Best Kept Secret by Jeffrey Archer

The book is the third of seven. It's better than the first but not as good as the second. Harry and Emma's son Sebastian is going through school and Giles Barrington is trying to keep his seat in parliament. The last part of the book sees Sebastian off on an farcical and predictable adventure that had too much detail for me.

It's a story of good guys (the Cliftons and the Barringtons) and bad guys; the good guys are heroic, talented ands smart and the bad guys are despicable. The Barrington family have a knack for acquiring enemies and those emenies seem to enjoy making it their life's work to bring the family down. No doubt I'll be reading the next one, when I've nothing else to read!

A Lifetime of Impossible Days by Tabitha Bird

I loved this book. It was definitely one to be read slowly and savoured and not a book to be rushed through. It tells the story of Willa at three stages of her life (8, 33 and 93). Each of these three Willas is able to visit the other using a jam jar that creates a magic ocean in the garden. 

I wasn't sure when I started reading whether the book would really be about time travel or whether it was about mental illness and one Willa was imagining the other two. I found the book a bit slow when the Willas first start meeting each other but the second half of the book was great. Tabitha Bird obviously has a wondeful imagination and it felt like a privilege to have access to it. That's not to say the book is all shiny and bright. Willa has a difficult childhood that she's desperate to escape and something tragic happens to Middle Willa (33) that Silver Willa (93) is trying to prevent. Gumboots and jam drops feaure heavily in the book. The final page is a receipe for jam drops and I'm going to try it. 

Sins of the Father by Jeffrey Archer

This is the second book in the Harry Clifton series. Harry has taken on another man's identify and ends up in prison for that man's crimes. Emma Barrington and Harry's mother are both told Harry died at sea but Emma goes looking for him. As Harry sits out the start of the World War II in prison, his friend Giles ends up in Tobruk.

This book is much better than the first. There are a series of chapters from each of the main characters perspectives. They cover different events, whereas in the first book they tended to cover the same events but from different perspectives. I'm sure I'll read the next book in the series.

Only Time Will Tell by Jeffrey Archer

I enjoyed a lot of Jeffrey Archer books when I was a teenager, but it's probably 25 years since I've read one. I picked this one off my husband's bookshelf because I had nothing else to read. The book is the first in a series of seven that tell the story of Harry Clifton. Harry is a bright boy growing up between the wars under difficult circumstances. He has a beautiful voice that wins him a scholarship to a posh private school and his mother does her best to support him by working as a waitress.

There are some plot twists but Archer flags them before they happen. This makes the book very predictable. That said, the characters are interesting and likeable. On the one hand I want to read on and find out what happens to Harry (the next three books in the series are sitting on the shelf) on the other, I feel like I'm reading a modern Enid Blyton for grownups and I should go and buy a proper book.

Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton

This debut novel tells the story of young teens Eli Bell and his brother Gus. Luck is not on their side. They are being raised in a Brisbane suburb by their junkie mum and stepdad Lyle who are both involved in dealing drugs, and they haven't seen their dad in years. The steady influential adult in their lives is their babysitter Slim, a notorious former criminal. Things get worse for Gus and Eli when their parents business turns sour. Gus hasn't spoken in years, but manages to communicate by writing words in the air with his finger. He repeatedly writes "your end is a dead blue wren" and the name "Caitlyn Spies". It is clear, that at some point, the reader will find out what the dead blue wren is all about and who Caitlyn spies is.

The boys mum says they're special and the book hints at their ability to play with time. When Eli is streesed a red telephone appears and he talks to an unknown man on it. This element of the story seaparates the book from similar drug related novels; it shifts the genre to something hard to pinpoint.

The book has won a lot of awards, and they're well-deserved. One review compares it to The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. I can see it featuring on the HSC syllabus in the next few years. The writing is amazing. The ideas are deep and thought provoking, while the settings are grim and challenging. The villans are scary, particularly young Darren Dang, who Eli goes to school with, but the book is also full of hope and love. Eli likes to ask people if they're good or bad, and he reflects on whether people get to choose to be good. The book suggests that behind the everyday fronts of local businesses, some seemingly friendly people are up to no good, making money through drugs and violence and then doing the school run. No doubt this is true, but it's something most of us don't want to think about!

Scrublands by Chris Hammer

This 500 page crime novel tells the story of a journalist with baggage. Martin Scarsden is sent to a small Australian country town to report on the first anniversary of a mass shooting in which five local men were killed outside a church by the parish priest. Scarsden is hoping to get to the bottom of why the priest did what he did. He gets to know some locals including police, relatives of the victims and friends of the priest. When two bodies are found in a dried out dam, other journalists arrive, hoping to work out if the killings are connected. Martin quickly becomes part of the story.

Hammer is a former journalist and a large part of the book involves Scarsden interviewing and chatting to police and witnesses, or trying to put the pieces together in his head. The highlight of the book for me however, was Scarsden getting involved in fighting a bushfire. There a lots of plot twists and probably a few too many police officers; I started to lose track of who was who. I enjoyed some of the other characters, including beautiful Mandalay Blonde, Fran Landers (widow of one of the victims), and Codger Harris (a former bank manager who lives as a hermit and doesn't wear clothes). I thought the descriptions of Codger, scratching himself as he tries to think, were vivid and hilarious.

How to Bee by Bren MacDibble

This dystopian first novel won the Children's Book of the Year award in 2018. A famine in Australia has wiped out the bee population. Fruit is in scarce supply and children have replaced bees. The protagonist, nine-year-old Peony, lives in a shed on a farm with her Grandpa and her younger sister. Her mother is away for long periods, working as a cleaner in the city. Peony works as a pest, helping to keep bugs off the fruit trees. She aspires to work as a bee, leaping from tree to tree, pollinating flowers by hand. Peony's mother decides the time is right for Peony to join her doing menial work in the city, but Peony has other ideas.

I loved some of the characters in the book and the recurring theme around the importance of family. However, there are also incidents of domestic violence, betrayal and death that I found heavy going. The novel is original and timely, but I felt the combination of natural disaster and terrible parenting was a bit much for a Stage 3 book.