"The Red Thread" by Nicholas Jose

I found this book for $1 at the Red Cross Shop, and I'm reading it as part of the Aussie Author Challenge. While the author Nicholas Jose is Australian, the book "The Red Thread" is set in Shanghai, China. As I was reading it I got the impression that the author had either spent a reasonable amount of time living there or studying Chinese history/art/literature as the details in the book just seemed so authentic and as if they were written by someone who was passionate about Chinese art and culture - to me anyway, not that I have visited mainland China myself yet. Now that I've finished reading the book I have just looked up the author's biography and discovered that he did indeed live in China during the 1980s.

The book is a love story, and I don't usually read a lot of books that fall into the 'romance' genre. Basically it's about an ill-fated but besotted young Chinese couple from the 1700s (Shen and Yun) who form a turbulent friendship with another woman, Han. Their story is fairly tragic, but it appears somehow they are linked or re-born in contemporary times, destined to re-live their ill-fated romance and friendship, while trying desperately to avoid coming to the same sad end. The re-born characters are Shen (a young Chinese art historian/valuer for an auction house), Ruth (an Australian artist visiting Shanghai) and Han, a nightclub entertainer. The Shen from the 1700s had recorded his life story in a book of 6 chapters, of which the contemporary Shen comes across the first 4 chapters, and quickly comes to the conclusion that he is re-living the story in that book. As things start going badly for the modern day Shen & Ruth, he desperately tries to track down the final missing chapters to try to find a happy ending. 

While the romance in the book seemed pretty far-fetched and unrealistic to me, I really enjoyed the setting of the novel, the descriptive writing style and the little cultural details about China and Chinese art, which I know very little about. I liked the descriptions of many of the art pieces, they seemed to bring the objects to life in my mind, for example the description of this bowl:

"The bowl had such a presence and authority that it simply was, and at the same time it seemed to centre the whole open-plan office of Shanghai Art Auctions International....A spectacular piece, its oxblood glaze, like liquid garnet, absorbing the strange light of this world, three centuries remote from the time when it was made, as it reflected the faces of the two men who peered into it....it felt glossy, almost viscous." 

Started reading: 8th April 2015
Finished: 15th April 2015
My score: 6.5/10
Aussie Author Challenge stats: Male Author, New to me, genre: romance/love story

"Tsunami and the single girl" by Krissy Nicholson

I read this book as part of the Aussie Author Challenge. It's basically a memoir written by an Australian woman in her 30s about her life as an international aid worker for Oxfam combined with her search for "Mr. Right". In many ways I found it to be a book of contrasts, which is probably reflective of the authors life, one minute dealing with humanitarian emergency situations and the next some fairly shallow relationship or party situation. While at times the search for romance and social distractions were a bit annoying and seemed to be at odds with the more serious topics covered in the book, other times it did provide comic relief. It also perhaps makes this book appeal to a wider audience who might not otherwise choose to read a book about humanitarian disasters in Africa or Asia, and gives an insight into the cultures, differences, challenges of these different countries and communities and what is actually involved in aid work in these emergency situations. I had mixed opinions about this book, some aspects I really enjoyed and as I didnt really know much about how all these sorts of aid programs are run and what it must be like to be an aid worker I found this really interesting. However some of the more shallow, immature, selfish side stories often jarred with the professional, hard-working, aid worker stories. While in some ways this made the book more honest and 'real' it also detracted a bit from the overall enjoyment of the book for me personally. I score this book 6/10. That said, the book still inspired me to want to do more, especially for women, who don't have all the wonderful opportunities that we take for granted living in Australian cities, so if this book has a similar effect on other readers then that is a great achievement by the author.

Started reading on my kindle: 26th October 2013
Finished: 3rd November 2013
My score: 6/10

"The Rosie Project" by Graeme Simsion

This is the first book I've read by Graeme Simsion, an Australian author. It was recommended to me by 3 different friends who all independently rated the book as a '10 out of 10'.
I found it to be hilariously funny and a great romantic comedy crossed with science geekiness. It's about a genetics professor who seems to have Asperger's syndrome (a kind of Autism) without being aware of it, who is highly intelligent but lacks some social skills. He decides it's time he finds a wife, and sets about devising a questionnaire to give to women to eliminate the incompatible candidates quickly. His interactions with various people and the hilarious adventures that ensue as he searches for a perfect wife are priceless. Never read a book like it before, thoroughly enjoyed it, was only disappointed that it wasn't longer!

Started reading on my kindle: 19th June 2013, finished the same day.
My score 10/10!

"The Girl with the Cat Tattoo" by Theresa Weir

Not the sort of book I usually read but a bit of a break from the more complex worlds and characters in the books I have read lately. This was an easy, quick read, a story about a match-making cat. Nothing stand out really, but the cat, Max, was a cute character. The book was a freebie I downloaded from Pixel of Ink when I felt like a bit of light reading entertainment instead of watching TV...but probably watching TV would have given my brain more of a workout than this book.

Read on my Kindle in March 2013
My score: 4/10