Without A Voice: One Woman's Fight for Justice (Non-Fiction) by Michelle Nicholson

Paperback:  Young, vulnerable, naïve.  Twenty two year old Michelle Nicholson had no idea how to deal with the strange and menacing stranger who seemed to be taking over her life.  He had sucked friends and family into believing his fantasy that he was a good, kind man, trying to offer Michelle a better life.

But beneath the façade lurked a dangerous and deadly psychopath, hell bent on revenge for Michelle’s rejection of him.

Twenty four years later, still fighting to clear her name, Michelle tells, with raw honesty, the true and horrifying story of the murder of her beloved father and how she was framed for that murder, losing her youth, her young daughter, her freedom and almost her sanity.

"I prayed and still had hope that one day I could clear my name.  I would continue to fight, that fight would go on until I took my last breath.  I didn't consider that it might take that long.  Perhaps the system is designed in a way that innocent people can't fight back.  It's a hard thing to bear that actually, no one really cares, or at least, very few, even though you have experienced a great injustice.  Until, like me, you are in it yourself, but at that point it's too late;  your voice is meaningless.  Your voice has been silenced.  You are a criminal.  You are nothing.  You are without a voice," wrote Michelle.

Without A Voice:  One Woman's Fight for Justice (2017) is "an incredible story of life inside a criminal justice system where the scales of justice are tipped.  Michelle's story is inspiring, everyone on every side of the criminal justice system would do well to read.  It shines with compassion and above all, humanity in the hands of one of life's unsung heroines." - Sital Dhillon, Barrister, Head Department of Law and Criminology

About the author:  Michelle Nicholson is the founder and Director of Key Changes - Unlocking Women’s Potential.  Michelle is responsible for the strategic planning and development of the organisation.  Her own experience of the criminal justice system led to an understanding of social injustices for women;  this has shaped the charity’s vision and its aims and objectives.  She holds a BSc in Social Science with psychology and crime, order and social control (Open University).
To tackle social inequalities, Michelle gives educational presentations to a range of audiences to enable them to better understand women’s needs and issues such as resettlement into the community.
Michelle has also had a number of articles published in this area and her very own story is told without the harsh and unforgiving process by which our communities are often encouraged and shaped to become in her book, Without A Voice:  One Woman's Fight for Justice.

Michelle won the High Sheriff’s Award 2015 for her leadership skills to promote change for women.
Key Changes - Unlocking Women’s potential is a multi-award winning charity.

Happiness #30817

Leaders In Name Only

The Starting Point

Loungewear

Upon Reflection

Do What Makes You Happy

Fever by Deon Meyer

Hardback:  Nico Storm and his father, Willem Storm, drive a truck filled with essential supplies through a desolate land.  They are among the few in the world, as far as they know, to have survived a devastating virus that has swept over the planet.  Their lives turned upside down, Nico realizes that his superb marksmanship and cool head mean he is destined to be his father's protector, even though he is still only a boy.

Willem Storm, though not a fighter, is both a thinker and a leader, a wise and compassionate man with a vision for a new community that survivors will rebuild from the ruins.  And so Amanzi is founded, drawing Storm's "homeless and tempest-tost" - starting with Melinda Swanevelder, whom they rescue from brutal thugs;  Hennie Fly, with his vital Cessna plane;  Beryl Fortuin and her ragtag group of orphans;  and Domingo, the man with the tattooed hand, whom Nico immediately recognizes as someone you want on your side.

And then Sofia Bergman arrives, the most beautiful girl Nico has ever seen, who changes everything.

So the community grows, and with each step forward, as resources increase, so do the challenges they must face - not just from the attacks of biker brigands, but also from within.  Nico undergoes an extraordinary rite of passage in this brand new world, testing his loyalty to the limits.  Looking back later in life, he recounts the traumatic events that led to the greatest rupture of all - the murder of the person he loves most.

Propulsively readable, Fever (2017) is a gripping epic of humanity striving for a noble vision against its basest impulses.  It is a searing story of a group of people determined to carve a city out of chaos.  As bold and sweeping in its power as the majestic landscape it describes, as intimate and fragile as the relationship between a father and a teenage son, Fever is a novel of power and politics, love and friendship, fear, betrayal, suspense and surprise.  Fever is simply an excellent read.

Fever is translated from the Afrikaans by K L Seegers.

About the author:  Deon Meyer was born in the South African town of Paarl in the winelands of the Western Cape in 1958, and grew up in Klerksdorp, in the gold mining region of Northwest Province.  After military duty and studying at the Potchefstroom University, he joined Die Volksblad, a daily newspaper in Bloemfontein as a reporter.  Since then, he has worked as press liaison, advertising copywriter, creative director, web manager, Internet strategist, and brand consultant.

Deon wrote his first book when he was fourteen years old, and bribed and blackmailed his two brothers into reading it.  They were not impressed!  Heeding their wisdom, he did not write fiction again until he was in his early thirties, when he started publishing short stories in South African magazines.

"I still believe that is the best way to learn the craft of writing.  Short stories teach you a lot about story structure - and you have limited space to develop character and plot," says Deon.

In 1994, he published his first Afrikaans novel, which has not been translated, "simply because it was not good enough to compete on the international market.  However, it was a wonderful learning experience".

All later novels have been translated into several languages, including English, French, German, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Russian, Finnish, Czech, Romanian, Slovakian and Bulgarian.

Deon lives in Melkbosstrand on the South African West Coast with his wife, Anita, and they have four children to keep them busy:  Lida, Liam, Johan and Konstanz.  Other than his family, his big passions are motorcycling, music (he is a Mozart fanatic, but loves rock 'n roll too), reading, cooking and rugby (he unconditionally supports the national Springbok team and the Free State Cheetahs provincial team).

Rating:  6/5

The Thing About Brexit

A Time of Love and Tartan (A 44 Scotland Street Series) by Alexander McCall Smith

Hardback:  With customary charm and deftness, Alexander McCall Smith gives us another instalment - A Time of Love and Tartan (2017) - in this popular series, now running in its twelfth season in the Scotsman, making it the longest running serial novel ever.  What trials are in store for Bertie and the gang this year?

Changes are afoot in Scotland Street, where small things can be of great consequence.  A colossal embarrassment follows Pat Macgregor's ill-advised coffee with narcissistic ex-boyfriend Bruce.  If Matthew, her boss at the art gallery, had not wandered into his local bookshop and picked up a particular book at a particular time, he would never have knocked over his former English teacher or attracted the attention of the police.

Meanwhile, other residents are moving onwards and upwards.  Stuart's application for promotion and his wife Irene's decision to study for a PhD in Aberdeen mean alterations to life in serial fiction's favourite street.  But, as Stuart's son Bertie finds out, sometimes change can lead to sudden, unexpected happiness too.

Alexander McCall Smith's delightfully witty, wise and sometimes surreal comedy spirals out to include bogus head-hunters in Papua New Guinea, an exchange visit of Rwandan forest people and the adventures of a class of seven-year-olds with Waiting for Godot.  And its heart remains where it has always been - true to life, love and laughter in Edinburgh's New Town.

About the author:  Alexander McCall Smith is one of the world's most prolific and most popular authors.  For many years, he was a professor of medical law, then, after the publication of his highly successful No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, which has sold over twenty-five million copies, he devoted his time to the writing of fiction and has seen his various series of books translated into over forty-six languages and become bestsellers throughout the world.

These include the 44 Scotland Street novels, first published as a serial novel in the Scotsman, the Isabel Dalhousie novels, the von Igelfeld series and the Corduroy Mansions novels.  His novel, Fatty O'Leary's Dinner Party, was winner of the 2015 Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for comic fiction.

Alexander McCall Smith is Professor Emeritus of Medical Law at the University of Edinburgh and holds honorary doctorates from thirteen universities.  In 2017, he received the National Arts Club of America Medal of Honour for Achievement in Literature.

Rating:  5/5

The Bertie Project (A 44 Scotland Street Series) by Alexander McCall Smith

Paperback:  When Irene returns to Scotland Street from an involuntary holiday abroad, she discovers that her sweet little Bertie has been exposed to exactly those things of which she strongly disapproves, including sentimental movies and multi-topping pizza.  Her wrath falls upon her unfortunate husband, Stuart, leaving Bertie to consider moving out of Scotland Street altogether to live with his grandmother.

Will Bertie move, and can irene and Stuart's marriage survive?

Bruce falls in love - with an Australian extreme sports enthusiast - but will it last?

And, elsewhere, Matthew and Elspeth host the mysterious Duke of Johannesburg for supper.  Can the deliciously entertaining residents of Edinburgh's most beloved street negotiate all these challenges and find happiness once again?

The Bertie Project (2016) is the eleventh book in the light-hearted and gently insightful 44 Scotland Street series set in Edinburgh, Scotland.  The series move beyond its setting to deal with deep moral issues and love, desire and friendship, city life and human foibles.

About the author:  Alexander McCall Smith is one of the world's most prolific and most popular authors.  For many years, he was a professor of medical law, then, after the publication of his highly successful No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, which has sold over twenty-five million copies, he devoted his time to the writing of fiction and has seen his various series of books translated into over forty-six languages and become bestsellers throughout the world.

These include the 44 Scotland Street novels, first published as a serial novel in the Scotsman, the Isabel Dalhousie novels, the von Igelfeld series and the Corduroy Mansions novels.  His novel, Fatty O'Leary's Dinner Party, was winner of the 2015 Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for comic fiction.

Alexander McCall Smith is Professor Emeritus of Medical Law at the University of Edinburgh and holds honorary doctorates from thirteen universities.  In 2017, he received the National Arts Club of America Medal of Honour for Achievement in Literature.

Rating:  5/5

Criminal Minds

Individuality

Who Watcheth (An Inspector Irene Huss Investigation Series) by Helen Tursten

Hardback:  He watches the women from the shadows.  He has an understanding with them;  as long as they follow his rules, they are safe.  But when they sin, he sentences them to death.

A woman is found dead in a cemetery, strangled and covered in plastic.  Just a few days before her death, the victim had received a flower, an unintelligible note, and a photograph of herself.

Detective Inspector Irene Huss and her colleagues on the Violent Crimes Unit in Göteborg, Sweden, have neither clue nor motive to pursue, and when similar murders follow, their search for the killer becomes increasingly desperate.

Meanwhile, strange things have been going on at home for Irene:  first the rose bush in her garden is mangled, then she receives a threatening package with no return address.

Is Irene being paranoid, or is she next on the killer's list?

Who Watcheth (2016) is the latest and ninth instalment in one of the best feminine hardboiled Inspector Irene Huss investigation series currently being written with a much-loved heroine.

Who Watcheth is translated from the Swedish by Marlaine Delargy.

A new Inspector Irene Huss book and the tenth chronologically - Protected by the Shadows - will be released on 14 December 2017.

About the author:  Helene Tursten was a nurse and a dentist before she turned to writing.  Her books have been translated into eighteen languages and made into a television series.  She was born in Göteborg, Sweden, where she now lives with her husband and daughter.

Marlaine Delargy works as a translator and adult learning support tutor.  She has translated novels by Åsa  Larsson and Johan Theorin, among others, and serves on the editorial board of the Swedish Book Review.  She lives in Shropshire, England.

Rating:  5/5

Lack of Leadership

Barcelona

Definition: Tenalach

The Secrets of My Life by Caitlyn Jenner

Hardback:  In this remarkable memoir - written with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Buzz Bissinger during her pivotal first years of rebirth - Caitlyn Jenner reflects on her past as she looks to her future.

"The juxtaposition of Bruce and Caitlyn is shocking even to me.  How could one become the other and the other become the one?  I know that Caitlyn was my gender at birth, waiting for the right moment to subsume Bruce.  Imagine defying your core and soul.  Then add to it he most impossible expectations that people have for you because you are the personification of The American Male Athlete."

Bruce Jenner, the celebrated Olympic icon and later the patriarch of one of the most famous families in the world, seemed to be living a dream life of success, fame, and prosperity.  But the all-American image and million-dollar smile belied a lifelong struggle with gender dysphoria, and it was not until the sensational Diane Sawyer interview that the public mask of Bruce Jenner was finally retired, and through the memorable Vanity Fair piece by Buzz Bissinger, that Caitlyn Jenner was introduced to the world and set free to exist on her own terms.  Since then, Caitlyn has undertaken an arduous emotional and physical odyssey to achieve the completeness she always felt was missing.

In The Secrets of My Life (2017), Caitlyn reflects on the inner conflict she experienced growing up in an era of rigidly defined gender identities, and the cruel irony of being hailed by an entire nation as the ultimate symbol of manhood.  She recounts her Olympic triumph, her rise to fame, and relates how her sense of frustration and shame grew with the passing years and the lengths to which she had to go to conceal her true self.  Caitlyn in turn uncovers the toll that these personal struggles had on her three marriages and, subsequently, the relationships with her children.  She also talks candidly about her life in the public eye as a member of the Kardashian clan, what led to her decision to become Caitlyn, and how she, her family, the transgender community, and the rest of the world has since embraced her new life.

Filled with incredibly personal and moving stories of struggle and victory, of anxiety and fear, and, finally, of surrender and acceptance, The Secrets of My Life reveals the real Caitlyn Jenner by tracing her long and eventful journey to becoming herself.

About the authors:  Caitlyn Jenner broke the work record in the decathlon by scoring 8634 points at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal.  She subsequently became a broadcaster for ABC and NBC, regularly appeared on Good Morning America, and became one of the country's most-sought-after inspirational speakers in detailing her remarkable Olympic success.

Since revealing her true self, Caitlyn executive-produced I Am Cait, the award-winning series on E! hailed for raising public awareness of transgender issues.  She was named Barbara Walters' Most Fascinating Person of the Year in 2015, honoured as one of Glamour magazine's Women of the Year, and received the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage at the 2015 ESPY Awards for her transition from Olympic athlete to transgender activist.

Buzz Bissinger is a Pulitzer Prize winner and the author of the iconic Friday Night Lights.  His other nonfiction books include A Prayer for the City, Three Nights in August, and Father's Day.  He has been a longtime contributing editor to Vanity Fair and wrote the magazine's landmark cover story on Caitlyn for the July 2015 issue.  He is also a professor of nonfiction writing at the University of Pennsylvania.

A Distant View of Everything (The Isabel Dalhousie Series) by Alexander McCall Smith

Hardback:  Recently distracted by the arrival of her and Jamie's second son, Magnus, Isabel Dalhousie - philanthropic editor of the Review of Applied Ethics - is anxious. The next issue of the Review is far from ready, her eldest, Charlie, is jealous, and their housekeeper, Grace, has an officious approach to childcare.  With some relief, Isabel returns to helping out at her niece Cat's delicatessen, where surely the most taxing duty is the preparation of sandwiches.

It is not long before Isabel's helpful, philosophical nature draws her into customers' problems, specifically that of ambitious, self-proclaimed matchmaker, Bea Shandon.  Bea has staged a potentially dangerous liaison involving enigmatic plastic surgeon, Tony MacUspaig, who may not be quite who he claims to be - and Isabel's help is required in getting to the truth of the matter.

Good-hearted Isabel proceeds with her usual thorough attention to task, and on Bea's advice talks to her friend Rob, a trustworthy regular on Bea's dinner party circuit, and known to have deep suspicions about MacUspaig.  It becomes clear, however, that Rob has an agenda of his own and Isabel is now contending with that, along with a mysterious medical condition of Jamie's and some frustrating dead ends when it comes to Bea's predicament.

When the truth finally reveals itself, Isabel must conclude that along with MacUspaig, Bea, Jamie - and even Cat - she herself is not immune to misunderstandings, or the neurotic fantasies that arise from keeping secrets.

A Distant View of Everything (2017) is the latest and eleventh book in the philosophical and much-loved Isabel Dalhousie series set in Edinburgh, Scotland.

About the author:  Alexander McCall Smith is one of the world's most prolific and most popular authors.  For many years, he was a professor of medical law, then, after the publication of his highly successful No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, which has sold over twenty-five million copies, he devoted his time to the writing of fiction and has seen his various series of books translated into over forty-six languages and become bestsellers throughout the world.

These include the 44 Scotland Street novels, first published as a serial novel in the Scotsman, the Isabel Dalhousie novels, the von Igelfeld series and the Corduroy Mansions novels.  His novel, Fatty O'Leary's Dinner Party, was winner of the 2015 Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for comic fiction.

Alexander McCall Smith is Professor Emeritus of Medical Law at the University of Edinburgh and holds honorary doctorates from thirteen universities.

Rating:  5/5

Mountain Parks

Charlottesville

Deadfall (Assistant DA Alexandra Cooper Series) by Linda Fairstein

Hardback:  Amid the concrete and skyscrapers of New York City, the Wildlife Conservation Society works to preserve and protect the animal kingdom.  But dangerous creatures do not always have claws and fangs, as Assistant DA Alexandra Cooper and NYPD detectives Mike Chapman and Mercer Wallace know all too well.

Predators lurk close to home, and in the aftermath of the shocking drive-by murder of someone Alex has worked with for years, the trio must discover who the bigger snake is:  the killer of the victim.

Investigations into the death provide more questions than answers, as a tangled mess of secrets slowly comes to light.

From bribes to secret societies, from big-game hunting to the illegal animal trade, from New York City zoos to behind closed doors in government buildings, Alex will have her work cut out for her if she wants to uncover the truth and uphold the integrity of the office she has so proudly served.

Deadfall (2017) is the latest and nineteenth book in the Assistant DA Alexandra Cooper series set within New York City.

About the author:  Linda Fairstein (born 1947) is one of America's foremost legal experts on crimes of violence against women and children.  She served as head of the sex crimes unit of the Manhattan District Attorney's office from 1976 until 2002 and is the author of a series of novels featuring Manhattan prosecutor Alexandra Cooper.

Ms Fairstein is an honours graduate of Vassar College (1969) and the University of Virginia School of Law (1972).  She joined the Manhattan District Attorney's office in 1972 as an Assistant District Attorney.  She was promoted to the head of the sex crimes unit in 1976.  During her tenure, she prosecuted several highly publicised cases, including the "Preppy Murder" case against Robert Chambers in 1986.

Linda Fairstein left the District Attorney's office in 2002, and has continued to consult, write, lecture and serve as a sex crimes expert for a wide variety of print and television media outlets, including the major networks, CNN, MSNBC among others.  Ms Fairstein is often called to provide her opinion on high profile prosecutions including:  Michael Jackson's molestation charges in 2004, Kobe Bryant's sexual assault charges, and Scott Peterson's trial.  She is also a frequent speaker on issues surrounding domestic abuse.

Ms Fairstein lives in Manhattan and on Martha's Vineyard with her husband, Michael Goldberg.  Her novels draw on Ms Fairstein's legal expertise as well as her knowledge of and affection for the rich history of the city of New York.

Rating:  5/5

Mentalis Restrictio

Cardinal: The Rise and Fall of George Pell (Current Affairs) by Louise Milligan

Paperback:  This is in part a story of a notable Prince of Church, a staunch defender of Vatican authority.  It is also a heartbreaking tribute to the children abused within his circle, and both before and during his time of authority - knowledge of which he denies, as is his legal right.  But above all, Cardinal (2017) introduces new evidence indicating that as engrossing as this account may be, George Pell's career has not yet taken its final direction. - Tom Keneally, Australian novelist, playwright and essayist

George Pell is the most recognisable face of the Australian Catholic Church.  He was the Ballarat boy with the film-star looks who studied at Oxford and rose through the ranks to become the Vatican's indispensable 'Treasurer'.  As an outspoken defender of church orthodoxy, 'Big George's' ascendancy within the clergy was remarkable and seemingly unstoppable.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse has brought to light horrific stories about sexual abuse of the most vulnerable and provoked public anger at the extent of the cover-up.

George Pell has always portrayed himself as the first man in the Church to tackle the problem.  But questions about what the Cardinal knew, and when, have persisted.

The nation's most prominent Catholic is now the subject of a police investigation into allegations spanning decades that he too abused children.

A world-first report by an actual Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse found that 7 per cent of Australian priests working between 1950 and 2010 had sexual abuse complaints made against them to the Church.  That is far higher than the international figure of 2 per cent as the quantum of paedophile priests offered by Pope Francis to Italy's La Repubblica newspaper in 2014.  Of the complaints at that time, ground zero was the Archdiocese of Melbourne which Pell oversaw.  Between 1950 and 2010, 8.1 per cent of 859 priests were accused of sexual abuse.  While there were other dioceses where the percentage was higher, they were in places where the numbers of priests were far lower.  Melbourne had more paedophile priests than any other place in the country.  And most of them operated during Pell's time in Victoria as priest or bishop.

In 2009, the Vatican's representative in Geneva, Switzerland, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, was quoted as saying that the sexual abuse crisis in the United States and internationally was about homosexual priests preying on adolescent boys rather than paedophilia per se.  It was 'more correct', Tomasi said, to speak of ephebophilia, an attraction to adolescent males than paedophilia.

According to LifeSiteNews, a Canadian pro-life news site which focuses on religious, particularly Catholic, issues, Tomasi's views were 'backed up by a report commissioned by the US bishops that found in the overwhelmingly majority of cases the clergy involved were homosexuals, with 81 percent of victims being adolescent males'.  The implication of this report appeared to be that the problem was homosexuality, not clergy abuse.

Louise Milligan is the only Australian journalist who has been privy to the most intimate stories of complainants.  She pieces together a series of disturbing pictures of the Cardinal's knowledge and his actions, many of which are being told here for the first time.

Conspiracy or cover-up?

Cardinal uncovers uncomfortable truths about a culture of sexual entitlement, abuse of trust and how ambition can silence evil.

Melbourne University Press will withdraw Louise Milligan’s book about George Pell from Victorian bookshops (Australia) following the cardinal’s charges for multiple historical sexual offences.  Cardinal: The Rise and Fall of George Pell details allegations against Pell, but now he has been charged, the book may prejudice the case and be in contempt of court.

About the author:  Louise Milligan is an investigative reporter for ABC TV's 7.30 and Four Corners.  She has covered the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse.  Her exclusive stories on the allegations against George Pell won her two Quill Awards from the Melbourne Press Club, including the Gold Quill for best story of the year, the highest honour in Victorian journalism.  Milligan is Irish-born and was raised a devout Catholic.

The Classic Act of Reading

Seen in London

The Love of Books

Tongues in Trees

The Late Show (Introducing Detective Renée Ballard) by Michael Connelly

Hardback:  Crime never sleeps.

Los Angeles can be a dangerous city - never more so than in the dead of night.

Detective Renée Ballard, once one of the department's young hotshots, now works 'The Late Show', the graveyard shift at the LAPD.

It is a thankless job keeping strange hours in a twilight world of tragedy and violence, handing over her investigations as the sun rises, never getting closure.

Some nights are worse than others.  And tonight is the worst yet.  Two cases:  a brutal assault, and a multiple murder with no suspect.

Ballard knows it is always darkest before dawn.  But what she does not know is how deep her dual investigation will take her into the dark heart of the city, her department and her past.

The Late Show (2017) introduces Renee Ballard, a fierce young detective fighting to prove herself on the LAPD's toughest beat, from #1 New York Times bestselling author Michael Connelly.

The consistency of Connelly's writing is impressive!

About the author:  A former police reporter for the Los Angeles Times, Michael Connelly is the internationally bestselling author of the Harry Bosch thrillers.  The TV tie-in series - Bosch - is one of the most watched original series on Amazon Prime and is now in its third season.  He is also the author of several bestsellers, including the highly acclaimed legal thriller, The Lincoln Lawyer, which was selected for the Richard and Judy Book Club in 200, and has been President of the Mystery Writers of America.  His books have been translated into thirty-nine languages and have won awards all over the world, including the Edgar and Anthony Awards.  He spends his time in California and Florida.

Rating:  5/5

That St Louis Poet

Ovid (20 March 43 BC - 17 AD), Roman Poet

Some Light Relief

Cult of Ignorance

Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (1828-1910), One of the Greatest Writers of All Time

The Color Purple (Color Purple Series) by Alice Walker

Paperback:  The Color Purple (1982) is an epistolary novel by Alice Walker and a powerful novel of courage in the face of oppression.  Taking place mostly in rural Georgia, the story focuses on the life of women of color in the southern United States in the 1930s, addressing numerous issues including their exceedingly low position in American social culture.

Celie has grown up in rural Georgia, navigating a childhood of ceaseless abuse.  Not only is she poor and despised by the society around her, she is badly treated by her family.  As a teenager she begins writing letters directly to God in an attempt to transcend a life that often seems too much to bear.  Her letters span twenty years and record a journey of self-discovery and empowerment through the guiding light of a few strong women and her own implacable will to find harmony with herself and her home.

The novel has been the frequent target of censors and appears on the American Library Association list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2000-2009 at number seventeen because of the sometimes explicit content, particularly in terms of violence.

The Color Purple's deeply inspirational narrative, coupled with Walker's prodigious talent as a stylist and storyteller, have made the novel a contemporary classic of American letters.

It won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (1983) and National Board of Review Award for Fiction (1983).

About the author:  Alice Walker, one of the United States’ preeminent writers, is an award-winning author of novels, stories, essays, and poetry.  In 1983, Walker became the first African-American woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for fiction with her novel The Color Purple, which also won the National Book Award.  Her other books include The Third Life of Grange Copeland (1970), Meridian (1976), The Temple of My Familiar (1989), and Possessing the Secret of Joy (1992).  In her public life, Walker has worked to address problems of injustice, inequality, and poverty as an activist, teacher, and public intellectual.

Gathering Blossoms Under Fire will be published in 2018, comprising Alice Walker's edited journals exploring her thoughts and feelings as a woman, a writer, an African-American, a wife, a daughter, a mother, a lover, a sister, a friend, a citizen of the world.

Rating:  5/5

One Hundred Pages Read

Seen in Dancing Waters Cafe, 33 Forestry Road, Springbrook, Queensland 4213, Australia

Mary Ryan's Books, Music and Coffee Est 1975

For many generations the pristine beauty and natural lifestyle of Byron Bay has attracted a wide array of visitors and residents to the once sleepy seaside village.

Geographically, Byron Bay is the most easterly location on the Australian mainland and when you gaze at the ocean from Cape Byron, you are often rewarded with sightings of the abundant marine life.  Located on the north coast of New South Wales, Byron is a leisurely 2-hour drive south of Brisbane.

To experience all that is unique to this area take the time to explore the magnificent beaches and the world heritage listed rainforests.  The alternative lifestyle also attracts artists, writers, and musicians, so awaken your creative senses or relax your muscles with a massage from one of the many healers. Byron Bay is more than a popular tourist destination, it is a celebration of life and a place where you can nurture your soul.  To the local indigenous people Byron is known as the place of healing, or 'Arakwal'.

Mary Ryan's Books, Music and Coffee is a specialised independent bookseller, selling an eclectic range of books, giftware, music, and DVDs.  Currently, there are six other Mary Ryan bookstores in Queensland including the one in Byron Bay (pictured above).  They are Queensland's favourite booksellers, Australian Bookseller of the Year 2004, and Queensland's Independent Retailer of the Year 2012.

It is an absolutely well-stocked bookstore and an amazing experience to wander round the aisles and check out the tightly-packed bookshelves filled with all sorts of books in almost every category.

If you are looking to quench your thirst as well as catch up with your holiday reading (there are cosy reading areas in the bookstore) or more importantly, to buy a book(s), then do make sure you look out for Mary Ryan's for all your literary experience!

Highly recommended.

The Month of August

A Visit To An Independent Bookstore in Australia

On this beautiful day in August, I happened to come across this charming and delightful bookstore in a town on Tamborine Mountain in South East Queensland, Australia.  Under The Greenwood Tree is a well-stocked independent bookstore and apart from books, also sells art and jewellery by contemporary Australian artists and designers.

Books in the store include new release titles, fiction/non-fiction, children's books, bestsellers, classics, and just good books!

Do drop by if you are in the area and if you cannot find the book you want in store, Under the Greenwood Tree is more than happy to order it for you.

Do follow them on Facebook @MtTamborineBooksArt