Okay, today’s Top Ten topic is supposed to be serious – suggestions for book groups that are crazy for memoirs or going through a science-fiction phase or whatever whatever… I love my book group deeply. We’ve been together for 17 years and, to be honest, reading the book is optional. However, we are consistent when it comes to laughing, having a wine (and sometimes a whine). Continue reading
1. I usually start with bookish news. However…
I PASSED MY EXAM! (Comfortably. Yay me).
Thank goodness. I would have cried (and eaten my body weight in Mint Slices) if I’d had to repeat that subject. Continue reading
The winner of the 2015 Stella Prize is announced tonight. I’m excited. Continue reading
I reviewed Sofie Laguna’s The Eye of the Sheep last year. Actually, it wasn’t a review… just a little lament. And my position remains unchanged. This is a brilliant and heartbreaking story about a family and a boy named Jim Flick.
4/5 Laguna has created an unforgettable character in Jim. Prepare to cry.
Will it win the Stella Prize? Front-runner.
The Stella Prize 2015 shortlist has been announced. I’m always busting to see what’s included on a shortlist but this time even more so because I’ve signed up for the Stella Shortlist Book Club. You should join as well (if you’re at a loose end over the next six weeks…). Continue reading
1. Stella Prize 2015 longlist announced today. I’ve read four of them (Hartnett, Pung, Garner and Laguna) and have a couple of others in my very-near-reading-future.
2. I’d like to see Hartnett win.
3. But can’t believe Favel Parrett’s When the Night Comes didn’t make the longlist. Continue reading
It’s that time of year (the penultimate reading day of 2014) where I pick my favourite and bests. The first nine are in no particular order: Continue reading
I enjoy the Australian Women Writers Challenge – it goes a little way to addressing the gender bias in literary review pages, plus I try to buy my AWW titles from an independent book shop (doing my bit for the Australian publishing industry and independent booksellers).
This year, I upped the ante and signed up for the Franklin level (read ten books, review at least six). I romped it in. Continue reading
Jim Flick broke a little bit of my heart that might never mend.
4/5 Read The Eye of the Sheep by Sofie Laguna.
Sometimes a new book keeps popping up on your radar and, after enough trusted reading buddies have given it the thumbs up, you get yourself a copy. Then there are the times when you read just a single review, and that review has a subliminal message that’s written just for you. It whispers “Read this now Kate”. And then I have to hurry to the bookshop. Which is what I did when I read Anna’s review of Sofie Laguna’s latest, The Eye of the Sheep.
The Eye of the Sheep begins – Continue reading