01. So it really has been ages since I did a Bookish post… Over the last two months I’ve had a terrific holiday in Hong Kong; had a tense wait for results after having three more moles removed (all clear. Get your skin checked everyone); wrote eleventy-billion words for uni; and moved house. Our new house has a superb Crepe Myrtle in the backyard. I can’t wait to see it flower. Continue reading
Can I start out by saying that I hope I never have to read two books about communes in the space of a few weeks again? Probably not, but I did. It’s just not my scene, man…
And while this hippy commune story – Mireille Juchau’s The World Without Us – compares favourably to the last one I read, I need to stress that two coming-of-age-stories-set-in-communes-with-commune-destroying-fires-and-hippy-mothers-who-can’t-read-plus-a-side-of-paternity-issues on the one prize shortlist is just dumb. Where’s the diversity? Where’s the interest for people* who don’t like hippy commune stories that much?** Continue reading
Ta da! The 2016 Stella Prize shortlist has been announced. Continue reading
1. Eclipses are ace, aren’t they?
2. Looking for a new meme to get involved in? I was reminded of the Meme Directory that Bookshelf Fantasies curates this week (and submitted 6 Degrees of Separation, naturally). Continue reading
I’m not a book-prize-tart* but I have warm-fuzzies for the Stella Prize.
The 2016 Stella Prize longlist was announced half an hour ago, so this news is fresh via Twitter. Here ’tis –
1. THE WOMEN’S PAGES by Debra Adelaide
2. THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WORLD by Stephanie Bishop
3. PANTHERS AND THE MUSEUM OF FIRE by Jen Craig
4. SIX BEDROOMS by Tegan Bennett Daylight
5. HOPE FARM by Peggy Frew
6. A FEW DAYS IN THE COUNTRY: AND OTHER STORIES by Elizabeth Harrower
7. A GUIDE TO BERLIN by Gail Jones
8. THE WORLD WITHOUT US by Mireille Juchau
9. A SHORT HISTORY OF RICHARD KLINE by Amanda Lohrey
10. ANCHOR POINT by Alice Robinson
11. THE NATURAL WAY OF THINGS by Charlotte Wood
12. SMALL ACTS OF DISAPPEARANCE: ESSAYS ON HUNGER by Fiona Wright
I’ve only read one but have another four lined up in the TBR stack. And I’m busting to read Small Acts…
It’s going to be a great reading year.
*I just made that up but it’s someone who only reads book-prize winners so that they can pontificate loudly at dinner parties.