It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? #SundaySalon #SundayPost

Linking to: It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? at BookDate; Sunday Post @ Caffeinated Reviewer; and the Sunday Salon @ ReaderBuzz

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Life…

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I’m very pleased to share that my son received the early entry university offer he hoped for. He’ll be starting a Bachelor of Media and Communications (majoring in Writing and Publishing) next year at the University of New England.

You might remember that when my daughter is home from university we choose a tv show to binge watch after the rest of the household goes to bed. We are watching Cold Case right now. A bonus of the show is the soundtrack, such great variety across eras (and you can find it on Spotify).

Are you thinking about what challenges you might participate in next year yet? Sign ups for 2023 Nonfiction Reader Challenge will be live from next Sunday, so keep an eye out. In the meantime check out the Reading Challenge Addict, Phryne collates a list of reading challenges hosted around the book blogosphere every year and the page for 2023 is love.

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What I’ve Read Since I last Posted…

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Australia’s Great Depression by Joan Beaumont

Broad River Station by Fleur McDonald

American Mother by Gregg Olsen

Going Rogue by Janet Evanovich

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New Posts…

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Review: The Book of Phobias and Manias by Kate Summerscale

Nonfiction November: Book Pairings

Review: Day’s End by Garry Disher

Review: The Ghost of Gracie Flynn by Joanna Morrison

Book Lust

Review: Australia’s Great Depression by Joan Beaumont

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What I’m Reading This Week…

The Atlas Paradox is the long-awaited sequel to dark academic sensation The Atlas Six—guaranteed to have even more yearning, backstabbing, betrayal, and chaos.

Six magicians. Two rivalries. One researcher. And a man who can walk through dreams. All must pick a side: do they wish to preserve the world—or destroy it? In this electric sequel to the viral sensation, The Atlas Six, the society of Alexandrians is revealed for what it is: a secret society with raw, world-changing power, headed by a man whose plans to change life as we know it are already under way. But the cost of knowledge is steep, and as the price of power demands each character choose a side, which alliances will hold and which will see their enmity deepen?

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An incredible collection of true crime characters from Australia’s master storyteller.

The bold, the bad, and the slightly mad…

Criminality, some say, is part of Australia’s national identity, and in Great Australian Rascals, Rogues and Ratbags Jim Haynes profiles fifteen larger-than-life Aussie rogues – some of our greatest ne’er-do-wells from colonial times to the modern era. These stories uncover the truth and expose the myths about characters ranging from the most despicable examples of humanity, to those whose courage has to be admired and whose so-called ‘crimes’ were unjustly punished.

This fascinating collection features felons who have sprung from Australia’s underbelly since 1788, such as the infamous Kate Leigh of the razor gangs; the convict Mary Bryant, who in 1791 escaped from the Sydney penal settlement and somehow made it back to England; James Hardy Vaux, who was sent to Australia no less than three times; Henry James O’Farrell, the madman who attempted to murder Prince Alfred in Sydney in 1868; and John Leak, who was repeatedly charged with insolence, disobedience and being absent without leave in World War I – and awarded the Victoria Cross.

Told with Jim’s inimitable combination of history and humour, Great Australian Rascals, Rogues and Ratbags is packed with murders, mystery and miscreants: true stories of true criminals from Australia’s past.

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Accustomed to both murder and dalliance, Australia’s favourite detective, the inimitable Miss Fisher, returns in a case that will test her tact and judgement to the full.

When the redoubtable Miss Phryne Fisher receives threatening letters at her home, she enlists the unflappable apprentice Tinker to investigate. But as the harassment of Phryne threatens to spin out of control, her lover, Lin Chung is also targeted.

Meanwhile, Dot begins to fear that her fiance, newly promoted Sergeant Hugh Collins, has gone cold on setting a date for their wedding.

Phryne’s clever daughters, Ruth and Jane, begin their own investigation into suspiciously dwindling funds when they are sent to help at the Blind Institute.

None of this is quite enough to prevent Phryne from accepting an invitation to a magnificent party at the house of the mysterious Hong. When the party is interrupted by shocking tragedy, Phryne gathers all of her unerring brilliance to track down the miscreants. With some unlikely assistance, Phryne is in a race against time to save a pair of young lovers from disgrace and death.

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History is full of strange animal stories invented by the brightest and most influential, from Aristotle to Disney. But when it comes to understanding animals, we’ve got a long way to go.

Whether we’re watching a viral video of romping baby pandas or looking at a picture of penguins ‘holding hands’, we often project our own values – innocence, abstinence, hard work – onto animals. So you’ve probably never considered that moose get drunk and that penguins are notorious cheats.

In The Unexpected Truth About Animals Zoologist Lucy unravels many such myths – that eels are born from sand, that swallows hibernate under water, and that bears gave birth to formless lumps that are licked into shape by their mothers – to show that the stories we create reveal as much about us as they do about the animals.

Astonishing, illuminating and laugh-out-loud funny.

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Thanks for stopping by!

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? #IMWAYR @thebookdate #SundayPost @Kimbacaffeinate #SundaySalon @debnance #TheAtlasParadox #MurderinWilliamstown #TheUnexpectedTruthAboutAnimals #GreatAustralianRascalsRoguesandRatbags