scribepub's reviews
497 reviews

A Letter From Paris: A True Story of Hidden Art, Lost Romance, and Family Reclaimed by Louisa Deasey

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An enchanting memoir that will stay with you long after you close the book.
Rebecca Raisin, bestselling author of The Little Paris Collection

A beautiful celebration of the profound healing power of stories shared.
Karina Machado, author of Spirit Sisters

An amazing story which gave me tingles.
Carla Coulson, author of Paris Tango and Italian Joy

A Letter from Paris is a sobering reminder of the ease with which our stories can be warped by the prevailing attitudes of the time – and the crucial importance of archives in the preservation of lives and literature.
Marion Rankin, The Guardian

Truly enthralling reading … Louisa’s writing is raw, intimate and unpretentious, and she shares her experiences in such a way that the reader is invested from page one.
Better Reading

[A] fascinating and moving memoir.
Nudge-Book

[This] is a must read for memoir lovers.
The French Village Diaries

What emerges is the portrait of a fascinating and unconventional man who lived life to the full. For readers interested in family, history, the message is simple. Don’t give up! .
Christopher Banticko, Weekly Times

Enchanting.
The New Daily

A beautiful, true story, engagingly told. So much joy and kindness between the covers.
Natasha Lester, author of The Paris Seamstress
Goodnight Trump: A Parody by Erich Origen, Gan Golan

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[A] smile of a book.
Graeme Barrow, Daily Post
Empire of Enchantment: The Story of Indian Magic by John Zubrzycki

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Zubrzycki has found the most wonderful story, and told it brilliantly. It is — quite literally — a book of marvels.
William Dalyrymple

In Empire of Enchantment, John Zubrzycki explores the history of magic rituals in India and the way they shaped western imaginations.

The author … draws on the accounts left by travellers, merchants, pilgrims and missionaries.

He has a pleasing sense of humour … and an eye for the absurd.

The Times

John Zubrzycki’s Empire of Enchantment, a fantastic and thoroughly engaging history of Indian magic, is bristling with anecdotes … tales of conjurors, tricksters, illusionists, jugglers, and cunning conmen across the centuries.
Financial Times

An amazing, brilliant, and incredibly erudite book. Zubrzycki’s knowledge is dazzling, and his discussions of Indian magicians and their Western imitators or denigrators allow him to tell marvellous stories about animal trainers, snake charmers, not to mention, thieves, Thugs, folk healers, spies, automatons, and about fascinating characters – Thurston, Sleeman, Sorcar – and many more.
Lee Siegel, Professor of Religion, University of Hawaii, and author of Net of Magic: Wonders and Deceptions in India

Exceptionally well-crafted and brilliantly told, Empire of Enchantment brings alive the most enchanting tales and traditions from the history of Indian magic, packed with an extraordinary cast featuring emperors and politicians, street performers and thugs. Travelling with Zubrzycki from distant antiquity down to our own, more recent times, what this book offers is a universe of pure, unadulterated delight.
Shashi Tharoor, author of Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India

A strange, deeply learned but consistently entertaining salmagundi of marvels, myths and outrageous cons a surefooted survey of a vast terrain.
The Spectator

‘Delightful and charming … an extraordinarily riveting social history of India, and of India’s encounter with the world.’
The National

Empire of Enchantment is a remarkable feat of scholarship and showmanship. It is scrupulously researched, richly illustrated and highly entertaining — and readers will never watch a rabbit snatched from a hat in quite the same way again.
Mandy Sayer, Weekend Australian

In Empire of Enchantment, Sydney-based historian, journalist, and former diplomat John Zubrzycki assembles a jewel case of illusion and wonder ... Empire of Enchantment holds together with a spirit of wonder usually reserved for works of magical realism, a genre that after all owes debts to the jinns and trickery within these pages.
Alexandra Roginski, Australian Book Review

A valuable and entertaining book.
The Washington Post

Hugely entertaining … a vividly illuminating history of the place of magic in Indian life ... [a] fabulous book of marvels and wonders.
Literary Review

Enjoyable, authoritative and unexpected ... a wonderfully restrained commentary.
John Keay

A whirlwind tour of a tradition that stretches from the spells of the Atharva Veda to the kitschy razzle-dazzle of today’s stage conjurers.
India Today

A magic trick performed in three acts, Zubrzycki plays raconteur in the book to the birth, disappearance, and reappearance of modern Indian magic.
scroll.in

In this page-turner, Zubrzycki teases apart the many strands of India’s magical history with a sleight of hand that would put a conjuror to shame.
Outlook

Zubrzycki focuses on magic and its derivates as entertainment, and has brought to life the history of the art in India.
The Hindu

From the pomp and circumstance of the stage, the death-defying sword swallowers, the amazing levitating brahmins, the trapeze artists, the mysterious rope-climbing sadhus, the amazing contortionists and jugglers, the book is a treatise on the varied skills and trappings of the magical art in India.
The Asian Age
Never Enough: the neuroscience and experience of addiction by Judith Grisel

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Dr. Judith Grisel, a neuroscientist and a person in long term addiction recovery, juxtaposes stark examples from her own tortured past, methodically connecting each experience to the hard science of addiction neurobiology. Doing this captures our attention as we peer into one of the most complex puzzles of humankind. The science behind addiction comes alive in its sorrow and grandeur. When you pick up this book get ready for an intense ride.
Paul H. Early, MD, DFASAM; President-Elect of American Society of Addiction Medicine

Grisel is a recovering addict, a neuroscientist, and a talented writer. Who better to help us understand drug addiction? This book is as informative as it is moving. Here you will find clearly explained science and a gripping account of the personal and societal toll of drug addiction.
Martha J. Farah, PHD, Director of Center for Neuroscience & Society, and Walter H. Annenberg Professor in the Natural Sciences, University of Pennsylvania

It is rare to have a book on addiction marry emotional and scientific views. Never Enough sends a message of hope in relaying Judith Grisel's pathway out of her own drug quagmire — notably, one triggered by the positive and compassionate responses of those near and dear to her.
Christopher J. Evans, PHD, Director of Hatos Center for Neuropharmacology, UCLA

Grisel’s account of her wayward early 20s, chasing one high after another, is harrowing … She writes clearly and unsparingly about both her experiences and the science of addiction — tobacco and caffeine figure in, as well — making plain that there is still much that remains unknown or mysterious about the brain’s workings. In the end, she notes, much of our present culture, which shuns pain and favors avoidance, is made up of ‘tools of addiction.’ Illuminating reading for those seeking to understand the whos, hows, and wherefores of getting hooked.’
Kirkus

Grisel, a behavioural neuroscientist and Bucknell psychology professor, examines the complexities of addiction in this personal account of a decade of substance abuse … Weaving anecdotes of her ordeal — some funny, others embarrassing — with basic brain science, she explains how drugs work, why some are more effective than others, and how addicts differ from non-addicts.
Publishers Weekly

Many scientists write about addiction, but how many are former addicts? Psychology professor Grisel mixes coverage of brain research with the warts-and-all story of her addictions, beginning with alcohol in seventh grade and progressing to marijuana, LSD, cocaine, and IV drug use … Powerful stuff.
Booklist

With knowledge and compassion, Grisel’s work straddles two worlds — that of scientists and former addicts, and is recommended for anyone interesting in furthering their understanding of addiction.
Library Journal

A timely, educational blend of neuroscience and memoir … Now a professor and scientist, Grisel is a compassionate and empathetic guide to the hard science behind drug use.
Bookpage

In this book, she explores the effects of drugs and why some people become addicted. She hopes to contribute to a path for freedom from addiction and to help loved ones, carers and policy makers make more informed choices.
Andrea Ripper, Courier Mail

With compassion and clarity, Grisel describes what drove her to addiction, what helped her recover, and her belief that a ‘cure’ for addiction will not be found in our individual brains but in the way we interact with our communities.
NB Magazine

Extraordinary.
Robin Osborne, GPSpeak

Never Enough is full of sobering statistics about drug use and abuse. You’ll not just be much smarter about how drugs work, you’ll b more forgiving and tolerant of addicts and what they struggle with.
Drew Turney, COSMOS

This is a book readers won't want to put down ... A highly recommended read for those who want to gain insight into what it means to be an addict from someone who has experienced it personally and professionally.
Choice

Never have I read a book that combines the theory with the practical, real-life experience when it comes to addiction. Judith Grisel has done just that — taken her own experiences as an addict and added her knowledge as a neuroscientist to produce a truly fascinating read ... this book is a timely read that informs the reader from multiple perspectives.
Sam Still Reading
Godspeed: a memoir by Casey Legler

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Reading Godspeed is an experience as invigorating, beautiful and punishing as standing under a waterfall. Legler is an unflinching chronicler of light and darkness, loneliness and embodiment, and the deep enchantments of sensation.
Helen MacDonald, author of H is for Hawk

Godspeed is a memoir for our times — an urgent, hypnotizing account of growing up and growing into ones skin under extreme circumstances. As brutal and original a telling as I can remember — of loneliness, of coping until the centre cannot hold. There is darkness here but in Casey Legler’s deft hands it serves the light. A cut-to-the-bone blues song in chapter form, these pages are touched, as she is, with lightning.
Michael Stipe

Exceptionally talented, reckless, separated from a true sense of herself, Legler could so easily have not survived her early life. The tension here is in how close she comes — by choice, or by default, in settings both elegant and ruined — and is still able to restore herself, her soul, and renew language itself to tell of it. Many of us would be well served by reading the last sentence of this memoir every day.
Amy Hempel

A coming-of-age drama captured through poetic prose and convincing honesty.
Kirkus

This is a heart-wrenching, coming-of-age memoir by a talented athlete who is street-smart, lonely, and painfully broken … A poetically written account by a resilient rebel who skillfully captures what it is like to feel the world through her skin.
Brenda Barrera, Booklist

[A memoir] with so much power and transparency.
Julia Vitale, Vanity Fair

[T]he book does offer a bold and innovative glimpse into a fascinating mind and the surreal life of a prodigy athlete … Legler is a writer of obvious talent. There are images and turns of phrase that are truly lovely, and that remind us of her keen observational powers … Legler’s story and poetics can be powerful.
Emma Rault, Lambda Literary

Raw and poetic … The book is lean and ferocious — not unlike Ms. Legler’s attributes as a competitive swimmer — and offers an unflinching account of the “dogged devotion to routine and repetition” required of Olympians.
Alex Hawgood, The New York Times

A tale of an unusual and distressing girlhood marred by drug addiction, self-loathing, sexual abuse, rebellion, and intense loneliness amid sporting success. It is short and unorthodoxly prose-like, and it punches hard and dark.
Rachel Olding, Sydney Morning Herald

[A]n intense memoir ... Legler succinctly captures her descent into alcohol and drug addiction ... The raw effect of the prose lingers ... This is a raw story of teenage addiction, and it’s beautifully told.
Publishers Weekly
Shame on Me: An Anatomy of Race and Belonging by Tessa McWatt

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Powerful and provocative.
Sunday Life

Her prose is lyrical and haunting ... McWatt forcefully demonstrates how we all have a stake in dismantling the status quo and creating new paths towards true freedom: “a place outside both the master’s house and the field”. Shame on Me is a tale of our time, yet also timeless.
Shu-Ling Chua, The Saturday Paper
A Wunch of Bankers: A Year in the Hayne Royal Commission by Daniel Ziffer

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Wucking funderful.
Wil Anderson

A jolly romp across the carcass of corporate greed.
Sammy J

[A] rollicking blow-by-blow of the Hayne Royal Commission into banking ... Ziffer’s doom, gloom and snark sums up our twenty-first century tastes perfectly. Enjoy this real-life Dickensian nightmare, and despair!
Chris Dite, Readings

After covering last year’s banking royal commission, I never thought I’d want to read another word about it, but reading this book is like being next to the naughty schoolboy. The result is hugely entertaining but also affecting as Melbourne journalist Daniel Ziffer’s light touch reminds us this was about normal people who were impacted by bank wrongdoing. The book works brilliantly as a guided tour through the sordid details of the royal commission as he embraces the pettiness and absurdity of the excuse making of many of the major players. Where the banks and other financial institutions were so tone deaf, Ziffer’s ear is pitch perfect, showing warmth and respect to those who were done over as well as piquing the phoniness of excuses by the institutions. Nothing is sacred — from the extremes of corporate lies and cover-ups to laughing at pompous CEO signatures. Ziffer’s book has what the banking system was shown to lack — a moral compass and real heart.
Jeff Whaley, Weekend Gold Coast Bulletin

Daniel Ziffer doesn’t suffer from inertia. His book, A Wunch of Bankers, is a supercharged flight through the absurdity of the year he spent reporting from the commission for ABCTV.
Peter Martin, The Saturday Age

A fly-on-the-wall account of the year-long banking Royal Commission … Ziffer’s one-liners in response to Commission findings are refreshing.
Company Director Magazine

In A Wunch of Bankers, Ziffer brings out the colour and the grit of the Royal Commission’s proceedings, and explores broader issues raised by the testimony.
Australian Jewish News

‘A supercharged flight through the absurdity of the year he spent reporting from the commission for ABC TV.
Peter Martin, Sydney Morning Herald
The Energy That Heals Us: the secrets behind trustworthy energy medicine and how to make it work for you by Jill Blakeway

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Energy Medicine is an absorbing tale of the history and science of energy medicine. Jill Blakeway describes what it means — both personally and scientifically — to be a skilled healer, and shares the cutting edge research of her discipline, as well as incredible real life stories of healing. This is a book that will uplift, inspire, and hopefully convince us all to reconsider what we believe is possible with our health.
Christiane Northrup, MD, New York Times Bestselling Author of Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom

In Energy Medicine, Jill Blakeway shares not only her considerable knowledge but also her life’s journey, taking the reader by the hand on an exploration of the science and practice of energy healing. As entertaining as it is rigorous, this is a book that both educates and enlightens.
Frank Lipman, MD, bestselling author of The New Health Rules and How to be Well

In Energy Medicine, Jill Blakeway deftly explains the vital role of energy in all living things, showing us how it influences our health in mind and body as well as how it connects us to one another. A fascinating and illuminating read from one of the [United States’] top practitioners of energy medicine.
Mark Hyman, MD, bestselling author of Eat Fat, Get Thin

As a patient who has been blessed to experience Jill Blakeway’s incredible energy firsthand, I can attest that she is a gifted healer. In Energy Medicine she validates what we know to be true intuitively — that the body has the power to heal itself — and offers readers the tools to understand and access the subtle energy within us. Far from a mystical tract, this book provides a true scientific investigation of the energy that exists within each of us and connects us to one another.
Uma Thurman

As a certified acupuncturist and clinical herbalist heavily involved in the field, the author begins by honestly relating her long-standing doubts about the effectiveness of such treatments. She then delves into scientific research that supports energy healing, explaining her findings in an understandable and approachable way.
Library Journal
A Wunch of Bankers: A Year in the Hayne Royal Commission by Daniel Ziffer

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Wucking funderful.
Wil Anderson

A jolly romp across the carcass of corporate greed.
Sammy J

[A] rollicking blow-by-blow of the Hayne Royal Commission into banking ... Ziffer’s doom, gloom and snark sums up our twenty-first century tastes perfectly. Enjoy this real-life Dickensian nightmare, and despair!
Chris Dite, Readings

After covering last year’s banking royal commission, I never thought I’d want to read another word about it, but reading this book is like being next to the naughty schoolboy. The result is hugely entertaining but also affecting as Melbourne journalist Daniel Ziffer’s light touch reminds us this was about normal people who were impacted by bank wrongdoing. The book works brilliantly as a guided tour through the sordid details of the royal commission as he embraces the pettiness and absurdity of the excuse making of many of the major players. Where the banks and other financial institutions were so tone deaf, Ziffer’s ear is pitch perfect, showing warmth and respect to those who were done over as well as piquing the phoniness of excuses by the institutions. Nothing is sacred — from the extremes of corporate lies and cover-ups to laughing at pompous CEO signatures. Ziffer’s book has what the banking system was shown to lack — a moral compass and real heart.
Jeff Whaley, Weekend Gold Coast Bulletin

Daniel Ziffer doesn’t suffer from inertia. His book, A Wunch of Bankers, is a supercharged flight through the absurdity of the year he spent reporting from the commission for ABCTV.
Peter Martin, The Saturday Age

A fly-on-the-wall account of the year-long banking Royal Commission … Ziffer’s one-liners in response to Commission findings are refreshing.
Company Director Magazine

In A Wunch of Bankers, Ziffer brings out the colour and the grit of the Royal Commission’s proceedings, and explores broader issues raised by the testimony.
Australian Jewish News

‘A supercharged flight through the absurdity of the year he spent reporting from the commission for ABC TV.
Peter Martin, Sydney Morning Herald

In a rollicking and witty blow-by-blow account of his year covering the Hayne Royal Commission for the ABC, Ziffer attends to the more grotesque malpractices unearthed by the Royal Commission ... Drawing heavily on hearing transcripts, Ziffer delights in replaying the squirming, verbal contortions of witnesses under the inscrutable questioning of Hayne and the counsels assisting.
Ben Huf, Australian Book Review
Death on the Derwent: Sue Neill-Fraser’s story by Robin Bowles

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Describes the greatest miscarriage of justice in this country since Chamberlain — and there’s no matinee jacket in sight.
Robert Richter QC

[An] excellently crafted and deeply disturbing new book … Bowles is at her best when interpreting court transcripts and “reading” people and legal actors as they give and extract evidence. In particular, she’s excellent at evoking the atmospherics of courtrooms and of interviews. She was in court for key parts of the trial process, and conducted many interviews with starring actors after their moment of fame.
Bill Rowlings, Civil Liberties Australia

Death on the Derwent is an in-depth, well-researched history of a case which has polarised Tasmania.
Mitch Mott, Adelaide Advertiser

Robin Bowles presents another riveting true crime read.
Readings