bcheers

Book trailer for "In Strange Worlds", by Australian author, Brenda Cheers.

“The Sleeping Pool” is an intelligently written novel by an author who is a born story-teller.
One twin disappears in the Sleeping Pool in Zimbabwe at a time when his presence is sorely needed by the other twin in the US. What evolves is the frantic search for this man amid mystery and murder.
The prose is mesmeric at times and I was able to immerse myself wholly in the story. The characters were well drawn and the descriptions of scenes had the right balance of detail and length.
There was a lot to like about this book. I recommend it for lovers of good quality fiction.
Four stars
I received this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.

There is an historic beach house on a prime piece of real estate in a small Queensland town.

Developers are circling – they want the land for a resort. The townspeople don’t want them to have it.

A young journalist is given the story to write from a human interest angle. She interviews a number of people who have been guests of the beach house. We are told their stories, and each one is complete in its own right. There are climaxes and resolutions.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was well written and Ms McKenna has an excellent command of language. The characters are well developed and the reader gets to know each one intimately. One of the stories, Clare 2000, touched me deeply.

The Epilogue, which contains the overall resolution, is satisfying.

I highly recommend The Beach House and have rated it 5 stars.

Jennifer Steil has an intimate, chatty, self-effacing style of writing which is similar to Elizabeth Gilbert (EAT PRAY LOVE). I find it accessible and a delight to read.
Having researched Yemen for my novel, I already knew a great deal about Sana'a - the capital city of that fascinating country. Ms Steil was fortunate to be able to live and work there before it became too dangerous for westerners.
We learn about the frustrations of teaching journalism to writers whose first language isn't English. We witness her growing love for the Yemeni people and the city they live in. We are at her elbow when she meets the new British Ambassador to Yemen, Tim Torlot - then we learn what the fallout of this meeting is.
It is difficult to find any westerners accounts of living in, or even visiting Yemen because so few do so. 'The Woman Who Fell from the Sky' is absorbing and honestly written. I recommend it.