Just So Stories

Random Reviews and Ramblings from Redcliffe


  • Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix – J. K. Rowling. Jim Kay (Illustrator)Neil Packer (Illustrator)

    Bloomsbury Publishing October 2022 ISBN 9781408845684 Imprint Bloomsbury Children’s Books RRP: $75.00 Readers of this blog will know of my passion for all things Harry and I have often shared the magnificence that comes my way via Bloomsbury Publishing (long may the prosper!). The fact that this is my favourite of all the original books,…

  • Time of My Life – Myf Warhurst

    Hachette September 2022 ISBN: 9780733649189 RRP $34.99 I have no doubt that anyone in my personal orbit will confirm that I am a dyed-in-the-wool, fully card-carrying aficionado – nay, devotee! – of Spicks and Specks. Not only would I not miss an episode when is was screening but I regularly watch repeats, specials, have the…

  • The Light in Everything – Katya Balen

    Bloomsbury Australia Bloomsbury Publishing Imprint: Bloomsbury Children’s Books July 2022 ISBN 9781526647405 RRP: $14.99 This is the third of Katya’s books I have read and honestly, I love her writing more each time. She has such skill in creating believable characters with whom the reader can easily connect and her deft hand in giving them…

  • Ellie Pillai is Brown – Christine Pillainayagam

    Faber & Faber July 2022 ISBN: 9780571366910ISBN-10: 0571366910RRP: $17.99 This is a debut novel of true exceptional talent IMO. I love a good romance and when it’s interwoven with self-discovery, diversity, cultural differences, regular teen relationships and issues, and music – all the better! Also, this is definitely the first YA (or indeed any book) I have…

  • House Arrest: Pandemic Diaries – Alan Bennett

    Profile Books July 2022 ISBN: 9781800811928ISBN-10: 1800811926 RRP: $14.99 It’s a perfect little gem of a book – a mere fifty pages – but they are just packed with Bennett’s trademark ascerbic wit, pithy obervations on social circumstances made all the more absurd at times by the whole Covid complication. Now in his 80s, in fact almost…

  • Which Way to Anywhere – Cressida Cowell

    Hachette Australia September 2022 ISBN 9781444969047 | RRP $22.99 Well, if there’s anything more exciting in MG fiction than a new Cressida Cowell title, it’s a new Cressida Cowell series and this one is going to skyrocket I can assure you. K2 O’Hero (yes, he is named after the mountain) would appear, to all intents and purposes,…

  • Agatha Christie: a Very Elusive Woman – Lucy Worsley

    Hachette Australia September 2022 ISBN: 9781529303889 | RRP $34.99 If, as I am, you are are a fan of historian Lucy Worsley, either in her role as Chief Curator of Royal Historical Palaces and her numerous TV appearances, or in her other guise as a skilled writer of best-selling history books AND you are also an Agatha…

  • The Dangerous Business of Being Trilby Moffat – Kate Temple

    Hachette September 2022 ISBN: 9780734420909  RRP: $16.99 This is just utterly fantastic from first page to last. So good that I gobbled it up in just two sittings in fact. Why is it so dangerous being Trilby Misso you may wonder? Well, because she finds herself in a unique position – inheriting the singular role…

  • Plume [#3]: Festival Seeker -Tania McCartney

    Hardie Grant October 2022 ISBN: 9781741177909 Publisher: Hardie Grant Explore RRP: $26.99 My apologies for that delay between the fabulous interview with the lovely Tania and my promised review of the newest Plume title – released yesterday – but there was a rather inconvenient technical hitch. Welcome back Plume! Our intrepid Antarctic traveller extraordinaire is…

  • Willa and Woof #2: Birthday Business – Jacqueline Harvey

    Penguin Australia October 2022 Willa happens to find out that it’s almost Frank’s birthday and it’s a super special significant one. She feels pretty sad when she knows that Frank’s family, son and his wife plus children, who live in England are unable to even be in touch on this special day so, of course,…