Book Review: Making Friends with Alice Dyson

Our intern Jessica Hartman reviews debut author Poppy Nwosu's Making Friends With Alice Dyson, the first in Wakefield Press's dedicated Young Adult Fiction list led by Margot Lloyd. Whilst reading this text I have fallen in love with, become exasperated by, and completely related to Alice Dyson, the protagonist Poppy Nwosu has so artfully created. The text delves into issues of social anxiety, peer pressure and bullying, self-identity, the feeling of being trapped on a…

The Stella Count 2014

The Stella Count for 2014 is in! This wonderful little study, conducted by the same people behind the Stella Prize, looks at gender (im)balance in book reviews across Australia. You can see the full results here. What's the take-home message? Most of the regionals seem to be getting things right. There are fairly equal numbers of male and female reviewers, ditto for the gender of authors reviewed. The nationals – the Australian, the Financial Review…

A lovely review of Kate Strohm's Siblings

I think this book is a revelation. It has shone light to a lifetime of feelings and emotions that I could never really make sense of, until now. For anyone who has considered reading Kate Strohm's wonderful book, Siblings: By Joe Cole (Phoenix Society): I think this book is a revelation. It has shone light to a lifetime of feelings and emotions that I could never really make sense of, until now. One of the…