By Adelaide City Rotaract Club's members
Karagh
My “lighthearted” read that I’ve just finished was the Tokyo Ghoul manga. It’s about ghouls in Tokyo (obvious), but it’s focused on a group who don’t want to actually kill humans to survive versus those who do. My not so lighthearted read at the moment is Eggshell Skull by Bri Lee. It’s the memoirs of a law graduate in QLD, and the cases she witnesses throughout her career, and how it affects her and how her past plagued her throughout this time. She ends up being the complainant in her own case. It’s not a happy read but I’m enjoying it so far. It’s so interesting and I think everyone should read it.
Nic
The Warlord Chronicles trilogy by Bernard Cornwell are an amazing series and I have no idea why they aren't as well known as Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones.They tell the story of King Arthur through the eyes of a largely forgotten character that makes a few insignificant appearances in the early Welsh versions of the legend called Derfel Cadarn. It tells the story without actual magic and explains some of the more wild parts of the legend logically. Also the greatest battle Scenes I have ever read!
Isaac
I'm reading Jane Austen's "Emma". It's a surprisingly charming book about arrogance and prejudice. One just needs to get over the nineteenth-century attitudes about social class.
Santhny
I'm currently reading Half of a Yellow Sun, written by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Set in the 60s during the Nigerian Civil War/Biafra War, it tells a beautiful story through three different perspectives, Olanna, a young woman who's living with her boyfriend, a radical university professor, Ugwu, their houseboy from a poor village and Richard, an English-writer who's fallen for Olanna's sister. I'm learning so much about Biafra War by reading this book and what I really like is reading it through three completely different perspectives. It's not the usual type of book I'd read but it has been an interesting read!
Alanna
I just re-read The Little Shop of Happy Ever After, which I bought on my Kindle in 2018. It was even better than I remembered! Such a perfect beautiful little escapism story, that is part romance, part escapism, part ode to the magic of books. I really want to pack up my life and go live in Northern Scotland with a van full of books now (spoiler alert!). Just what I needed to put a smile on my face during isolation.
Paige
The Witcher: The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski - Another example of a book being better than the show. I couldn't get enough of the Netflix series, so this was better than expected. I really enjoyed this read, and found it quite immersive, the folk stories woven into the narrative and the type of humour made it feel different from other books I've read. I also enjoyed the thought provoking moments about humanness and the interesting characters.
A common complaint of this book is that the translation feels a bit clunky in places, but to me it added to its charm. I usually read to fall asleep, but this series has kept me up for hours past my bed time!
HAPPY ISO READING!