Looking Out by Fiona McCallum

Mitchell has given up his previous career as an accountant to work from home as a trader on the stock market. He enjoys cooking all the meals for his family: wife, Natasha and school-age daughters, Lara and Willow, while Natasha, a decorator, is working hard to make a success of her homewares store. They have a beautiful home, two upmarket cars and a dog called Angel.

All is not well, however. Mitchell is in all kinds of trouble with his trading, and the pressure of keeping their financial situation from Natasha is becoming overwhelming. Natasha is focused on her own business and trusts Mitchell to manage the family’s finances. She loves  Mitchell and she’s sure he still loves her but because he is trading on international markets at all hours of the night and day she is seeing him less and less and even when she attempts to rekindle their former intimacy he turns away from her.

Enter Jesse, a good looking man making no secret of his interest in Natasha. Can a once peaceful, harmonious life be resurrected for Mitchell, Natasha and their daughters if a new dynamic is introduced, as long as there is total honesty about it? Does human nature work that way?

Looking out is one of the best books I’ve read in a long time. It deals with a lot of serious issues in a world where ‘having it all’, financially, emotionally, physically, is the standard expectation.

Fiona McCallum has written a very clever, utterly absorbing book, not like anything I’ve read before. I couldn’t get out of bed this morning because I couldn’t put it down, even though my poor little dogs were looking trustingly at me, waiting for me to make a move, the cats having long jumped down from the bed and gone to see their dad. 

I can sum up Looking Out in three words: wow, just wow!

Published by Harper Collins

Love From Scratch by Amy Hutton

 

Love From Scratch is crying out to be made into a bright, sparkling romcom movie. The setting is Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, the hero is a Hemsworthian hunk, the heroine is almost as gorgeous as the hero, and it’s all topped off with an adorable cat and dog.

Ethan is a movie star best known for his looks. He is well aware that that is what gets him starring roles and he is quite matter-of-fact about maintaining his appearance. He is, however, a very nice, genuine man with a great appreciation for the success that has come his way so far.

Hazel is a chef whose confidence has been shattered by a particularly horrible customer. She has, sadly, lost her passion for cooking beautiful food, and she takes a job as a dog minder for Ethan’s Jack Russell while Ethan is filming.

This is not my usual kind of book; however, Amy Sutton’s writing about the cat and dog was tender, sweet and real which absolutely won me over;  and another point I would like to make is that Amy knows how to write a sex scene, a skill a lot of authors aspire to but not many do really well. The movie which I hope will eventuate will be a winner if it is filmed on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast and Sydney’s Northern Beaches: heaven on earth!

Published by Simon & Schuster

The Serpent Rising by Mary Garden

 

I decided to read The Serpent Rising after reading My Father’s Suitcase in which Mary Garden talks about the violent physical abuse inflicted on her by her younger sister, Anna. 

Mary was a brilliant student but having been diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder she was finding it hard to cope with life. She stumbled on Eastern mysticism at an Ashram in New Zealand, after which she decided to travel to India in a search of enlightenment. 

The Serpent Rising is an absolutely fascinating story about a vulnerable young woman who needed help in recovering from a childhood of not being heard while an enormous, far reaching problem was unfolding within her own family. Unfortunately, Mary’s vulnerability was soon seized upon by an unscrupulous guru (and there were plenty of those around) and she relates her extraordinary tale with stunning clarity. I could see India in technicolor as I read, with the mighty Ganges flowing down from the mountains and the profusion of flowers and shrubs all around, as well as the dirt and the dust of the crowded cities.

This is a memoir like no other I’ve read. It is sad, moving, powerful and, ultimately, hopeful.

Published by Justitia Books

The Seven Good Years by Etgar Keret

 

The illustration on the cover of  Etgar Keret’s The Seven Good Years, a memoir of the first seven years of his son’s life, is perfect. Although it was first published in 2006 it could have been written today.

I laughed out loud through much of this book, and when I came to the end I put it down and cried. Etgar Keret’s stories of life in Tel Aviv are filled with brilliant wit, kindness, generosity of spirit and utter good heartedness.

It was a profound experience for me to read this book, given to me as a present by my beautiful friends in Israel. 

Shalom achi!