Tag: Australian author

Pip Williams’ The Bookbinder

In London during the WW1, Peg and her identical twin sister, Maude, fold and gather the pages of books in the Oxford printing house along with other women. The men, in a different section, edit and design the covers. Peg wants nothing more than to read the books but her job doesn’t allow her. She eagerly takes home faulty books. While her sister is content at her mundane job, Peg dreams of attending Oxford Somerville College across from the printing house, but what are the chances for a bookbinder? When refugees arrive after the German invasion of Belgium, a few of the Flemish women join the printing house. Lotte immediately draws close to Maude although Peg was assigned to assist her with the folding process. With the war going on and men leaving their jobs to join up, is there hope for Peg to work at something more challenging than her present job? When she volunteers to read and write for wounded soldiers, she meets Gwen, a privileged woman full of confidence and slowly doors open.

Kate Grenville’s—A room made of leaves*****

At the death of Elizabeth’s father, she and her mother move in with her grandfather. And while Elizabeth’s mother doesn’t care for her daughter, her grandfather dotes on her and teaches her all he knows about farming and sheep. After her mother remarries and abandons her daughter, Elizabeth is taken in by her best friend, Bridie’s parents. They are close friends until Elizabeth makes the biggest mistake that will change her life forever.

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Colleen McCullough’s — The independence of Miss Mary Bennett *****

I remember Mary as the Bennett sister who couldn’t sing, but twenty years on from the end of Austin’s Pride and Prejudice, Mary’s life continues. In her desperation for independence, she investigates the plight of the English poor only to find herself in danger.

I wasn’t expecting this to be an engaging tale, but I should have known better because this Australian author has never disappointed me—a book I couldn’t put down when I needed a light read.

Geraldine Brooks’—Horse *****

When Theo, a Nigerian art historian, removes a painting of a horse from a discarded pile of junk a neighbour has dumped in her front yard, he is unaware of its connection to a Kentucky slave from the 1800s. He takes the painting covered in soot to a restorer where he meets a Smithsonian scientist, Jess who has been studying the bones of the horse she believes is the same one in the painting. Jarret is a slave in the 1850s with a knack with horses. He forms a close bond with a foal after its birth and grooms the horse to race on the insistence of his master, Dr. Warfield.

What happens to Theo and the painting he has restored? And why did the bones of a horse from more than a hundred years ago end up in storage in a neglected section of Washington’s Smithsonian Museum?

What makes this book an even better read is the author’s meticulous research into many of her real characters and the events that actually happened back in the 1800s.