01. Sunsets and a full week of perfect beach weather. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Judy Blume
Things that are making me happy this week
01. My Yarra River walking project continues – this week a slice of Britain with enormous oaks and pear trees (planted in the 1850s) lining the River.
02. It was timely to come across magnificent oaks because my walking friend and I both have new acorn vases. Continue reading
Six Degrees of Separation – from Margaret to The Mussel Feast
It’s time for #6degrees. Start at the same place as other wonderful readers, add six books, and see where you end up.
This month we begin with Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume. Continue reading
Six Degrees of Separation – from I Am Charlotte Simmons to Imogen
It’s time for #6degrees. Start at the same place as other wonderful readers, add six books, and see where you end up. Continue reading
Things that are making me happy this week
01. Melbourne had glorious weather at the beginning of the week (to the point where we we were saying “Spring!”). Continue reading
Bookish (and not so bookish) Thoughts
01. I’ve had so much fun over the last two weeks – Home, I’m Darling (the sets! The costumes!); a long lunch at Moondog (I can highly recommend the avocado dip paired with a Moondog pale ale); Pseudo Echo, Rick Astley, and a-ha in concert at Rockford Winery (a-ha had the top billing but really, it was all Rick), and… Continue reading
Bookish (and not so bookish) Thoughts
01. My 16yo returned from his sailing adventure. They motored into Williamstown, with the crew on the masts. It was an incredible sight, and a fitting end to what I think was a life-changing fortnight. Continue reading
Melbourne Writers Festival 2019 – the first bit
Can you see Tayari Jones in the pic above? She looks tiny but I had to show off the magnificent Capitol Theatre, one of the venues for this year’s Melbourne Writers Festival.
I managed four sessions on my first Festival day. The highlights: Continue reading
Bookish (and not so bookish) Thoughts
01. Can’t believe I’m so late to Arrested Development… Continue reading
My Salinger Year by Joanna Rakoff
New York, 1995, and newly graduated 23-year-old Joanna Rakoff has deserted her ‘nice college boyfriend’ and has moved into a slope-floored, unheated apartment in New York with domineering Don – a Marxist, aspiring writer, and everyday arsehole.
Although she dreams of becoming a poet, Rakoff takes a job as an assistant at the literary agency that represents J. D. Salinger. The ‘Agency’ is from another era – plush wood-panelled offices complete with Dictaphones and typewriters; old-time agents doing business their way, including martini lunches and afternoon naps; and a boss (‘swathed in a whiskey mink, her eyes covered with enormous dark glasses, her head with a silk scarf in an equestrian pattern’) who keeps track of her authors on specially printed index cards. Her boss notes –
‘…agents used to be upstanding. None of these multiple submissions…no auctions, with publishers bidding against each other. It’s uncouth. That’s not the Agency way. We send things out to one editor at a time. We match writers with editors. We have morals.’ Continue reading