Kathryn's Inbox

Well, where else would you expect a smart car to drive to?

I remember Under the Cat's Eye for one reason. In my year 10 English class, our teacher along with one of the school librarians was giving us a lesson on publishing trends. At the time, children's books were dominated by one particular trend--horror--and had been for a few years mostly thanks to the almighty popularity of RL Stine's Goosebumps series. I remember the teacher holding up a copy of Under the Cat's Eye and asking the librarian how much longer she expected books like this to be around. "A year at best," was her reply. She was right. The year was 1997 and the publication of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was just a few months away, though none of us knew that, or the impact that Harry Potter would eventually have on readers across the globe. So, I suppose for me, Under the Cat's Eye has become almost symbolic of a genre that was about to well, die. It's an unfair tag to give any book, especially one that was reasonably we...

The Do-Gooder is a sassy, sizzling romance almost certain to delight fans of Abbi Glines. Lara Montgomery is a girl on a guilt trip. She knows that what she and Fletch did was wrong and she is determined to make up for it by doing good deeds for her fellow uni students and well, anyone else who needs her. She also knows that she needs to stay the hell away from the ridiculously sexy Fletch but that, it seems is easier said than done ... Told from duel perspectives (Lara and Fletch,) this one was a sizzling read that is all the better for the fact that it never takes itself too seriously. Lara is entertaining as the reformed bad girl with a disproportionate sense of guilt, while Fletch's attempts to rekindle his romance with Lara make for fun reading. There is also a great crew of supporting characters--Livvy who is just blossoming into womanhood; Saskia, Fletch's bad girl baby sister; Merry, the closest thing that Lara has to a best friend; and gay Italian student Stef...

My Life as a Hashtag is a realistic read about how one mistake can lead to a whole lot of hurt, heartache and humiliation. MC (otherwise known as Marie-Claude,) is sixteen years old and is in the midst of a pretty stressful time. Her parents are divorcing and her father is already in a relationship with another woman. Her brother has become withdrawn, while her mother is busy trying to meet men on tinder. To add to the mix, MC is a scholarship kid at a top Melbourne private school. The girls she hangs around with are probably better described as frenemies than her besties, particularly Anouck who treats MC more like a rival and a potential threat than a friend ... because that is precisely what MC is to Anouck, though MC is most ignorant about how her behaviour affects others, rather than being an outright bitch. It's a fairly realistic take on female friendships at that age, where one's closest friends can also be their worst enemies, and where someone can genuinely be ig...

NOWHERESVILLE, AUSTRALIA--Nineteen-year-old Edward Sorrento had his illusions shattered yesterday when he discovered that he was not, in fact, the subject of Carly Simon's hit song, You're So Vain. "I truly thought that she was singing about me," Sorrento told our reporter. "I mean there is even this bit in there that says something about how she bets that I know the song is about me. "I just thought it was about me, because you know, I'm vain and stuff," he added with a whistful sigh.  Sorrento's illusions were shattered when he discovered that the hit song was first released in 1972, twenty-six years before he was born. The subject of the song has been a closely guarded secret, though an article on wikipedia claims that three different men helped to inspire the song.  Sorrento has now deleted the song from his iPod.

The moment that I saw this clever Mr Men--Doctor Who mash up for sale in Dymocks I knew that I just had to buy it and take it home. There has always been something delightful about the simplicity of the Mr Men universe (after all, the books are aimed at schoolchildren,) from the characters to the chatty narratives. And the worms. (Because one cannot talk about the Mr Men books without mentioning those worms.) In contrast, the Doctor Who universe is complicated and ever changing. What a delight it is, then, to see the Doctor placed inside this simple universe. All of the trademark features of the fourth doctor have been included, his scarf, his love of jelly babies and, of course, Sarah Jane is in the thick of the action.  In this adventure (which will be one of the twelve volume set,) the Doctor and Sarah Jane use their skills as time travellers to outrun and outwit the Daleks. The Mr Men version of the daleks is a hilarious parody, in this one we see a Dalek exterminate a ...

A post shared by Kathryn White (@kathrynsinbox) on May 20, 2017 at 7:26pm PDT In honour of Garfield's birthday, my Instagram post for this week has a Garfield theme. I love this mug, my brother bought it for me when I was nine, and I still have it all these years later. Happy 39th Birthday Garfield. 

There has been no rain in Kiewarra--a small town in Victoria inhabited with people with equally small minds--for two years. The town is also home to a shocking murder, three members of the Hadler family have been shot dead, with baby Charlotte the only survivor. Luke Hadler is the main suspect in this apparent murder-suicide, but when his former best mate Aaron Falk returns town for the funeral, it soon becomes obvious that there is more to the situation than what meets the eye ... The Dry is an intriguing novel that goes between the present--telling the story of the search for the real killer--and the past--telling the story of the tragic events that led Falk to leave town in the first place. His return is not a welcome one, and the twists of who might be responsible for what, and who Luke Hadler really was, lead the reader on a journey full of twists, read herrings and, eventually, answers. This one is extremely well written and may be well worth a read for the writing a...

In many ways Jessa Crispin's manifesto Why I am Not a Feminist is a breath of fresh air. While I don't necessarily agree with everything she says, this is a book that is unashamed, unafraid and actually contributes something new to the discussion. Crispin challenges what modern feminism really is, how it works and whether it is truly effective. She argues that modern feminism has been dumbed down, popularised and seeks to appeal to the masses, rather than getting on with what first and second wave feminists fought for. Even if I didn't agree with everything she said, her writing forced me to stop, listen and most important of all, to think. This review is going to be short, because I think that readers should be allowed the luxury of picking the book up without being too bogged down or bothered by what reviewers such as myself think of it, but I will say this. Open it, keep an open mind and see what you think.

Seven Types of Ambiguity is a novel that is long, wordy and oddly addictive. Set in Melbourne, it opens with an account by a renowned psychologist about a recent incident in which his patient--a young man who is obsessed by his ex--abducted her son. No harm came to the child, but Simon's fragile mental state and his relationship with his ex are the springboard for this story, which is told from seven different perspectives. Each and every one of these perspectives is a little bit different. The lines between right and wrong--and who is telling the truth--blur until a small, final chapter inserts a very clever but heartbreaking twist. (On that, I wondered if history was doomed to repeat itself with Rachel and Sam.) I heard of this novel thanks to the recent ABC television series and although I didn't see much of the show, I can see how this one would translate very well on the screen. The author has a lot to say about how lives can be tainted in the pursuit of wealth, s...

Well, it's June 19 once again and as is tradition on this blog, I'm taking time out to wish Garfield the cat a very happy birthday. (Family and friends will get the inside joke, and yes, there is one.) This year, my favourite comic character celebrates his 39th birthday. The strip debuted on the 19th of June 1978 and is still going strong. Every year on its anniversary a comic is devoted to wishing Garfield a happy birthday. In some instances, Jim Davis will devote an entire week to birthday themed comics, most of which usually involve cake in one form or another. PS Other famous people enjoying a birthday today include author Salmon Rushdie, musician Paula Abdul and uh ...

Years after it was first published, The Great Gatenby still packs a punch. It tells the story of Erle Gatenby, a headstrong ratbag with a heart of gold. Gatenby has been getting into a bit of trouble at school, and although he loves his parents, and they love him, he has reached an age where the difference between them are becoming more and more obvious and it is becoming harder for them to live together under one roof. The solution is for Gatenby to go away to boarding school. Linley isn't exactly paradise (his lodgings is known as Crapp House,) and Gatenby doesn't always toe the line, but through his experiences breaking the rules and discovering just how good he is at competitive swimming, Gatenby develops a greater sense of self and for the first time starts planning for his future. The Great Gatenby was amusing and just as honest as all of Marsden's works. Gatenby's exploits, along with his rule breaking girlfriend Melanie, are hilarious. One of the more ...

Life appears to me too short to be spent in nursing animosity or registering wrongs. Jane Eyre  by  Charlotte Bronte

Nick Gleeson has scaled Everest, been captain of a cricket team, explored the Simpson Desert and is an experienced athlete. He also happens to be blind. After losing his sight in an accident at the age of seven, Nick learned a different way of 'seeing.' In The Many Ways of Seeing Nick shares his experiences with the world. The text, however, is more than that. It also tells the story of how this unique book came to be. Peter Bishop, an experienced editor and publisher shares his insights of the writing and editing process, the challenges that he faced while working on this book, and the many discoveries that he made during the creative process thanks to Nick's unique insight. I enjoyed reading this one. It was an autobiography with a twist. In many ways, Nick struck me as a natural writer--he has a real talent with words and shares his experiences quite beautifully. I found myself drawn in to several of his stories, in particular the one about his first trip to the...

There is no getting around this. The content of The Diary of a Teenage Girl is shocking, and even more so due to the fact that it is a fictionalised memoir. But perhaps it is important to put the book into historical context. The story is set in San Francisco in 1976. This is a time and a place where young people had a greater amount of sexual freedoms than previous generations. Contraceptives were available, removing the fear and stigma of an unwanted pregnancy, while HIV and AIDS would not be heard of for a good five years. This is also an era where sexual abuse and adolescent mental illness were not discussed as freely as they are today--Minnie would not have been able to turn to a friend, the internet or anywhere else for answers. The Diary of a Teenage Girl is made up of a combination of diary entries, comics and illustrations that tell the story of Minnie, a fifteen year old whose life is not unlike that of the author. Minnie has just returned home from boarding school ...

The first time that I saw this one, I thought that someone has uploaded it to the internet as a joke--after all, cyberspace isn't exactly short of fake Garfield strips, and some of them are in better taste than others. It turns out that this one is a real comic strip from April 21, 2008. 

In Australia more people than not would associate Adrian "Ade" Edmondson with his hilarious comedic roles as Vyvyan Basterd in The Young Ones or as Eddie Hitler in the as politically incorrect as you can get Bottom .  However, if anyone so much as scratches the surface of his career, they will soon discover that he has enjoyed a wide variety of serious and comic roles on stage and screen, he formed a folk band called The Bad Shepherds (who toured Australia a few years back,) that he works extensively as a scriptwriter and released his first novel in 1995 . Consequently, it is unsurprising that his first (and hopefully not his last,) children's novel Tilly and the Time Machine is a real winner. The novel opens with Tilly, who is aged seven and a half, discovering that her dad, an eccentric but kind and loving scientist has just built a time machine. Dad says that they can go anywhere in time that Tilly wants to go, but there is only one place she wants to be--at ...

"Nowadays most people die of a sort of creeping common sense, and discover when it is too late that the only things one never regrets are one's mistakes." The Picture of Dorian Gray  by  Oscar Wilde

Read Me Like a Book is a sensitive portrayal of a young woman who lacks a sense of self and whose journey of self-discovery happens in the most unexpected of ways. Ashleigh Walker is seventeen years old and studying for her A-levels. She has three friends at her local college--the slight wild Cat, straight-laced Robyn, and Luke who sits somewhere between the other two. She has a boyfriend, Dylan, but the reader soon gets the feeling that she isn't really interested in him, and is only dating him because it is what she thinks that Dylan and others expect from her. It's a dilemma that is easy enough for many teenagers to identify with, that sometimes relationships or even hook ups happen not because the pair are truly interested in one another, but because they feel that they should be dating someone. And then, something unexpected happens as Ashleigh gets to know her new English teacher. For the first time, she starts to develop the symptoms of a crush. The only thing is, ...

A post shared by Kathryn White (@kathrynsinbox) on May 13, 2017 at 1:03am PDT

Too funny not to share. (Sorry bird lovers!)

The Museum of Modern Love is one of those books. You know the ones. They come with a precedent. Glowing reviews from a wide range of trusted sources. Award wins and nominations, including the Stella Prize. And no matter which bookshop I went to, every last copy was sold out. Eventually, I found a copy at Big W (of all places,) brought it home and felt a little too scared to read it. What were the odds of it living up to all of the hype. What if I didn't enjoy it? Was I even buying and reading this book for the right reasons, or was I reading it just to be a part of the in-crowd? Eventually, I picked my copy up and started to read ... It turns out that The Museum of Modern love is one of those books that works on a couple of levels. On the one hand, it is the story of Arky Levin, a middle-aged composer living in New York whose wife has become seriously ill, and how he becomes fascinated by The Artist is Present, a performance art piece at the Museum of Modern Art, and how ...