Summer, we hardly knew ye…
Welcome to March and the first days of Autumn. If you’re already yearning for the Summer months again, I can’t bring it back for you (who do you think I am anyway? Thor?) though I’ll comfort you as best I can with a round up of the biggest books for March. And the first is a real biggie.
Jodi Piccoult’s new novel Lone Wolf is available the 7th of March, very close to the American release date which is great news for Australian fans. Lone Wolf focuses on a fractured family that becomes further divided by the prospect of turning off life support for one of its members. With an emotional plot, ethical issues aplenty and a big twist, Lone Wolf delivers exactly what Piccoult fans are after.
Another big release from an author with a legion of fans is The Sins of the Father by Jeffrey Archer. This is the hotly anticipated sequel to Only Time Will Tell, which continues the ambitious, multi-character Clifton saga.
With the weather soon to cool down, it’s time to think about some nice hearty cookbooks. Everyone is salivating over Manu and his French Bistro – and rightly so- but let’s take a moment to mention the new cookbook from Maggie Beer. One of Australia’s favourite cooks, Maggie is so adorable you just want to give her a big hug and share a pot of tea and scones with her. In Maggie’s Verjuice Cookbook she extols the virtues of verjuice, an ingredient she believes in so much she was the first in the world to commercially produce it. She explains its uses in cooking and provides some fantastic recipes to start you off.
One of the most popular books for March already is Big Fat Lies. It’s from David Gillespie, who made a name for himself with the super successful Sweet Poison series. In Big Fat Lies, Gillespie takes the lucrative fitness and health industries to task over their desire for profit over truth. There are a heap of ‘don’t eat this, don’t eat that’ books out there but Gillespie is a genuine advocate for good health and some of the information in this book is quite terrifying.
Having said that, beloved author Marian Keyes believes that dessert saved her life. Saved by Cake is a touching food memoir where Keyes opens up about her struggles with depression and the realisation that ‘baking was what she needed to do in order to get her through each day’. The recipes are mouthwatering so maybe save the anti-sugar book for a few days later….
Still on the subject of cooking, those talented little scamps from Junior Masterchef have been involved in the release of the Junior Masterchef Cookbook. In a clever move the book has been organised by different cuisines so that the reader gets a taste of Japan, Morocco, Spain (my favourite) and plenty more. It’s actually a great cookbook for adult beginners like me who believe baked beans on toast counts as cooking. While we are on the subject of Masterchef, do you remember Merle Parrish from adult Masterchef last year? The CWA stalwart totally stole the show when she appeared as a guest and now she has released a wonderful baking book entitled Merle’s Kitchen! Just don’t let that sponge dry out or she WILL come for you.
And finally there’s a real quiet achiever this month. It’s Wonder by R.J Pallacio and it continues this recent trend of young adult books being so damn good they’ll elicit a tear from the most jaded adult reader. In Wonder we follow a boy with severe facial disfigurement who is about to experience mainstream school for the first time. It’s clever, subtle and just a gem that deserves a spot on your bookshelf.
