1. Seems like everyone in the world except me had an advance copy of Charlotte Wood’s The Natural Way of Things. Why?! I was (am) BUSTING to read it. Thankfully it has now been released and I can get stuck in.
2. And while you’re waiting for your copy of The Natural Way of Things, listen to this ace interview.
3. My social reading group finished A Little Life long before I did (I knew it would happen… too much uni reading and not enough fun reading). Almost all of them hated it. I fully appreciate their criticisms and don’t disagree with any but I still thought it was a significant (and amazing) book.
4. It’s school holidays here – we’ve squeezed in some days at Phillip Island, a night in Sydney (to see the brilliant Matilda) and a few nights in Canberra. The purpose of our visit to ONC was predominantly to visit family and friends – with them, we managed to take in a few sights as well – National Portrait Gallery, National War Memorial, Floriade Night Fest, a festival at the Royal Thai Embassy where we ate our body weight in Pad Thai and the National Arboretum.
5. The Arboretum is, without question, my new favourite place in Canberra and I’m looking forward to visiting it over coming decades (yes, really) as the forests grow. Here we are strolling through the Himalayan Cedar Forest –
6. This article about female friendships.
7. This segment on Catalyst about becoming fit in six minutes a week (HIT for ‘old’ people). So I can stop flogging myself at the gym now, right?
8. This article (and more importantly, the artwork) is the ant’s pants.
Bookish Thoughts is hosted by Christine at Bookishly Boisterous. Get amongst it.
I have not heard pf the Charlotte Wood book. Maybe if I close my eyes I can pretend that it doesn’t exist and then I wouldn’t feel that is crying out to be bought.
Charlotte is an Australian author (and I’m a huge fan) – isn’t the cover superb?
The Natural Way of Things sounds so creepy! I’ll keep a lookout for your post when you get to reading it.
Thanks for that link about female friendships. Reminded me of reading Ferrante’s Neapolitan books and that focus on female friendships.
Haven’t begun Ferrante’s trilogy yet (but have them waiting on my Kindle). I have read another book by her (The Lost Daughter) and really enjoyed it.
I just finished a book that you might like – The Gap of Time by Jeanette Winterson – it’s a modern retelling of A Winter’s Tale.
I love the cover on the Charlotte Wood book. I am totally out of the bookish loop though and haven’t heard of it. I love those posters. Gorgeous.
I want those posters for my wall…
Hallo, Hallo Kate!
Thank you for coming by my #BookishNotBookish post earlier today! 🙂 It’s such a wonderful meme community! I haven’t had the pleasure of participating except twice now, and I’m thankful others in the group are finding me! 🙂
I never heard of “The Natural Way of Things” — I feel like I’ve been in a vacuum this Summer, so I’m not overly surprised! Ooh it’s an Aussie read – it’s by Allen & Unwin — I’ve been wanting to read more Aussie Lit and esp more from that Pub, as I found them a few years back before I blogged — reading about their titles/authors, and hoping to sort out a way to get those print books in the states! Sadly my current library doesn’t ILL (inter-library loan) outside the country, but Powells is starting to get Aussie novels, so maybe? Hmm. Except I think I might take a pass on reading this one — it sounds dearly gutting and a bit hard to get through. Do you suggest another by this publisher to a new Aussie Lit reader?
Loved hearing about Canberra – I had a friend from there when I was in school as our paths diverted in our college-years, but I have fond memories of Canberra and of our friendship. Love your pictures and how nice you were able to have some fun whilst going to different events.
Happy Saturday!
I favour particular publishers as well – seems some always have just the kind of books I want to read 🙂 If you have a Kindle, I’ve noticed that quite a lot of Australian authors are published as e-books now but to get you started, here’s a list of contemporary Aus books that I put together ages ago – https://booksaremyfavouriteandbest.wordpress.com/2012/07/10/top-ten-tuesday-australian-modern-literature/
Certainly I’d add Hannah Kent’s Burial Rites to that list – it’s possibly the best book I’ve read in a decade – https://booksaremyfavouriteandbest.wordpress.com/2013/08/05/burial-rites-by-hannah-kent/
Hmmm… maybe it’s time I did another Top Ten of Australian Modern Literature?! (I’ll dedicate it to you when I get around to it!)
I want to be in that picture of tulips at night! Those are my favorite flowers- so pretty!
It was amazing and, although you can’t really see it in the photos, there was another storey of bulb flowers under the tulips.
My boss read Woods book last weekend – he has been raving about ever since. It sounds like (as with A Little Life) I will have to get myself into the right mindset to tackle it.
I can see why people might not like A Little Life – the confronting, disturbing content and the construction is flawed, but like you, I found the first two thirds (in particular) so compelling, it was such a binge-reading obsessive-compulsive read.
What were your bookclubs objections?
I was wondering about reading the Wood book so close to A Little Life – all too much perhaps? I’ll soon find out.
Regarding A Little Life, the main objections were firstly that some of the characters were so unlikable (Jude) that people would not have hung around for him and secondly, that the intervention in his life took soooooo long to come around and that the trigger for the intervention was lightweight given the other stuff that he had been doing. Oddly, that didn’t even occur to me when I was reading it – maybe I wasn’t reading with a critical eye because I was so swept up in the story. I read the book group’s gripes with it and I think they’re all fair but on the other hand, I think being completely absorbed in a story (despite ‘flaws’) is a very good thing, and a sign of a good author – righht?
If you want to read what the book group said about A Little Life, there is a link in my mention of it above – didn’t want it to be too obvious because there’s obviously lots of spoilers in their discussion of the book.
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