Trip of a Lifetime
By Liz Byrski

Leaving her Newcastle office one afternoon, Heather Delaney, a parliamentarian, is shot in the shoulder, the apparent victim of an assassination attempt. A somewhat controversial politician, there seem any number of people who could have wanted her dead – but as the months drift by, no suspect emerges. Determined to get on with her life, but traumatised and vulnerable, she succumbs to the advances of Ellis Hargreaves, with whom she had an affair forty years earlier when she was a student and he a married man. Now divorced and living a reclusive life in Byron Bay, he comes back into her life seemingly eager to pick up where they left off. But as their relationship progresses, Heather finds Ellis determined to draw her into his shady schemes to set himself up as a New Age ‘life-coach’, and a dangerous game begins, in which she is forced to confront their embittered past, and choose between following her heart and her head.

Ellis is a slime-ball and why Heather can't see that is beyond me. All her friends, co-workers and family could see it. Heather's aunt is a beautiful character, as is her soulmate who lives next door. Their relationship is truly wonderful. I love Liz's novels and recommend them to anyone who loves to read about love, life and powerful women.

Little Children
By Tom Perrotta

The characters in this absorbing tale of suburban angst are constrained and defined by their relationship to children. There's Sarah, an erstwhile bisexual feminist who finds herself an unhappy mother and wife to a branding consultant addicted to Internet porn. There's Todd, a handsome ex-jock and stay-at-home dad known to neighborhood housewives as the Prom King, who finds in house-husbandry and reveries about his teenage glory days a comforting alternative to his wife's demands that he pass the bar and get on with a law career. There's Mary Ann, an uptight supermom who schedules sex with her husband every Tuesday at nine and already has her well-drilled four-year-old on the inside track to Harvard. And there's Ronnie, a pedophile whose return from prison throws the school district into an uproar, and his mother, May, who still harbors hopes that her son will turn out well after all. In the midst of this universe of mild to fulminating family dysfunction, Sarah and Todd drift into an affair that recaptures the passion of adolescence, that fleeting period of freedom and possibility between the dutiful rigidities of childhood and parenthood.

Little Children looks at the sterility of suburbia and at the dark emotions that threaten the characters' placid and predictable lives. Most of the individuals in this novel are hypocritical, selfish, and immature. Nevertheless, Perrotta is such a gifted writer that he humanizes the characters and makes us care deeply about them. The author implies that even when we grow up and become parents ourselves, in some ways we all remain "little children" inside.

This book has been adapted for the big screen. Watch the movie trailer.

Second Chance
By Jane Green

A group of seemingly disparate adults in their 30s gathers to mourn a dear friend, Tom, unexpectedly killed in a terrorist attack in New York. The friends gather in Britain for Tom's "hometown" memorial and a reunion. One friend, Saffron, is a grade B Hollywood actress with two big secrets to hide – her alcoholism and her very famous, married lover. Another, Holly, is married to a high-level lawyer and absolutely miserable, despite her two beautiful children. Olivia seems happy on the outside; she's an animal rescuer, but her longtime relationship has just collapsed. Paul seems the luckiest and happiest, married to a drop-dead gorgeous Scandinavian Internet entrepeneur, Anna, but they are unable to have children despite many IV attempts. And then there is Will, younger brother of Tom, who is still the perpetual hippie.

As all these friends gather, they find they still love one another, but must accept the realities of their adult lives. It becomes clear in short order that Tom was the catalyst who, all these years, kept them together by an invisible thread; although none of them really kept in touch, Tom kept in touch with them all. And it is upon him that many of their hopes and dreams have rested, in complete fantasy.

This is beyond chick-lit. This is a thoughtful book, maybe a bit cliched, but still well worth reading. It's a fast and interesting read, but meaningful as well. I had tears in my eyes quite a few times. I saw myself in one of the characters and found it deeply moving to see my feelings on the page. Recommended.

Food, Sex and Money
By Liz Byrski

Nominated in this year's Books Alive promotion, this is a story about three women renewing their friendship forty years after convent school.

Following the death of her husband, Bonnie moves back to Australia after decades in Europe. She soon realises that it will take more than adjusting the amount of make-up she wears to fit back in. Along with her friends Fran, a well known food writer, and Slvia, a minister's wife, she decides to open The Boatshed - a combined restuarant, gallery and shop. It's an enormous undertaking that has an unexpected impact on them and their families.

It is not only a novel written with remarkable insights and sensitivity, but is also a tribute to about three quarters of the female population of the planet, who are more than twenty-five years old. It is most satisfying that an excellent author had the courage to star women, who are over the proverbial hill, have been battered by losses, are anguished by the future, and caught between the problems of their adult children on one end, and the last struggles of their parents on the other. In a society besotted by youth, the majority of women cannot find many novels in which they do not feel excluded, ( or when included than mostly as ridiculous, or pitiable figures).