JESS JUST READS

A BOOK REVIEW BLOG

The New Hustle: Don’t Work Harder, Just Work Better by Emma Isaacs

What if we’ve been served a big, fat lie about what it takes to be successful at work?

Pro-hustlers will tell you living in a work-more, sleep-less world is how we get ahead. But on the back of the pandemic, entrepreneur and Business Chicks founder Emma Isaacs believes the hustle is now dead. Moreover, traditional ways of working – long commutes, unproductive meetings and outdated systems of bureaucracy – actually don’t work at all.

Emma believes we don’t have to work harder; we just need to work better. In fact, we can slash our hours, take shortcuts and still get more done – without feeling depleted. By becoming more intentional and reimagining the way we work, we can rewrite the old work rules and reinvigorate our lives.

The New Hustle condenses Emma’s wisdom into 77 anti-rules for maximum dip-in-and-out efficiency. Drawing inspiration from her team, the member of Business Chicks and the many entrepreneurs and leaders who have graced the Business Chicks stage – from Elizabeth Gilbert to Simon Sinek – she guides us towards embracing radical flexibility, making quick decisions and working smarter, from the emails we craft to the talent we recruit . . . and say no to the things that don’t matter, so we can say yes to the things that do.

Written with humour, insight and a serving of tough love, The New Hustle is your go-to for more productive, creative and meaningful work by one of Australia’s most unconventional and effective entrepreneurs: a bestselling author, mum of six – and a woman determined to start an anti-hustle revolution.

Emma Isaac’s The New Hustle is the latest addition to a long suite of go-to business guides with practical, useful advice to people working within a professional environment. The New Hustle will also suit readers wanting to pursue a new passion — people who are perhaps afraid to take a leap towards something different.

Given we’re eighteen months into COVID-19, there’s a lot of content in here that feels relevant and timely. Businesses have had to learn how to adapt to the pandemic, and Emma’s inclusion of COVID makes the book a welcome inclusion in this genre.

“Making better deals is not just about making more money. It’s about being able to enjoy our work more and it’s about being able to truly work smarter and not harder. Sometimes to make a better deal you just need to be a bit more creative and think of alternative ways to structure it.”

There is an element of vulnerability to this book — it’s as much about advice and rules as it is about Emma revealing the lessons that she has learned throughout her career. She’s experienced hardship and failure, and she doesn’t shy away from introspection and delving into personal stories.

The book is broken up into short chapters to allow for easy reading — you’ll devour this very quickly. I can imagine many of Emma’s fans, particularly members of Business Chicks, will enjoy having this on a bookshelf for the odd occasion that you need some life tips.

“Sometimes we’re so used to something being normal, we forget to interrogate why we’re going along with it in the first place. A great example of this is the work hours that most workplaces accept as normal.”

Whilst there is plenty of advice and wisdom in here that readers can take away from, if you’re the kind of reader who regularly delves into these kind of books, you will find a bit of similarity here. There were a couple of nuggets in this book that I felt I hadn’t read before, but some of this is common sense and I wonder if the target audience of this book might already know what they’re reading.

Something else I felt when reading this book is that it seems to mostly serve people who work in management roles, rather than professional workers who are lower down the pecking order within the business. There’s a chapter about companies needing to adapt work hours to reflect contemporary lifestyle — great! love it! but that’s not a decision I can make, nor is my boss. We’re a company with thousands of employees. Ideally, we’d need the CEO to read this book.

It felt like the book never really settled on the type of reader it was speaking to. Is this for creative people wanting to start their own business? Is this for bosses? Management? Is this for entry-level workers wanting to move up? What about middle-level? Each category of reader may find something relevant in this book, but interest will differ depending on what chapter you’re on.

What does feel different about The New Hustle are the personal experiences, the anecdotes, and the life lessons along the way. Whilst sometimes, and it’s just sometimes, Emma tells a story from a time she did something ‘right’ and it comes off like a humble brag, it is nice to have examples tied to most of her advice so that we can gain further understanding. It is also refreshing when authors admit what they’ve struggled with over the years, how they’ve failed, and the lessons they’ve picked up along the way.

“Another great way to keep in touch with the people who matter to you is just to drop them a short email from time to time. I do this regularly with our members. I’m never after anything from them, but a random, unexpected note to say ‘I’m thinking of you’ can go a long way towards making others feel great and building upon a relationship.”

Recommended for readers wanting some direct advice on their career, and how to achieve what they want. Readership skews female, 35+

Thank you to the publisher for sending me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

The New Hustle
Emma Isaacs
September 2021
Pan Macmillan Book Publishers

The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang

When violinist Anna Sun accidentally achieves career success with a viral YouTube video, she finds herself incapacitated and burned out from her attempts to replicate that moment. And when her long-time boyfriend announces that he wants an open relationship before making a final commitment, a hurt and angry Anna decides if he wants an open relationship, then she does, too. Translation: She’s going to embark on a string of one-night stands. The more unacceptable the men, the better.

That’s where tattooed, motorcycle-riding Quan Diep comes in. Their first attempt at a one-night stand fails, as does their second and their third, because being with Quan is more than sex-he accepts Anna on an unconditional level that she herself has just begun to understand.

However, when tragedy strikes Anna’s family, she takes on a role that she is ill-suited for, until the burden of expectations threatens to destroy her. Anna and Quan have to fight for their chance at love, but to do that they also have to fight for themselves.

Helen Hoang’s The Heart Principle is both a contemporary romance novel and commercial women’s fiction novel exploring identity, self-sacrifice and belonging. The second half of the novel painfully explores the role of family expectations and caregiving.

Protagonist and violinist Anna is struggling with her music — after experiencing viral fame, she feels her music is riddled with errors. She’s also struggling to connect with her family, and her sister’s continued disinterest and disregard for Anna’s feelings creates friction between them. Anna’s connection with Qual after an intended one night stand allows her to confront her insecurities and her hesitations (particularly relating to intimacy), and work to understand herself a little better.

“There’s a confidence and relaxed coordination in the way he moves that suggests he’s been in a few fights — and won them. Have I lost my mind that this is intensely appealing to me, that hint of danger?”

Helen’s strength lies in her narration and voice. Written in first person, Anna’s voice offers reflection at key moments. She’s wise and intelligent, and she’s considerate. Too considerate. She puts others before herself, and she doesn’t quite understand how unhappy she is — how she’s not living the life she wants.

For most of the novel, Anna battles with herself as she tries to overcome her music struggles and her family’s judgement of her. When Anna’s psychologist tells her that she’s likely autistic, it allows Anna the chance to understand who she really is, and how she can progress in her personal life and her career.

Many readers will understand that multi-faceted feeling of pressure — from family, partners, career, and society. Sometimes we are our own worst enemy, so it’s nice to feel reassured about who you are and where you are in life.

“Parts of me don’t look quite right anymore. That’s the simple truth and something that I feel I need to explain. There’s also the other thing, the thing that I haven’t told anyone yet, because it’s awkward and it sucks and sometimes it still makes me cry.”

Admittedly, the novel does a bit like a clash between priorities. Is this a romance first and foremost? The first half certainly feels like it, but the second half almost feels like a different story. I’m not saying it’s not enjoyable — I binged the book in one day — but it did feel a bit like a jolt as I made my way through the story. The progression of Anna and Quan’s romance certainly felt predictable, and the ending foreseeable.

Personally, I loved that Anna’s relationship with her sister was left unresolved at the end of the novel. It shows that not everything can be fixed or wrapped up in life, and that sometimes relationships can remain broken.

“His words catch me off guard, and I stare at him for a moment. I need to run, to escape, to crumple up tonight like a ruined sketch and start with a fresh sheet. And he’s telling me not to. Worse than that, he makes perfect sense. And he’s smiling again, taking my breath away and making me stupid.”

Heartwarming with a lot of soul and charm, The Heart Principle is recommended for fans of romance and commercial women’s fiction. I can see YA readers loving this as well. Readership skews female, 20+

Thank you to the publisher for sending me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Heart Principle
Helen Hoang
September 2021
Allen & Unwin Book Publishers

Widowland by C.J Carey

To control the past, they edited history. To control the future, they edited literature.

London, 1953, Coronation year – but not the Coronation of Elizabeth II.

Thirteen years have passed since a Grand Alliance between Great Britain and Germany was formalized. George VI and his family have been murdered and Edward VIII rules as King. Yet, in practice, all power is vested in Alfred Rosenberg, Britain’s Protector. The role and status of women is Rosenberg’s particular interest.

Rose Ransom belongs to the elite caste of women and works at the Ministry of Culture, rewriting literature to correct the views of the past. But now she has been given a special task.

Outbreaks of insurgency have been seen across the country; graffiti daubed on public buildings. Disturbingly, the graffiti is made up of lines from forbidden works, subversive words from the voices of women. Suspicion has fallen on Widowland, the run-down slums where childless women over fifty have been banished. These women are known to be mutinous, for they have nothing to lose.

Before the Leader arrives for the Coronation ceremony of King Edward and Queen Wallis, Rose must infiltrate Widowland to find the source of this rebellion and ensure that it is quashed.

Set in England in the 1950s, C.J Carey’s Widowland is a dystopian tale of political power that has altered history and presented an alternate timeline in which women are separated into a caste system, characterised by their age and breeding ability.

C.J Carey imagines a world where Germany and Great Britain did not go to war in 1939. Rather, they formed an alliance and now Germany rules Europe. England is under Germany’s thumb, and life for the British is far from enjoyable. Life for women is even worse — they’re subservient to men, and freedom and creativity appear stamped out. Our protagonist, Rose, works for the Ministry of Culture and is tasked with editing literature to remove any elements of corruption.

“A shiver ran through Rose. It was the kind of electric thrill that she could not explain, as though something deep within her had momentarily stirred. As though the words had reached inside and kindled there, as hot and as urgent as flames.”

The atmosphere is one of the strengths of the novel — there’s a rising sense of unease within each page, and sometimes more is left unsaid during pivotal moments of plot. The world-building is another strength, taking us deep inside an alternate reality that also feels strangely familiar. I don’t feel like I’ve read a novel quite like this before.

Whilst the novel is written in third person POV, we do spend a lot of time in Rose’s mind — C.J offers a very intimate examination of how Rose thinks and feels.

Rose’s character development is two-fold. Firstly, she’s in the midst of an affair with a married man, and over the course of the novel she’ll come to realise what it really is to love another person and sacrifice elements of your life for them. And secondly, Rose’s life is quite sheltered when we meet her — she’s privileged and quite naive about women who are not as elevated in society as her. Once she starts travelling into Widowland and meeting the disadvantaged women who reside there, and hearing their stories, we can actually feel her world start to open up.

“For the past month Rose had been correcting a version of stories by the Grimm Brothers to be distributed in schools and kindergartens, as well as bride schools and mother training centres. Fairy tales were an important part of childhood conditioning.”

Admittedly, the pacing is quite slow and Rose’s characterisation is a bit dull at times. She fades a little into the story, and I’m not sure she’s the compelling protagonist she could’ve been. I think you have to be a seasoned reader to persevere with this title, because at times it feels a little arduous.

And additionally, there’s a secondary romance that builds in the second half of the story and it felt thinly developed and rushed. I’m not sure enough time was given to this pair to really build a believable romance.

“Since the restriction of religion, there was only one place to which the populace reliably turned for consolation, contemplation, relaxation and human companionship. The cinema.”

Rich with detail, Widowland evokes an atmosphere similar to George Orwell and Margaret Atwood. Recommended for literary readers and fans of dystopian novels. Readership skews female, 30+

Thank you to the publisher for sending me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

Widowland
C.J. Carey
June 2021
Hachette Book Publishers

Still by Matt Nable

Darwin, Summer, 1963.

The humidity sat heavy and thick over the town as Senior Constable Ned Potter looked down at a body that had been dragged from the shallow marshland. He didn’t need a coroner to tell him this was a bad death. He didn’t know then that this was only the first. Or that he was about to risk everything looking for answers.

Late one night, Charlotte Clark drove the long way home, thinking about how stuck she felt, a 23-year-old housewife, married to a cowboy who wasn’t who she thought he was. The days ahead felt suffocating, living in a town where she was supposed to keep herself nice and wait for her husband to get home from the pub. Charlotte stopped the car, stepped out to breathe in the night air and looked out over the water to the tangled mangroves. She never heard a sound before the hand was around her mouth.

Both Charlotte and Ned are about to learn that the world they live in is full of secrets and that it takes courage to fight for what is right. But there are people who will do anything to protect themselves and sometimes courage is not enough to keep you safe.

Set in 1963 Darwin, Matt Nable’s Still is a rural crime drama that explores corruption and violence within the police force, racism, and the murder and cover-up of a local Indigenous man.

Matt’s strength lies in the story’s setting and atmosphere — the dry, humid, sticky Northern Territory. The crocodile-infested marshlands. The temperature and the desolate landscape leap off the page, contributing to a visceral and compelling rural crime story for fans of The Dry and Scrublands.

“Ned Potter, a fishing rod resting loosely on his hip, looked north. The Timor Sear in front of him, bumpy and moving in all directions, was rebounding in torn crests off the weathered edges of the rock platform he stood on. His short sandy hair moved with the wind across the sharp part on the left side of his scalp.”

Stylistically, the novel is written in third person and switches POV between policeman Ned Potter, a law-abiding but alcohol-addicted policeman who refuses to pin a local murder on two innocent men, and the young Charlotte Clark, whose marriage to her husband is not what she was anticipating. She feels trapped in her own home, craving more than the constricting life with her flawed and cheating partner.

My favourite storyline was Charlotte Clark — her storyline and her chance encounter with a beaten man propels the story forward. Whilst Ned is an interesting character, and the corruption in the town is an interesting story to unravel, I don’t think Ned could’ve carried this novel. Charlotte expands the story and the plot, and female readers may find themselves able to relate to elements of Charlotte’s life.

“Before Charlotte turned around, she saw a gust of wind sweep over the swamp and spoil the black slate of still water. The moonlight bounced off the disturbance and she caught the glowing eyes of a crocodile just before they sank beneath the water.”

Because it’s quite clear who is responsible for the murder quite early on, and because this novel is more about uncovering police corruption, Still feels quite unique in the crime genre. We’re following these characters to find out if justice will be served — this isn’t a whodunnit kind of story. Whilst this novel won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, there is plenty with these pages to keep a reader turning.

A small flaw but I did find a lot of the dialogue very unrealistic, particularly between Ned and the other policemen, and also the Mayor. The dialogue felt quite over-the-top, caricature and not at all natural. I felt that some of the masterminds behind the corruption could’ve been a bit more clever in their conversations — a bit more intimidating and coy, choosing their words carefully. As a result, some of these secondary characters, particularly the villains, felt a little underdeveloped and like cardboard cut-outs. I think there was room for more depth there, particularly in how they communicate with others.

“Ned sat across from Senior Sergeant Riley in the waiting room outside Mayor Landry’s office. They didn’t speak. Ned didn’t even look at Riley but could feel his glare. And he could hear his tongue running across his gums, loosening the remains of what he’d just eaten.”

Descriptive and gripping, Still is recommended for fans of crime, thriller and mystery. Readership skews male, 18+

Thank you to the publisher for sending me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

Still
Matt Nable
June 2021
Hachette Book Publishers

The French Gift by Kirsty Manning

A forgotten manuscript threatens to unravel the past …

Fresnes Prison, 1940: Margot Bisset, a former maid from the Riviera, finds herself in a prison cell with writer and French Resistance fighter, Josephine Murant. Together, they are transferred to a work camp in Germany, where the secrets they share will bind them for generations to come.

Present-day Paris: Evie Black lives above her botanical bookshop with her teenage son, Hugo. Nursing a broken heart, Evie receives an unexpected letter; she clutches at an opportunity to spend a magical summer with Hugo on the Cote d’Azur.

It’s here, on the Riviera, that the past envelops them and Evie attempts to unravel the official story of a famous novelist. If she succeeds, a murder from a lifetime ago may be solved.

Inspired by a true story of iconic French Resistance fighter, Agnes Humbert, whose secret journal shed light on a little-known aspect of World War II, The French Gift will captivate readers from beginning to unforgettable end.

Kirsty Manning’s The French Gift is a captivating, female-driven World War II story that switches between 1940s Europe and present-day Paris. The quest to discover a hidden manuscript by a world famous crime writer unravels a decades-long secret between the unlikeliest of friends.

Written in third person, The French Gift switches POV between three women. In present-day Paris, we meet Evie. Still grieving the sudden death of her husband, she is working to showcase an exhibition about her husband’s reclusive and recently deceased relative Josephine Murant. Over the course of the novel, we spend time in Josephine’s POV as she spends time in a French prison during the second World War. There, she meets fellow prisoner and cellmate Margot Bisset, a maid wrongfully imprisoned for murder.

“Laughter and the clink of crystal flowed through the open doors, and gauze curtains billowed in the breeze. Usually she would tie them back, but Madame had instructed her to stay in position. It wasn’t her place to disobey.”

Inspired by true events and meticulously researched, The French Gift has a cracking premise and opening chapter — Margot believes she’s participating in a murder ‘game’ at an elite 1940s party. But when the ‘victim’ actually does get shot, Margot is presumed guilty and immediately arrested.

The French Gift is about the perseverance and resilience of women, and their courage, strength and determination when faced with immense difficulties. Josephine and Margot form a strong friendship over the years that they’re imprisoned, and despite the horrible conditions of their imprisonment, their kinship is a very heartwarming aspect of the novel.

“Until today, Evie had seen this exhibition as a necessary task — like tax, probate, Foundation guidelines and pelvic floor exercises. She needed to seize this opportunity to honour Josephine, and Raph would have wanted her to — of that she was certain.”

Set against the backdrop of World War II, Josephine and Margot’s storyline is immediately captivating. Evie’s storyline is admittedly not as interesting, and I was pleased that the budding relationship in her life took a mostly backseat role in her storyline.

Truthfully, I think Evie was a bit lost in this story. Her storyline didn’t seem as engaging. Even the predictable twist at the end, which is signposted a bit too heavily throughout the novel (the facial scars and the head scarves, as well as the immense reclusively of Josephine kind of gave it away) wasn’t enough to increase my interest in her character.

“She didn’t know if she’d ever be able to right this wrong. The counselling was definitely helping, but he needed time to find his own path through the heavy fog that sometimes seeped in and threatened to smother his days.”

Tender and heartfelt, The French Gift is recommended for fans of historical fiction. Readership skews female, 30+

Thank you to the publisher for mailing me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

The French Gift
Kirsty Manning
April 2021
Allen & Unwin Book Publishers