2016 Costa Book Awards

The Costa Book Awards honour some of the most outstanding books of the year written by authors based in the UK and Ireland. There are five categories – First Novel, Novel, Biography, Poetry and Children’s Book – with one of the five winners chosen as Book of the Year, announced at an awards ceremony in London every January.

2016 winners are Continue reading

Top Book Reads of 2016!

If you were wondering what books had the most loans for 2016, wonder no more! Here are the top ten of the year.

Adult Fiction

  1. The girl on the train – Paula Hawkins
  2. 15th affair – James Patterson
  3. Cometh the hour – Jeffrey Archer
  4. Make me – Lee Child
  5. Big little lies – Liane Moriarty
  6. Rogue lawyer – John Grisham
  7. The crossing -Michael Connelly
  8. The steel kiss – Jeffrey Deaver
  9. The guilty – David Baldacci
  10. Private Paris – James Patterson and Personal – Lee Child

Adult Non Fiction

  1. The life-changing magic of tidying up – Marie Kondo
  2. Road users’ handbookRoads and Traffic Authority of NSW
  3. Driver qualification handbookRoads and Traffic Authority of NSW and A guide to the driving testRoads and Traffic Authority of NSW
  4. Reckoning: a memoir – Magda Szubanski and Hazard perception handbookRoads and Traffic Authority of NSW
  5. The secret – Rhonda Byrne
  6. Tax for Australians for dummies – Jimmy B. Prince
  7. The happiest refugee – Ahn Do
  8. I quit sugar – Sarah Wilson
  9. The 8-week blood sugar diet – Michael Mosley
  10. Flesh wounds – Richard Glover

For Young Adults

  1. Harry Potter and the cursed child. Parts one and two – Jack Thorne
  2. The fault in our stars – John Green and Paper towns – John Green
  3. The scorch trials – James Dashner
  4. Allegiant – Veronica Roth
  5. Catching fire – Suzanne Collins
  6. Divergent – Veronica Roth
  7. The book thief – Marcus Zusak
  8. The hunger games – Suzanne Collins
  9. The city of heavenly fire – Cassandra Clare
  10. If I stay – Gayle Forman

For Children

  1. Diary of a wimpy kid: the long haul – Jeff Kinney
  2. Diary of a wimpy kid: the third wheel – Jeff Kinney
  3. The 52-storey treehouse – Andy Griffiths
  4. Thea Stilton and the mystery on the Orient Express – Thea Stilton
  5. The only me – Meredith Harvey
  6. The 65-storey treehouse – Andy Griffiths
  7. Diary of a wimpy kid: old school – Jeff Kinney
  8. The wimpy kid movie diary – Jeff Kinney
  9. The perilous plants – Geronimo Stilton
  10. Totally weird! – Ahn Do

Books to TV Series

Look out! What will be on our screen this year:

  • The Cormoran Strike Series by Robert Galbraith aka J.K. Rowling 
  • Voyager – The Outlander Series by Diana Gabaldon
  • American Gods by Neil Gaiman 
  • A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket
  • His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman 
  • Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
  • Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery 
  • The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
  • Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty 
  • Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn

All About Books Summer 2016/17 edition

Looking for some more reading inspriration over Summer to distract you from the heat? Why not check out our All About Books reading guide, pick up your copy from the Library or click here.

Book Review: Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarty

Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarty

 

Summary

IF ONLY THEY’D SAID NO…

What if they hadn’t gone? That’s the question Clementine can’t stop asking herself. It was just a backyard barbeque. They didn’t know their hosts that well. They were friends of friends. They could so easily have said no.

But she and her husband Sam said yes, and now they can never change what they did and didn’t do that beautiful winter’s day.

Six responsible adults. Three cute kids. One yapping dog. It’s a normal weekend in the suburbs. What could possibly go wrong?

Once again Liane Moriarty uses her unique, razor-sharp observational skills to sift through the emerging fault lines of seemingly happy families.

It was just an ordinary Sunday afternoon…

Comments

This was a good holiday read for our group.  However, while this was an eagerly anticipated read for us having read a few books by this author, we felt that this was not one of her better ones.  We found it a little too hard to follow.  The writer built the suspense well, but between flipping between 3 different points of view and also between the past and present day, made it at times, too complex.  Some of our readers found it hard to sympathise with the main characters and found some sections a little over detailed.
Overall though, as a group, we still found this book an enjoyable read, and we definitely recommend it.

Rating – 7/10          
Read by – Culcha Club

 
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