Unsettled
By Kate Grenville
Unsettled is a personal and honest book by Kate Grenville. In it, she looks into her family’s past and how it connects to the history of Australia, especially the land taken from Aboriginal people.
Kate goes on a journey to places important to her ancestors. As she visits these places, she learns that her family, like many others, lived on land that was taken from its original owners. This makes her think deeply about colonisation and how it affected First Nations people.
What makes this book special is how Kate shares her thoughts. She doesn’t act like she knows everything. Instead, she asks questions and invites readers to think with her.
Unsettled encourages readers to think about their own family’s history and their connection to the land. It’s a reminder that understanding the past is the first step toward making things better.
For anyone interested in learning about Australia’s history and its impact today, Unsettled is a thoughtful and accessible read.
Millie and Stella – Best Friends Forever: The Lost Ponies
By Josephine Moon, Illustrated by Jedda Robaard
This is a story about two best friends who love riding their ponies and reading books.
They are excited about a new library at school and hope to become its librarians. But when someone starts leaving the paddock gates open, their ponies are at risk, and Millie and Stella are blamed! The girls must work together to solve the mystery and protect their ponies.
This book is perfect for young readers who enjoy stories about friendship, animals, and solving mysteries. This story shows how friends can do amazing things when they help each other and never give up.
If you love ponies and adventures with your best friend, you’ll enjoy joining Millie and Stella on their exciting journey!
Reviews by Aryani Siti
The Director
By Daniel Kehlmann
$34.99
Fans of vaudevillian grandeur will remember Daniel Kehlmann’s 2017 novel Tyll, a surreal account of the Thirty Years’ War translated from German by Ross Benjamin. The Director marks the return of Kehlmann and Benjamin to the world of historical fiction, a return foreshadowed last year in Christian Kracht’s Eurotrash, which sees the fictionalised Kracht mistaken for Kehlmann in a series of absurd encounters.
The Director follows the life and career of famed Weimar-era filmmaker G. W. Pabst in his professional struggles against the Nazi establishment. There is a peculiar kind of German fairytale grimace which flickers up in times of despair, and Kehlmann’s latest novel evokes the bitter farce of the Third Reich in a manner both ruthless and chillingly comic.
Pabst’s ill-fated return to Ostmark sees him quickly swept into a Faustian bargain with ‘Herr Doktor’ Joseph Goebbels, who promises him ‘Deep films for deep people’. Pabst’s prospects are grim. Will his legacy be forever tarnished? Or will the nightmare of the Reich be one day forgotten?
Reviews from the Sun Bookshop – sunbookshop.com
