Whilst a story about a pioneering New South Wales family and the hardships they face in the 1800s should be interesting, one wouldn’t necessarily expect it to be compelling. Yet I couldn’t put this book down.

The story is told through the eyes of the eldest daughter Charlotte, as she grows up under the shadow of her stepfather, a violent drunkard (her own father having died a few years previously). A central focus of the story is Charlotte’s quest to find out why her mother would marry such a man, and as a result, lead her family into danger and despair. We can only know what Charlotte knows, so as there are gaps in her ability to comprehend her situation, we are in the dark too. As the story unfolds and Charlotte progresses into adulthood, we come to understand more of why her mother may have done the things she did.

The book is based on a real family, the Atkinsons, who lived at Oldbury, NSW, Australia.

Entertaining novel to read and quite funny overall, but after all the trials that the protagonist goes through the ending is a bit sad.

To describe this book as “worth consuming” with the exclamation mark is going too far, but it was better than ‘wishy-washy’.

This was the prescribed textbook for a uni course I am doing, I wouldn’t have read it otherwise. However it does provide a good, comprehensive overview of management – it’s history and the major theories and concepts that it is built upon. The book also has strategies and case studies which are useful enough.

Of course real learning about how to be a manager happens in the workplace and in life, not in a classroom, and I have certainly learned a lot more useful things about managing from my work experiences than I ever expect to gain from any book.

Not as good as other Val McDermid novels – not as serious and lacked attention to detail that her other crime fiction stories are so strong in.

I didn’t mind this story, but didn’t enjoy it anywhere near as much as Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by the same author. The story is told by several of the main characters, changing around chapter by chapter. I found that this made the book less enjoyable to read, as it was harder to build a strong connection with any one character. The interpretation of what the dwarves are is an interesting one – ancient, ageless creatures that are more ‘mineral’ than ‘biological’, though this changes with their exposure to Bianca (Snow White) as they develop identity, individuality and the ability to age. However, I felt that when they were first introduced, their ‘voice’ was not different enough to that of humans. This meant I couldn’t lose myself in the story; instead I was conscious that I was critiquing the author’s writing style.

This was the first book by Maguire that I had read. (I was interested to read Wicked, but couldn’t get hold of it at the Library). I quite enjoyed it… the story kept my interest, the setting is described in a way that provides a strong sense of place and it was easy to build a relationship with the main character because the story was largely told through her eyes.

This movie is the ultimate mind-fuck!!

The movie appears to be a documentary and personally, I found it very amusing – the deeper the collective got into their consensus decision-making the more amusing it became. (Ah, it takes me back to the days of leftie student politics at uni). But it was watching the extras on the DVD that was the icing on the cake…

======SPOILER ALERT===================
1. the ‘Q&A’ with the cast confirmed my suspicions… this is no documentary. It is all scripted (though very loosely at times). As it turns out, the movie was based on a short story by Todd (“Professor University”).
2. The ‘Making of’ gives further insight into the blurring of fact and fiction, and tells tales of the annoyed audience members at a screening, who describe themselves as the ‘I’ve been robbed’ camp when they find out the whole thing is a fictional movie.
The best parts of the DVD are these extras, but it is not possible to enjoy them to their fullest if you haven’t seen the movie first.
This movie messes with your mind, and I truly pity those poor undergraduate cinema studies students who are going to have to study it and write essays about it.
I also pity those fools who have added reviews to IMDB complaining about how shallow and pathetic the movie is. They clearly demonstrate their own stupidity.
PS. There is almost no nudity in this film (I counted a total of one breast). And there is definitely no porn. :)

I have ‘consumed’ this book about 93 times since I acquired it… it has become my little boy’s favourite story, and since he needs me to read it to him, we ‘consume’ it together.

I liked this a lot, but it wasn’t as good as Jennifer Government (Max Barry’s second novel).

I haven’t actually started consuming this yet…

It is actually a DVD not a book, but All Consuming wouldn’t let me add it as “Other”. I am also wanted to put this on my “what should I consume next?” list, but again, All Consuming wouldn’t let me add it there! Kept getting annoying error messages. >:(

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