Cassandra Golds
Genre: Love
Older readers
The three main characters of the book are all prisoners – a young main waits in a dank prison; a young woman has locked herself in a self imposed prison of hatred and denial; and Heloise who is a prisoner in all but name .
Heloise lives with her beautiful godmother and the morbid old housekeeper Mrs Moth in an isolated cottage. Next door is a museum of which her godmother is caretaker . Although she has been banned from entering this museum which is dedicated to Mary Child, she cannot help noticing that visitors who have entered happily, depart subdued and fearful.
Denied love and friendship, Heloise yearns for a doll. She eventually finds one under the floorboards in her room, and against her godmothers wishes secretly plays with the doll which she has called Maria and learns to love her. When her godmother discovers her secret she flees with Maria and - guided by the talking Caged Birds of the City she runs away.
A gothic fairy tale, the novel explores hatred, hope and the need for love. Disturbing yet fascinating, the story ends with an entirely unexpected twist.
Mrs GS
September 2nd, 2009
Date Read: 16/6/08 – 22/6/08
Author: Felicity Pulman
Publ: Random House, Sydney, 2008
Themes: Medieval Mysteries, Murder, England – Matilda and Stephen
Summary: Still in search of her father, Janna leaves Wiltune Abbey with a group of pilgrims headed for Ambresberie. Along the way Janna and the group’s leader Bernard, stumble on a body. The dead man carried a letter to the bishop of Winchester (ally to the Empress Matilda). Bernard is determined to deliver the letter and swears Janna to secrecy. Bernard’s mother Juliana is certain her son will come to a grim end somehow related to Janna being with them. A handsome stranger, Ralph, joins the group flattering Janna with his attention. Janna is wary of his motives. Later at Stonehenge Bernard leaves the group to deliver the letter only to be murdered a short distance away. Janna decides to deliver the letter herself. In the process she learns who she can and can’t trust. Ulf, a father figure amongst the group, helps her deliver the letter and in her search for her father. Ralph meets a grizzly end and Janna learns she is related to Old King Henry.
Comment: Book four in the series about Janna and it is still not the end of her quest to find her father. I felt this book in the series moved a little slower than the others. The characters were not as well developed as previous stories.
Rating: 5 ½ /10
Mrs B
July 17th, 2009
Date Read: 6/6/08-10/6/08
Title: Love Like Water
Author: Meme McDonald
Publ.: Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest NSW, 2007
Themes: Love, Relationships, Belonging, Black and White Australia
Summary: Cathy leaves her home in cattle country to join her city school friend Margie in Alice Springs. They share a house with Sarah who’s always right. Cathy gets a job as a barmaid in the Spinifex Bar with Max as her boss. Jay works in radio, moving from place to place just to survive. The journey from ‘Home’ and family to really knowing themselves and their place in the world is full of corrugations, potholes and side tracks. Unlikely as the relationship might at first appear, Jay and Cathy see beneath the social masks they wear. Fear, prejudice, anger and misunderstandings all play a part in the tentative relationship.
Comment: The differences and similarities in people are exposed through the central Australian landscape. The concepts of connections with the land and the place of family are strong throughout. Cathy and Jay highlight the human needs in all of us for close relationships and being seen as ourselves not others assumptions about us. The battle for Aboriginal Australians to feel proud, not feel they’ve sold themselves out, to not be seen as all the same, is stark and yet gently conveyed. I found it hard to put the book down from about one third the way through. The ending is not trite. Some aspects of the story and the sexual descriptions might not be suitable for younger readers. A real growing up story.
Rating 9+/10
July 16th, 2008
Date Read: 02/05/08 – 10/05/08
Author: Sonya Hartnett
Publ.
Themes: Honesty, love, being true to oneself, life, marriage, family
Summary: Matilda is visited by the boy unexpectedly one afternoon. She lays out her life to him over afternoon tea. Maddy had wanted her life to be mystifying. After searching the world with her father looking for the most beautiful thing in the world she returns to find the most unusual man on the beach right near her home. Feather is so unlike Maddy that their worlds can never really be as one but love is bigger than that.
Page 150-151 “’How can you know love and lose it and go on living without it and not feel the loss forever?’ ‘You can’t’ Feather answered. ‘You feel the loss forever. But you put it in a safe corner of yourself, and bit by bit……….knowledge that you can feel it again.’”
Comment: Beautiful, touching account of a life lived, love felt and lost. Discovering the self in all of us. The idea that a life without emotion and feeling, even when the feelings hurt, is no life at all.
Rating 9/10
July 16th, 2008
