The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult ★ ★★ ½

I have never read Jodi Picoult but I did listen to a fabulous interview with her and her daughter Samantha Van Leer at the Australian Wheeler's Centre on their collaborative YA fiction book, ‘Between The Lines’.   
That book sounded light, fun and fluffy.  So, I wasn’t sure what to expect with the latest release THE STORYTELLER.  First up, I will say this author can write and considering she’s been writing for over twenty years and has a slew of best selling books it is not surprising.

However, it is not the type of book I would normally read and I didn't love this book even though I know many of her fans are saying it is her best book yet.   It is a tough read as much of the story is of a teenage girl’s experience in Nazi Germany and the concentration camps of World War II. 

There were several times where I considered putting it down.  It was just a little too horrifically detailed for me. 

My one criticism is the story felt a touch cliché.  Now, I am also a film critic and I’ve seen many Nazi films (mostly foreign language) and, for me, it had a real feel of déjà vu.  In saying that, perhaps the average non-obsessive film goer and book reader wouldn’t feel this way.

THE STORYTELLER is the tale of Sage a young, disfigured woman, who chooses the nocturnal life of a baker as it allows her to hide away from mainstream life.  Instead, she puts all her energy into creating, beautiful and popular artisan bread. 

She befriends Joseph Weber who imparts to her that he served in the SS-Panzergrenadier-Division Totenkopf and was once the camp supervisor at Auschwitz.  Joseph asks Sage to help him end his life and at the same time forgive him his crimes. Sage must decide whether this man who had become a valuable part of their community is telling the truth and, if he is, does he deserve redemption.

The Nazi invasion part of the story is told via Minka, who had once aspired to be a writer.  Her story-telling is so compelling it kept her alive throughout the war.  There is also a story within her story which is her book she was writing during the war.

Sage also enlists the help of a Nazi War Crimes hunter and he too has a voice in the story, although, it is Minka’s horrific tale which is the page-turning chapters.

This book is thought provoking but not for the faint-hearted and in handling this subject matter Picoult demonstrates she is an accomplished writer.  Whether you are a fan of hers or not, prepare yourself for a disturbing journey from which you will not alight for a long time after you finish reading. 

Are you a Jodie Picoult fan? Do share some of your favourite books of hers.

Thank you to the lovely publicity folk at Allen & Unwin Book Publishers Australia for my review copy.

For more information on THE STORYTELLER and where to purchase, please visit the publisher’s page here.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Visit http://www.jodipicoult.com.au/default.htm for more about Jodi Picoult.

Jodi Picoult, 43,is the bestselling author of seventeen novels.  Picoult studied creative writing with Mary Morris at Princeton, and had two short stories published in Seventeen magazine while still a student. Realism - and a profound desire to be able to pay the rent - led Picoult to a series of different jobs following her graduation: as a technical writer for a Wall Street brokerage firm, as a copywriter at an ad agency, as an editor at a textbook publisher, and as an 8th grade English teacher - before entering Harvard to pursue a master’s in education. She married Tim Van Leer, whom she had known at Princeton, and it was while she was pregnant with her first child that she wrote her first novel, Songs of the Humpback Whale.

In 2003 she was awarded the New England Bookseller Award for Fiction. She has also been the recipient an Alex Award from the Young Adult Library Services Association, sponsored by the Margaret Alexander Edwards Trust and Booklist, one of ten books written for adults that have special appeal for young adults; the Book Browse Diamond Award for novel of the year; a lifetime achievement award for mainstream fiction from the Romance Writers of America; Cosmopolitan magazine's 'Fearless Fiction' Award 2007; Waterstone's Author of the Year in the UK, a Vermont Green Mountain Book Award, a Virginia Reader's Choice Award, the Abraham Lincoln Illinois High School Book Award, and a Maryland Black-Eyed Susan Award. She wrote five issues of the Wonder Woman comic book series for DC Comics. Her books are translated into thirty four languages in thirty five countries. Three – The Pact, Plain Truth, and The Tenth Circle, have been made into television movies. My Sister's Keeper was a big-screen release from New Line Cinema, with Nick Cassavetes directing and Cameron Diaz starring, which is now available on DVD.

She and Tim and their three children live in Hanover, New Hampshire with three Springer spaniels, two donkeys, two geese, eight ducks, five chickens, and the occasional Holstein.

THE AUSTRALIAN WOMEN'S WEEKLY GREAT ITALIAN COOKBOOK

MORE THAN MEATBALLS

 I am an Aussie but I married an Italian. He’s the youngest of four brothers.

The day I walked down the aisle was the equivalent of immigrating.  There is an Italian lifestyle and most of it is wonderful. It is the Dolmio ad most of the time. They’re a rowdy lot.  Put all the relatives in a room together celebrating a birthday or a special day and I can barely hear myself think.

My children have a Nonna and a Nonno and I have spent the past thirteen years only half understanding what is said around me.  Besides inheriting masses of relatives, I did inherit one of the greatest benefits of all…the Italian food. 

All the relatives gather at Nonna’s once a year to make the sauce and I assure you very little tastes as good as Nonna’s sauce. There is the sausage making day and there’s even olive picking day and if work needs to be done, the sons and family arrive en masse. The kids love all the get togethers and pitch in with the cousins and Uncles with any of the hard labour.

Before my Father-in-Law passed away a few years ago, our visits to the in-laws would always end with us towing home bagfuls of fresh produce picked straight from the garden.  Jealous yet?
          So, although not a food blogger, I’m the perfect choice to judge The Australian Women’s Weekly Great Italian Cookbook. But this is a trial with a twist here, my husband did the cooking.He fancies himself a chef these days.  (Yes, I am the luckiest girl on Earth; he even makes the school lunches.)  So, when we were designated Easter hosts out came the shiny, brand new Women’s Weekly Great Italian Cookbook.

We began with Antipasto inspired by the picture on the very first page and next came the wonderful ‘tomato and rocket Bruschetta’.  Then we were onto the Chicken Ravioli with Tarragon Sauce.  That’s three courses and by then everyone was complaining, ‘It’s too wonderful and we’re too full.’

 Mains were the most beautiful peppered steak (barbecued) with Grilled Polenta Cakes and a side dish of Garlic Marinated Prawns.  Finally, when there was no room left for anything more, the hubby presents the Sicilian Cheesecake. Everyone dug deep and still managed to devour it.You don’t need a party though or to be Italian to appreciate this book.  The recipes are simple and beautifully presented. There are special sections on how to cook perfect pasta, bread, Italian essentials and Italian classics and a wonderful section containing gourmet pizza ideas plus much more in over 240 pages.

        

Since Easter we’ve trialled even more recipes and can report every single one turned out beautifully. Thanks to this book, our Italian cooking is more than meatballs and pasta sauce.  Now the downfall of this book, I’m renewing my membership at the local gym but it is worth every gram. Bon Appetito 

P.S. The picture on the right is Nonna's score for her son's Easter meal.  Three judges all awarded a Master Chef 10.

Review copy thanks to my friends at Random House 

Please click here for purchasing info and further details.

More Women’s Weekly Cookbooks to check out HERE

Published: 01/02/2013

Imprint: ACP Miscellaneous

Extent: 248 pages

Down and Out in Beverly Heels by Kathryn Leigh Scott ★★★★

Reviewed by Tracy Harris

        A year ago, actress Meg Barnes had it all—fame, fortune, the house in Beverley Hills and a gorgeous man in her bed.

12 months later and Meg is scraping to find a job, living out of her Volvo and wondering about the fate of her gorgeous husband. Meg still believes Paul was kidnapped despite all evidence that he has simply abandoned her. Her friends, the media and the FBI are of the opinion that Paul has orchestrated his disappearance, taking the ransom that Meg paid to save him and the investments from almost everyone around her.

Life however is starting to look up with Meg being offered a guest role in the pilot for a new TV series. She’s also managed to be invited to stay with an acquaintance and enjoy the perks of a bed that’s not located in the back seat of a motor vehicle. However, reminders of Paul and his shady dealings are everywhere and Meg finds herself in the most important role of her life as she begins an investigation that not only leads to answers but great danger.

Kathryn Leigh Scott has spun a refreshing and quirky tale with a mature heroine who is not your stereotypical blonde bombshell. She  capably draws you into Meg's world.  An easy writing style compliments the story-line and creates a believable backdrop of the lifestyle of a homeless person living and working in Beverly Hills. Kathryn Leigh Scott has written a novel that fans of romance and “light” crime will enjoy.

Purchase DOWN AND OUT IN BEVERLEY HEELS here

Purchase links on Amazon (US): Amazon USA

Amazon (UK): Amazon UK

Booktopia: Booktopia

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

            Kathryn Leigh Scott starred as the doomed fiancée of vampire Barnabas Collins in the original Gothic daytime drama series “Dark Shadows,” and in the 1971 film House of Dark Shadows. She also made a cameo appearance in the 2012 feature Dark Shadows, starring Johnny Depp as Barnabas Collins and directed by Tim Burton. She is the author of several books about the series, including Dark Shadows Memories and Return to Collinwood.

       Kathryn is a graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and launched Pomegranate Press, which publishes books about the entertainment industry. She is the author of The Bunny Years: The Surprising Inside Story of the Playboy Clubs and the novel Dark Passages. Kathryn lives in Los Angeles, California.

More about the book and Kathryn Leigh Scott CLICK HERE

WOOL by HUGH HOWEY ★ ★ ★★★

READ MY FASCINATING INTERVIEW WITH HUGH HOWEY: CLICK HERE

A WORLD WORTH VISITING

If you haven’t heard of ‘Wool’ or Hugh Howey, hold on to your e-reader, you soon will. The hype around his journey from indie author to major book deal is making publishing headlines.

‘Wool’ was first published as a novella in mid-2011 but reader demand from Amazon reviewers had Howey hurrying back to his apocalyptic world to spin out some follow-on stories, five self-published over the next six months.  In January 2012, he released the ‘Wool Omnibus’ containing the stories and shortly later the publishing industry courted him with a seven-figure publishing deal. As well, Twentieth Century Fox and legendary Director Ridley Scott bought the film rights. 

Were there many changes from the self-published e-book to the publisher’s paper-book? “Minor revisions and localization edits,” says Howey.  “The biggest rewrite came from a small request from my extraordinary editor, Jack Fogg. He thought a couple of characters should get an earlier mention. The next day, I sent him a brand new chapter, which we slotted into the original book two. It’s now my favourite chapter in the entire book, and I was excited to record a reading of it for readers who had read the original.”  Howey sees the 550 page Omnibus as “a director’s cut”. 

Set in a post-apocalyptic future, ‘Wool’ tells the story of inhabitants of a two-hundred-level Silo who are bound by strict rules.  Breach them and you are sent outside in a specially made suit to participate in a ‘Cleaning’.  You then clean the only wall-screen that allows the inhabitants a view of the desolate world, before your suit disintegrates and you die.

‘Wool’ opens with the Sheriff who has lost his wife to a ‘Cleaning’.  Then we move through the volumes to view the Silo habitat through the eyes of various characters including Juliette, an engineer who begins to question the values and laws of the Silo. Then the fun really begins.

‘Wool’ is an extraordinary, rare gem. Howey has a talent for creating character depth, pacing, and his world-building is all encompassing. Putting ‘Wool’ down unfinished each reading session felt like I was leaving good friends in peril. The ‘Wool’ saga continues with ‘Shift’, already available on e-book and just released in paper-book.  Go visit the Silo. You won’t want to leave.

My review copy of Wool thanks to the hardworking people at RANDOM HOUSE Australia.
For more information please visit http://www.randomhouse.com.au

Release Dates: Australia and New Zealand: January 2013

To purchase:   click here

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Hugh Howey is the author of Wool, a bestselling novel that has appeared in the top 5 of science fiction on Amazon. He is also the author of the award-winning Molly Fyde Saga. He lives in Boone, N.C. with his wife Amber and their dog Bella.

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Fuse (Pure #2) by J.C. Baggott ★ ★ ★★

PART TWO STILL PURE DELIGHT

Last year I fell in love with ‘Pure’ and the marvellous talent that is Julianna Baggott.  So my hand was firmly in the air for ‘Fuse’, part two of this dystopian trilogy.  I wasn’t the only passionate fan.  In between the books, ‘Pure’ has become an award-winning novel. 
The New York Times named ‘Pure’ in its ‘2012 Top 100 Notable Books’.  It was a People Magazine pick for its ‘“Still Hungry?” List’, as suggested reading for ‘The Hunger Games’ fans.  Entertainment Weekly picked it for “Find Me a Twilight” and the list goes on.  It even featured on Suspense Magazine’s “Best Book of 2012” list. 

If you haven’t read 'Pure' then put the first two of the trilogy on your reading list.  As Fox2000 has acquired the film rights and Karen Rosenfelt, the lead producer of ‘The Twilight Saga’ film trilogy will produce, expect to hear a lot more of ‘Pure’ in the future.

Do you need to have read the first book to enjoy ‘Fuse’?  Yes and you will enjoy every minute of the catch-up.  In ‘Pure’ we met Baggott’s finely imagined characters and the devastating and mesmerising post-apocalyptic world of the Dome-dwelling Pures, untouched by the Detonations.  The survivors, the Wretches, live outside in the wasteland, scarred by horrible fusions of whatever object they were nearest during the detonations; dolls heads fused to wrists, wings fused to backs, babies fused to hips and even a boy fused on his brother’s back.

In ‘Fuse’, Baggott hits the ground running as the determined group of Partridge, Pressia, Lyda and Bradwell embark on a plan to save the Wretches from the Dome-dwellers who seem intent on wiping them out. Told via multiple perspectives, our heroes separate on various quests.  Partridge returns to the Dome to confront his dictator Father Willux.  Pressia, El Capitan and Bradwell embark on an odyssey for the antidote to reverse the Wretches disfigurements and Lyda joins the savage Mothers. 

‘Fuse’ thrusts us deeper into Baggott’s horrifying future vision and expands the central characters without slackening the pace.  On the final page, we are left hanging precariously over a literary cliff but if anyone can leave you gladly dangling, it’s Julianna Baggott and her band of extraordinary ‘Pure’ heroes.

My review copy of 'FUSE' supplied by Hachette Australia.

For more information about this book, click through to Hachette website HERE.  

RELEASED:  Febuary 2013

More Information from the Publisher Hachette Australia

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

           Julianna began publishing short stories when she was twenty-two and sold her first nove

l while still in her twenties. After receiving her M.F.A. from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, she published her first novel, Girl Talk, which was a national bestseller and was quickly followed by The Boston Globe bestseller The Miss America Family, and then The Boston Herald Book Club selection, The Madam, an historical novel based on the life of her grandmother. She co-wrote Which Brings Me to You with Steve Almond, A Best Book of 2006 (Kirkus Reveiws).
           Her Bridget Asher novels include The Provence Cure for the Brokenhearted, The Pretend Wife, and My Husband’s Sweethearts. Asher’s novels are widely published overseas.
          She has also published award-winning novels for younger readers under the pen name N.E. Bode as well as under Julianna Baggott. Her seven novels for younger readers include, most notably, The Anybodies trilogy was a People Magazine summer reading pick alongside David Sedaris and Bill Clinton, a Washington Post Book of the Week, a Girl’s Life Top Ten, a Booksense selection, and was in development at Nickelodeon/Paramount; The Slippery Map, The Ever Breath, and the prequel to Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium, a movie starring Dustin Hoffman, Natalie Portman, and Jason Bateman. For two years, Bode was a recurring personality on XM Sirius Radio. Julianna’s Boston Red Sox novel The Prince of Fenway Park (HarperCollins) was published in spring 2009. It is on the Sunshine State Young Readers Awards List and The Massachusetts Children’s Book Award for 2011-2012.
          Visit the "Pure" website for the first chapter of "Pure", loads of cool stuff and to learn more. Information on purchasing “Pure” and "Fuse" is also there. I highly recommend you buy yourself a copy of each. You will want to read them more than once.

            Visit author Julianna Baggott’s website and blog, with fabulously informative information for writers there. http://juliannabaggott.com/

Click here to purchase Pure

PSYCHOS Anthology edited by John Skipp ★★★★★

(Serial Killers, Depraved Madman and the Criminally Insane)

THE SHORT STORY, ALIVE AND WELL

               Stephen King is arguably one of the master storytellers of our time.  Yet, even he felt he’d fallen out of touch with short story fiction in 2006 when invited to edit ‘The Best American Short Stories 2007’.

In an interview promoting his own collection, ‘Just After Sunset’, inspired by his editing of the volume, he said, “People have forgotten how to read the short story. They’ve fallen out of love with the short story.  People are too lazy to pick up a short story and start over and over again. It’s (too much of) a grab bag.’

John Skipp, editor of ‘Psychos-Serial Killers, Depraved Madman and the Criminally Insane’ certainly ensures it is not a grab bag.  He knows something about great short stories, with his first published short story in ‘The Twilight Zone’ Magazine in 1982.  He’s a New York Times Bestselling author and has co-authored over a dozen successful horror novels, ‘Psychos’ being  his third anthology with publisher Black Dog and Leventhal in the fantasy-horror genre.  So he has credibility in choosing a gripping yarn.

These stories will restore your faith in the short narrative.  Some will stick in your mind, even if you don’t want them there.  These are thirty-eight gems that will keep you reading like the addiction that follows that first black jelly-bean.  Your need for ‘just one more’ will keep you up into the psycho-prowling wee hours. 

You will meet perfectly normal people—you’ll think at first—that hide twisted, dark secrets. And you will meet normal people who don’t realise they have crossed evil’s pathway. Dark humour and light prose dance in perfect combination. Alongside, genre royalty of Neil Gaimin, Thomas Harris, Ray Bradbury, and Edgar Allen Poe, Skipp has included some astonishingly polished emerging authors.

The pleasure of reading a good story is that you don’t want it to end. The wonderful thing with ‘Psychos’, at over six hundred pages, there are plenty of beginnings.

My review copy of Psychos thanks to the lovable people at Murdoch Books and Allen and Unwin Australia

To buy or learn more visit Psychos
Release Dates: Australia and New Zealand: December, 2012  U.S.A.: October, 2012

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

John Skipp is a New York Times bestselling author and editor whose 23 books have sold millions of copies in a dozen languages worldwide. His first anthology, Book of the Dead, laid the foundation in 1989 for modern zombie literature. He later edited three more zombie anthologies, including Mondo Zombie, which won the Bram Stoker Award for best anthology. He is the editor of three books in Black Dog’s horror series: Zombies, Werewolves and Shapeshifters, and Demons, which also won the Bram Stoker Award. He lives in Los Angeles, CA.

 

PRIME CUT by Alan Carter ★ ★ ★★

An Outback Thriller

Reviewed by Tracy Harris

The West Australian outback was never on the career path for Detective Senior Constable Philip “Cato” Kwong. The poster boy for political correctness, Cato’s career had been on the fast-track, until everything goes wrong and Cato finds himself an unwilling member of the Stock Squad, investigating the deaths of rotting road-kill.

Mining town Hopetoun is not part of Cato’s patch, a booming anomaly in a world in economic meltdown. However when a human torso washes ashore on Hopetoun’s scenic coastline, Cato is despatched to investigate and a glimmer of light appears on his career radar. Ignoring the fact that his rescue from highway hell is only for a few days until staff from other departments can be relocated, Cato grabs the opportunity to redeem himself to his old boss, DI Mick Hutchens and takes on the case like he has no tomorrow.

It’s a plan that works well until he realises that the senior officer in the two-cop town is one of his exes, Tess Maguire.  Tess has demons of her own to lay to rest, and the last person she needs to see on her turf is Cato.  After all, where Cato goes, trouble follows, and so he does, making enemies faster than friends as he lifts the lid on migrant exploitation and upsets the power brokers of Hopetoun.

However, as their investigation proceeds and another death comes to light, the whole team becomes a potential target for an even more disturbed criminal mind whose crimes not only cross the decades, but half the world as well.

With a succinct and direct style, Alan Carter has written a novel that grips from the first page to the last. An immigrant to Australia from the UK, Carter has captured the dry Australian spirit accurately. His characters are well drawn and thought out and reflect their locales perfectly.  Carter’s familiarity with the Great Southern region adds to the tale and his personal experiences of Hopetoun and a mining boom give a depth of understanding many authors would do well to emulate.

Thank you to Fremantle Press for our review copy of Prime Cut .

Publication Year  2011

Publisher             Fremantle Press

Awards         Shortlisted, Crime Writers’ Association Debut Dagger Award, 2010
Available        in Prime Cut ebook 2011 and Paperback Prime Cut 2011

Sample Chapter   PRIME CUT extract.pdf

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Alan Carter was born in Sunderland, UK, in 1959. He holds a degree in Communications Studies from Sunderland Polytechnic and immigrated to Australia in 1991. Alan lives in Fremantle with his wife Kath and son Liam. He works as a television documentary director. In his spare time he follows a black line up and down the Fremantle pool. Prime Cut is Alan Carter’s first novel. He wrote it while he was living in Hopetoun as a kept man.
Awards - Winner, Ned Kelly Award for Best First Fiction, 2011Short listed, UK Crime Writers’ Association Debut Dagger Award, 2010