Grand Union by Zadie Smith

When I started scouting my TBR stack for #ShortStorySeptember books, I happened across Zadie Smith’s Grand Union and couldn’t remember how it had even come into my possession. To be honest, I’ve been a bit off Smith after finding Swing Time so-so, and abandoning The Fraud.

Mystery solved when I opened the book – it’s a personally signed copy, that I acquired at an incredible literary event in 2019, Broadside (among others I saw over the two days were Curtis Sittenfeld, Ariel Levy, Helen Garner and Monica Lewinsky). Clearly when I had the book signed I was totally loving Smith… which makes this review a little rude… Continue reading

The Top 55 from the Best Books of 2023 List of Lists

Presenting the 2023 Commonly-Agreed-by-the-People-Who-Publish-Best-of-2023-Book-Lists-Before-December-31 top 55 books.

(This is my annual community service to book-bloggers – a list of the books that appear most frequently on the 49 lists that I listed on Best Books of 2023 – A List of Lists – enjoy!). Continue reading

What is a Novella? #NovNov

This week’s #NovNov prompt is ‘What is a novella?’, and invites bloggers to share their definition of a novella (and/or list favourites). Continue reading

The Top 50 from the Best Books of 2019 List of Lists

This is my annual community service to book-bloggers – a list of the books that appear most frequently on the 56 lists that I listed on Best Books of 2019 – A List of Lists. Continue reading

Broadside 2019 – Zadie Smith

There were moments when I wanted to call out “Stop! Wait! I need to process that!” during the conversation between Jia Tolentino and Zadie Smith at last weekend’s Broadside festival. Their banter was rapid-fire; the topics they were discussing were big and intense ; and it’s taken me a week to reflect on all that was covered.

Zadie got straight into it with, “I’m always thinking a lot about death. And human autonomy, free will. Shit like that.” She was being truthful and funny all at once. Continue reading

Bookish (and not so bookish) Thoughts

01. It’s school holidays in Australia. We spent a few days with family in Kyneton (with some mountain-biking in Harcourt and a hike to the summit of Hanging Rock). Continue reading

The Top 50 from the Best Books of 2018 List of Lists

This is my annual community service to book-bloggers – a list of the books that appear most frequently on all of the lists (37 of them) I listed on Best Books of 2018 – A List of Lists.

Here it is, the 2018 Commonly-Agreed-by-the-People-Who-Publish-Best-of-2018-Book-Lists-Before-December-31 top 50 books. Continue reading

Six Degrees of Separation – from Pride and Prejudice to Swing Time

It’s time for #6degrees. Join in and thrill us with your clever links!

Given that we’ve recently marked 200 years since Jane Austen’s death, it seemed fitting to begin this month’s chain with the universally loved Pride and  Prejudice. Continue reading