Chic on a Shoestring

by Mary Jane Baxter

Simon and Schuster. Adult Non-Fiction. Paperback RRP $29.99

Here is a wonderful book that I just had to possess. Money is a bit tight these days and I love to “collect” things and in my world of recycling and reusing, Chic on a Shoestring is perfect.

Have you got some wonderful outfits in the wardrobe that no longer fit or are a bit unfashionable but you don’t want to throw them out? I have and Mary Jane Baxter has shown me how to give my clothes, shoes, bags and hats a new lease on life. Even my broken jewellery can be created into some wonderful new accessories.

Who knew that an old tie could be reused into a cute purse, or the 60’s pom pom – wow what you can do with them! A change of a few buttons and voilà, your dress, cardigan, jeans or jumper have a trendy new lease of life. There is very little sewing and what there is, is explained step by step in the front of the book. So no excuses!

This is great for new ideas - my cheap plain umbrella has been transformed into a striking accessory for trudging through the rain!

http://www.maryjanemillinery.co.uk/

Elixir

by Hilary Duff with Elise Allen

Simon and Schuster Australia. Young Adult. Paperback rrp $24.99


Guest Reviewer – Caitlin (aged 14) interviewed by The Reading Stack

The first essential part of this book review was that Caitlin saw the book and she decided to “see if it would be ok”. After a two week period Caitlin had finished the 300+ pages.

Caitlin has watched, sung and been to Hilary Duff concerts but now has outgrown that stage and yet, she chose, read and finished Hilary Duff’s Elixir. What more of a compliment do you need?

Elixir is the story of Clea Raymond and the hunt for a man who has drunk sufficient Elixir to live for eternity. Most people use the Elixir sparingly to heal others.

The Reading Stack: “What did you think of Elixir?”

Caitlin: “It was alright.”

The Reading Stack: “You made a comment about the beginning, what was that?”

Caitlin: “It was scary to start with.”

The Reading Stack: “Who would read Elixir?”

Caitlin: “Teenage girls.”

The Reading Stack: “What is the story about?”

Caitlin: “It is about the Elixir of Life, a liquid that heals people. If you drink enough of it you can live for eternity. Only one person has drunk enough to live eternally. There are people that want to kill him to rectify the balance of the world. People are cursed whilst this person lives and if they kill him then they will remove the curse. But it is hard to kill someone that can live forever. However there is a way to kill the body and soul and return the Elixir to the earth. You don’t know if he does die as the story leaves it a bit open at the end. I think there will be another book because there were lots of stuff that wasn’t answered, like whether the man dies and restores the Elixir or not.”

The Reading Stack: “Did you enjoy the story?”

Caitlin: “Yes but I hope there is a second book so I can get the answers to my unfinished questions.”

http://eliseallen.com/

Grug

Grug Box Set

Grug and the Circus

Grug Learns to Read

by Ted Prior

Simon and Schuster. Australian, Picture, Young Reader. Paperback rrp $4.99

Grug Box Set - Hardback, Soft Toy and CD rrp $29.99

Here at the Reading Stack we have been lucky to receive review copies of Grug. For some, it brings back childhood memories, for others, our children have delightedly grabbed and coveted these wonderful books.

Grug and the Circus and Grug Learns to Read are two new titles and as always, Grug continues to have more wonderful adventures.

The Grug Box Set is an ideal gift for beginner readers for Christmas. Not only is there the original Grug as a board book but a wonderful soft cuddly version of Grug himself. For the younger child there is a CD of the story read by the author, Ted Prior. The funniest thing about this boxed set in our household was the fight from the teenage children over who wanted the toy Grug. The six-year-old won hands down!

The Reading Stack reviewed Grug in July 2009.

http://www.mygrug.com/

The Demon’s Covenant

by Sarah Rees Brennan

Simon and Schuster. Science Fiction, Fantasy, Young Adult. Paperback rrp $16.99

Mae and her brother Jamie have faced magic and demons head on before but now there is a far greater danger and only Mae can save Jamie, and their friends, brothers Nick and Alan.

Jamie is a magician and has been secretly learning his skills with Gerald, the leader of the Obsidian Circle, the same leader that originally marked Jamie as fodder for a demon. Magicians need energy and energy comes from humans that are “marked” to a demon. Slowly the demon will take their soul and the energy is handed to the magician. The more energy the more powerful a magician will become.

Nick and Alan are magician slayers and originally saved Jamie. Now Jamie is being wooed by Gerald, showing him what powers he has and how to use them. With different magician circles fighting for more power, Jamie, Nick, Alan and Mae have to seek the assistance of the magicians they normally want dead. Mae must complete a dangerous dance to call a demon to save her brother and her friends. But do any of them want her help?

The Demon’s Covenant is a sequel to The Demon’s Lexicon but there is no need, if you don’t want to, to read book one. But you would be missing a great story. I’m now eagerly awaiting the third book, well I am hoping for a third book.

The Reading Stack reviewed book one The Demon’s Lexicon in September 2009.

http://www.sarabreesbrennan.com/

She’s So Dead to Us

by Kieran Scott

Simon and Schuster. Young Adult. Paperback rrp $16.99

Reviewed by Barbara Brown

Ally Ryan is a sixteen year old who has gone through a personal hell to be dragged back to Orchard Hill, the town she grew up in and called home until two years before. Everything is different now for Ally Ryan. She used to be a Crestie but now she is a Norm. Crestie’s live on the crest of Orchard Hill, in big mansions. Norms live at the bottom of Orchard Hill in small houses or units.

Two years ago Ally’s dad did some “bad things” and the Ryan family escaped in the middle of the night to Baltimore to Ally’s grandma’s home. Two weeks later her dad disappeared leaving Ally and her mother to fend for themselves. Now Ally’s mum has got a job at Orchard Hill High and Ally is back.

When school starts Ally quickly realises her old friends want nothing to do with her, in fact their main goal now is to taunt and bait her. But the new boy in town, the boy that lives in Ally’s old house, sleeps in her old bedroom, is now her ex-best friend, Shannen’s, new best friend, - and also happens to be hot. Ally likes what she sees but Jake Graydon is a Crestie and she’s a Norm – and never the twain shall meet. Except Jake is also having a hard time with his emotions when it comes to Ally.

She’s So Dead to Us is more than your typical American girl/boy from opposite sides attract and get together story, there are strong elements of Romeo and Juliet. With peer pressure on both sides, Ally and Jake seem destined to never get together but love conquers all. Or does it? When the lies begin and the bitchiness escalates who knows what will happen.

I loved the book, told by both Ally and Ryan, but She’s So Dead to Us has an ending that is screaming out for a sequel. I was so frustrated and now want to see what happens in the next instalment, if there is a next instalment! There better be!

Editor's Note: The sequel He's So Not Worth It is due out mid 2011!


http://www.kieranscott.net/

Hoax Cuisine

by Maggie Groff

Simon & Schuster. Australian, Adult Non-Fiction, Adult Other. Paperback rrp $14.99

I had just spent the day organising the local school fundraising BBQ – stood for hours trying hard to please the little ones. Other mums had brought in their homemade delicacies from earthmother kitchens. Not me – I had no time to cook so I brought shop-bought lamingtons (they never even came out of the packaging!). Exhausted, I flopped onto my bed and picked up Hoax Cuisine. Just a quick look to see what it was all about. Perfect timing!

Maggie Groff was obviously speaking directly to me with the comment “Overworked, Under-appreciated.” I read on about the earthmother kitchens (see paragraph above) – hmmm. She was onto my problem immediately…

Then “fake the bake and take the credit” jumped out at me.

Groff invites you to write in the book, make notes and generally fall in love with the book. I did all that, and now can’t live without Hoax Cuisine and Maggie Groff.

Hoax Cuisine – part cheating, part real cooking – is a short cut cookery book for women on the go. There are so many tips and tricks that I can’t decide where to begin. If you have to present a three course meal to visitors, friends, or the worst judges of all, family, then this book will take the fuss out of preparation and presentation. If you have to take a treat to the school fete – there are some great tricks and ideas.

If you have little or no time to be in the kitchen– just do yourself a favour and buy this book! You too can produce 5 star meals. Hoax Cuisine will become your kitchen bible! And the “earthmothers” will embrace you into their world. Faking it has never been easier!

Tithe

A Modern Faerie Tale

by Holly Black

Simon and Schuster. Fantasy, Young Adult. Paperback rrp $22.99

A year ago I read the sequel to Tithe, Ironside and fell in love with a story of faeries, enchantments, glamour (when a faerie disguises themselves to humans) and pixies. I missed Tithe first time round. Luckily it has been reissued and I now can continue on my magical journey.

Kaye is a sixteen-year-old living with her drunken mother and travelling from gig to gig whilst her mother tries to become a great rock singer. However when her mother’s current boyfriend tries to kill her, they decide it is better for both of them to return to New Jersey to Kaye’s grandmother and her early childhood home.

But the move brings new problems. When Kaye was young she used to have pixie companions. Would they still be waiting for her when she gets back? Can she make her only friend from her past finally believe that they are true? And who is the beautiful faerie knight she saves from certain death?

Kaye realises that she isn’t what she thinks she is. The mortal world is not hers and the world of the pixies and faeries, where she belongs, do not want her. Except for one.

A wonderful and dark tale of love, lust, fantasy and wishes. Tithe isn’t pretty and happy – it’s evil, grubby and soiled. A story that could easily relate to our own times.

Having read Ironside over a year ago I know have to catch up on Kaye and her struggle between human and pixie forms.

Holly Black’s sequel Ironside was reviewed in Issue 12 of The Reading Stack.

www.hollyblack.com

The Demon’s Lexicon

by Sarah Rees Brennan

Simon & Schuster Pty Limited. Science Fiction, Fantasy, Young Adult. Paperback rrp $16.99

I didn’t know what age category to put The Demon’s Lexicon in. As an adult, I loved it and was the story’s captive from the first page. Teenagers who like gothic stories with black humour will also gravitate to it!

Nick and Alan are brothers. Nick is dark, has no compassion, is four years younger than Alan and continually battles to hold back his anger. He only trusts one person – his brother Alan. Alan, on the other hand, is light haired, blue eyed and would give his life to save another – especially if it is Nick.

Nick is a teenager with a lot of angst. Fighting demons your whole life, losing your father when you were young, and every day facing his mothers accusing eyes - what is a boy meant to do?

The boys’ mother, Olivia, stole a powerful amulet from a great magician and now the family is constantly on the run. They try to stay in one place but the magicians and demons always find them. They kill a few. And then they have to move again. Nick sometimes wonders about just giving back what was taken so they could stop running and live a normal life.

When Jamie, a boy from Nick’s school, is marked by a demon, he comes with his sister to Nick and Alan for assistance. Nick wants to abandon them but Alan agrees to help. In helping Jamie, Alan is inadvertently marked by a demon. Once a human is marked it isn’t long before the demons work their way into their body and take over. Nick can’t let his brother die and Alan won’t let Jamie die.

The only way to save both Alan and Jamie is to kill a magician. But it has to be the right one. What Nick doesn’t know is that maybe the ones you trust are the ones who will hurt you the most.

A great book and I can’t wait to see this on the big screen. I’ll be in the front row gripping the chair!

http://www.sarabreesbrennan.com/

Grug

by Ted Prior

Simon & Schuster. Australian, Picture, Young Reader. Paperback rrp $4.99

Grug is a squat hairy sort of thing with a nose, two eyes, a mouth, hands and feet and he was born from the top of a Burrawang tree.

This year he is turning 30 and to celebrate this auspicious occasion, Simon & Schuster have re-released the Grug books. With over a million copies sold in Australia it is easy to see that Grug is special. He’s so popular that when I tell others I have just re-read Grug they are transported back to their childhood with memories of being dressed up as him or reading his stories over and over again.

Well now another couple of generations can enjoy what us “older” generations have been lucky enough to have had . . . Grug! And more Grug. There are 25 stories in all.

The Secret Ministry of Frost

by Nick Lake

Simon & Schuster. Junior, Young Adult. Paperback rrp $16.99

I’ll declare my biases up front. I am an avid fantasy reader. I’ve been fascinated by stories about the icebound Poles since I was in primary school. My dream travel destination is Alaska and I love stories of ancient peoples where myth and magic so easily overlap.

But even before I knew how many of my personal biases boxes The Secret Ministry of Frost had ticked, I was hooked by the cover - stark black and white Inuit motifs with a few sinister splotches of red. Set against a white background speckled with broken geometric holograms, the cover shimmers like snow.

The story I found inside was even more unique. Light is a wealthy, albino, half-Inuit girl whose father is an Arctic explorer. When he disappears, the stories and creatures of Inuit myth come to life around her. Light soon learns her father is still alive and needs her help. Accompanied by her butler (never whom he seemed to be even before the strange happenings began), Shadow (a spirit from inside the house walls) and Tupilak (a half shark creature of the sea), Light sails for Nunavut to rescue her father. The plot thickens. Her father is held captive by the evil being, Frost who wants to destroy the world.

I didn’t like the ending but that didn’t diminish my enjoyment of the narrative or my enthusiasm to recommend this book. My disappointment was a reflection of how immersed I had become in the story and how unpredictable its plot turns are. A tale which easily blurs the boundaries of readership age, this book will appeal to primary, young adult and adult readers alike. I loved it.

BLOOD TIES

by Sophie McKenzie

Simon & Schuster Australia. Young Adult, Crime, Mystery, Science Fiction. Paperback rrp $18.95

Here is a story of two English 15-year-olds who seem to have typical teenage lives. When Theo discovers his father may still be alive, his actions catapult both himself and Rachel on a life-and-death race around England and America. This is a plotline so “out there” that one day it could become non-fiction.

Theo’s life is a little unusual. Although his mother struggles to afford the basics, he goes to an exclusive private school and he has a bodyguard, Roy, with him at all times - 24/7. Theo isn’t allowed to go to the movies or to friends’ places without Roy. He doesn’t even have a mobile phone.

Rachel’s life is very normal. She is a bit chubby, not popular and her parents are a lot older than most. Her mother constantly reminds Rachel of how beautiful, smart and talented her sister, Rebecca was. But Rachel doesn’t want to know because Rebecca died before Rachel was born and every day the number of times her mother compares her to Rebecca is the number of times Rachel is reminded of how fat, ugly, dumb and stupid she is!

Theo constantly tries to give Roy the slip and Rachel constantly tries to forget about Rebecca. Through searching the internet Theo locates a man who may know where his supposedly dead father is. The man is Rachel’s father. When Theo locates Rachel and then meets her father, strange and dangerous things start to happen. Theo and Rachel are attacked by men from RAGE (the Righteous Army against Genetic Engineering). The next thing Theo and Rachel are on the run – a race to escape the men from RAGE and to save their own lives. All the questions and answers seem to lead back to Theo’s father. But where is he? And how will they find him?

What Theo and Rachel discover is so startling that neither can believe it. And what happens to their lives will change forever their beliefs in the present, the future AND the past!

Blood Ties is a fast-paced, big-screen story. Even though it is recommended for 12+, any adult who likes a great psychological thriller will enjoy it. The issue of human cloning is a very real scientific occurrence and it has been used in this book to further the debate – good or evil. Brilliant! The only question now is when is the movie coming out?

http://www.sophiemckenzie.net/