About: All That I Am by Anna Funder is an award winning novel by this Australian author. The book won the prestigious Miles Franklin Literary Award, Australia’s most prestigious literary award. 400 pages Publisher: Harper Perennial Language: English ISBN-10: 0062077570 The pub­lisher is giv­ing away one copy of this book –to enter fill out the Raf­fle­copt­ter form at the end of the post.         My rat­ing for  All That I Am — 4 Buy this book in paper or in elec­tronic format* More Recommended World War II books on Man of la BookStore Thoughts: All That I Am by Anna Funder (website | Facebook) is a very good book, well written and interesting. That being said, it took me a while to get into it and, for me, a bit confusing and distracting. However, this is a profound book which I found that I liked a lot more after I finished. The story slaps the reader in the face, making them come to terms with the human condition of the past. The political turmoil described in the book is merely a backdrop to the people who are caught up in it, screaming and warning with no one to hear except the astute reader who knows how events will eventually unfold. The…

I recently read and reviewed Above All Things by first time novelist (and Poet Laureate for Lake Ontario) Tanis Rideout. The book tells of George Mallory, an English explorer hell bent on conquering Mt. Everest and paying dearly for it. Q. As a first time novelist, how did you decide on the subject of Mallory’s Everest assent attempt? A. I’m not sure that I decided to write it – Everest, and Mallory, got into my head and the only way to get both of them out was to get writing. It takes me a long time to write, so ideas have to be things that I can’t shake, that I get obsessed with for a very long time. Margaret Atwood once referred to novelist’s ideas like an albatross you can’t get rid of. You don’t choose it and you can’t escape it. That seems pretty accurate to me. I came to be obsessed by Mallory and Everest while I was working at an outdoor equipment store after university. One of my co-workers would bring in Everest videos to show on the TV we had at the back of the store. I quickly became interested in Everest in general – it…