1. This* is what I’ve been looking at this week. It’s driving my Mint Slice consumption up considerably.
2. So my review** of The Paris Wife attracted some thoughts. I should add to the review that Pauline was a piece of work as well. And the old saying “Marry the mistress, create a vacancy.” Continue reading
1. I’m in a bit of a reading slump.
2. So I popped by my favourite book shop, Readings, and bought a book that I knew nothing about. Nothing at all. Continue reading
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
‘Out past the shallows, past the sandy-bottomed bays, comes the dark water — black and cold and roaring. Rolling out an invisible path …’
When I reviewed Favel Parrett’s second book, When the Night Comes, I made mention of the fact that Parrett understands many things, including water, very deeply. Her debut novel, Past the Shallows, is about the ocean, brothers and grief, and again, it was her delicate and careful observations that wedged a firm spot in my mind and heart.
In brief, it’s the story of two young brothers, Harry and Miles, who live with their father, an abalone fisherman, on the south-east coast of Tasmania. Their mother is dead and the boys are at the mercy of their father’s dark and violent moods. Continue reading
1. Was about to start reading Still Alice but not sure I can handle two consecutive books on dementia (just finished Elizabeth is Missing).
2. Will start reading my son’s English text for this year – The Silver Donkey by Sonya Hartnett. I don’t necessarily plan on reading all of my kids’ texts but: Hartnett.
It’s time again for my favourite meme. Based on the concept of six degrees of separation, Emma Chapman and Annabel Smith have created #6DEGREES, where bloggers share links between books in six moves. Check out the rules if you want to play along.
This month, we begin with Lionel Shriver’s We Need to Talk About Kevin. I could talk endlessly about this book – it left an indelible impression on me and although I read it when it was first published in 2006, hardly a month goes by without thinking about it. But I haven’t reread it – I’m not sure I could cope. Similarily, Sonya Hartnett’s Of a Boy is a book that will never be far from my mind – devastating, crushing and one that I’m unlikely to reread because: too stressful. 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
I’ve mentioned my book group previously. I love them all dearly but they’re not flash at reading the book. That would drive some people mental but, after 15 years, I’m okay with it. On the upside, whenever my book group actually does talk about the book for more than a few minutes, the book was obviously a good pick.
Over the last month or so, two of my Twitter buddies have asked for book group recommendations. Here’s what I suggested (all being books that got my book group really talking) – Continue reading
