Our Plenty Valley team have revelled in the spotlight this week, reviewing everything from physics to children’s fiction!
The Road by Cormac McCarthy:
Winner of the 2007 Pulitzer prize for fiction; The Road is another work of literary genius from Nobel prize contender Cormac McCarthy – an author who brought us stunningly honest works of brutal truths such as “No Country For Old Men” and “Blood Meridian”.
A far cry from the usual theme of Western exploits in McCarthy’s other novels, The Road is a tragically beautiful depiction of the love shared between a father and son in the most dire and desperate of situations. Set after an unknown cataclysm which has ravaged the planet, the unnamed duo known only as “Papa” and “Boy” journey to reach the coast, an almost mythic ideal of greener pastures amidst the burnt and ashen landscape that has become their world. Along the way they are confronted with a host of deadly threats and emotionally traumatising scenarios, from grief and violent human instinct to starvation and cannibalistic attacks, which we can only imagine would take the most severe toll on the fragile human mind. Despite the harsh climate in which the pair trudge through the morbidly bleak story, the resilience of human spirit and childish innocence shines through the perpetually grey sky, leading the father to come to a penultimate decision: “The Boy must survive”. – Michael (Store Manager)
Attachments by Rainbow Rowell:
As an ‘Internet security officer’, it is Lincoln’s job to monitor work e-mails so the newsroom company can make sure their employees are actually working. Lincoln finds this job painstakingly boring until he comes across e-mails sent between two work colleagues and best friends, Beth and Jennifer. He knows he should give them a warning or turn them in but he finds the banter between the women so entertaining that it becomes the only reason he looks forward to going to work. He develops a connection with Beth, but how do you ask out the girl whose emails you’ve been reading for months?
I found this book refreshingly honest about our day to day lives. The emails between Beth and Jennifer were laugh out loud material. Enjoy! – Natalie (Store 2IC)
Cleo: How an uppity cat helped heal a family by Helen Brown:
I’m not a big reader of bio’s, I usually prefer fiction but being a cat lover I couldn’t resist giving Cleo a go.
Helen had a young son Sam who really wanted a cat. A boy at his school had kittens to give away and Helen reluctantly agreed for Sam to have one, they just had to wait till the kitten was old enough to leave its mum. Tragically before Cleo could arrive at her new home Sam had been killed and the young family was grieving. When Cleo was dropped off at their home weeks later Helen was ready to say ‘sorry we can’t take her anymore’ but seeing her younger son Rob hold the kitten she couldn’t deny him little Cleo.
This family has a story to tell. Through it they have more than one hardship from Sam’s death to illness in the family and other adversities to overcome in between. Cleo is with them through it all helping them laugh and live again, from New Zealand to Europe and finally Australia. – Danielle
Matilda by Roald Dahl:
Matilda by Roald Dahl one for all the school kids! Matilda is a smart, bright, young girl who is totally misunderstood by her parents and loathed by the school’s headmistress. On the other hand her kind and generous teacher, Miss Honey, thinks she is a brilliant academic genius. Throughout the novel, Matilda comes up with a number of excellent schemes in her head to teach her nasty parents and headmistress a lesson. Whilst Matilda is the novel’s central character, many readers will be drawn to the larger-than-life, extrovert, humourous and strangely likeable headmistress, Miss Trunchbull. This novel is a timeless classic loved by all who have read it, grab the kids a copy if you haven’t already. – Caitlyn
Flatland by Edwin Abbot:
Flatland is a fascinating and unique mix of maths and fiction in which Edwin Abbott describes how a 2-dimensional world called ‘Flatland’ works. He begins by writing about the environment and inhabitants and how they interact, including how people recognise each other, the social hierarchies that have developed, and the laws that have been made – all of which have to be surprisingly different in a world with only two dimensions. Abbott then goes on to describe a 2D being’s adventures into a 0, 1 and finally our 3D world, which parallels the difficulties we humans would have in comprehending the higher dimensions suggested by modern physics. The style of writing is quite old-fashioned (as it was written in 1884), but it remains an intriguing read that really makes you think about how our world works! – Damian
Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick:
After spending a long time in a mental health facility, Pat Peoples returns home and is ready to get his life back together. Pat is convinced that his life is a movie produced by God. His mission is to become more physically fit and to read more classic literature so that his estranged wife Nikki will come back to him. The problem is, Pat’s now home, and things aren’t quite right. His family refuses to talk about his wife, his beloved football team the Philadelphia Eagles keep losing games, and now a strange woman named Tiffany is starting to show interest in him. Plus, he is being hunted by Kenny G! – Renae
Lick by Kylie Scott:
What happens in Vegas doesn’t always stay in Vegas!
All Evelyn wanted to do was let her hair down and have a memorable 21st birthday in Vegas. She gets more than she bargains for, when she wakes with a major hangover and the biggest rock ever on her finger. She finds out she’s married to the hottest rock star on the planet and has no memory of it. Evelyn and David have to navigate murky waters together, that comes with being married to rock star royalty. – Frankie
