Kathryn's Inbox

View this post on Instagram This Little Street Library lives near the Box Factory on Regent Street, Adelaide. I visit there every now and again to drop off a book & hopefully to find something new... #littlestreetlibrary #bookstagramaustralia #adelaide #artssouthaustralia A post shared by Kathryn White (@kathryns_inbox) on Jul 30, 2020 at 6:46am PDT

Kokomo opens with a scorching hot sex scene and the main character convinced that what she is experiencing is love. Of course, it isn't, and after her hot date is interrupted by a phone call informing her that her mother has left the house for the first time in twelve years, Mina finds herself returning to Australia and to the mother and the life that she left behind to take up a career in advertising in London. What happens over the next few days challenges all of her ideas of what love is, and the many different forms it can take. There has certainly been a lot of talk about this book for well, a little while now. A winner of the Victorian Premier's Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript, the novel was soon picked up by Hachette (one of the biggest publishers in Australia,) and it is being touted as an exceptional debut. The difficulty with such publicity is that it can raise reader expectations to the point where it becomes counter-productive when they actually sit dow...

What if Helen Garner's Monkey Grip had been written by Tim Winton, been given an added dash of black comedy and been set in contemporary Melbourne? The result, I suspect, would be not unlike Poly , the debut novel from Australian writer Paul Dalgarno.  Chris and Sarah are turning forty and are in something of a slump in their relationship. Or to be more specific, there's no sex between them any more, and the guy that Sarah met six months after she and Chris married has recently passed away and she's taking it all rather badly. Then again, Sarah is pretty much self absorbed in every possible sense. It's difficult to understand why she is still even with Chris, or why he would still love her, but they're together, they have a son and a daughter and they have decided that the key to saving their marriage is to embrace a polygamous lifestyle. Or more specifically, Sarah wants to have lots of flings with various men and Chris decides to let her, because it beats the alt...

  View this post on Instagram Morphett Vale Court House. Established in 1855, the court house serviced the local area until the 1960s when larger and more modern facilities were established at Christies Beach. Located in a side street behind South Road, the court house is now used by the church of St Hilary. It is rumoured that prior to the establishment of the official court house, cases were heard inside the Emu Hotel. #adelaide #southaustralia #morphettvale #cityofonkaparinga #localhistory A post shared by Kathryn White (@kathryns_inbox) on Aug 1, 2020 at 12:26am PDT

Well Jon, I think we've all been there. So much so that this is one of the few Garfield comics where we see all (or nearly all) of the main characters including Garfield offering Jon genuine support.  

Kirby Arrow is one of two seventeen year olds that live in their tiny town, four hours out of Sydney. It may get lonely sometimes, but things are pretty comfortable. After all, Clancy Lee is her bff (even if he is leaving for Sydney next year,) and after dropping out of school, Kirby has found herself a good job making furniture with a local, semi-retired neighbour. And her home life is mostly good--she lives on a goat farm with her mother, grandfather and her cousin Nathan. So what if her dad walked out on her, and her grandfather is in the early stages of Alzheimer's? Life is comfortable. And, of course there is Stanley her beloved pet goat. Why should she leave town, just because she's almost grown up? And then, something unexpected happens. A new girl moves to town, bubbly, clever Iris. Clancy begins to fall for immediately. The only problem is, Kirby might be falling in love with Iris too, and suddenly, life no longer seems so simple ... This is a sweet tale about a young ...

Set in a busy hospital in London, Histories is comprised of a series of short stories that take place over the course of a week and feature people from all walks of life--doctors, nurses, patients, cleaners and many, many more. In short, it's a story of a hospital and many, many people within its walls. I purchased this book a little over a year ago as part of a 'blind date with a book' promotion that an Adelaide bookshop was running at the time. It's probably a good thing, because I most likely never would have picked it up had I seen it on the shelf. It was an enjoyable enough read, though it starts with a shocking story of doctor/patient abuse that left my blood boiling, particularly with that sections sadly realistic ending. Other stories are a slightly more palatable, that of a junior doctor who feels shown up by a colleague, the oncologist whose mind isn't really on the job who has to talk with a pair of difficult patients and the cleaner who is a survivor o...

In The Scorpio Races American author Maggie Stiefvater takes the myth of water horses and turns it into a well plotted YA paranormal romance that is all her own. On a tiny island off the coast of Ireland a race is held each November, where participants ride into the sea and have to keep hold of their water horses, or capill usice just long enough to make it across the finish line. But the races are fraught with danger--while the capill usice are tame on land, what they do when they return to water is a different story. Sean Kendrick is a winner of the races many times over, and a favourite to win this year. But this time around there is a surprise entry--Kate 'Puck' Connelley--and she's the first girl to ride in the Scorpio Races ... This is a well plotted story that pays proper--and genuine--tribute to the myth. Told from the duel perspectives of Sean and Kate, we see just how much their horses mean to them, and exactly why they need to win. Puck needs the money to pay ...

  View this post on Instagram Morphett Vale Community Hall (formerly Morphett Vale Institute.) #morphettvale #adelaide #southaustralia A post shared by Kathryn White (@kathryns_inbox) on Aug 1, 2020 at 6:48pm PDT

  Love these Lunar Baboon comics and their messages about kindness. This one packs a real punch as it reminds us just how much harm we inflict on each other ... and how it can be prevented.

The Girl She Was offers readers a compelling narrative about a woman who has suffered more than her share of guilt for something that happened in the past. At age seventeen, Layla had what she thought at the time was a very grown up affair with her married, twenty-eight year old boss. When things went bad, she took her revenge, and ran. For years she has tried to outrun the events that happened when she was seventeen. But when she receives a message that says I know what you did  she finds herself having to confront her past head on. Using duel timelines, with Layla at seventeen and Layla at thirty-seven, the author shows the reader straight up that what happened between Layla and her boss, was abuse, not love, to the point where the way Scott treated her very much shapes Layla's negative view of herself as an adult. Her adult relationships suffer, while teenage Layla is an innocent kid, a late bloomer who is taken advantage of by an expert manipulator. The novel is well worth rea...

Nature versus nurture is the question at the very heart of My Sister Rosa. Che Taylor is seventeen years old, and has his hands full with his ten year old sister, Rosa. Rosa is clever, talented, sweet on the surface and, Che is very certain, a dangerous psychopath. Fortunately, Rosa hasn't harmed anyone physically ... yet. And Che is doing his best to stop her, in spite of the fact that no one, not even their parents, will believe him about Rosa's true nature. On top of that, he's trying to live like a normal teenager which isn't easy in itself when he's an Australian kid who has spent most of his adolescence travelling the globe and he's just landed in New York--a city that is about as different from Sydney as you can get. This was an interesting, and oh so creepy read, about a young man trapped in a nightmarish situation. Throw in a pair of negligent parents in there, and you're left with a book that is unsettling. The author portrays Rosa as a cold and ca...

Sharing, just because one, I love the Ducktales theme and I'm truly amazed by just how much I love this new remake. It's clever, it's action packed, it's cool and contemporary, but it's also surprisingly true to the original.

Readers are in for a treat with The Miseducation of Evie Epworth , a hilarious debut with a big heart by Matson Taylor. The year is 1962 and Yorkshire dwelling Evie has just completed her O levels. She's also had  well, a bit of a celebration which has caused her to be late to start the morning milk run. But not to worry, instead of taking her bike, she'll just borrow her father's MG and do the whole thing quickly and in style. This particular adventure ends in a hilarious fashion (for reasons the reader will soon discover,) and sets up this quirky novel about a sixteen year old girl who is trying to find herself. Which, quite frankly, isn't easy when her mother died when she was six months old and now her otherwise kind and sensible father, Arthur, has fallen hard for Christine, a scheming woman who would put Snow White's stepmother to shame. And now that Arthur and Christine are engaged Evie knows she must put a stop to it, but first she needs some help from her n...

A recent addition to my bookshelf is the first Cat’s Café comic collection by Matt Tarpley. A gentle comic, Cat’s Café is renowned for its exploration of mental illness and the message that a little bit kindness can go a very long way--whether it's being kind to others, or kind to oneself. The comic has created some memorable characters in Cat, the kind and wise owner of the café, anxiety ridden Rabbit and coffee dependent Penguin just to name a few. (And Kiwi, of course. How could any self-respecting fan forget Kiwi?)  I have been a huge fan of Cat's Café for a long time now, to the point where I've probably shared one comic or two too many on Instagram or Facebook. Reading through the collection I soon discovered that although each individual comic is beautifully drawn and well written, and offers a positive message, the collection soon becomes a little too sweet. I think I would have liked a bit more of Kiwi's antics with the knife, which was conspicuously absent f...