Tag Archives: Helen Garner

My Best Books for 2025

Posted by Kate W in Stuff and Nonsense and tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I did away with ‘top tens’ a few years ago, and instead I finish the reading year with a recap of the books that are still speaking to me (less about four and five-star ratings, more about what has stuck). Continue reading →

The Mushroom Tapes by Helen Garner, Chloe Hooper & Sarah Krasnostein 

Posted by Kate W in Non-fiction and tagged with , , , , , , , ,

Apparently it started like this: Sarah and Chloe were to-ing and fro-ing about whether they’d write anything about the ‘mushroom case’.

None of us wants to write about this. And none of us wants not to write about it.

And then they roped in Helen.

One wild domestic detail galvanises us: his dying aunt remembered the guests ate off four grey plates, while the hostess served herself on an orange one.

Can you imagine the team at Text Publishing when they discovered that Helen, Chloe and Sarah said, ‘Yeah, we’ll do something but only if we can do it together’? Publishing pay-dirt.

And so we have The Mushroom Tapes by Helen Garner, Chloe Hooper and Sarah Krasnostein. Continue reading →

Grand Union by Zadie Smith

Posted by Kate W in Fiction and tagged with , , , , , , , , , ,

When I started scouting my TBR stack for #ShortStorySeptember books, I happened across Zadie Smith’s Grand Union and couldn’t remember how it had even come into my possession. To be honest, I’ve been a bit off Smith after finding Swing Time so-so, and abandoning The Fraud.

Mystery solved when I opened the book – it’s a personally signed copy, that I acquired at an incredible literary event in 2019, Broadside (among others I saw over the two days were Curtis Sittenfeld, Ariel Levy, Helen Garner and Monica Lewinsky). Clearly when I had the book signed I was totally loving Smith… which makes this review a little rude… Continue reading →

Things That Are Making Me Happy This Week

Posted by Kate W in Stuff and Nonsense and tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , ,

01. I’m just back from eight amazing days in New Zealand. I’ll do a show-off holiday post within the next few days but in the meantime, the pic above was taken on the Kaikōura Peninsula, where you can gaze at snow-capped mountains and listen to waves crashing. Magical. Continue reading →

The Season by Helen Garner

Posted by Kate W in Non-fiction and tagged with , , , , , , ,

I never thought my footy pre-season would include Helen Garner… but then came her glorious memoir, The Season.

But this is not an ordinary book about football. As Garner explained –

Blokes I know get excited when I tell them I’m trying to write about footy … I think they’re imagining the books they would write. Their books would be full of facts and stats and names and memories. They have been formed by footy. I can’t do it their way. I don’t know how. I get panicky. The only thing I can think of to say is, ‘It’ll be a nanna’s book about footy.’ Short silences fall. Continue reading →