The Unfinished Bookshelf

Writing and reviews

The Lace Weaver by Lauren Chater

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1941, Estonia. As Stalin’s brutal Red Army crushes everything in its path, Katarina and her family survive only because their precious farm produce is needed to feed the occupying forces. Fiercely partisan, Katarina battles to protect her grandmother’s precious legacy – the weaving of gossamer lace shawls stitched with intricate patterns that tell the stories passed down through generations.
While Katarina struggles to survive the daily oppression, another young woman is suffocating in her prison of privilege in Moscow. Yearning for freedom and to discover her beloved mother’s Baltic heritage, Lydia escapes to Estonia. 
Facing the threat of invasion by Hitler’s encroaching Third Reich, Katarina and Lydia and two idealistic young soldiers, insurgents in the battle for their homeland, find themselves in a fight for life, liberty and love.

I haven’t read historical fiction for what felt like forever, and The Lace Weaver sounded like the perfect way to get back into the genre. World War Two is my favourite time period to explore and I was drawn into this story by the promise of something I’d never even heard about, let alone read in fiction. I was rewarded with a beautiful, touching tale among the best historical fiction I’ve found. Read More

White Night by Ellie Marney

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In Bo Mitchell’s country town, a ‘White Night’ light-show event has the potential to raise vital funds to save the skate park. And out of town, a girl from a secretive off-the-grid community called Garden of Eden has the potential to change the way Bo sees the world. But are there too many secrets in Eden? As Bo is drawn away from his friends and towards Rory, he gradually comes to believe that Eden may not be utopia after all, and that their group leader’s goal to go off the grid may be more permanent – and more dangerous – than anyone could have predicted.

White Night was always going to be a book I had to read, given how much I enjoyed Ellie Marney’s Sherlock-inspired Every series. Cult-like secluded community in rural Australia? You had me at hello and I was not disappointed. Read More

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

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Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine is the story of a quirky yet lonely woman whose social misunderstandings and deeply ingrained routines could be changed forever—if she can bear to confront the secrets she has avoided all her life. But if she does, she’ll learn that she, too, is capable of finding friendship—and even love—after all.

You know those books it seems everyone is talking about (even non-bookish people)? Despite all the hype surrounding Eleanor Oliphant, I still didn’t really know what to expect. I was, of course, dubious. Surely this couldn’t be as amazing as all the reviews and recommendations I’d read? Finally I gave in and ordered a copy which, strangely, I started the very day it arrived. The more I started to know Eleanor though, the more fitting this seemed. Because (as many book lovers may also attest to) it’s normal for me to leave a book for a shamefully long time before I pick it up. And I have to admit, Eleanor was worth the hype. Read More

Finishing the shelf: Five books I want off my TBR pile

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Obviously this title is a joke because my bookshelves will never be fully read, but there are a few books which have been on there for way too long. I’m talking five years or more. Which is plainly ridiculous and this is the year to put an end to that. Already this year I’ve read One Day by David Nicholls, which was on my shelf for SEVEN YEARS. In a bid to hold myself somewhat accountable to this plan, I’m sharing my list of top books I want to finally read. 
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Much not many: Re-reading and re-discovering my favourite books

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Over the space of about a year when I was 10, I read (and endlessly re-read) as many Jacqueline Wilson books as I could get my hands on. I’ve no idea how many times I read Lola Rose, Secrets or Double Act. These books were my comfort blanket, their words wrapping around me in warmth and security. Before Wilson, it was Molly Moon’s Incredible Book of Hypnotism I read until I had every plot twist memorised. Even earlier still it was my small collection of Enid Blyton books I’d revisit again and again, taking endless journeys in magic wishing chairs and to faraway lands. But somewhere along the way, I stopped returning to my favourite stories. Read More

Little Deaths by Emma Flint

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It’s 1965 in a tight-knit working-class neighborhood in Queens, New York, and Ruth Malone–a single mother who works long hours as a cocktail waitress–wakes to discover her two small children, Frankie Jr. and Cindy, have gone missing. Later that day, Cindy’s body is found in a derelict lot a half mile from her home, strangled. Ten days later, Frankie Jr.’s decomposing body is found. Immediately, all fingers point to Ruth. 

Little Deaths was one of the random library picks which have become a rare occurrence since I started blogging. The cover caught my eye and the 1960s setting for a strange murder mystery had me itching to know more. Ruth’s story hooked me in, but it wasn’t until I finished and learned it was based on a real case that it really started to play on my mind. Read More

Everywoman by Jess Phillips

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If you’re thinking, ‘Jess, who?’ then I’m glad that there was something about ‘Everywoman’ and ‘truth’ that caught your eye.
Or you might already know me as that gobby MP who has a tendency to shout about the stuff I care about. Because I’m a woman with a cause, I have been called a feminazi witch, a murderer and threatened with rape. The internet attracts a classy crowd. 
So, speaking the truth isn’t always easy but I believe it’s worth it. And I want you to believe it too. The truth can be empowering, the truth can lead to greater equality, and the world would be incredibly boring if we let all of those people who allegedly know everything, say everything. 
By demanding to be heard, by dealing with our imposter syndrome, by being cheerleaders, doers not sayers, creating our own networks and by daring to believe that we can make a difference, we can. We’re women and we’re kick-ass. And that’s the truth.

Being Australian, I’m not overly familiar with British politicians, except for a few who make international headlines. So I hadn’t even heard Jess Phillips’ name until I listened to her speak with Emma Gannon on one of my favourite podcasts Ctrl Alt Delete. I felt inspired, empowered and ready for action. Of course, Everywoman was then something I had to read. It took me a good six or seven months to even find a copy, but once I did I devoured it. Read More

How to Stop Time by Matt Haig

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How to Stop Time

Tom Hazard has a dangerous secret. He may look like an ordinary 41-year-old, but owing to a rare condition, he’s been alive for centuries. From Elizabethan England to Jazz Age Paris, from New York to the South Seas, Tom has seen a lot, and now craves an ordinary life. Always changing his identity to stay alive, Tom has the perfect cover – working as a history teacher at a London comprehensive. Here he can teach the kids about wars and witch hunts as if he’d never witnessed them first-hand. He can try and tame the past that is fast catching up with him.
The only thing Tom mustn’t do is fall in love.
How to Stop Time is a wild and bittersweet story about losing and finding yourself, about the certainty of change and about the lifetimes it can take to really learn how to live. 

I believe books come along at just the right time. I bought How to Stop Time from the gorgeous Blackwell’s Books in Oxford and read it as I journeyed around the UK on my very first trip overseas. I think most Australians can relate to the overwhelming history which hits you in even the most mundane settings across the Britain and Europe. It was only as I was wandering the streets of Oxford, Edinburgh, London and York that I realised Australia’s colonised past really is but a drop in the ocean of history. This awe and wonder at my own tiny space in the world was the perfect compliment to How to Stop Time’s poignant exploration of the human condition. Read More

Untidy Towns by Kate O’Donnell

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Seventeen-year-old Adelaide is sick of being expected to succeed on other people’s terms. She knows she just has to stick it out at school for one more year and then she’ll be free. Instead, she runs away from her fancy boarding school back to her sleepy hometown to read and dream.
But there are no free rides. When Addie’s grandad gets her a job at the local historical society, she soon finds out that it’s dusty and dull, just like her new life. Things change when she starts hanging out with Jarrod, a boy who seems full of possibilities. But it turns out he’s as stuck as she is. And Addie realises that when you want something in life, you’ve actually got to do something about it.
A heartfelt tale about love, friendship and finding your own way.

Sweet and hopeful, Untidy Towns is an unassuming little novel which snuck onto my shelves and into my heart. It arrived in the cutest little package from the publisher, but I knew nothing about it and hadn’t seen it anywhere so I put it aside. I was snowed under with university, then overseas, and moving house as soon as I was back in the country. It wasn’t until speaking to Margot McGovern for Better Words that I decided to pick it up after her raving review. I wish I’d opened this gorgeous little package earlier because Untidy Towns was a book I wholly underestimated. Read More

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