"Well, there’s so much to read, and I’m so far behind." Wallace Stegner
A long long time ago, when I was a little chick, not even a chick but a pink and naked thing, a scar a scrap a scrape fallen on roots and wriggling, when I was catching my death and all I knew of sky was the feel of feathers above me, the belly of black … Continue reading The Axeman’s Carnival | Catherine Chidgey
I'm a few weeks late to the party with this exciting announcement, but moving house got in the way of my blogging good intentions. So, just in case you hadn't heard, the Indigenous Literacy Foundation (ILF) of Australia was the 2024 recipient of the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (ALMA) for children’s literature. ALMA is a 'global award given annually … Continue reading The ILF wins the 2024 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award
What's On My Mind: I planned ahead by drafting a couple of fill-in posts to tide me over the bumpy parts of moving house. I knew I would be feeling overwhelmed and emotional at times and that blogging would probably be one of the things to take a backseat for a while. As I edit … Continue reading Stories & Shout Outs #71
© Brona's Books 2024 | Blackheath, NSW Now I remember why moving house is something to be avoided at all costs! Like so many of the BIG things in life, moving house is accompanied by an ever-changing feeling state, that on top of the physicality of packing up one house and unpacking the other, leads … Continue reading April 2024 | The Books
The night light in the blue-tinged glass on the mantleshelf burned behind a book, which cast a shadow across half the bedroom. The quiet glow spreading over the bedside table and the chaise lounge, bathed the wide folds of the velvet curtains, and flooded the mirror on the rosewood cupboard between the two windows with … Continue reading A Love Story | Émile Zola
Once upon a time there used to be a lovely meme that I would join in occasionally called Wondrous Words Wednesday hosted by Bermuda Onion. It was a great way to deep dive into a word, phrase or saying that was unusual or unknown to me. Sadly, her blog has long since disappeared from view … Continue reading Let me look into that…
Photo by Vlad Hilitanu on Unsplash Finding poems first published in 1937 was not as straight forward as one might think. Especially with a poet/writer like Dylan Thomas who had a habit of publishing/performing his work in various iterations, constantly reworking his ideas and words. Which date can be said to be the publication date? Is it the … Continue reading O Make Me A Mask | Dylan Thomas #poem
It’s time for another Classics Club spin. This is the Classics Club's 37th CC Spin...and mine. Yes you read that correctly. I have participated in EVERY single Classics Club spin, along with Jean @Howling Frog. What is a CC Spin? Simply pick twenty books that you’ve got left to read from your Classics Club List. … Continue reading Classics Club Spin #37
Once again, the seasons have rolled around and it's time to think about another year club with Karen and Simon. Apparently we have been doing these for nine years! I've missed some along the way, but I do enjoy researching which books and poems were published in the year of choice and seeing what the … Continue reading The 1937 Club
Photo by Duc Nguyen on Unsplash I'm not sure how much I will be able to contribute to next week's 1937 Club; this moving house gig is wearing me a little bit thin. But I recently stumbled across this neat little poem about cockatoos. Our new home in the mountains is also loved by gangs of cockatoos, who … Continue reading Garchooka, the Cockatoo | Rex Ingamells #poem
What's On My Mind: Boxes, cupboards and storage. I know I've been talking about moving house on here for quite some time as a possibility, one day in the future. But that day is now here. At the end of April we are moving to our home in the Blue Mountains. The ad hoc, haphazzard … Continue reading Stories & Shout Outs #70
In Moulmein, in lower Burma, I was hated by large numbers of people – the only time in my life that I have been important enough for this to happen to me. I was sub-divisional police officer of the town, and in an aimless, petty kind of way anti-European feeling was very bitter. No one … Continue reading Shooting an Elephant (1936) | George Orwell
Photo by freestocks on Unsplash For the first week of March, Mr Books and I were at the tail end of our grand driving holiday around Tasmania and parts of Victoria. Needless to say, the adjustment back into real life, work and the seemingly endless long, hot, humid Sydney summer was abrupt and unsettling. Adding to this feeling … Continue reading March 2024 | The Books
As I was born the umbilical cord tangled around my neck and I came into the world both arms flailing, unable to scream and thereby take in the air necessary to begin life outside of the womb, being garrotted by the very thing that had until that time succoured me and given me life. This … Continue reading Death of a River Guide | Richard Flanagan
For some years of my twenties I was very much in love with a man who would not leave his wife. For not one moment of this relationship was I unaware of what every single popular culture representation of such an arrangement portended my fate to be. I confess that I had no intention of … Continue reading Green Dot | Madeleine Gray
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