My Best Books for 2023

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

Reading Challenges 2023

It’s technically possible to squeeze in another couple of books before midnight on December 31, 2023 but unlikely, so I think I can safely draw a line under the reading challenges for the year.

I participated in six challenges this year – finished four; one is ongoing; and one I failed miserably. Continue reading

Sunbathing by Isobel Beech

Isobel Beech has produced a wonderfully quiet meditation on grief in her debut novel, Sunbathing.

After weeks of grieving, the unnamed woman at the centre of the story books a flight to Italy, to stay with her friends Giulia and Fab, in the lead-up to their wedding. The couple live in the mountains of Abruzzo, in an old villa with a large garden, and the woman’s days fall into a rhythm of tending the vegetable patch, walking to the nearby village, and reflecting on who and what she had lost in Melbourne. Continue reading

My MWF 2022 Reading List

 

The Melbourne Writers Festival program has been released. I’ve booked lots of sessions and realised that I will have to get busy reading in order to be across the books that the authors will be speaking about. On my reading list: Continue reading