Brunswick Bound Books

I have to admit to being a little surprised that I enjoyed How Not To Be A Boy  as much as I did, but in my defence, it's just that Robert Webb wasn't really on my radar. My boyfriend has always been a huge fan of The Peep Show (the show in which Webb starred with David Mitchell), but I could always take it or leave it - I mean really, two gormless human beings trying to navigate the world as "men" - it is, at times, truly excruciating viewing. But the brilliance of this book stems from that very juxtaposition - what does becoming an adult have to do with being a man? And further, how are we helping our children prepare for their adult lives when we are still perpetuating the boy/girl tropes? Robert Webb does a great job of navigating these topics in this hilarious, candid and very moving memoir.  His is a story is about how cruel and incredibly crippling the guidelines he was given for being a man have proven - excruciating, indeed. There is no doubt Webb has...

You may have overheard me telling people recently that I think Philip Pullman is the Hilary Mantel of children's fiction. Too bold?  Or strange? It's true that Philip Pullman certainly doesn't need any comparisons, he is as beloved a children's author as Hilary Mantel is celebrated for her literary fiction. But let me tell you why I say this.  You see, it occurred to me whilst reading La Belle Sauvage  (the first book in Pullman's new companion series to His Dark Materials series) that their books are akin in many ways.  The broad scope, terrific characterisations and their ability to take the narrative to a dark place, but never lose the humour (droll as it may be) are all compellingly similar. His Dark Materials  started with Northern Lights , in which we meet Lyra and her gyptian friend, Roger, in the city of Oxford.  It is a world parallel to our own, in which human beings are attached to animal daemons by a dark matter known as Dust .  Th...

This is a book about a very complex person. A complex person doing a complex job. Meet Sandra.  Sandra is a trauma cleaner. Written by Sarah Krasnostein, this book is on a level with Susan Falludi's In The Darkroom and anything by Helen Garner . The Trauma Cleaner  is an exercise in empathy, whilst at the same time a compelling page turner. When we meet Sandra she is cleaning the home of "Kim", a person most of us would consider irredeemably lost.  Her house is self-vandalised on the outside and the interior shows levels of self-neglect that Krasnostein regards as a type of "living death".   Sandra is not only able to reach Kim, but also relays her a sense of dignity in the process. A remarkable gift, considering what Sandra herself has suffered. Sarah Krasnostein's investigation into Sandra's story - her real story - is a remarkable achievement.  Sandra is the most unreliable source of her own narrative, and who can blame her.  Gender tran...

There's a lot of fun to be had reading  The Accidental Heroes , the new junior fiction novel by Lian Tanner. Talking cats, assassination plots, mysterious sorcerers, and a folktale baddie called The Harshman are just some of the travails Duckling and Pummel face when Duckling's grandfather Lord Rump convinces them to be involved in his very last Scheme inside the walls of the Stronghold of Berren. The streets of Berren are no picnic either, and the reader will take great delight in navigating it's streets where Snuffigators are trained to avoid citizens disappearing into Snares - created, as told by the authorities, by Saffie sabotage - and where the mere belief in superstition and magic is considered sedition. Set in Lian Tanner's world of The Keepers , this is the first book in The Rogues  series with a new cast of characterss.  Readers aged 9-12 will enjoy this first chapter of Duckling and Pummel's adventures in friendship, courage and magic and will be...

We are starting a book club at Brunswick Bound! Our first meeting will be at 6.30pm on Wednesday 27 September and we will be discussing Dennis Glover's The Last Man in Europe . This novel delves into the creation of Orwell's classic work Nineteen Eighty-Four  - a book Orwell came to see as his legacy, the culmination of a career spent fighting to preserve the freedoms which the wars and upheavals of the 20th century had threatened. Written with urgency and in a style not dissimilar to Orwell, The Last Man in Europe  should provide some great material for our book club to discuss. Megan will be hosting our book club.  With almost 20 years experience as a bookseller, many of those spent hosting one book club or another, we are sure you will have an entertaining and informative hour of book talk in her company. If you'd like to find out more about our book club, email megan@brunswickbound.com.au

Father's Day is fast approaching and we thought we'd help out with some guaranteed good reads for your Dad.    The 7th Function of Language is a thought-provoking conspiracy novel by bestselling French author Laurent Binet, whose previous book HHhH is amongst our perennial bestsellers.  History, philosophy, literature are all turned on their heads in this inventive novel which features literary theorist Roland Barthes in a playful whothunkit... i mean whodunnit. White Tears is a novel for the music lover and is also a page-turning thriller.  Two students brought together by their love of music are ultimately drawn down a path of greed and self-destruction when they discover and sample an old blues song long forgotten by history.  Or so they thought. The Mirror Thief  is a centuries-spanning, genre-bending tale of money and mysticism set in Venice - that is, 16th century Venice, 1960s Venice Beach, California and the modern day Venice Casino ...