This book was a finalist for this years Miles Franklin Award.

The story revolves around Max a German academic.

After his wife dies and he retires he has no purpose for living.

At his last lecture he meets an Aboriginal academic, who sets him a challenge and he comes to Australia and travels with an aboriginal elder and eventually finds new purpose in his life.

I could relate to much of the story as it relates to an older persons search for meaning in life.

I have only recently discovered Alex Miller"s work, but he has won two Miles Franklin awards and is a  beautiful writer.

A new Buster Bold and Wendy X adventure has just blasted off! Fire up your imagination and write part of the story. Click here to go to the story page.

The main theme of this book has to do with racism.  It has various subplots, involving a hidden billionaire, a love triangle, a secret assassination, stocks, and banking systems.

One bank in particular had a little box at the end of the home loan application, asking for nationality/race.

Usually most people ignored this box, so the interviewing bank officer would fill it in (permission to do so in fine print).

If the applicant belonged to a minority (African/American or Hispanic) and had applied for a home loan in an all white, upper middleclass neighborhood, the loan was refused.

However, if he applied for a home loan in a known minority area, his application was granted.

Unravelling the intrique behind these actions, the background to banking practices (U.S.), and the considerable effort the perpetrators made to continue these illegal practices and to avoid discovery, is absolutely fascinating.The writer's background in mergers, acquisitions, corporate finance, ensures factual accuracy, although the novel is entirely fictional.

          Born in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1951, Bill Bryson became The Thunderbolt Kid at an early

age.  (The cover of my library hardback shows an old jumper, sightly holey, with a lightning bolt

emblem.)   This persona allowed the young Bryson to melt his worst enemies into nothingness.

(A great way for a young person to sublimate deep anger and start afresh !)

The recollections throughout are of course American, but they are universal enough to

bring on understanding  laughter- out loud -  from the reader.  His parents are not without

their eccentricities, but it is refreshing to have them recalled so warmly, and to hear that

his father was "the nicest human being I have ever met.  It was like being friends with God."

Bryson sustains throughout  the memories  of childhood in another time, with its joys (mainly) and sorrows (luckily not   overwhelming ones).   The light  humour is one of the elements

that keeps this book so readable from beginning to end, and there is also enough recognisable,

universal reality in it that can be immediately appreciated.  

                 The Inspiring Conclusion to the New York Times Bestsellers.A Child Called "IT" and  The Lost Boy.This is the true story of the author.A Story of Triumph and Fogiveness.A child ,whose father never intervened as his mother abused him with shocking brutality,denying him food and clothing ,torturing him in any way she could imagine.

                Dave,s whole story can be seen as a testament to the endurance of the human spirit.One cannot help being touched by this tender yet powerful trilogy.

               We,ve come a long way in understanding the dynamics of pain,survival and healing.

Judy Blume has written many highly successful books for young readers and for young adults (75 mill. in print). ''Smart Women'' is one of three adult books.

In this book the author writes about divorced parents and their children, new partners, the merging of families, the feelings of adults and their children regarding new mothers or fathers, sisters and brothers.

I cringed when reading some of the story, remembering so well the unhappiness and anger of my own children.

I also couldn't warm to the detailed descriptions of sexual explorations of both parents and children.

On the other hand I admire Judy Blume for trying to provide new insights about divorce, new partners, second families, and the way it affects children.

Judy Blume's writing seems open and straight forward.  Despite this, I found it at times too wordy and would have to skip several pages, in order to remain interested.

Eric Newby, who, sadly, died very recently, has always been my favourite travel and adventure

writer.  

"A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush" is the story of two friends, Newby and Hugh Carless ( archetypal   Middle Class

Englishman of their day) who decide, without really adequate preparation, to climb the

Mir Samir mountain in Nuristan, Afghanistan.  Their mountain-climbing preparation happens in

Wales over a few days, where seasoned local  climbers try to give them some practice and some

safety hints.

Even the start of their adventure is dramatic, when their car barely avoids a dying man on the

road - obviously run over and left by a previous vehicle, but the cause of a court case which

is unlike anything they have previously seen in their own country.

Mir Samir, when they finally reach it, is also unlike mountains they have experienced, and

very dangerous.

The book could have been a litany of mishaps - bad food, gastric problems,  fatigue. failures,

 but Newby's account of the journey is full of his special humour, vivid descriptions,  and a kind of

endearing self knowledge.