. She's the reason I enjoy these books.

These novels are all quick reads - Phyrne is presented with mysteries, and she solves them neatly by the end of the book, usually leaving at least one dead body and a satiated lover in her wake. (It's honestly not as trashy as I'm making it sound.) Greenwood writes well, and she write Phryne perfectly. I think these books improve later in the series ( Death by Water is the most recently published), simply because Greenwood is very familiar with her format and does it to perfection.

These books make me want to lie in a bathtub of hot water (scented with something ridiculously expensive and French) and fall asleep. The perfect books to read in bed.

The Bride Stripped Bare (Anonymous)

The Bride Stripped Bare is fairly short novel, written in small chapters described as lessons, and in the second person. I thought I would find it clumsy, but it's very beguiling, and after a few pages I didn't notice the perspective at all.

This book made me think a lot of my own relationships, how I think about intimacy and sex, and how women discuss these sorts of things with each other. And I really value books that make me think about and evaluate myself. I'm going to recommend this to all my women friends. I think men would find it confusing, and I don't have all that many men friends anyway, hence the women-only recommendation. An absorbing and tactile read.

Fivestar (Mardi McConnochie)

Modelled very closely on the rise of the Spice Girls in the early 90s, this is a novel about an Australian version of the story - five young women recruited into a manufactured pop machine, their rise and fall, and the toll this has on their lives. It's fun, and fairly well written light fluff. I wanted to find out what happened to the characters, but I wasn't enthralled by it. It's an interesting idea though, so it gets points for that.

Alyzon Whitestarr (Isobelle Carmody)

This is the latest YA novel by this very prolific Australian author. Despite the title (I do try to avoid books that use two letters where one will do - although to be fair to Ms Carmody, there's plenty of Starrs in the phone book), this is a very enjoyable fantasy book. Alyzon Whitestarr is the quiet younger child in a brightly eccentric family - her father is a musician, and her mother a nocturnal artist. An accident awakes certain abilities within Alyzon. She can smell people's feelings - the ammonia of her father's anxiety, and the aniseed of her sister's depression. As her control over these extended senses increase, she becomes aware of a terrible darkness that she must fight against.

It's certainly aimed at teenagers, and this is apparent in the writing. It's a fun read - a mystery/thriller, the narrative spiralling to an exciting conclusion. There are several all-too-neat coincidences, a few cardboard characters, and a touching love story - a 3 out of 5 story, with some gorgeously evocative description of Alyzon's sensory abilities.

Gabriella's Book of Fire (Venero Armanno)

Gabriella's Book of Fire has also been published as Firehead, and is by a Brisbane author. It's set in Brisbane, during the last 30 or so years, and I enjoyed learning a bit more about Brisbane history, having only lived here for 5 years.

This book was chosen for our August book club discussion, but unfortunately, we talked about an enormous amount of other things, and not a great deal about the book. I did really enjoy it - Armanno writes very lyrically, and it's a pleasure to sink into his words.

One member of the book club, describing herself as very pragmatic, said that Sam's unrequited and almost unreasonable passion for Gabriella (which is the central premise) irritated her enormously. I was surprised that it didn't irritate me, actually - usually I dislike characters pining after someone for a lengthy amount of time, but it seemed to fit within the feel, the vibe, of the story. It was a somewhat dreamlike tale, thick with memories, so the fact that the ghost of this man's teenage love permeated it made sense to me.

I was disappointed by the novel's conclusion, but enjoyed the book enough to recommend it as a nice light read - a 3/5 kind of book.

The Resurrectionists (Kim Wilkins)

Kim Wilkins is a Queensland author, whose usual genre sits around the fantasy/horror mark. The Resurrectionists is desribed on the cover as chilling horror, but I think I'd classify it more firmly as fantasy. Somewhat scary fantasy, certainly, but I don't think it contains enough gruesome detail to call it horror. And that's a good thing - I'm not a big fan of horror.

Maisie, dissatisfied with her career, her partner, and her life, heads to England to find her grandmother, who has been long estranged from Maisie's mother. From those beginnings, the story veers headlong into witchcraft, sorcery, ghosts, ancient diaries and good-looking gypsies.

Unfortunately, my excitement in the story began to wane two-thirds of the way along. Maisie can be an irritating character - she never knows what she wants, and she's not appealing enough in other ways to make up for the constant vacillating. The story she's living is set up well, but suddenly races towards what I found to be a dissatisfying conclusion. It's a 3 out of 5 book - exciting, but not well plotted enough to sustain it til the end.

Snow Queen (Mardi McConnochie)

I'm not sure where I heard of this book, but I did put it on hold at the library, so I must have had a reason. Mardi McConnochie is an Australian author, and this book, set mostly in Adelaide, tells the story of Galina, a Russian ballerina and teacher, and her relationship with the younger Teddy.

One of the reviews described above describes McConnochie's writing as "cold", and I would agree - I would read along, not being touched by anything in particular, and then be suddenly pulled into a character's passion or pain. I found it effective for the story she's telling.

I got this out because I have a nostalgic fondness for stories set around ballet dancers, and this didn't disappoint - while the story centres around relationships, there's also a great deal of description of ballet training and touring.

While I wasn't stunned by the writing, or the story, it did draw me in - I'd give it 3/5.