BOOK REVIEW In the words of Monty Python – and now for something completely different. My favourite children’s author and illustrator coincidently wrote my favourite children’s book and she has...

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BOOK REVIEW Rapture is the newest release by Australian author Emily Maguire, very different to her previous books. It’s one of the most original books I’ve read; a beautiful lyrical...

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BOOK REVIEW This is an engaging retelling of Homer’s epic journey. Building on his previous retellings of Greek myths and legends, Stephen Fry’s The Odyssey is the second in his...

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BOOK REVIEW Freida McFadden’s The Housemaid is a psychological thriller that wastes no time pulling the reader into a chilling, claustrophobic domestic drama. It is a about to become a...

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BOOK REVIEW Reviewing Judi Dench’s novel last week prompted me to reread my favourite Shakespearean play, The Tempest – a play filled with storms, sorcery, romance and forgiveness. What more...

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BOOK REVIEW For our non-fiction in book club this month we tackled Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent, by Dame Judi Dench; unconventional not really fitting into any genre,...

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BOOK REVIEW I think I was suffering from reader bias as I avoided books by Freida McFadden with all the publicity and hype that went with them. I just have...

The post The Boyfriend by Freida McFadden appeared first on Central Coast News.

BOOK REVIEW Psychiatrist Professor Ian Hickie and broadcaster James O’Loghlin have teamed up to produce A User’s Guide to the Mind, a practical and engaging look at how our brains...

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BOOK REVIEW Ghost Cities is a dazzling, genre-defying novel by Chinese Malaysian Australian author Siang Lu. Published in April 2024 and awarded the prestigious Miles Franklin Literary Award in July 2025, it has...

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BOOK REVIEW – The Compound, debuting in late June 2025, thrusts readers into a dystopian, reality TV–style experiment involving 10 women who awaken in a desert compound, cameras following their...

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If there was one book I could read over it would be American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins, so I was really anticipating the release of Speak to Me of Home....

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BOOK REVIEW This selection had a well-deserved 5/5 on goodreads and there is a reason for that. Fierceland, the latest poetry collection by acclaimed Australian writer Omar Musa, is a...

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BOOK REVIEW Due to be released in August, Tenderfoot sees celebrated Australian author Toni Jordan return to literary fiction with a deeply affecting and nuanced coming-of-age story set in the...

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BOOK REVIEW I want to introduce you to Ruth Warburton, known by the alias Ruth Ware – a British psychological thriller author. Her novels include In a Dark, Dark Wood,...

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BOOK REVIEW From my review of Limberlost you will remember I am a fan of Robbie Arnott so I am delighted that his fourth book is here, Dusk, which encapsulates...

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BOOK REVIEW RF Kuang’s Babel is a brilliant, genre-bending novel that seamlessly weaves together fantasy, historical fiction, and political allegory. Subtitled Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of...

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The Pulitzer Prize honours Joseph Pulitzer who stood out as the very embodiment of American journalism. Hungarian-born, an intensely indomitable figure, Pulitzer was the most skilful of newspaper publishers, an...

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BOOK REVIEW This novel circles around the two sisters, with the bond between them proving fragile yet resilient. Beneath layers of deception lies a heartfelt story about acceptance and love....

The post When We Believed in Mermaids by Barbara O’Neal appeared first on Central Coast News.

BOOK REVIEW I have just finished F Scott Fitzgerald’s Tender Is the Night, for maybe the third time. It was first published in 1934 and is a hauntingly lyrical exploration...

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BOOK REVIEW Best-selling author Evie Woods lives on the west coast of Ireland and writes her stories in a converted attic. Treading an intriguing line between the everyday and otherworldly,...

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