A big thank you to The Makers Shed, High Country Book Club and to Michael Burge Media for selecting S. J. Morgan’s terrific thriller HIDE as their recent book club read. Love the preview Michael has made for the book. Thanks for supporting Aussie authors.
See it at: https://www.facebook.com/MakersShedGlenInnes/videos/241854090344323/?t=0
Fabulous to see four collections reviewed by the wonderful Carmel Bird in the Sydney Morning Herald, one of them being Dominic Carew’s No Neat Endings. Yay!
The great reviews of S.J. Morgan‘s Hide keep coming. Thank you NZbooklovers for this one. Hide will make a perfect Christmas gift for anyone who likes books with suspense and that special just-one-more-chapter-quality.
The MidnightSun team would like to congratulate Lucy Durneen on her win for best short story collection at the Saboteur Awards in the UK. We are so proud of her and of the collection, Wild Gestures, that is finding enthusiastic readers around the globe. Such wonderful news!
http://sabotagereviews.com/2017/05/14/saboteur-awards-2017-the-results/
Hear what the award voters had to say about Wild Gestures:
Lucy’s work is nothing less than exceptional. Her words and content take my breath away. She is also a hard working full-time academic, single-mother of four, who somehow still finds the time to dream and write. This alone should be worthy of an award.
Lucy’s collection is a tremendous work of humanity at its best and worst, its strongest and most vulnerable. Every story is packed with beautiful, unexpected and original imagery — to the point of enabling the reader to perceive a fresh perspective on their own life predicaments. This is a rare achievement in recent times and must be recognised and commended in the wider arena.
Because this is one off the most exquisite short story collections ever published. It is funny, sad, tender, cheeky, insightful and so, so clever. Lucy Durneen may be a new star in the literature hall-of-fame but she is certainly there to stay.
‘Stunning, evocative, thought-provoking.’
Another amazing review for Olivia’s Voice. Congratulations Mike and Jennifer!
It doesn’t really get much better than that.
The first review of Lucy Durneen’s short story collection Wild Gestures has appeared in Books+Publishing and we couldn’t possibly be happier:
‘This is an intriguing collection of short stories where things are seldom what they seem and characters are preoccupied by their past actions. Shaped less by plot than by precise and evocative imagery, they are psychologically acute portraits of people dealing with grief or change.’
‘The stories can be bleakly funny; when one character’s heart freezes over, she compares the spread of ice with the spread of cancer, coolly remarking that both seem inevitable if you don’t heed the standard warnings.’
‘There is something vicious at the heart of these stories, something dark which Continue reading Wild Gestures Review
Amanda Hickie’s terrific novel has had a great review in The Australian. This is what they had to say:
With Ebola, SARS, superbugs and the anticipated exhaustion of antibiotics, the question of how Australians might behave if a deadly pandemic hit our shores is an interesting one. We are, despite our vast expanses, one of the most urbanised nations in the world, ideal perhaps as a destination for diseases.
An Ordinary Epidemic (MidnightSun, 400pp, $28.99) explores these issues in a tight narrative that views the event from the perspective of a middle-class Sydney family. It’s the second novel from Sydney author Amanda Hickie, following her reimagining of heaven in After Zoe. Continue reading Review of An Ordinary Epidemic in The Australian
The reviews have been coming in for An Ordinary Epidemic and they are fantastic! Here are a couple to give you an idea:
Books+Publishing, review by Jessica Broadbent, librarian and former bookseller
‘What would you do in an epidemic? Stock up your pantry, gather your family and wait it out? But what if one of your kids was away on a school excursion? An Ordinary Epidemic explores these decisions and considers how broader society might cope with unexpected change—for example, what would happen if all the power plant workers decided to go home to their own families? It’s utterly fascinating, a little gruesome and impossible to put down. Continue reading Reviews of An Ordinary Epidemic
The excellent children’s picture book One Step at a Time written by Jane Jolly and illustrated by Sally Heinrich has received many fabulous, insightful reviews. Here is one of them, from Magpies magazine. Continue reading Reviews of One Step at a Time
Another lovely review of One Step at a Time, this time in Buzz Words: http://www.buzzwordsmagazine.com/2015/01/one-step-at-time_11.html
‘Jane Jolly has a knack for tackling unusual stories (Limpopo Lullaby) with tender, evocative writing. The striking illustrations are reproductions of hand-coloured lino prints. They are dramatic and engaging and the book is cleverly designed, taking in the elements of the lino cuts and leaving plenty of space for text. This is highly recommended, especially for classroom discussion.’
One Step at a Time just received its first review and it is fabulous! Read the entire review in Books+Publishing. Yay! Hopefully there will be many more positive words over the coming months. It is such a beautiful book, it really deserves high praise. Continue reading First Review for One Step at a Time
Anna Solding’s The Hum of Concrete, published in 2012, gets a mention in this Best Aussie Reads of 2014 list. At MidnightSun, we like our books to have a long tail.
http://writenotereviews.com/2014/12/23/my-top-ten-aussie-reads-in-2014-were/
The shortlist for the Most Underrated Book Award has just been announced and Anna Solding’s The Hum of Concrete is on it! This is such an amazing initiative by the Small Press Network, which gives the shortlisted entries new exposure. MidnightSun is so proud of Anna and honoured to be selected alongside other excellent small publishers. The other three shortlisted entries are: Fish-Hair Woman, Merlinda Bobis (Spinifex Press), Staunch, Ginger Briggs (Affirm Press) and Whiskey Charlie Foxtrot, Annabel Smith (Fremantle Press). We wish them all the best. The winner will be announced at a presentation on Friday 15 November at the Wheeler Centre in Melbourne. Read more about the shortlist here.
Reviews of Kim Lock’s Peace, Love and Khaki Socks have been overwhelmingly positive:
Daystarz: 5 of 5
One word. LOVE. I love this book. It is warm, genuine and emotive. It is real. It is entirely believable…This is so much more than just a book about pregnancy – it’s also a story about a woman’s search for validation and empowerment.
Peace, Love and Khaki Socks is simply adorable. It definitely makes my best books of 2013 list. An excellent debut novel from a promising Australian author. Continue reading Reviews of Peace, Love and Khaki Socks
We are so proud to announce the first six reviews of Kim Lock’s Peace, Love and Khaki Socks and they are overwhelmingly positive.
Daystarz: 5 of 5
One word. LOVE. I love this book. It is warm, genuine and emotive. It is real. It is entirely believable…This is so much more than just a book about pregnancy – it’s also a story about a woman’s search for validation and empowerment.
Peace, Love and Khaki Socks is simply adorable. It definitely makes my best books of 2013 list. An excellent debut novel from a promising Australian author. I will be keeping a keen eye out for Ms Lock’s next literary venture Continue reading Reviews are coming in – and they are brilliant!
