Happy New Year & welcome to my first book/s of the year! This year my NY books come to you from Bathurst, NSW and my mum’s garden featuring her potted Kangaroo Paw. Adam Bede & Dead-end Memories In an attempt to keep track of my reading plans I thought I’d start the year with a … Continue reading 2023 Reading Plans
A book is a dream that you hold in your hand. Neil Gaiman Photo by Lacie Slezak on Unsplash In an attempt at being more organised in 2022 I decided to keep a spreadsheet that I could update throughout the year with the books I read. This was working just fine until I recently realised I hadn't added … Continue reading 2022 | The Books
I would like to be a regular Quarterly Essay reader. Every time I read one, I admire the format and find the content fascinating, challenging or enlightening. It's a fairly quick and easy way to absorb a current topic, yet I rarely prioritise them in my reading schedule. Insert shrug. Although it looks like it … Continue reading Lone Wolf: Albanese and the New Politics: Quarterly Essay 88 | Katharine Murphy
You always looked back, she thought. You looked back at other years, other Christmas cards arriving, the children younger. I'm sneaking my first William Trevor story in a few days early to coincide with my one and only A Literary Christmas entry for 2022. Those who have followed my previous A Literary Christmas stories, will … Continue reading Another Christmas | William Trevor #ALiteraryChristmas
Queen Victoria Building Christmas Tree 2022 Summer has been missing in action for most of December (third year in a row!) but the meteorologists are promising that the next few days should be sunny and 28° C. We can but hope. I'm working right up until the very end this year, so Christmas Day will be … Continue reading Seasons Greetings 2022
image source from the frontispiece of Alone in West Africa Originally published for the Australian Women Writer's Challenge: The Early Years on 14 December 2022. My previous post about Mary Gaunt, ended around 1910 just after the publication of three very popular books co-authored with John Ridgewell Essex. These three successful books about Africa [The Arm … Continue reading Mary Gaunt #AWWbio
To look at Miss Georgina Carter you would never have suspected that a woman of her age and character would have allowed herself to be so wholeheartedly mixed up with an Ifrit. For Georgina Carter was nearing fifty (she was forty-seven to be exact) and there was something about her long, plain face, her long … Continue reading Miss Carter and the Ifrit | Susan Alice Kerby #DeanStreetDecember
"Long-distance call for Bruce," a F.A.N.Y. sergeant, soured by the years of peace between the wars, looked into the commonroom and addressed me in the third person. "It can be taken in the office but must be short. Personal calls are not encouraged during a state of emergency." What a delightful way to spend a … Continue reading Spam Tomorrow | Verily Anderson #DeanStreetDecember
7 December 1962, Devon 7 REASONS NOT TO DIE: 1. Skin. To never again feel the skin of one's beloved child. Not another fictionalised biography I hear you cry! One day I will work out why I am so drawn to this genre. But for now, I give you Sylvia Plath and Euphoria. What do … Continue reading Euphoria | Elin Cullhed #SWEfiction
By midnight all was blaze and disintegration. A group of soldiers standing on the hill watched with indecent pleasure. The wind locals called the Vardaris blasted from the north, puffed minarets into candles and monuments to blocks of gold. A whoosh of flame - shaped paisley in its exotic unfurling - caused some spontaneously, shamelessly, … Continue reading Salonika Burning | Gail Jones #AWWfiction
It’s time for another Classics Club spin. When I went to put this spin together during the week, I realised I had finished my CC List #2. How on earth did I miss that? Pure and simple - slackness! I'd forgotten to update my links for most of this year. The good news is that … Continue reading Classics Club Spin #32
A common theme emerges if you search online for 'menopause cartoons'. There's no shortage of offerings - over 7 million results when I Googled recently - and they overwhelmly depict women looking dumpy, dowdy and elderly....My generation - Gen X - don't consider ourselves old, or dowdy, or past it. I read This Changes Everything: … Continue reading This Changes Everything | Niki Bezzant #NZnonfiction
The other day, a new Classic Club Spin was announced. When I went to check my CC LIST #2 for which books were left, I realised I had been a bit slack about updating it. By the time I added in my recent review of Voss, I was delighted to discover that CC LIST #2 … Continue reading Classics Club List #3
Voss Readalong November 2022 Opening Lines: "There is a man here, miss, asking for your uncle," said Rose. And stood breathing. I love this opening. I can just see Rose, the hard-working, impatient, put-upon servant being asked to do something she doesn't normally have to do on a Sunday, and doing it huffily and with … Continue reading Voss | Patrick White #ReadtheNobels
Tonight’s Socceroo themed Opera House Not my usual post I know, but since 2005 thanks to Mr Books, B25 & B22 football has been a huge part of my life. This past week I’ve had to live with some tired, grumpy but ultimately very happy early morning World Cup viewers. At 6am AEST the Socceroos … Continue reading Living on a dream
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