Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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My Fate is in Your Hands

This House of Grief: The Story of a Murder Trial by Helen Garner

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You can also add this to the list of books I have been meaning to read for a while Back in September 2005, Robert Farquharson’s VN Commodore swerved off the Princess Highway not far from the town of  Winchelsea and dove straight into a dam. His three young sons—Jai, Tayler and Bailey—had been in the car with him and while Farquharson was able to get free, the boys all drowned.  Farquharson claimed that it was all an accident; he supposedly suffered from a coughing fit […]

“It was the sad privilege of blood relations to love him despite all.”

This House of Grief by Helen Garner

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In Australia on Father’s Day, 2005, a car carrying a man and his three young sons careened into a dam. Robert Farquharson survived, but his sons drowned. The ensuing murder trial would drag on for seven long years. You really do stumble across books on Goodreads that you’d never get to read otherwise. I have never heard of this case or this author before, but when it popped up in my recommendations, I was intrigued enough to put in a request at the library – […]

An almost unbelievable true crime story

Joe Cinque's Consolation by Helen Garner

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I listened to this audio book as part of my project to read Helen Garner’s collection of books this year and also because of my horror/fascination at the crime and subsequent trial featured within. (As proof of this, I found the book on my shelf a few weeks after I finished listening, completely forgetting I had bought it at a second hand booksale.) In Australia the late 90s, a uni student plotted to murder her boyfriend, letting her best friend and some other uni mates […]

A good start to my year of Helen Garner

The Spare Room by Helen Garner

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As promised to myself, this year I’m making my way through the works of Australian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist Helen Garner. And wouldn’t you know it, The Spare Room happened to turn up at a ‘swap rather than shop ‘ event with some friends (the clothes swaps having happily extended to books and household items, etc.) This is a short-ish novel that didn’t take long to read but stayed with me for a while after. Over the course of three weeks Helen (yes […]



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