James A. Levine's The Blue Notebook - reviewed by Shandos Cleaver

The Blue Notebook is the tragic tale of Batuk, a beautiful Indian girl sold into prostitution by her poor rural family at the age of nine. After her virginity is auctioned off to the highest bidder, she is taken to work on the Common Street of Mumbai, kept in a cage next to other child prostitutes, including her friend Puneet, a girl-boy who is the most valuable of all.

Upon pilfering a dropped pencil from her boss, the immense Mamaki or “Hippopotamus”, Batuk, miraculously literate followed a protracted hospital stay due to TB, begins to record her life, firstly with the pencil in a blue notebook, followed by a variety of other writing materials. Batuk’s writing is a way for her to reclaim part of her life and keep it secret within herself. “And so I look within myself and assemble myself in words,” she writes. “I take the words that are my thoughts and dreams and hide them behind the dark shadow of my kidney… I craft the words of merriment and sadness (they are the same) into a pyramid and place it under my skin so I can touch it whenever I need to know where my feelings are.”

Repeatedly throughout her writing Batuk descends into a world of fantasy to escape from the grim realities around her. Some of these fantasies she acknowledges that she knows are false, such as the euphemism of “sweetcake” for the act of sex and the references to herself as a “princess” and her cage as a magnificently decorated “throne”: “I am not deranged, but there are countless days I wish I were.” However, there are other times when it seems that her senses are overwhelmed and she no longer knows what is reality and what is imagination, particularly with the tiger skin in the hotel penthouse she is later taken to.

As you delve deeper into the world of Batuk, particularly during the scenes that ensue in the hotel penthouse, it is hard not to hope that as this is a work of fiction, occurrences like this don’t really happen in the world. However, it is hard to ignore the stark truth and the facts about child prostitution in many parts of the world, including India. And whilst Batuk’s story may be fictional, it was inspired by the author’s sighting, whilst investigating child labour for the UN, of a street girl, “the girl in the pink sari with the rainbow trim”, in such a street Mumbai writing intently in a notebook.

A mesmerizing story despite the heartbreaking tale that it tells, The Blue Notebook brings a touching human face to the sad reality of child prostitution. Along with the benefits that it will bring through the donation of part of its proceeds to the International and National Centers for Missing and Exploited Children, hopefully this book will also raise people’s awareness and stop us from deluding ourselves that such issues don’t exist.

REVIEWER BIO:

An avid reader as long as she can remember, Shandos Cleaver has most recently worked as an IT programmer and enjoys art festivals, wine tasting, books that let her experience life all over the world and a healthy addiction to Twitter (@scleaver).

The Five Greatest Warriors by Matthew Reilly

Excellent end to an action packed trilogy.

Hold on for the ride, it’s awesome!

Spencer Ratcliff's Wonder, Thunder and Blunder Down Under - reviewed by Shandos Cleaver

At first glance, I didn’t really like the look of Wonder, Thunder and Blunder Down Under, the debut book from Spencer Ratcliff, a “Ten Pound Pom” immigrant to Australia in the 1970s. The cover was so brash and colourful, with a comic style similar to Mad magazine, that I wondered what kind of travel memoir this would be. Maybe this book was just one for the lads?
Once I started reading the book, however, I realised that the overly bright cover was partially deceiving. Yes, Wonder, Thunder and Blunder Down Under did detail some very humorous and at times candid exploits, particularly involving women, but it always stayed on the right side of good taste. Probably one of the reasons for this, is that, along with picking up some Australian strine and a slight twang to his accent (which he occasionally used trying to pass himself off as an Aussie whilst around women, rather unsuccessfully), Ratcliff’s move to Australia also resulted in him picking up the typically Australian gift of yarning. The resulting writing is entertaining and deprecating, and whilst not as polished as I generally would expect in a published book, the casual style is probably part of the book’s charm.
Ratcliff’s tale is divided into twenty-two stories, or should I say “yarns”. Starting with his arrival in Sydney in 1970, for the first half of the book Ratcliff details the exploits of his initial two-year stay in Australia, working as a journalist for ABC radio, both in Grafton on the northern coast of NSW and in Sydney, just down the road from the temptations of Kings Cross. Ratcliff’s encounters with Australian women are particularly memorable, such as the women sitting outside the hotel in Grafton in their boyfriend’s cars and the dangerous Bondi encounter with a bride-to-be.
When a visit from a young English rose and the subsequent blooming of their love leads him to return back to England, Ratcliff promises the land he has also fallen for, and the Coathanger in particular, that he “shall return”. However, it ends up being a long six years, during which time he travels around the globe, taking in England, Africa, Israel and the USA, before he returns to his yearned for Oz.
Whilst Australia is obviously the country at the centre of the book, I found the most engrossing stories to be those set in 1970s Zimbabwe (then known as Rhodesia), during the three years that Ratcliff spent working at a journalist there during the civil war immediately before Zimbabwe’s creation. Displaying a sensitive insight into the issues being encountered in the country (and from close range due to his work), these sections provide an interesting contrast to the humorous exploits that populate the majority of the book.
It all adds up to Wonder, Thunder and Blunder Down Under being an entertaining read, whether you are interested in Ratcliff’s perspective on 1970s Australia and Zimbabwe, or you just want to casually dip into a collection of funny and entertaining yarns whilst on holidays or while riding the train to work (perhaps even going over Ratcliff’s beloved Coathanger).

Mitch Albom's Have a Little Faith - Reviewed by Ron Reynolds

From the author of "Tuesdays with Morrie." This is in the same genre
and a delightful read.
Mitch is asked to prepare a eulogy by his old Rabbi (Reb) Albert Lewis.
Not understanding why, he accepts and thus follows a spiritual journey
for Albom that has him for thinking about his Jewish roots but also the
reasons for our need for belief whether it be in a Creator or perhaps
why we need to have any outer faith outside our own inner belief in the
"self"
A thoughtful read for those who like the challenge of asking, "Do we
need Faith," is the discipline of religious practice really necessary to
our needs in this 21st. century?
Mitch's book is a very interesting non-intellectual look at what some of
us may need reminding of, that material means may not provide us with
the inner peace many of us are searching for. A very good book.

Tara Moss' The Siren - Reviewed by Ron Reynolds

Having only read critiques of Tara's books I looked forward to evaluating a book for myself.

She is a very entertaining read and her plot and its development had me totally riveted to the last page. This has all the elements required for an enthralling read. Her central character Makedde Vanderwall is a beautiful,
intelligent,and totally desirable woman who one can't help but visualize as the fiction representative of the books author.
All in a good read, a definite page turner! Enjoy!