Good morning, and welcome to April! In our patch of the world, the leaves are turning gold and red, and the temperatures are cooling. We’re approaching that time of the year when it’s time to light the fire, and curl up on the couch with a hot mug of something, and a good book to read (in other words, my favourite time of the year 🙂 ).
This month’s book has been kindly selected by last month’s author, Simmone Howell, author of NOTES FROM THE TEENAGE UNDERGROUND. In a refreshing change from fiction, she has chosen a book of YA memoir, so I’m delighted to announce that this month’s book will be HOW TO BE HAPPY by Dave Burton *yay! Kermit flail!*
HOW TO BE HAPPY has the subtitle ‘A memoir of love, sex, and teenage confusion’ – which I have to say, automatically grabs my attention. It won the 2014 Text Prize (against some pretty stiff competition) and has received some fabulous reviews. On the Reading Time site, the reviewer notes: ‘The quest to fit in, be a part of something, to be someone who makes a difference, who will be remembered, are such strong directives in young people, and often underpin many of their choices. Sometimes the bad ones. It’s called ‘growing up’.’ So you get the impression that HOW TO BE HAPPY isn’t all happy, right? It’s apparently quite sad and confronting in places, but the wit and strength of the writer shine through – Dave is a Queenslander, and apart from being a talented memoirist, he’s also a playwright, podcaster, editor and creative writing teacher. You can check out his website here.
If you’d like to order this month’s book from Boomerang Books, which supplies all our Australian titles, you can order the book here and quote the code ‘loveoz’ to get free shipping.
I hope you like HOW TO BE HAPPY – this is one I haven’t read yet, so I’m looking forward to discussing it with you!
xxEllie