Kathryn's Inbox

When I learned from a friend and fellow Whovian that Sophie Aldred, the actor who had played teenage rebel Ace, had recently penned a Doctor Who novel, I knew that I had to read it. Ace has always been one of my favourite companions, and the teaming of Ace and the Seventh Doctor (or Professor as she always called him,) was always a brilliant bit of casting. I share the opinion that the era of the Seventh Doctor was one of the finest and that many of the serials, especially  Remembrance of the Daleks point to where the show was headed and sync in perfectly with the contemporary version of Doctor Who, which, as we all know has been going for an impressive sixteen years. Of course, it never should have been axed in the first place but ... Anyway, At Childhood's End is another perfect link between the old and the new D octor Who . Set in present day, we meet Ace, or Dorothy as she now prefers to be known, who is well and truly an adult and heads the global organisation, A Charitable E...

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There are times when I pick up a book for all of the wrong reasons and this is one of them. It's not every day that I get to read a book set in Poland, and when I do, they nearly always feature a certain tragic event from history that we must be careful to never forget. On this occasion, I picked up 365 Days because it was a contemporary romance that was written and first published in Poland, and went on to become a bestseller. How interesting to have the modern Poland as a (partial) backdrop and a Polish lead character. Unfortunately 365 Days proved to be less about my personal desire to be an armchair tourist and more about trying to, well, better Fifty Shades of Grey at every turn. (It has already been made into a film.) This isn't so much a contemporary romance as a novel about toxic longing. Don Massimo is a Mafia Boss with a fetish for blow jobs that cross the line into sadism and a dark haired women that he had a dream about. For years, he's obsessed about this un...

Every summer, a family travels to the beach house that has been theirs for generations. For several idyllic weeks, they fill their days with easy summer fun, joined by their cousin and her beau, who stay at the neighbouring house. This year, however, something is different. First, cousin Hope is to finally marry her beloved partner Mal. And then the children of Hope's Godmother, actress Florence Godden come to stay. While Hugo is sullen and silent, Kit is charming. And utterly irresistible. The question is, how much trouble can one teenage boy cause for one family over the course of a single summer. This may be a big claim, but I think with The Great Godden we have a modern classic on our hands. The story is both familiar and unfamiliar in a pleasing way. In Kit Godden, we have a character who embodies all of the traits of narcissism. Handsome, charming, manipulative and most of all dangerous. And even though we know from the details given in the first chapter that things are goin...

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Australian philosopher Kate Manne's Entitled is a powerful book. Over ten chapters, Manne examines the notion of male privilege--what it is and how it hurts women. And my goodness, does it pack a punch. Entitled is an academic book, but it one that is written in a way that is clear and accessible. Manne covers a wide range of topics, from unconscious bias (and how men benefit from this,) to consent to bodily control to domestic labour. I found myself nodding in agreement at some of the arguments, and I found myself shocked and surprised at others. Manne is based in the United States, and the book was first published there, so naturally, there were a number of important issues happening in the United States that I had little-to-no knowledge about.  Considering certain current events, I would consider Entitled to be a very relevant read right now, one that I hope will explain why so many women are upset and are protesting (hint: certain politicians are just the tip of a very wides...

When Faye was a little girl her mother died very suddenly. Thirty years later, that loss still hits her hard, especially as she has two daughters of her own and her beloved husband is training to be a clergyman. Then the discovery of an old box from her childhood brings with it something completely unexpected. Through the box, Faye is able to travel back in time, landing in her childhood home, where she meets her childhood self and her mother, Jeanie. Soon Faye and Jeanie become firm friends. But time travel is fraught with danger. And how much of the present must Faye give up for a few precious moments with her past? Whilst reading Space Hopper, I had to go back several times and double check that the book had not, in fact, been written by Cecelia Ahern. It had that sort of a vibe to it, heartfelt, fast paced and with situations that are always that little bit out of the ordinary. And while this one had a very interesting concept, the storytelling dragged and parts of the story felt ...

After enjoying a few Japanese novels of late, I decided to give Strange Weather in Tokyo a chance. First published in Japan in 2001 it tells the story of Tsukiko, a woman in her late thirties who befriends and eventually falls in love with her former schoolteacher, an eccentric and pig-headed old man she dubs Sensei.  Although I found the premise very interesting, the story fell a bit flat for me. It's not quite a romance. It's not quite a black comedy. It's a story of two lonely and unlikable people who aren't always terribly nice to one another, or to anyone else, really, who drink a lot and eventually fall in love despite a huge age gap between them. I found parts of the novel very difficult to relate to and I suspect that a lot of the nuances about life in Japan went straight over my head. Each chapter focuses on a meeting between Tsukiko and her Sensei, and shows how they gradually become closer. The writing style will no doubt appeal to readers who like as much s...

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Karen's Worst Day was always one of the more cute, fun and ultimately relatable books in the original series. Katy Farina does an excellent job of adapting that story to graphic novel format in this, the third book in the series. From the moment six year old Karen wakes at her dad's house on Saturday morning, everything starts to go wrong. First she falls out of bed. Then she discovers that she has left her favourite pair of jeans at her mum's house. Then there's no prize in the cereal box ... and so Karen's day continues, with things going wrong at every twist and turn. All the things that go wrong might be little things, but they're also big things for a six-year-old, particularly when nothing seems to be going right. Fortunately, thanks to the kindness of her family, things eventually make a turn for the better. This one is a great read for kids, one that emphasises the validity of feeling frustrated and of the little things that can give kids joy. It's ...

Recent meme, addressing the new-look Lola What does Space Jam , a kids flick from the 1990s starring Michael Jordan and Bugs Bunny and a lot of basketball sequences have to do with feminism? Quite a bit, if recent reports about the upcoming sequel are accurate. First, so-called fans went into a frenzy about the changes made to Lola, a character first introduced into the Looney Tunes universe in Space Jam, who then went on to become a staple in the suite of characters. And now Warner Brothers have decided to retire the sexually aggressive skunk, and his scenes are rumoured to have been cut from Space Jam 2. Lola Bunny is an athletic female rabbit. When she debuted in Space Jam, she was one, the only female on the team, two the only competent basketball player on the Toon Squad other than Michael Jordan, and three, Bugs Bunny found her wildly attractive and the film made rather a big deal of this. Subsequently, Lola has appeared in The Looney Tunes Show and The New Looney Tunes. She app...

It has been a long, long time since I last read a Star Wars novel. More than ten years, in fact, well and truly predating this blog. Anyway, recently, I spotted Light of the Jedi in Dymocks Rundle Mall and it looked like a nice title to start off with. In fact, it's a new release and the first in the new canon High Republic series, set before the events of The Phantom Menace. The series is intended to be print only, and will be featured in various novels, short stories and comics, pitched at varying reading levels and audiences. Light of the Jedi is an adult book and tells the story of The Great Disaster, where a ship is torn to pieces after the Nihil, a group of space vikings find a way to block the lanes in hyperspace. The result is a lot of casualties, including a great number of Jedi who rush to the scene. And that's really it. I had the feeling that this one was more of a vehicle to introduce readers to The High Republic, and the role of both Jedi and Nihil within. The na...

In Just One Day author Gayle Forman told the story of Allyson, a high school graduate whose life is altered when she spends one day in Paris with Willem, a boy who she barely knows. After being left alone, and stranded in Paris, she returns to the United States and the carefully made plans she had for college and her future begin to unravel. Just One Year tells Willem's side of the story--after suffering concussion he finds himself in a Paris hospital, uncertain whether the girl he travelled with to Paris was real or a figment of his imagination. He can only remember the nickname he gave her, Lulu. Over the course of a year, as he travels across the globe searching for Lulu, he slowly begins to acknowledge the events that have shaped his life thus far--being the only child of parents who were deeply in love, and the death of his father, the parent who ignored him least.  Just One Year is the story of how a caddish and seemingly uncaring young man with a never-ending string of sui...

Fans of the BSC Graphix series will be sure to welcome new writer and artist Gabriela Epstein. With this latest volume, Epstein adapts the classic title Claudia and the New Girl and updates it perfectly, giving it a new and contemporary feel, without changing the integrity of the story at all.  Female friendship is at the heart of this story when Claudia makes a new friend at school. Ashley Wyeth is cool, hip and completely devoted to her art. She soon sees a kindred spirit in Claudia, and wants to help her develop her talent. But soon Claudia is neglecting her duties with the Baby-sitters Club, her friends in general and missing out on a lot of fun. And as for the other members of the BSC, well, they're all feeling pretty hurt and rejected and soon it starts to get nasty. It has been a long time since I read the original and to be honest, it was never really a favourite of mine, mostly due to the nastiness between the characters. However, I think that Esptein truly fleshed out th...

  Another Muppet Thought of the Week. This time around, it's Miss Piggy's turn to share her thoughts and, naturally, it's all about looks. And weak, in your face jokes. While I appreciated the character's original incarnation on The Muppet Show , I'm afraid she's probably about my least favourite Muppet these days. A bit too full on, and a bit too in love with Kermit, she gets on my nerves ...

Alex Heck isn't exactly happy at her strict Catholic boarding school in Minnesota. A tough kid with pink hair and an attitude to match, Alex has been hoping to get expelled and away from the world of curfews, uniforms and the endless devotion to Hockey. After her latest attempt to get expelled backfires, Alex comes up with a plan that she feels is sure to work. She's going to stage the first ever performance of feminist play,  The Vagina Monologues at St Mary's ... This novel was, quite frankly, hilarious. Alex's attempts at shock and rebellion have some real laugh out loud moments, particularly as most of the time, the nuns and priests at her school don't seem all that shocked by her behaviour, and most of the other students have no clue about what she is doing. That said, we also see how she changes over the course of the semester, going from being an angry kid to one, who through her many failed attempts to get the play up and running, learns a lot about and fro...

Beautifully written and set in New Zealand,  The 10PM Question tells the story of Frankie Parsons, a year eight student on the cusp of adolescence who has a habit of worrying about well, everything. When a free spirited new girl arrives at his school and the pair develop an unlikely friendship, Frankie finds himself changed in a number of surprising ways. This was an entertaining read. While the subject matter, of a kid who worries a lot, has the potential to be treated like a comedy, the author takes her character and the subject matter seriously. And there is a lot of serious subject matter in here, from what it means to have a parent who is mentally ill to what life is like for kids like Sydney, whose life is subject to her mother's many whims. The author drip feeds the reader information, meaning that my assumptions about certain characters and situations were completely wrong. Although this technique is very clever and works well within the context of the novel, it did get on...