* Copy courtesy of Text Publishing *Reading the sample chapter of The End and Everything Before It by Finegan Kruckemeyer gave me goosebumps and reminded me of the fable at the beginning of… Read More

* Copy courtesy of Penguin Random House *I'm calling it early, but there's a very good chance A Short Walk Through a Wide World by Douglas Westerbeke is going to make My Top 5 Books of 2024… Read More

After enjoying Vital Organs - A History of the World's Most Famous Body Parts by Suzie Edge, I thought I'd give her latest non fiction book published this year History Stinks! Poo Throu… Read More

Weyward by Emilia Hart is a tale of three women from three different time periods covering a span of five centuries. In 1619 Altha is on trial for witchcraft, in 1942 Violet is fascinated by… Read More

Many readers will be familiar with the tragic death of Joe Cinque in Canberra in 1997 and the subsequent trial of his killer Anu Singh who administered a lethal cocktail of drugs and then, a… Read More

* Copy courtesy of Simon & Schuster *The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane is my third novel by Lisa See and this familiarity with her writing style made for a quick and easy entry into the n… Read More

Where the Forest Meets the Stars by Glendy Vanderah has an engaging premise. A young girl wanders from the woods barefoot and bruised into Joanna Teale's world, appearing to be a runaway or… Read More

Hard to believe, but Happy-Go-Lucky is my sixth book by David Sedaris. I've listened to all of them on audiobook and I just love his sing song rhythm of reflection and storytelling. After a… Read More

The Book Lovers' Miscellany by Claire Cock-Starkey is a cute little pint sized hardback packed with bibliophilic facts and fictions. Quirky chapter titles include: Movies That Started Life A… Read More

* Courtesy of Harper Collins *Growing up and living in Victorian era London, Tatiana Caldwell is unexpectedly orphaned after losing both her parents in quick succession. It's 1864, and at th… Read More

Butts - A Backstory by Heather Radke is just that; a history of butts, bottoms, bums and backsides. Heather Radke is an essayist and journalist and makes it clear early on that this explorat… Read More

* Copy courtesy of Text Publishing *It's been a while since the last time I found myself totally gripped by a psychological thriller written by an Australian, but To the River by Vikki Wakef… Read More

* Copy courtesy of Dzanc Books *Our main character in The Avian Hourglass by Lindsey Drager is a striving radio astronomer living in an unspecified future. This is a future where birds are e… Read More

Elaine Khosrova had cooked and baked with butter for years yet she'd never given the dairy staple much thought until she was assigned an editorial project to "taste, describe, and rate… Read More

Thanks to everyone who entered my giveaway last week to win a copy of Suddenly Single At Sixty by Jo Peck thanks to Text Publishing. All entrants correctly identified the book is an 'inspiri… Read More

Do you suffer from insomnia? Are you a night owl? A light or heavy sleeper? I've always enjoyed reading or hearing about the many factors that contribute to a good night's sleep. Author Jade… Read More

* Copy courtesy of Penguin Random House *IntroYou're not seeing things, what follows is a review of an historical fiction novel set during WWI. I know I've said here on Carpe Librum that I'm… Read More

IntroIt's time for another giveaway and today you have a chance to WIN a print copy of Suddenly Single At Sixty by Jo Peck thanks to Text Publishing. Valued at $36.99AUD, this giveaway is op… Read More

Earlier this year I saw Charles Duhigg was releasing Supercommunicators - How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection. Keenly anticipating the pearls of wisdom within yet frustrated by t… Read More

* Copy courtesy of Hachette *It's 1896 and Florence Granger is helping her father in the family business Granger's Bookbinders in Manchester. Florence is disowned when she brings shame upon… Read More

Residing in USA, David Thorne is the Australian author behind the notorious Missing Missy and despite a scathing review of Look Evelyn Duck Dynasty Wiper Blades. We Should Get Them in 2020… Read More

Translated by Sam Bett, The Miracles of the Namiya General Store by Japanese author Keigo Higashino has an enticing premise. Three youths seek a place to lay low after carrying out a robbery… Read More

I'm a huge fan of Irish comedian David O'Doherty, and on seeing he'd released a middle grade book for kids I was immediately reserving the print copy and audiobook from my library.When The S… Read More

The Institute by Stephen King will be akin to coming home for readers familiar with SKs oeuvre. A band of kids working together. An injustice of sorts. A clear bad guy / bad guys situation… Read More

* Copy courtesy Simon & Schuster *It's 1665 and Emilia Lennox heads to court to seek the favour of King Charles II after losing everything when her husband's lands and title were confisc… Read More

Browsing the shelves of my local library, I came across an attractive hardback copy of Bizarre London - Discover the Capital's Secrets & Surprises by David Long. I was convinced to take… Read More

Here's what I know for sure after reading this book. Robin Ince is extremely well read. Robin Ince knows a LOT about books. Robin Ince buys an extraordinary amount of books. Robin Ince is a… Read More

I didn't plan on reading two time travel books back to back, yet found myself in this position when reading The Other Side of Night by Adam Hamdy straight after The Book of Doors by Gareth B… Read More

* Copy courtesy of Penguin Random House *The Book of Doors by Gareth Brown has the potential to take out 'best cover design' for 2024 as determined here at Carpe Librum. Let's just take… Read More

Pockets - An Intimate History of How We Keep Things Close by Hannah Carlson was an interesting read. I listened to the audiobook read by Stephanie Cannon and while I have a passing and somew… Read More

After a ripping introduction to the work of David Sedaris in 2021 via Calypso, his work has been hit and miss since then. Naked was a 2 star read, Me Talk Pretty One Day a 3 star read and Dr… Read More

Two sisters live together in their family home in Nigeria. Korede and Ayoola. The older sister is a hardworking nurse in a hospital and her sibling is a killer. Ayoola is beautiful and manip… Read More

The Madman's Library - The Strangest Books, Manuscripts and Other Literary Curiosities from History by Edward Brooke-Hitching is a weighty yet stunning hardback book bursting with glorious i… Read More

If you love fairytales and historical fiction set in France, then The Bee and the Orange Tree by Melissa Ashley will interest you. Set in the salons of Paris and commencing in 1699 during th… Read More

Vital Organs - A History of the World's Most Famous Body Parts by Suzie Edge has a nifty concept to pull in readers eager to discover the quirky stories behind 'history's most famous limbs… Read More

* Copy courtesy of Scribe Publications *Opening with a disclosure about her fingernails, readers picking up The Pulling quickly discover that Australian author Adele Dumont is extending an i… Read More

Magic Words - What to Say to Get Your Way by Jonah Berger was an interesting audiobook and the author's research promises to reveal 'how six types of words can increase your impact in every… Read More

From one book with a creepy house at sunset on the cover to another, and this is my third visit to the Tradd Street series written by Karen White. Beginning with The House on Tradd Street (#… Read More

* Copy courtesy of Simon & Schuster *An author struggling to write her next bestseller receives a request from a famous billionaire in Malibu to ghost write his family's story. Our prota… Read More

It's a new year and a fresh start for annual challenges and I'm signing up for two reading challenges this year. Non Fiction Reading Challenge 2024First up is the Non Fiction Reading Challen… Read More

I didn't expect to close out my year of reading in 2023 with a book by Bill Bryson or a book about Christmas, yet both of these coalesced when I came across the irresistibly titled The Secre… Read More

2023 was an excellent reading year overall, and I read a total of 76 books with (weirdly) the same amount of 5 star reads as last year, with 19 books earning a 5 star rating. In previous yea… Read More

I finally read The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath and I'm sad to say it was a disappointing experience. Esther Greenwood is a 19 year old student from Boston and the first half of this slim modern… Read More

I love participating in the Non Fiction Reading Challenge hosted by fellow Aussie book blogger Shelleyrae at Book'd Out and this year I signed up for the Nonfiction Nibbler level o… Read More

* Copy courtesy of Scribe Publications *I've always been fascinated by language, accents and linguistic diversity. I have an Australian accent and my favourite accents to listen to are the K… Read More

* Copy courtesy of Simon & Schuster *After reading Lady Tan's Circle of Women by Lisa See earlier this year and identifying it as a real contender for my Top 5 list, I was lucky enough t… Read More

At the beginning of the year I signed up for the Renaissance Reader level of the 2023 Historical Fiction Challenge which required me to read 10 historical fiction books. As a comparison, las… Read More

* Copy courtesy of Allen & Unwin *Australian author Jack Heath is back in the charts and on my reading schedule with Kill Your Husbands this month. Heath is known for writing gritty and… Read More

In 2007 I read Fierce Conversations by Susan Scott and remember being impressed with the knowledge imparted and trying to absorb and implement as many of the key points as I could into my da… Read More

* Copy courtesy of Simon & Schuster *The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon is an historical fiction novel set in Maine in 1789 inspired by the life of Martha Ballard. Martha was an 18th centu… Read More

* Copy courtesy of Scribe Publications *Retro Sydney 1950 - 2000 by Nathan Mete is a collection of photographs that invites the reader to step back in time and tap into their nostalgia and s… Read More

The Turn of Midnight by Minette Walters was published in 2019 and follows straight on from the events in The Last Hours, published in 2017. I received this book from a generous bookish frien… Read More

* Copy courtesy of Text Publishing *In Corners of Melbourne - The Great Orange-Peel Panic and Other Stories from the Streets, Australian author Robyn Annear takes us through some of the inte… Read More

* Copy courtesy of Pan Macmillan *The Armour of Light by Ken Follett is a 700+ page novel, but if you're concerned it'll be a slow burn or you'll have to suffer through a slow start, fear no… Read More

Peter Faulding has had a stellar career, and in What Lies Beneath - My Life as a Forensic Search and Rescue Expert I was looking forward to reading all about it. Why the one star rating? I'l… Read More

Maps are such a big part of our lives, I'm surprised I haven't read into the topic before now. I'm old enough to remember planning a journey with a road atlas or referring to handwritten dir… Read More

Thanks to everyone who entered my giveaway last week to win a signed copy of Bone Rites by Australian author Natalie Bayley. All entrants correctly guessed the name of Natalie's guest post A… Read More

Our health has changed dramatically over the centuries, and in This Mortal Coil - A History of Death by Andrew Doig, the author explores the main causes of death we face today (heart disease… Read More

IntroWelcome to Australian author and new pen friend Natalie Bayley. As part of the blog tour for Bone Rites, Natalie is going to share some interesting facts about the Edwardian period. Sti… Read More

* Copy courtesy of Penguin Books Australia * Ernie's back after the events in the last book (Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone) and following on from his subsequent publishing su… Read More

* Copy courtesy of the author *IntroNatalie Bayley is a talented UK born Australian author residing in Sydney and it's a pleasure to be part of the digital blog tour celebrating the release… Read More

* Copy thanks to Hachette Australia *Sophie Blackall is back from her award winning picture book Farmhouse, with her new release If I Was a Horse.You might remember Farmhouse was based on th… Read More

I had so much fun putting together and publishing my post 8 Books on My TBR with Birds on the Cover earlier in the year, I decided to do another one. This time, I've recently notic… Read More

I was in the mood for a gothic historical fiction novel set on the coast when I picked up The Widow of Pale Harbour by Hester Fox recently. It's 1846, and Gabriel Stone is looking for a sea… Read More

Today I'm celebrating my biggest Carpe Librum milestone yet! (Drum roll)I've just reached 2 Million Page Views!In 2021 I reached 1.5M views and was ecstatic to continue enjoying an average o… Read More

Don't Hang Up by Benjamin Stevenson is an Audible Original available for free with my membership at the moment. Coming in at just over 3 hours in duration, this is a fast-paced Australian do… Read More

I totally fell in love with the creative process behind the embroidered cover design for Miss Austen by Gill Hornby after watching this video created by Chloe Giordano. I've been stitching … Read More

The Book of the Raven - Corvids in Art & Legend by Caroline Roberts and Angus Hyland is a beautiful collection of artwork, poetry and short chapters about corvids and ravens in art and l… Read More

The Boy Under the Table by Australian author Nicole Trope is about Tina, a homeless young girl living on the streets of Sydney's red light district, King's Cross. Tina's struggle to survive… Read More

I thoroughly enjoyed this young adult fantasy novel and it may even be a Top 5 contender for 2023. Published in 1968, The Last Unicorn by American author Peter S. Beagle has become a modern… Read More

* Copy courtesy of Simon & Schuster *Mia Jacob was raised in a puritanical cult known as the Community in Massachusetts where contact with the outside world is non existent and books are… Read More

My path to this book began with an unsolicited copy of The Satsuma Complex by Bob Mortimer earlier this year. Unfamiliar with his work, I came across some very funny skits on Would I Lie To… Read More

A quick check tells me Newes from the Dead by Mary Hooper was published in 2008, added to my virtual TBR pile back in 2016, and it has taken me until now to finally get around to requesting… Read More

August was Women In Translation (WIT) month and this year marks the tenth year of the project designed to encourage more readers to pick up books written and translated by women. I don't alw… Read More

After dipping my toe back into the true crime pool again recently, I've roused an old curiosity regarding how people can become capable of hurting others emotionally, psychologically and in… Read More

This Victorian historical crime novel is based on the true story of young Harriet Monckton, who was murdered in Kent in 1843. Harriet was 23 years old and was found poisoned in the privy beh… Read More

Walcha (pronounced like polka) is a small town in NSW, located half way between Sydney and Brisbane with a population of approximately 2,475 people. In 2017, Natasha Darcy murdered her partn… Read More

The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill has many layers, some of which I'm still untangling while trying to write this review. This mystery novel contains a book within a book and so many… Read More

* Copy courtesy of Simon & Schuster *Discovering The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware was a reading highlight of 2019 and the book made it onto my Top 5 Books of 2019 list. I'… Read More

This audiobook was a sheer delight! With a smooth and uniquely distinctive voice, author and puzzler A.J. Jacobs takes us on a tour of puzzles and the people who love them in The Puzzler - O… Read More

"The circus arrives without warning." The opening lines of The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern draw the reader into a whole new world, where magic is real and those with the gift disguise t… Read More

A few years ago, I adored reading Snail Mail: Rediscovering the Art and Craft of Handmade Correspondence by Michelle Mackintosh so much that it made my Top 5 Books of 2015 list. Snail Mail i… Read More

I was in the mood for another engaging audiobook experience like Gory Details by Erika Engelhaupt recently, when I picked up Bizarre - The Most Peculiar Cases of Human Behavior and What They… Read More

Published in 1992, Doomsday Book by Connie Willis is now considered a modern science fiction classic. I'm not usually a fan of time travel novels, however the premise for Doomsday Book is me… Read More

The Dirt on Clean - An Unsanitized History by Katherine Ashenburg takes us through our delightfully dirty and grubby past, as we meander through the ages taking stock of attitudes to dirt an… Read More

Thanks to everyone who entered my giveaway last week to win a copy of children's book The Skull - A Tyrolean Folktale by Jon Klassen. All but one entrant correctly identified the brave… Read More

I came across this book, Almost Lost Arts - Traditional Crafts and the Artisans Keeping Them Alive by Emily Freidenrich by chance when looking through my library's catalogue for something co… Read More

* Copy courtesy of Simon & Schuster *I've never read a book set in China during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and I'm not into women's literature, so when this book arrived in my mailbox… Read More

IntroIt's winter here in Australia and the perfect time to snuggle in with a good book to read, or win free stuff! For those who want to do both, I'm warming my hands by the heater as I brin… Read More

* Copy courtesy of Pan Macmillan *I first came across the Do Nothing Man from Japan in a BBC documentary called The Japanese man who gets paid to 'do nothing'. I was fascinated by the short… Read More

* Copy courtesy of Transit Lounge *Sporting one of the best cover designs of the year so far, The Terrible Event by David Cohen is a collection of short stories promising 'death, destruction… Read More

I've recently noticed a trend in my to be read (TBR) pile, and it's the sheer number of books with birds on the cover. I don't know whether I have an unconscious bias towards books with bird… Read More

* Copy courtesy of Harper Collins *In Becoming Mrs Mulberry by Jackie French, the reader meets Agnes in 1924 at the Mulberry estate known as Wombat Hills, in the Blue Mountains of New South… Read More

I've only recently discovered the work of David Mitchell, and I don't mean the novelist who wrote Cloud Atlas. In fact, the author comments on just how often the two are confused, well not b… Read More

I did it! It took me 10 weeks, but I finally read The Brothers Grimm 101 Fairy Tales by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. I read the original Snow White and Sleeping Beauty tales and more besides. Ho… Read More

* Copy courtesy of Hachette *An historical fiction novel inspired by the Voynich manuscript? Yes please! For those needing a refresher, the Voynich manuscript is a handwritten book on vellum… Read More

* Copy courtesy of Simon & Schuster *I read The Farm by Tom Rob Smith in 2014 and I can still remember the gasp I made when I realised the predicament the main character was in. In 2014… Read More

I've read two five star novels by Maggie O'Farrell now (Hamnet and The Marriage Portrait) and I finally made time to dip a toe into her back catalogue. I'd previously worried that I Am, I Am… Read More

My exploration of colour continues, and this time I'm back with Black - The History of a Color by Michel Pastoureau. A hefty hard cover with beautiful artwork inside, this massive tome took… Read More

Thanks to everyone who entered my giveaway last week to win 1 of 3 copies of Drowning by T.J. Newman. Before she was a bestselling author, T.J. Newman was a flight attendant and fortunately… Read More