Tag Archives: #Holidayreading

Guest Book Reviewer: Palace of Tears

October 5, 2015Christmas, Uncategorized#Australian, #BookReview, #Christmas, #Fiction, #Holiday reading, #HolidayreadingJan

Palace of Tears is the debut novel from Julian Leatherdale. It is an historical, generational story, centred on a luxury hotel in the fictional town of Meadow Springs in the Blue Mountains and has all the elements of family passion, secrets and tragedy.

Department store entrepreneur Adam Fox built the lavish palace based on luxury spa resorts in Europe. The story of the hotel intertwines with the story of the family who live in a cottage next door – much less well off than the wealthy Foxes but, over generations, sharing tragedies as well as love, hate and jealousy.

Initially I was daunted by the size of this book at over 500 pages, however Leatherdale achieves a good balance between educating and entertaining readers about events in Australia during the 1900’s and early 20^th Century.

I love that Leatherdale mixes fictitious elements with real events and actual people. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, opera star Nellie Melba and Australian film makers and directors Raymond Longford and Lottie Lyall all visit Adam Fox’s luxurious resort.

The author’s historical research into some of the less familiar events of early 20th Century history made for very interesting reading and for me in particular, the internment of the Germans during the war years was fascinating due to my own family history. His references to events of that time and fictional activities surrounding it were amazing and his passion evident.

I think this book is well worth the read, and with summer coming and holidays, it would be one to put on the list.

I hope Julian Leatherdale writes more novels as I will be lining up to read them.

City Guide: Bali

September 23, 2015Travel, Uncategorized#Fiction, #Holidayreading, #TravelTeam Booko

Bali is known for its breathtaking natural beauty, friendly people and sense of adventure. Whether you’ve travelled to Bali, have it on your bucket list or are happy to explore it through books, here are our recommended Bali reads:

Go to Sleep, Gecko!: A Balinese Folktale by Margaret Read MacDonald

The author of The Girl Who Wore Too Much retells the folktale of the gecko who complains to the village chief that the fireflies keep him awake at night but then learns that in nature all things are connected.

Balilicious – The Bali Diaries by Becky Wicks

She lifted the burqa on Dubai in Burqalicious. Now Becky Wicks turns her attention to Australia’s number one tourist destination: Bali. It seems to be the new in thing to find yourself these days even if you are not particularly lost.

The Rough Guide to Bali & Lombok by Lesley Reader

With full – colour throughout, clear maps and stunning photography, The Rough Guide to Bali & Lombok will ensure you make the most of these alluring islands, with insider tips on everything from indulgent spa retreats and fantastic shops, to the best hotels, restaurants and bars to suit every budget.

A House in Bali by Colin McPhee

In the 1930s a young American composer heard some gramophone records of music of the land that forever changed his life. As a result, Colin McPhee lived for the day when he could travel and study the beautiful island of Bali, its people, culture, and music. His classic text written in the 1940s still remains the only literary narrative of the island by a classically trained musician, and this unique perspective allowed him to immerse himself in the people, and music of his beloved Bali. And in the end, he only left the island in 1938 as the threat of the second World War loomed over the Pacific. McPhee’s work is a landmark look at Bali’s distinctive gamelan tradition, and is now available again more than 50 years after it was written.

The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson

After a long and eventful life Allan Karlsson is moved to a nursing home to await the inevitable. But his health refuses to fail and as his 100th birthday looms, a huge party is planned. Allan wants no part of it and decides to climb out the window… Charming and funny; a European publishing phenomenon.

Tilda Swinton’s Holiday Reading List

September 2, 2015Uncategorized#Celebrityreads, #Fiction, #Holidayreading, #PoetryTeam Booko

Tilda Swinton’s holiday reading list is as eclectic as the film roles she chooses. Here are her recommended reads:

Auntie Mame By Patrick Dennis

“Mame: Who did you ever dream of being adopted by?”

A Time Of Gifts By Patrick Leigh Fermor

“For anybody who has ever fantasised about walking across Europe with a backpack. Written by a great writer and a proper hero amongst men.”

Love In A Cold Climate By Nancy Mitford

“Lady Montdore is one of the greatest creations in English literature; Uncle Matthew, another; Cedric, yet another. It’s the dottiness and passions of the English aristocracy pretty much nailed in one.”

Light Years By James Salter

“An urbane American marriage seen from above — a kind of exquisite horror story of the deathly chic of people having all their bases covered and somehow missing the point all the same. Very, very beautiful. Very, very sad.”

Great Expectations By Charles Dickens

“Faces you will never forget, and a lesson to treasure all your life: Be prepared to be surprised, [and] cherish life as it finds you. And love Joe Gargery with all your heart.”

Owning Your Own Shadow By Robert A. Johnson
“A tiny, precious book on the balancing wisdom of the psyche. Hooray for that dark stuff!”

The Child, The Family, And The Outside World By D.W. Winnicott

“The book to have by you when becoming a parent. And ever after.”

The Best of Wodehouse By P.G. Wodehouse
“Sentences to eat with a spoon, and funny like nothing else on Earth.”

The Collected Poems Of Frank O’Hara By Frank O’Hara

“Joy and life, and more life and more joy, and street corners, and Coca-Cola, and love.”

Modern Nature By Derek Jarman

“Joy and life, and more life and more joy, and making a garden out of stones, and making films, and love.”

The Many Days: Selected Poems Of Norman MacCaig By Norman MacCaig

“Scotland’s preeminent poet of both the mountain and the capital’s pavement. Doubleness is a Scottish art: Passion and Calvinism; the west and the east; the highlands and the lowlands. MacCaig embraces this split with true affection and verve.”

As found on Refinery29.com

5 Recommended reads: Chick Lit

September 1, 2015Uncategorized#Chicklit, #Fiction, #HolidayreadingTeam Booko

Whether you’re planning a beach holiday or just want to find a relaxing escape at home, dive into these reads for some alone time. Here are some great Chick Lit options that have been released over the last year:

How to be a grown up by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus

From bestselling authors Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus comes a timely novel about a forty-something wife and mother thrust back into the workforce, where she finds herself at the mercy of a boss half her age. Rory McGovern is entering the ostensible prime of her life when her husband, Blake, loses his dream job and announces he feels like “taking a break” from being a husband and father. Rory is then, without warning, single-parenting two kids and re-entering the workforce for the first time in years.

China Rich Girlfriend by Kevin Kwan

Kevin Kwan, bestselling author of Crazy Rich Asians, is back with a wickedly funny new novel of social climbing, secret e-mails, art-world scandal, lovesick billionaires, and the outrageous story of what happens when Rachel Chu, engaged to marry Asia’s most eligible bachelor, discovers her birth father.

My Very Best Friend by Cathy Lamb

From a childhood friendship sustained over years and distance, to a journey of discovery, Cathy Lamb’s poignant novel tells of two women whose paths converge with unforeseen results – and reveals the gift of connection, and the challenges that can change everything for the better…

Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter

The story begins in 1962. On a rocky patch of the sun-drenched Italian coastline, a young innkeeper, chest-deep in daydreams, looks out over the incandescent waters of the Ligurian Sea and spies an apparition: a tall, thin woman, a vision in white, approaching him on a boat. She is an actress, he soon learns, an American starlet, and she is dying. And the story begins again today, half a world away, when an elderly Italian man shows up on a movie studio’s back lot—searching for the mysterious woman he once met…

Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple

Bernadette Fox is notorious. To her Microsoft-guru husband, she’s a fearlessly opinionated partner; to fellow private-school mothers in Seattle, she’s a disgrace; to design mavens, she’s a revolutionary architect, and to 15-year-old Bee, she is a best friend and, simply, Mom. Then Bernadette disappears. It began when Bee aced her report card and claimed her promised reward: a family trip to Antarctica. But Bernadette’s intensifying allergy to Seattle–and people in general–has made her so agoraphobic that a virtual assistant in India now runs her most basic errands. A trip to the end of the earth is problematic. To find her mother, Bee compiles email messages, official documents, secret correspondence–creating a compulsively readable and touching novel about misplaced genius and a mother and daughter’s role in an absurd world.

Holiday Reading Guide: Our road-tested reads

June 30, 2015Booko#Fiction, #HolidayreadingTeam Booko

When you’re busy packing for holidays, don’t forget to pop a few good reads into your suitcase — ones that you won’t want to put down. The Booko team have road-tested these reads poolside and think they will be the perfect companion to your relaxing break:

The Sunlit Night by Rebecca Dinerstein
Frances had read of a man who painted with only the colour yellow. He lived in the north of Norway. In the beautiful, barren landscape of the Far North, under the ever- present midnight sun, Frances and Yasha are surprised to find refuge in each other.

The Novel Habits of Happiness (An Isabel Dalhousie novel) by Alexander McCall Smith

Isabel Dalhousie is one of Edinburgh’s most generous (but discreet) philanthropists – but should she be more charitable? She wonders, sometimes, if she is too judgmental about her niece’s amorous exploits, too sharp about her housekeeper’s spiritual beliefs, too ready to bristle in battle against her enemies.

The Insider Threat by Brad Taylor
In the eighth action-packed thriller in the New York Times bestselling Pike Logan series, ISIS, the most maniacal terrorist organization the modern world has ever seen, is poised to make their most audacious strike yet. The United States has anticipated and averted countless attacks from terrorist groups–thanks in large part to the extralegal counterterrorist unit known as the Taskforce. But in The Insider Threat, a much more insidious evil is about to unfold…

Go Set a Watchman by Nellie Harper Lee
Scout (Jean Louise Finch) has returned to Maycomb from New York to visit her father Atticus. She is forced to grapple with issues both personal and political as she tries to understand both her father’s attitude toward society, and her own feelings about the place where she was born and spent her childhood.

The Long Utopia (#4, The Long Earth) by Terry Pratchett
2045-2059. After the cataclysmic upheavals of Step Day and the Yellowstone eruption, humanity is spreading further into the Long Earth, and society, on a battered Datum Earth and beyond, continues to evolve. Now an elderly and cantankerous AI, Lobsang lives in disguise with Agnes in an exotic, far-distant world. He’s convinced they’re leading a normal life in New Springfield – they even adopt a child – but it seems they have been guided there for a reason.

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