Kathryn's Inbox

There is an artsy, ethereal quality to this short, modern classic about a woman and her quest to find sexual freedom in a number of extra marital affairs. Sabina is married to a wealthy and kind businessman who believes that she is an actress and who often funds her trips away, unaware that she is, in fact, indulging in a number of brief affairs with various lovers. And while she finds freedom, and love, Sabina also finds anxiety and judges herself harshly. In other words, it's a messy existence and she is free, though not necessarily happy. A Spy in the House of Love is the fourth volume of Cities of the Interior , a continuous novel in five parts that was written and published by Anais Nin between 1946 and 1961. Daring for its era, like much of the work that Nin published in her lifetime (excluding her erotica,) the novel contains more than a hint of autobiography, reflecting small parts of the very shocking personal life of the author. (Nin was indeed married to a banker and in...

Australian author Marian Matta's debut collection of short stories is a well written collection that offers readers an intimate glimpse into the lives of well, other people. In Climb we meet a boy who has scrambled up a tree after violently attacking his abuser. In Babies-in-Their-Eyes we meet Ruby, a woman who eloped with her first love years before and has lived a life constrained by grief after the deaths of all but one of their children. And in between we meet people whose lives are shaped by situations that are not of their making, whether it be by their sexuality, an abusive partner or another factor.  Matta writes with a lot of empathy for her characters, making each story unique and compelling. For me, there were two stand out moments. The Heart of Harvey's Lane is the first story in the collection and the perfect opener, a story of how a character is enchanted and eventually changed forever by the lonely but beautiful old house that they purchase, a change that even...

As fans of the Baby-Sitters Club Graphix novels would know, the eighth book in the series Logan Likes Mary Anne! was released in the United States and Canada a couple of weeks ago, with the Australia release still a month or so away. It is to be the last novel in the series to be adapted by Gale Galligan, who has done an amazing job keeping the series alive after taking over from Raina Telgemeier.   It looks as though fans will not have long to wait for the next instalment in the series. Gabriela Epstein is taking over as author/illustrator, with the next book to be released in the United States in February 2021.  The ninth BSC book to be adapted will be Claudia and the New Girl , which I predicted earlier in the year. In the original series, Claudia and the New Girl was book number twelve, however, the Graphix series has a tendency to skip titles completely or to change the order around. I've also notice that unlike the original series, there is a bit of a rigid order--we se...

The power--and capacity--that art has to heal is given a thorough exploration in The Plain Janes, a brilliant graphic novel by Cecil Castellucci and Jim Rugg. Jane Beckle's life is thrown upside down when she is caught up in a terrorist attack in an inner city café. While waiting for help to arrive, she comes to the aid of a stranger, and later discovers that she still has his sketchbook--which has Art Saves written across the front. And, indeed, Jane fines that discovering art brings her a special kind of peace. Meanwhile, big changes are afoot--her parents move the family out of the city and into the suburbs, where Jane finds herself starting her Sophomore year at a new high school, a few weeks after the academic year begins. Sitting at the reject table in the Cafeteria, she forms an alliance with the other Janes who sit there, Brain Jayne, Theatre Jane and sports buff Polly Jane. Together, the girls come up with a plan to spread art through their otherwise banal neighbourhood. C...

  This is one of my favourite Calvin and Hobbes moments. Here Bill Watterson perfectly satirises our notions of who and what is cool, and points out that people who try to conform to the stereotype usually miss out on all the fun. 

What would be the result if Margaret Atwood and George Orwell had written a novel together, set it in a not-too-distant future Australia and added a good old fashioned dash of adventure? Something similar to The Mother Fault , I suspect, a chilling new novel from Australian author Kate Mildenhall. Set just a few years from now, it tells the story of Mim, a mother of two in her mid-forties, whose life is turned upside down when she receives a call from The Department, informing her that her husband, a fly in, fly out worker is missing. Or to be more specific, Ben can no longer be tracked through the chip the government bestowed on its citizens. Suddenly, Mim is being questioned and forced to surrender her passport, amid threats that her children are going to be taken away to a BestLife--basically, a government controlled gated community. Suddenly, Mim realises that she only has one choice. To remove her chip and for her and her children to find her husband. As well as offering a chillin...

How do childhood memories affect our adult selves? That is the question at the heart of The Ocean at the End of the Lane , a novel that is about childhood, though not necessarily written for children. The novel opens with the protagonist returning to his childhood home following on from the funeral of his parents. He finds himself inexplicably drawn to the house next door. Settling there for a while with his elderly former neighbour, he begins to recall a long-forgotten adventure that has helped to shape his entire life. The Ocean at the End of the Lane is a fantasy story, about a boy who unintentionally becomes a gateway for something rather otherworldly to join his world, and who is helped by the older girl next door and her mother and grandmother, who know exactly what needs to be done and how to keep him safe, in spite of the insidious creature who wants to use him. On the flip side, it is also the story of a seven year old boy who is just trying to survive in the face of untrustw...

  View this post on Instagram Spotted on Beach Road Christies Beach near Rotary Park #publicart #streetart #beachroad #christiesbeach #fleurieupeninsula #adelaide #southaustralia #motivation A post shared by Kathryn White (@kathryns_inbox) on Jun 29, 2020 at 2:09am PDT

I found a copy of Gotham High in the Pop Culture section of my local bookshop recently, and I was so intrigued by the concept that I just had to bring it home. It seemed like a bold undertaking, a graphic novel, set in Gotham City, with a teenage Selina Kyle as a narrator and written by bestselling novelist Melissa de la Cruz who may best remembered for Blue Bloods a series of YA paranormal romances. (Full disclosure: Melissa de la Cruz has actually had books published in a number of genres and for a wide range of age groups.) Add to that the whole thing is illustrated by Thomas Pitilli, who has also worked on Riverdale and the fact that DC Comics have a tendency to give their writers and artists a lot of creative licence and the result is ... Pretty awesome actually. In this one, we meet a teenage Bruce Wayne, who has just been expelled from a boarding school in Hong Kong. He returns to Gotham City and his guardian, his Uncle Alfred. (His mother's brother--see what I mean about D...

  This week I'm sharing a quickie from Garfield and Friends a sort-of forgotten TV series starring Garfield that never quite goes away, in spite of it being of negligible quality. This one is notable mostly for the fact that Odie seems to audibly speak (saying "No",) or at least his groans seem an awful lot like a no ...

Ever since reading One I have been slightly enchanted by Sarah Crossan's novels, which are all told in verse. When I saw her first novel, The Weight of Water at a bookshop recently, I just knew that I had to buy it. The Weight of Water tells the story of Kasienka who has come from Poland to England with her Mama. Together, they are searching for her Tata (father) who walked out on the family two years before. Living in a studio flat, the pair try to adjust to their new life, a new job, a new school and a heartbreaking discovery about where Tata has been all this time.  There are little moments that can be celebrated, no matter how tough life can get, and this novel focuses on those moments. While the author show's Kasienka's struggles at school, first with the teachers wrong assumptions about her academic ability (placing her in a lower grade than is necessary,) and then with a bully, we also see her blossoming relationship with William and her remarkable athletic achievem...

Over the past few years the Hograth Shakespeare project has produced a number of wonderful contemporary retellings of Shakespeare's work, including New Boy by Tracy Chevalier and Hag Seed by Margaret Atwood, both of which I have had the pleasure to read and review on this blog. Finally, I have turned my attention to the book that started the series, The Gap of Time by Jeanette Winterson which is a modern retelling of The Winter's Tale.  A baby girl was abandoned, after a strange and cruel turn of events led to her father believing that she was not his and plotting for her to be delivered to the man that he believes is the baby's real father. Before that can happen, however, the man charged with her 'abduction' and delivery finds himself being followed by a couple of gangsters. He hides the baby in a nearby baby hatch and tries to fend them off, resulting in one, his death and two, the baby being found by a musician with a big heart and his son, who decide to brin...

  View this post on Instagram Random creepy guy spotted on the side of a shop in the Adelaide Hills today. #streetartiseverywhere #adelaide #southaustralia A post shared by Kathryn White (@kathryns_inbox) on Jul 10, 2020 at 11:40pm PDT

The second novel in Ann M Martin's best selling Baby-Sitter's Little Sister series gets the graphic novel treatment, and the results are spectacular. Katy Farina does a brilliant job of adapting and updating the subject matter, bringing it to life for contemporary readers. Karen has become something of a daredevil on her roller skates. She knows she's good, but she wants to continue trying more tricks. And wow, she's just managed to jump over two coffee cans, her coolest trick yet. But then, just as she finishes her trick, she loses her balance and breaks her wrist. But the worst is yet to come. While at the hospital, she discovers that Ricky, her biggest enemy from school, has broken his leg. And he's got a famous baseball player to sign his cast. How will Karen ever be able to compete with him at school on Monday? This was a cute story, suitable for kids who are at that in between stage of reading, where they're ready for something a bit longer than a picture ...

  Lucy from Peanuts perfectly shows why you should never beep a dog on the nose ... One of the things I've always loved about Peanuts comics is that Schulz was never afraid to allow Snoopy to behave out of character for comic effect. Usually, Snoopy is a little too forgiving of the characters, and he's put up with more than one or two beeps on the nose from Peppermint Patty. But when Crabby Lucy does it, in an attempt to humiliate him, he reacts with anger. Meanwhile, Lucy does not look too afraid, or annoyed, laughing as she runs away. Her malevolent streak remains intact, and perhaps this is why the reader is quick to forgive Snoopy for breaking character. 

Author Becky Albertalli returns to Creekwood and the Simonverse once again with Love, Creekword, a novella told in the form of emails between the four main characters from Simon vs the Homo Sapien's Agenda and Leah on the Offbeat.  The group are now all at college. Simon is in Philadelphia and Bram is New York and the pair miss one another like crazy. Meanwhile, Leah and Abby are not only at college together, but they're sharing a dorm. The pair are in love, happy and worried as all heck about Simon who doesn't seem to be coping.  And that's basically it.  What had the potential to be an interesting story about the challenges College students face in their first year away from home lacks any real substance or plot. On the plus side, it was fun to see what all of the characters got up to following their happily ever afters. And, apparently, the author is donating her royalties from this book to charity.  Meanwhile, I'm wondering what will happen in Creekwood next s...

View this post on Instagram Spotted a little while back at Noarlunga Centre #publicart #murals #adelaide #artssouthaustralia #southaustralia A post shared by Kathryn White (@kathryns_inbox) on Jul 29, 2020 at 6:34pm PDT

The Erasure Initiative opens with a young woman waking on a driverless bus. She has no memory of who she is, or how she got there, she knows only that her nametag says Cecily. She recognises no one else on the bus--and none of them know why they are there. Over the next few days, they are put through tests some gruelling, some utterly ridiculous. As the flashbacks begin, Cecily starts to confront a reality that she may not be the nice person that she was expecting, that some of the bus may be connected and there may be a heck of a lot more at stake than her freedom ... This was one heck of a page turner, with twists, turns and some surprising revelations. Cecily is an interesting character, whose flashbacks sometimes lead her down the wrong path. It was interesting to watch her personal relationships develop--the author doesn't push her relationship with Nia. The pair are same sex attracted, because that's the way they are. There's no big coming out scene, no one is terrib...

Lost dreams, motherhood and mental illness collide in Perfect Tunes. Twenty-two year old, aspiring musician Laura moves to New York with dreams of making it big as a musician. Under the watchful eye of her streetwise best friend Callie, Laura does her best to make her dreams happen, but she soon discovers that talent doesn't always equate to success. Complicating matters is her relationship with Dylan, the frontman for a big up and coming band. Their relationship is something that shouldn't be any more than a fling, but everything changes when Dylan passes away suddenly, and Laura discovers that she is pregnant. Fifteen years later, after Laura has built a successful career and a stable marriage, her daughter Marie begins to ask questions about her father, and Laura begins to wonder if she may still have a chance to make it as a singer/songwriter after all ... This is an entertaining read about a woman whose life was drastically altered, and shaped, by a random event. At times ...