All Together Now by Monica McInerney

This book is full of lovely short stories that range between three pages long and twelve pages long; with a novella at the very end called 'Odd One Out' (which was published as a separate book a few years back).  The stories are unrelated to each other and are funny, very Australian and are ones which could be easily read over and over just because they are good enough on their own for something to dive into to kill time with or if you're looking for something to read in between major reads.

I've read Monica's work before and found that her books are light and easy on the mind and not too time-consuming; and yet they still pulled me into a good well-written, Australian story.  Even though I've only read one book of hers, I have heard that her work is very family-orientated and have found her writing leaves me smiling at the end - with pleasure, humour or another feeling depends on the ending; but she puts in the most brilliant twists in her work.  

Monica McInerney grew up in a family of seven children in the Clare Valley wine region of South Australia where her father was the railway stationmaster and her mother worked in the local library. Since then Monica has lived all around Australia (in Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne and Hobart) in Ireland (in County Meath and Dublin) and in London and also travelled widely.

She was a book publicist for ten years, working in Ireland and Australia and promoting authors such as Roald Dahl, Tim Winton, Edna O’Brien and Max Fatchen and events such as the Dublin International Writers’ Festival.

She has also worked as an event manager and organiser of tourism festivals in the Clare Valley; as a freelance writer/editor and in arts marketing in South Australia; a public relations consultant in Tasmania; a record company press officer in Sydney; a barmaid in an Irish music pub in London and as a temp, grapepicker, hotel cleaner, kindergym instructor and waitress. Her first job out of school as a 17-year-old was as wardrobe girl (and later scriptwriter) for the children’s TV show Here’s Humphrey at Channel 9 in Adelaide. She is now a full-time writer.

For the past twenty years she and her Irish husband have been moving back and forth between Australia and Ireland. They currently live in Dublin.