I have just completed  2 enjoyable reads and strongly recommend both.

1. “The Three Loves of Persimmon” by Cassandra Golds: a wonderful fantasy set on the 1920’s about a florist, a mouse and a cabbage that can talk, among some other amazing characters. You have to read it to get the jist.

2  ‘Burial Rights’ by Hannah Kent is set in a North Iceland village and an account of the last woman sent to her death for a murder. The basis of this novel was based on  a Ph D.  but the writing is very far removed from any dry academic tone.

Other novels I read these last few weeks include ‘A Wrinkle In Time’ . Though regarded as a classic I had never read it before. Nor had I come across  “When you Reach me”  by Rebecca Stead, this loosely based on ‘ A Wrinkle’. Both books are puzzles,  but I have to admit that I didn’t enjoy them as much as the previous novels I mention above.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

Also received a lovely review for “eSide: A Journey Through Cyberspace”  in this week’s “buzzwords’ that important ezine for emerging authors and illustrators.

Forgive me for reproducing it here.

“Sam and her best friend Melody live in the colourful beachside town of Squeaky. Sam’s mum Kate runs the Conch Café, the bustling meeting place for Squeaky’s weird and wonderful collection of residents. There’s Bob Rampol, the friendly senior citizen who watches the world from his favourite spot on the café’s balcony, waiter Manuel Alphonso Demetrious, world famous opera singer Mrs Canzone, and the Affington brothers – muscle bound twins who run the local fitness centre.

But all is not well in Squeaky. Mrs Canzone’s lost her voice, the twins’ fitness centre is failing as client after client suffers sprains, strains and breaks. Manuel (or Manny) has burned his arm so badly he can’t work in the café, and Kate is struggling to keep the place running on her own.

It seems a dark cloud hovers over Squeaky, but Sam and Melody suspect there’s somebody behind the town’s run of bad luck- the terrifying Hecate Badminton. Hecate has one thing on her mind – Eternal Life. And it seems Sam and her mother Kate have the secret right there on the counter of the Conch Café…

When the café burns to the ground, Sam and Melody are forced into action – armed only with a rudimentary understanding of Tae Kwan Do and a mysterious monitor given to them by magician, The Great Franco, the girls venture into strange virtual worlds where they meet Hecate, and confront evil head on.

eSide is a tale of witchery and digital adventure told with quirky humour. Goldie Alexander’s story is dense, with scenes and detail lovingly rendered in a unique voice. Mid to upper primary readers will enjoy the novel’s cast of crazy, nasty, nutty and nice characters, and intricately imagined virtual worlds.