SUMMER READING

Grab a good book

Summer holidays are the perfect excuse to sit back and relax with a book, or, if you are looking for a unique Christmas gift, it’s hard to go past giving a good read while supporting a local author. Here is some inspiration from southeast Queensland writers.

CRUCIAL STEP By Ian Laver

After his father’s suicide, Theo Perry travels to Malaysia on a quest to discover the truth about the man who disappeared after the Vietnam war. From touchdown, Theo’s world begins to unravel.

Events, as violent as the tropical storms that sweep the Malay Peninsula, accelerate when he becomes infatuated with a beautiful Muslim woman and is propelled into a dark underworld where his western values count for nothing.

His youthful bravado crumbles – the closer the truth, the more tangled things become.

Mysterious friends – and enemies – know more about him than they should. An ancient tribal woman appears and seems to guide him.

Theo realises, in this different world, life and death decisions are on the razor’s edge.

Laver, an award-winning writer, takes the reader on a backpacking journey of mystery, adventure and suspense.

Available from Noosa Arts and Crafts, Noosaville; The Book Shop, Caloundra; and Berkelouw Books, Eumundi; or as paperback or eBook from all online bookstores such as Amazon, Booktopia, Barnes and Noble, Book Depository, Fishpond, Ingram, Apple iTunes/iBooks and Kindle.

GARDENING IN YOUR NINETIES

By Doreen Wendt-Weir

Doreen Wendt-Weir made good use of her time in isolation to write the sequel to her successful book Sex in Your Seventies. The 93-year-old tells of her efforts (post sex life) at gardening, sharing old-fashioned recipes as she harvests her vegetables.

As she works, her thoughts wander to her long life. She talks of childhood on the dairy farm on the Logan River, and remembers her many subsequent adventures as a midwife, hitchhiker, traveller, guest speaker, and as “Dear Doreen” on TV. Through it all, is woven a love story which may, or may not be, resolved.

Doreen was attending Brisbane Girls Grammar School when the war intervened in 1943, but went to become a trained nurse. At 71, she was accepted to Griffith University, where she obtained a Bachelor of Arts Honours degree. Available at sexinyourseventies. com Orphaned at birth, Charlie Shepherd was moved between foster homes until he was 18. The one constant was a strange recurring dream he experienced throughout his life.

In his vivid and unsettling dreams, he is swimming through shadowy freshwater caves, deep beneath the desert in Central Australia. Sometimes the dreams were peaceful, but mostly they were frightening, especially during his childhood.

Though he never knew his parents or where he came from, he always felt there was a deeper meaning – if only he could find it. An invitation to scuba dive in Central Australia with two friends is too tempting to ignore. Can Charlie unravel the meanings of his dreams down in the caves and discover his past, and his future?

Available at inhousebookstore. com.au/products/dreamweaver. The eBook is at amazon.com.au/dp/ B08PF24TTL

DREAMWEAVER By Gregory Cahill

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LIFE IS A DANCE By Tom Stodulka

Writing about real people, authentic feelings and the truths of everyday life, Tom Stodulka creates memorable pictures with words that are simultaneously accessible and remarkable.

Life, love and work intertwine with nature in a unique series of poems as he shows through his poetry, that life is about enjoying what we can every single moment.

Join Tom for tales of Australian life, discover local flora and fauna and learn from his experiences in his work as a mediator. Tom shares his appreciation of nature, his passion for his work and shows the reader how to remember that life is a dance, not a journey.

His new book Life is a Drama – Be Calmer, a companion book of poetry and third in the series, will be out soon.

Available as an eBook and Audio book through Audiobooks.com, Amazon, Audible, iTunes and Google or visit tomstodulkaauthor.com Ven is struggling to find romance and excitement despite her all-consuming love and duty for her children; Mark is striving for his own dreams in a century that demands he compromise; Peri is escaping her controlling mother by embracing sub-cultural ideas and lifestyles and Yanni is confronted with his own failings and losses in pursuit of the perfect life.

For them all, between the thought and the reality, falls the shadow of haunting memories which can be dangerous places.

Alternating between dreamscapes of island life and the stark interior of suburban family existence, Dangerous Places delves the depths between desire and duty, dreams and domesticity, and the myths we sometimes use to make meaning of our lives.

Available online at ginninderrapress. com.au or email tracey_dunn3@bigpond. com for a 10 per cent discount, plus postage. Yogita writes about 30 years living with a sense of not being loved, and how being told she was not good enough affected her thinking and made her slowly become someone she wasn’t in an engaging memoir of her journey of self-discovery, acceptance, selfawareness, and self-love.

Self-critical thoughts can cause anxiety, and the author’s quest to take control of her life motivates and encourages readers to beat the odds, realise how weaknesses have made them stronger, and to leave emotional baggage filled with guilt, depression, anger, and fear.

The book is raw, straightforward, and honest, as Yogita’s story encourages readers to break the cycle and activate the power of compassion, tolerance, grace, intuition, patience, creativity and forgiveness to end up loving yourself.

Available from travelingwithmemyselfandi.com/book Free postage in Australia.

THOSE BRISBANE ROMANTICS

By Danielle de Valera

Brisbane 1961: Women are now back in the home after being drafted into the war effort. Tara Mahoney, a budding artist, has fallen for Joe Gordon, whose ambition is to make it in international music. Marriage at 22 will ruin their career chances but they are desperate for one another. With no access to birth control, it’s hands-off.

Into this fraught situation steps a Hungarian ballet dancer. When she becomes pregnant to Joe, tragedy ensues. Joe turns back to Tara, who faces the choice of marrying a man she doesn’t love and keeping her career, or playing second fiddle to Joe. As she wrestles with these choices, a deeply conservative society is stirring.

The novel captures the essence of Brisbane when it was just a big country town. It’s about being under 25 when Donald Horne called Australia “the lucky country”.

Available from books2read.com/u/ mVapMp

DANGEROUS PLACES

By Tracey-Anne Forbes

FINDING ME, MYSELF AND I: JOURNEY TO LOVING YOUR AUTHENTIC SELF

by Yogita Ridgley

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