Bookish (and not so bookish) Thoughts

01.  Mrs Roth, with her dextrous but controversial Continental knitting style scares the hell out of me.

“…prepare their needles for combat…”
“…something on her needles all the time, from ladies dresses to men’s cardigans…”
“You can tell the temperament of the woman by just how she’s knitting.”

What I want to know – WHO WON?! Continue reading

20 Books of Summer – it’s a wrap

As the clock strikes midnight, the 20 Books of Summer reading challenge will draw to a close. Those extra few hours won’t make a difference to my final tally. I read 21 books (but I’m a little behind on reviews…). Continue reading

Eggshell Skull by Bri Lee

17% of Australian women aged 15 years and over will experience sexual assault.

1 in 6 assaults reported to police result in a conviction (so this says nothing about all the cases that are not reported).

In a legal system where the accused perpetrator may choose to say nothing and the victim must relive their trauma over and over and over again in the witness-box; be cross-examined; and have their ‘story’ judged by a jury, you can only think, “Why would you go through it?”.

Bri Lee did. Eggshell Skull is her harrowing story. Continue reading

Melbourne Writers Festival 2018

It’s Melbourne Writers Festival program launch day!

Having had to keep #ALLTHESECRETS for the last few months (I have had the privilege of being on the Audience Advocate committee this year), I was busting for tonight’s launch so that I could start talking events. The program is a ripper and I can’t tell you how much I love this year’s theme – ‘A matter of life and death’ (that’s Virginia Gay in the pic, launching the Festival).

Continue reading

20 Books of Summer (except that it’s Winter)

Cathy at 746 Books is hosting the 20 Books of Summer reading challenge again this year. By Cathy’s own admission, she doesn’t have a great track record with her own challenge… But I do! As I’ve done in previous years, I’m using this challenge to read from my to-be-read stack (with a particular focus on hard copies). The challenge is straightforward – read twenty books between June 1st and September 3rd. Continue reading