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Michael Park School

32,031 pages read and 4,513 team points

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    Sharon

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KuraR

4,230 pts
(3,178 pages read)

  • Speaking my language

    By Mike McRoberts
    3 stars

  • The Axemans Carnival

    By Catherine Chidgey
    4 stars

    Unique and clever and deeply unsettling.

  • We All Want Impossible Things

    By Catherine Newman
    2 stars

  • The Covenant of Water

    By Abraham Verghese
    0 stars

  • The Coast Road

    By Alan Murrin
    5 stars

    Set in a small Irish town in the 1990s, and told using multiple voices, The Coast Road is a thoughtful and heartbreaking look at the domestic worlds and struggles of some of the families in the village. While many of the challenges specifically relate to the power of the Catholic church in influencing the happiness and independence of women, there is an overarching globally relatable theme about personal agency vs social constraints. The final chapter is so beautiful that this took the book from a 4 star to a 5 for me.

  • The Wedding People

    By Alison Espach
    3 stars

    I want to call this a light summer holiday read - but it opens with a woman planning her death. A woman books into a hotel to commit suicide (by way of her cat's pain relief) but ends up caught up in the hilarities and dramas of a week long wedding party, all of which lead her to change the course of her life for the better. My take is that it was a purposeful decision by the author, a creative writing teacher, to elevate unhappiness and depression from "the unspeakable" to the comical, as a reminder that being able to laugh at ourselves, our neuroses and our unhappiness is part of the cure. Ultimately it's a light, funny read with a trigger warning for anyone in a similar situation to the protagonist.

  • A Life Less Punishing

    By Matt Heath
    0 stars

    After hearing this quoted endlessly by my husband on our evening walk, I had to read it myself. I'm loving the combo of self help, humour and philosophy.

  • Pride and Prejudice - the play

    By Jon Jory
    4 stars

    Play version of P&P that retains all the best lines, even if they appear in unexpected places. We used this script to put on a paddock play at our family christmas and it was so entertaining that the cast had trouble keeping a straight face.

  • Night Swimmers

    By Roisin Maguire
    4 stars

    Sparse prose and an isolated (literarily unexplored) setting give this the delightful, almost intoxicating appeal of a rare number of books such as The Shipping News and The 16 Trees of the Somme. Imperfect and, at times, unlikely, but utterly delightful. Sad and hopeful, and an ode to the healing powers of nature - especially the sea. Recommend.

  • The Miracle

    By A.M.Dixon
    0 stars

  • James

    By Percival Everett
    0 stars

  • We Didn't Think it Throughh

    By Gary Lonsborough
    4 stars

    Another insightful novel from the author of Boys From the Mish. Three friends from a small Australian town steal a car as a revenge act for ongoing racism and bullying they've exoerienced in school. They get caught by the cops and end up in juvenile detention. The story follows one of the characters as he discovers the power of words and poetry as a redemptive and transformational power towards a new positive life once he finishes his time in prison. This could be an excellent addition to a mixed box of class readers for Year 9 and 10 and would appeal to students with an interest in both social justice and the arts. I already have a few students in mind!

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