Just So Stories

Random Reviews and Ramblings from Redcliffe

  • Happy Holidays! The Frock Shop – Sophie Green

    It’s time for a blog break after another full-on reviewing few months but here’s one to take to the beach with you. I’ll be back after a couple of weeks respite before The Kid and I take off to Vanuatu for a week in mid-October. I know many of you will have had the usual…

  • Sleeping in the Land – Jasmine Seymour

    Wild Dog Books July 2026 LIST PRICE: AU$ 26.99 / NZ$ 29.99 This stunning book was particularly synchronistic as I had not long ago been collating information about the resurgence of our First Nations languages for some resources I was writing, and indeed was doing so again last week [as of writing this review]. Some…

  • Web of Spies: S.I.G.M.A. #1 – Tim Ayliffe

    Affirm Press September 2026 Distributed by Simon & Schuster ISBN13: 9781761636615 LIST PRICE: AU$ 16.99 / NZ$ 19.99 With a promo that offers the reader a ‘Australia’s answer to Alex Rider’ this will entice many thrillseekers. And, being a fan of Alex Rider myself, I was keen to read this ARC. Two swift sessions as…

  • The Library That Made Me: 200 Years of The State Library of NSW: edited by Richard Neville and Phillipa McGuiness

    New South Publishing New South Books 9781761170713 / March 2026 / RRP $49.99 This magnificent volume has been on my shelf for a couple of months now and I have been glorying in dipping in and out of it. I’ve still not quite finished exploring every single page and detail but the time is right for the review to…

  • Drawing Nudes While Making Other Plans – Zoe Gaetjens

    Penguin Australia Sometimes it’s just so refreshing to read something that’s different and this was one of those. It’s not that I don’t enjoy reading the YA cosy murder mysteries and so on, but when you get a book that gives you a slice of real life set in your hometown that combines self-belief, friendship,…

  • All Aboard! Discovering Sydney’s Central Station – Jackie French. Martina Heiduczek.

    New Frontier Publishing August 2025 ISBN : 978-1-923145-38-2 PRICE : $26.99 As a Sydney kid growing up in the late 50s and 60s Central Station, as was, felt very familiar to me. Not that we regularly went to the city every week or even every month, but we did quite often for special occasions. And certainly we…

  • Sidney of Sydney – Sue Whiting. Liz Anelli

    Walker Books Australia June 2025 ISBN13:9781760657703 Australia RRP:$24.99 New Zealand RRP:$27.99 From Queensland avian residents to those of NSW – and Sydney, my home town. My love of penguins is well documented and there have been many fabulous penguin moments (Bicheno!), reviews, news stories and chuckles. Recently, I commented to one of my author friends…

  • Marion and the Forty Thieves – Sarah Luke

    NLA July 2024 I grew up in Sydney and I was a kid with a thirst for history, particularly of my home town. I loved my excursions to the Rocks and being taken into the city on outings with my father, also a history tragic. Yet I knew nothing of the reformatories set up for…

  • The Outside – Larry Blair and Jeremy Goring

    Cheating death, chasing waves and growing up in one of Australia’s most notorious crime families Penguin Books This isn’t really a review – but a recommendation. A few weeks ago the lovely Dot Tonkin from Penguin gave this one a book talk and on the strength of that, plus the fact that it was related…

  • How to Move a Zoo: the incredible true story – Kate Simpson and Owen Swan

    Allen & Unwin June 2024 ISBN:9781761180309 Publisher:A&U Children’s Imprint:A & U Children RRP: $24.99 I’m a Sydney girl even though I’ve now lived in Queensland, on and off, for almost forty years, so Taronga Park Zoo and Moore Park are familiar names full of memories of a happy childhood. I was taken to Taronga by…