Tag Archives: aussie

Raw Blue & Six Impossible Things Book Tour

It’s been a long time coming but I’m absolutely thrilled to be announcing the Raw Blue and Six Impossible Things Book Tour! All the information you need should be below.

Mission:

The mission of this tour is to help promote Raw Blue by Kirsty Eagar and Six Impossible Things by Fiona Wood. Both are contemporary Australian novels currently unavailable in the U.S. or internationally. As I happened to acquire them out of the kindness of Aussie blogger Jess of The Tales Compendium I would like to give back by giving readers the opportunity to read high quality Aussie books that are not readily available to them as well as help the books get the necessary exposure that will (I hope) eventually lead to their publication worldwide.

Tour Process:

This one-time tour consists of two books which will be sent from one participant to the next. Participants are responsible for shipping costs and books MUST be sent via the United States Postal Service with delivery confirmation. The last tour participant will ship the book back to me.

Rules:

-Participants must be U.S. residents.

-Participants may sign up for one or both books but the tours may be limited and schedules will be determined by interest.

-Participants have ONE WEEK (7 days) from receipt of the book to read it before he/she is required to mail the book to the next participant.

-All books received MUST be reviewed and posted on either on your blog if you have one or on Goodreads, Shelfari, etc. and linked to the Mr. Linky on this post (to come).

-Participants are responsible to cover shipping costs and all books MUST be sent via the United States Postal Service with delivery confirmation. The delivery confirmation number MUST be emailed to me for tracking purposes.

-When a book is received, participants MUST email me a notification. The mailing address for the next participant on the tour will then be provided.

-If at any time you need to drop out of the tour please notify me ASAP.

-Participants failing to comply with the above rules will immediately be removed from the tour.

-If there are any questions or concerns please email them to me at bookharbinger@gmail.com.

A Note: As Raw Blue and Six Impossible Things are from my personal library and are not easily replaced it goes without saying to treat the books as you would like your own books to be treated. Please be respectful of the books, the missions, and the rules.

Also, this is totally a coincidence but it also happens to be Aussie August, a month-long celebration of mostly Australian young adult literature organized by Lux at Paperback Heart. Each day of August there’s either a giveaway, author interview, or Aussie book review so go check out the schedule. It looks like I just missed the interview with Juliet Marillier at Missy’s Mess on the 6th so I’ll be heading over there as soon as possible. Also, be sure not to miss Irresistible Read‘s giveaway of Raw Blue on August 29.

Sign up:

-Sign ups will run through August 31 with tour schedules announced in September.

-To sign up, fill out the form HERE.

Six Impossible Things by Fiona Wood

4 Replies

Fourteen-year-old Dan Cereil’s life couldn’t be more upside down. Not only has his father come out of the closet but he’s left Dan and his mum to move house and find another source of income after his company folded and he’s moved out. Luckily it would seem Dan’s great aunt Adelaide has just so conveniently died leaving them her historic home. Unfortunately it’s in various states of disrepair and needs to be refitted for his mother’s new wedding cake business. Compounded by Dan’s geeky and shy tendencies and his hopeless crush on the girl next door, Dan is doomed to never fit in at his new school. Being the straight, honest yet hopeful guy that he is, Dan has boiled down his life to six impossible things that may or may not turn out to be so impossible to achieve after all.

Loosely based on the story of Cinderella, Six Impossible Things is a cute, fun, lighthearted and readable novel. It was not only Dan’s witty, dry sarcasm and his bullet-pointed lists that made it likable and easy to fall into but also Fiona Wood’s concise, popping prose. The writing stood out as both effortless and striking, read with ease until you come across one of the many witty one-liners that stops and strikes you with its brilliance. As an experienced TV scriptwriter, Wood pens these so well. Some of my favorites from early on:

“Guys, please, one life-changing shock at a time.”

‘She’s going to be making wedding cakes. It wouldn’t occur to everyone in the throes of a marriage breakdown, but we do irony in this house in addition to sarcasm.”

“My mother didn’t obviously hear my agonized moaning over Radiohead’s agonized moaning or I’m sure she would have been upstairs in a flash.”

Further on I began to notice that many of these lines ended a chapter or started a new one and I looked forward to them with pleasure. From the get-go Dan is hard not to like. He’s geeky and kind and thoughtless and unexpected. His hopeful self-deprecation is endearing and makes his awkward encounters at school and his struggles to make his mom happy ever entertaining. A laugh-out-loud passage between Dan and the bully Jayzo:

He sits down groaning. We’re both panting and drenched in sweat.

“Are you okay?” I ask.

A sound escapes his blood covered lips. It couldn’t be, could it? A snort of laughter?

“You wimp, you don’t ask the guy you’re bashing if he’s ‘okay’,” he says.

“Not really, no.” I say.

I take off my shirt and hand it to him. He balls it up and sticks it under his nose.

“I’d keep going, only I’m a bleeder,” he says.

“That’s fine,” I say. I’m alive, and it feels like a miracle.

“That was a lucky punch for a loser like you,” he says. “You can’t fight for shit.”

“I know.”

As you can tell Wood also has a knack for writing dialogue that just shines. Dan makes light of absolutely everything, especially the fortune reversal that is his life. While this makes the novel easy to read, mid-way through I didn’t feel a real urgency to finish the book, I wanted him to take his problems more seriously at times. But Dan is 14 years old so his reaction to weighty topics such as his dad’s sexuality, his divorced mother’s mental state, and their lack of income is natural and appropriate. I’m glad I kept on reading because the ending was sweet and just as it should be. Six Impossible Things is recommended for fans of quirky writing, younger YA, modern happily ever afters and retellings.

Second Opinions
Chachic’s Book Nook Review
Inkcrush Review
Irresistible Reads Review
Persnickety Snark Review
The Tales Compendium Review
Words on Paper Review
YA Reads Review

Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley

9 Replies

His art is all over the streets of Melbourne: yellow birds lying belly up, a girl with grass growing from her heart, a flat white “disappointed sea”, and others. His alias is Shadow, and Year 12 aspiring artist Lucy Dervish is convinced that he’s the one for her. She’s been looking for him all over the city but Shadow, along with his wordy partner-in-art Poet, are determined to remain anonymous. So when she and her bestfriends Jazz and Daisy meet Ed and his mates Leo and Dylan she can’t refuse Ed’s offer to show her where Shadow’s been, despite the embarrassing past they share. What ensues is one packed night of misunderstandings, realizations and honest, bare art which turns out to be the telling key to unveiling Shadow and unlocking Lucy’s heart.

Beautiful, expressive, quirky, a little bit heartbreaking and a lot hopeful, I breezed through Graffiti Moon. The characters were real and endearing and the sharp dialogue, lyrical prose, and tight plot were thoughtfully composed. Lucy, in her quest to find her ideal boy is completely relatable and Ed, in his despondent resignation and raw expression is someone for whom you can’t resist rooting. The story is told from the rewound, overlapping perspectives of Ed and Lucy interspersed with poems by Leo and I love that we are able to hear both Ed and Lucy’s reactions to the particularly revelatory moments. And at the conclusion when their story comes full circle, far from being cliché or stilted it’s cleverly done. Part Nick and Norah’s Playlist, part crazy John Green adventure and part mistaken identity a la You’ve Got Mail, Graffiti Moon is authentic. It’s the sort of teen movie that should be made except that it would sorely be lacking the poetic writing, which is at times arresting. An early excerpt from Ed’s point-of-view:

I spray the sky fast. Eyes ahead and behind. Looking for cops. Looking for anyone I don’t want to be here. Paint sails and the things that kick in my head scream from can to brick. See this, see this, see this. See me emptied onto a wall.

First thing I ever painted was a girl. Second thing I ever painted was a doorway on a brick wall. Went on to paint huge doorways. Moved on to skies. Open skies painted above painted doorways and painted birds skimming across bricks trying to fly away. Little bird, what are you thinking? You come from a can.

There are so many more lovely passages where that came from, and some of the spoilerly ones are the best. From the bright neon yellow spray paint to the streetwise title font and the stark black background, Graffiti Moon lives up to its striking cover. I’m thrilled it has been picked up by a US publisher for February 2012 and I will definitely be seeking out Cath Crowley’s A Little Wanting Song, which has already been published in the US.

Second Opinions
Chachic’s Book Nook Review
Inkcrush Review
Irresistible Reads Review
The Bookish Brunette Review
The Tales Compendium Review

Good Oil by Laura Buzo

9 Replies

Fifteen-year-old Amelia Hayes is a typical Australian teen. She’s just entered high school and has yet to find a clique or have a meaningful interaction with a boy beyond being shoved on the bus. Her part-time, after-school job is the most interesting part of her life. She works at the grocery store Woolworth’s aka “The Land of Dreams”. She’s fallen hard for her funny, charming, and attentive trainer Chris, who is six years her senior. If only she were two years older…

Twenty-one-year-old Chris is finishing an Honors Arts degree at uni, worried sick about what he’ll do after he graduates. He still lives at home, he still works at Woolworths. He’s still stuck training the new cashiers as one-by-one the coworkers his age are being promoted. He’s still crippled by the memory of his summer love Michaela and hasn’t gotten rid of the Kathy virus – yep – he’s still utterly alone on the woman front. He likes youngster Amelia more than any of the potentials, but they are in totally different stages of life. If only she were two years older…

I’d heard a little buzz about Laura Buzo’s debut Aussie YA novel Good Oil through the blogosphere but since it’s not available here, I hadn’t given reading it much thought. But when it came up as one of the available titles of the Go Aussie Book Tour I remembered enough about it that I didn’t hesitate to select it as one of my three picks. And when I went back and read the premise I was not disappointed. I like alternating male-female perspectives and was attracted to Amelia’s character right away.

Good Oil was such an unexpected and pleasant surprise starting from its arrival on a particularly off day for me. Not only did receiving it in my mailbox turn my day completely around, but when I opened it, I was immediately sucked into Amelia and Chris’s world. Hooked but also voraciously reading its 283 pages at a time when I was swamped with my personal life, which says it all. So often nothing fits the bill when I’m stressed, but this did swimmingly well. Being dropped into Amelia and Chris’s life on and off the clock at Woolworth’s without explanation made sinking into this book effortless. Amelia, naïve yet mature beyond her years; and Chris, happy yet stir crazy as he frets over what to do post-uni. Chris treating Amelia as a twenty-something, Chris enjoying her innocence and her intelligence as they discuss feminism, the classics of English literature, and movies. Amelia loving her treatment as an adult and Amelia liking the company of a more mature boy who is not all awkward hormones and who has a thing or two to teach her from his age and experience. I don’t know how any reader – teen or adult – could not relate to this. Amelia’s dreamy, hopeless love of Chris resonated strongly with me. A favorite passage that defines the meaning of “crush” so well it could be in the dictionary:

For those who are unfamiliar with the lifestyle, you do get used to having a whopping, pointless crush. By using the word ‘lifestyle’ I don’t mean to imply that it is in any way glamorous or desirable. Just that it becomes a normal part of everyday life, and your body gets kind of attuned to functioning on that plane. Your friends and teachers get used to you staring out of windows, when you used to be quite sharp. You stare out of all kinds of windows: classroom windows, bus windows, your bedroom window, over the sink and out of the kitchen window. Your central nervous system speeds up when the object of your affection is near, or expected to be near. Your senses sharpen, particularly peripheral vision. I am acutely aware of Chris’s movements at work. I see him approaching even when I’m studying a bag of beans to distinguish whether they’re broad beans or round beans. I know which girls he’s talked to throughout the shift. I know when he’s preoccupied or playful by the way he moves. I know when he’s pissed off that Kathy has been talking to Stuart Green from Groceries. I know it all. Sometimes I mutter his name under my breath like a madwoman.

Exciting, confusing, and above-all all-consuming: Laura Buzo has completely nailed what it’s like to be a teenager with an eons-out-of-your-league crush. For that, I loved Good Oil. It’s landed on that very short, exclusive list of books like Honey, Baby, Sweetheart that I’d like to go back and give my teenage self, because she sure needed this one. Best of all the ending is not wish-fulfilling or unrealistic. It’s honest and refreshing and just as the back cover blurb says, a little bit bittersweet. I don’t think a sequel is planned, but sign me up – I’m so there. I adore Amelia and Chris and would love to see how their immediate futures pan out.

Second Opinions
Inkcrush Review
Lost in Stories Review
The Tales Compendium Review
The Unread Reader Review
YA Reads Review

Raw Blue by Kirsty Eagar

12 Replies

Nineteen-year-old Carly is simply surviving. Having dropped out of uni and working as a thankless cook in a local café, there’s not much to live for. Her brother has his own life and her parents barely acknowledge her existence, but she could care less. As long as she has her day to spend surfing, nothing else matters. But the day she meets assured, carefree surfing local Ryan she realizes she can’t coast forever. He’s kind to her without expecting reciprocation and his patience for her open awkwardness is remarkable. Add that to the young surfer Danny, who sees something in her, and her bohemian but caring neighbor Hannah, and she may have more than surfing as a legitimate reason to live. But in the face of dealing with her painful past will she decide to sink or swim?

I’ve been serious in my intent to read this Aussie novel for the past few months after it seemed to be unavoidably popping up everywhere, from best of 2010 blogger lists and definitive author recommendations in the likes of Melina Marchetta. Not only was it hyped but it was unavailable internationally. Intrigued, I uncharacteristically bought the pricey ebook, and it was worth every penny.

Raw Blue held me captive from the beginning. With only the subtlest of hints, it’s clear that Carly is severely hurting, an emotional brokenness that doesn’t come without extraordinary circumstances. Her voice is raw and real; you feel for her, so that when Ryan shows up like a life raft you can’t help but be right on edge with her. Barely breathing or blinking at times, I sat completely still, desperately hoping and waiting for Carly to take the raft she’s offered even if it’s only by the skin of her teeth. It was quite the absorbing reading experience. A favorite passage from early on when Carly first meets Ryan:

“The air around him is snap frozen. He’s in his mid-twenties, his face so shut off and wary I wonder what’s happened to him. His skin is the sort that burns easily. The ridges of his ears are pink and freckled. They stick out a bit through his hair, which is light brown and lank. It’s scraggy, seventies style; he hasn’t had a cut for a while. He’s wearing old jeans, thongs and a white T-shirt, and he wouldn’t be out of place in a pub or a TAB.

After he’s walked off towards the car park, I take his place on the seat. Finally I have a clear view of the surf and I feel an electric charge. It’s a glitter skin day. The ocean is a vivid emerald colour and the wind ruffles the wave faces so that they shatter the sunlight like glass. Seeing that glittering skin always tightens my throat with joy. It’s stupid, but that’s how I feel: joyous. I forget about the underbelly of things, my secrets, and I feel easy and free. I know that I’m meant to stay on the surface and be happy. Just enjoy being alive.

Glitter skin days are my favourite kind of surf conditions.”

I love how this passage and the opening chapter as a whole capture the essence of Raw Blue, which is part immersion in surf culture and part the charged dynamic of Ryan and Carly’s relationship. To Carly, surfing is like breathing, and Kirsty Eagar‘s given justice to her way of life in the dominance the conditions and descriptions of the ocean plays in the book. While I didn’t understand most of the surfing lingo I was fascinated nonetheless by the paddling, taking a left or right, and falling of the surfing sets as well as being equally dazzled by the palpable descriptions of the ever-changing blue surf. Even though I don’t know what makes something Aussie, it felt Aussie, it felt authentic. It was as if I’d been granted permission into this secret subculture I didn’t even know existed but felt a part of by the end of the novel. With its clear, evocative prose, distinctive characterization, and unforgettable imagery, Raw Blue hooked me from its portentous beginning to it’s chillingly perfect and poignant ending. Highly, highly recommended. Now if I could only buy a hard copy.

Second Opinions
Angieville Review
Bibliophile Brouhaha Review
Chachic’s Book Nook Review
Inkcrush Review
Steph Su Reads Review
The Unread Reader Review