Book Review #797 - A Fortunate Life by A.B. Facey

This is the extraordinary life of an ordinary man. It is the story of Albert Facey, who lived with simple honesty, compassion and courage. A parentless boy who started work at eight on the rough West Australian frontier, he struggled as an itinerant rural worker, survived the gore of Gallipoli, the loss of his farm in the Depression, the death of his son in World War II and that of his beloved wife after sixty devoted years - yet he felt that his life was fortunate.

My Rating: 4.5/5

As a sandgroper (a Western Australian) this book has been on my radar for such a long time with my grandfather having read it and my father having tried to get me to watch the mini series for as long as I can remember.

Firstly, I loved the setting as it was set in places that I know so well yet were obviously not as I know them. I was also amazed at how much of my home state of WA he covered especially in the days of minimal transportation.

Facey has such an amazing writing style. It was like he was telling you the story himself rather than me reading it. 

I was also amazed at just about everywhere Facey went, it seemed to have some connection to my family. For example, Fremantle is where my great-grandfather was born, Geraldton is where my grandfather (and a lot of generations of his family) were born, Kalgoorlie is where my mum was born and I could keep going. 

If you are looking for a very inspiring, genuine Australian read this is the ideal book I would recommend.

Book Review #711 - Carousel (Carousel #1) by Brendan Ritchie

Nox is an arts graduate wondering what to do with his life. Taylor and Lizzy are famous indie musicians, and Rocky works the checkouts at Target.

When they find themselves trapped in a giant shopping centre, they eat fast food, watch bad TV and wait for the mess to be sorted. But when days turn to weeks, a sense of menace grows.

 

 

My Rating: 5/10

 

 

This book is set in my home town of Perth, Western Australia and even though I have never been to the shopping centre where this book is set (Westfield Carousel) I was familiar with all of the shops mentioned.

 

This book is the author's first foray into novel writing. His author bio says he was previously a screenwriter. This was rather obvious by his fragmented style of writing. For example, one of the main characters is never properly introduced, he just suddenly appears.

 

The timeline of events was also rather confusing. Not far into the book, when I was waiting for some character development or twist it was very casually mentioned that they had been trapped there for a year.

 

I own the sequel to this book and I will definitely get around to reading it just so I can find out what direction this series will go but I'm in no rush to do so.

Book Review #706 - Saving Jazz by Kate McCaffrey

Jasmine Lovely has it all – the looks, the grades, the friends. But when a house party spins out of control, Jazz discovers what can happen when your mistakes go viral ...

We know our kids are at risk of becoming victims of cyberbullying. But do we know how at risk they are of becoming perpetrators? This controversial new novel tackles cyberbullying from a whole new perspective.

My Rating: 5/10

This review is likely to contain spoilers so you have been warned!

This book tackles a very serious topic that is prevalent in society today. The book approached this topic in a very intense and realistic way. 

I loved the small town setting of Greenhead, especially as it was set in my home state of Western Australia and I had actually been to the town which made the book feel even more realistic for me.

The narrator Jasmine at first comes across as someone likable and relatable as she supports her friend who is being cyberbullied. It is not until midway through the book that Jasmine's real role in the whole thing is revealed that I started seeing her differently. 

It was interesting to have the narrator be in that role and not the victim like any other book probably would have done especially the way it was suddenly sprung on the reader. 

After the big reveal, I felt like Jasmine was trying too hard at trying to play at being a victim when this was very far from the case. 

Overall, I loved that this book was brave enough to tackle this type of story especially in the way it did, but I didn't connect to it as much as I expected to mostly because of the way Jasmine tried to be the victim rather than owning up to what she did.