Reviewed: Being Anti-Social by Leigh K Cunningham

Throughout 2014, Eliza will be participating in the Australian Women Writers Challenge on behalf of Hopscotch Friday.

Mace Evans, the female protagonist of Leigh K Cunningham's award winning Being Anti-Social, could be described as an Aussie Bridget Jones. She's in her late thirties, single, has an interfering family, dysfunctional group of friends, a slight drinking problem and an unfortunate habit of sleeping with her co-workers.

However, Mace is also mourning the love of her life – her ex-husband Ben, who died from leukaemia. Mace struggles through life as she watches her friends and family find love and contentment, which now seem to elude her. She’s still carrying the guilt of the affair she had that led to her marriage breakdown, and her inability to make it right with Ben before he died.
 

Being Anti-Social is about the loneliness of grief and what happens when you find great love and happiness only to lose it. Although it brought me close to tears at one point, this novel also has a great sense of wit that made me laugh out loud. I found familiar the group of girlfriends who you’ve known so long that sometimes you don't remember why you’re still hanging out with them, but still you love them like the sisters you never had. I could also relate to Mace’s tactics for getting through tedious work meetings; 'I slip in and out of awareness, returning only when I hear a C-level voice, in particular the CFO, my boss. For the rest of the time, I nod and make to-do lists, for example, grocery lists, holiday plans, Oscar quotes etc.'
 

In fact, I think it is the author's firsthand experience as a lawyer and senior executive that makes her descriptions of life in the modern workplace all the more real, and her takes on the characters found in nearly every office, a humorous edge. It’s nice to know even the senior echelons of organisations feel the same as us filling out the ranks. This has to be one of my favourite aspects of the book.
 

There are a lot of great moments in Being Anti-Social, and the tone is near perfect blend of cynicism, humour and emotional depth. However, for me its downfall is that some of the characters are not as well developed as I would like, such as ex-boyfriend Rudy and Mace's sister Shannon. Also some aspects of the plot are not wrapped up in a way that left me satisfied. In the end this left me wondering about some of the characters, why they were included at all, and what happened to make them act the way they did?

Being Anti-Social is no Bridget Jones' Diary. It is an enjoyable read and an interesting exploration of how someone might deal with life when it doesn't turn out the way they planned. It’s a book that managed to make me laugh and cry, and any book that can do that is worth a read.

Being Anti-Social by Leigh K Cunningham is independently published through Vivante Publishing.

-Eliza Murphy

read more

Neil Gaiman's Fortunately, the Milk: A Review & A Competition

Neil Gaiman's Fortunately, the Milk is the charming tale of what happens when Dad gets waylaid on the way home from the shops, to which he went to pick up some milk.

Somehow between the shops and home, Dad manages to find himself travelling through time with a dinosaur in a hot air balloon, moving through time and space, and fending off a tribe of natives, a family of vampires and a gaggle of aliens!

It truly is treacherous on the way home from the shops.

You know he's just run into a neighbour, stopped for a chat and lost track of time, but that's far less enjoyable than dinosaurs, time travel and world saving milk!

The interludes from the children are especially lovely, as they patiently and attentively listen to their father's long-winded excuse for being delayed.

The writing is quintessentially Gaiman, by which I mean thoroughly English, and pleasantly whimsical. Gaiman has such a great command of language, making Fortunately, the Milk almost lyrical in expression and a joy to read.

The illustrations are beautifully detailed, and quite mature for a children's book, or at least compared to what I remember from children's books when I was younger.

Presented in black and white, Chris Riddell's illustrations compliment the story as it is being told, with the text printed in and around many of the drawings. I particularly liked the portraits of characters staring out from the book and drawing readers in.

Funny how Dad looks just like Neil Gaiman himself!

The result is that you can't help but smile reading Fortunately, the Milk, be you grown up or child.

As someone who is lactose intolerant, I thoroughly recommend Fortunately, the Milk, and although it's aimed at kids in the 8-12 age range, I don't see anything wrong with having a few great children's books tucked away in a grown up bookshelf.

-Stevie O'C

Thanks to the lovely people at Bloomsbury, we have a copy of Neil Gaiman's Fortunately, the Milk, to give away! Yay!

All you have to do is fill out the form below and you're in with a chance! And don't forget to share the love on Twitter or Facebook. Good luck! *Fine print below the form.

Competition closed! Congrats to our winner and thanks to everyone who entered!

The fine print: Entries close 11.59pm on Friday 13 December 2013. Your details will not be used for any purpose other than for the delivery of your prize. Hopscotch Friday and Bloomsbury Publishing do not take any responsibility for the damage to, loss or delay of prizes sent to winners - unfortunately, that's in the hands of Australia Post. The decision of judges is final and no correspondence will be entered upon. One entry per person. Any subsequent entries will be void. Incorrect answers are void. Prizes are not redeemable for cash or any other currency. This competition is open to Australian residents only. Any comments or queries should be submitted via the contact form or in the comments below.

read more

Danielle Hawkins' Chocolate Cake for Breakfast: A Review

Thinking about it, it’s not often that I read a book about New Zealand, or set in New Zealand, or that has anything to do with New Zealand.

Danielle Hawkins’ Chocolate Cake for Breakfast is the story of Helen McNeil, a country vet in, you guessed it, New Zealand, who quite literally trips over All Black Mark Tipene in a place you’d hardly expect – a small town at her cousin’s party. What ensues is a whirlwind romance interspersed with the daily life of a country vet.

That is, until a ‘little something’ changes everything.

If you haven’t figured out what the ‘little something’ might be then you aren’t familiar with chic lit tropes, or for that matter any trope relating to romantic comedies aimed at women.

Why can’t she just enjoy the whirlwind, chalk it up to experience and live a happy life? Why can’t they figure their differences actually complement each other, get married and live happily ever after? Or why can’t he turn out to be a bit of a jerk, she breaks it off, is heartbroken but gets over it because she loves her life, and is a strong woman? /rant

Instead Mark and Helen become forever linked, like it or not.

I liked Helen. She’s intelligent, well spoken, humourous, and independent. I found her to be both familiar and relatable. If Helen is not a reflection of you, then she is definitely someone you know.

The development of Helen as a character is far more rounded than that for Mark, which can probably be attributed to the fact that it’s Helen’s perspective we’re taking. It does seem a shame though, as Mark is relegated to tall, dark, handsome and mysterious. Although, to be honest in the absence of any further detail, I imagined him to be far less 'mysterious' and a little bit one note, in a very stereotypical and possibly unfair conception of rugby players.

I was struck by two things when reading Chocolate Cake for Breakfast; first, the intimate detail given to some of the veterinary procedures including those that are particularly stomach churning. Hawkins herself being a vet, this is understandable. But secondly, the lack of any detail of Helen and Mark being intimate, properly intimate. The tracking of events ends just as one flops into the bed beside the other. Maybe this is just me, but why all the detail on one aspect of Helen’s life but not the other? Not that it needs to be in graphic detail, but surely sex is an integral part of romance?

As a result a lot of the romance is based on the conversations Helen has with other people about her relationship, or her own internal monologue, as opposed to the relationship itself. This, I believe, is inherently female, in that us ladies like to over think things and twist them into situations that may or may not exist. For example, what could this famous, wealthy and sought after sports person who can have any lady he wants possibly want with me, a country vet? We all do it, we all know we shouldn’t and so does Helen.

All in all I enjoyed Chocolate Cake for Breakfast, it’s an easy read with a familiar plot line. It's a bit of escapism that's perfect for a holiday read or a break at the weekend with your feet up.

Chocolate Cake for Breakfast by Danielle Hawkins is published by Allen & Unwin. 

-Stevie O'C

read more