Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty - but to tell the truth I loved it

Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty

I read The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty last year and loved it.  Liane Moriarty has the curious distinction of being a New York Times Bestseller author multiple times but is almost unknown – though that is gradually changing – in Australia.  I really enjoyed The Husband’s Secret, and started Big Little Lies thinking in my cynical way, “oh yeah”, story about school mums set in a fictionalised version of the Northern Beaches in Sydney, a sort of Desperate Housewives at the school gates, but then I just got sucked in, started rooting for the various characters and was engrossed by the whole thing.  I love the fact her books do so well in the US because they are very identifiably set in Sydney and there is a real feel to the setting – but I guess they are universal characters and from a personal perspective I find it so reassuring that if you write great characters and scenes, you can set your book wherever you like and people will want to read it – and that about sums up Liane Moriarty or the two books I’ve read, great stories that you’ll find yourself sneaking off to read another chapter of – always my mark of readability ever since I used to hover round my mother’s  side of the bed, desperate to get my paws on the next chapter of ‘The Famous Five’ that she used to read out aloud to us.

So if you are Australian, go and read, buy, borrow this book – Liane Moriarty deserves to be more well known here – and besides I’ve decided I love her sense of humour and I want her as my new best friend!

Venetia by Georgette Heyer - Bridget Jones without the Angst

Venetia by Georgette Heyer

Where else is a girl going to go when in need of the ultimate relaxation?  Georgette Heyer is the literary equivalent of hot chocolate on a snowy day.  Shut out the social media and harsh electric light of modern day and take yourself to the sofa with a Heyer heroine.  My parents-in-law had a bookcase full of Georgette Heyer’s books in their spare room and a book lying illicitly on the bed, ignoring the shrieks of my children was always my biggest treat.  Georgette Heyer’s Regency rooms, chick lit in flounces, are being republished in new editions by Sourcebooks Casablanca and having borrowed ‘Venetia’ from my local library, I read it with relish before handing it on to my 15 year old, who equally lapped it up.  I do worry about getting her hooked on feisty females who always manage to land the bad, dangerous man with masterful traits who is of course not as bad as he is painted – in Bridget Jones terms, the heroine ends up with a reformed Daniel Cleaver rather than Mark Darcy.  Feminist considerations aside, I do love Georgette Heyer and my spirit always lift when I find someone else who is a fan.

Venetia, is surprise, surprise about one of the afore mentioned feisty female types who is forced to draw upon her own resources and charms when the blackest of black sheeps returns to the neighbourhood in the shape of her next door neighbour, albeit we are talking neighbouring estates rather than two up two downs. 

There used to be a UK advertising slogan, that went along the lines of “if you want a lot of chocolate on your biscuit, join our club” – the biscuit being in this case of course “Club”, and if you want an undemanding enjoyable read, with lots of romance and fun upon the page – then this is an author for you.

Bereft By Chris Womersley - Near Gothic tale of murder and retribution in country NSW

Bereft By Chris Womersley

Just as a footnote, bereft is one of those tricky words that I always have trouble spelling, and this book with its complexity and twisting story deserves the title, aside from the layers of grief and loss that the word conveys.  The book is a haunting, evocative story of a the aftermath of a particularly traumatic murder in 1909.  Twelve year old Sarah Walker was murdered in a tiny remote inland Australian town, ‘the fly-speck town of Flint’, the chief suspect was her older brother, Quinn, who fled the scene upon discovery and to all intents and purposes disappeared off the face of the earth.  Ten years later In the aftermath of the First World War, he returns unannounced to Flint to revenge Sarah and to expose the truth.

He hides in the hills around the town, evading authorities and slipping into his old home to see his dying mother.  In his wanderings he meets Sadie, another twelve year old who has been left adrift by life, and who seems uncannily to channel Sarah’s voice.

This book deservedly did really well for Chris Womersley and it has been a book that has been on my reading radar as a book I wanted to read since it came out so I am really pleased to have read it at last and it was worth the wait. 

Winner ABIA Literary Fiction Book of the Year


Winner of Indie Award for Best Novel


Shortlisted for The Age Book of the Year


Shortlisted for 2011 Miles Franklin Award


Shortlisted for ASL Gold Medal for Literature


Shortlisted for Ned Kelly Award for Fiction


Shortlisted for CWA Gold Dagger


Longlisted for Dublin IMPAC Award