Books reviewed originally on my Blogger Brona’s Books website
Feeling very grateful, right now, that Tarissa @In the Bookcase is hosting A Literary Christmas this year. It made me search my shelves for something Christmassy that I hadn't read yet. It led me straight into the delightful and utterly charming arms of Beatrix Potter. I confess that I did not read any of the Peter Rabbit … Continue reading The Tailor of Gloucester | Beatrix Potter #ALiteraryChristmas
It has taken me a while to finish The Salt Path by Raynor Winn, not because I wasn't enjoying it, but simply because it became my walking backpack book. It was the perfect choice. It was a slim paperback (i.e. lightweight). It was about going for a very long walk. It was non-fiction and therefore easy … Continue reading The Salt Path | Raynor Winn #GBRnonfiction
I had no idea that Bill Hayes was working on another scenes of New York book that would focus on the March-April Covid-19 lockdown of 2020. If I'd known, I may have experienced fewer angsty days of my own, knowing that Bill was going to somehow make it all right! It’s a little like losing … Continue reading How We Live Now: Scenes from the Pandemic | Bill Hayes #USAnonfiction
I cannot believe the last time I sat down to write a Covid Chronicle was back in July. Melbourne was at the beginning of it's second wave, while the rest of the country held it's collective breath. Would the outbreak spread? Would we all have to go into another lockdown? Numbers steadily increased around … Continue reading The Covid Chronicles #9
Woodcut by Kent Ambler A number of years ago I joined in this meme that takes the first line of each month’s post over the past year to see what it tells you about your blogging year. I do like an end of year wrap up post that helps me to reflect on what I've … Continue reading A Year in First Lines
Annabookbel has posted her annual My Life in Books meme. It's a fun way to finish the reading year and a nice opportunity to look back over all the books read during 2020.The rules are simple: using only books you have read this year (2020), answer these prompts. Try not to repeat a book title. … Continue reading My Life in Books – the 2020 edition
I had the pleasure of hearing Ceridwen Dovey talk about her latest book, Life After Truth at a recent work event (the YouTube recording of the event can be found here). By the time she had finished speaking, I knew this would be my next read. I'm not sure why I've found it so hard … Continue reading Life After Truth | Ceridwen Dovey #AWWfiction
I know there is a lot of love for The Living Sea in Waking Dreams out there already. It's not that I didn't love it, or even admire what Flanagan was trying to achieve, but it's not easy to read a book where you feel like you're being smashed over the head, not just with … Continue reading The Living Sea of Waking Dreams | Richard Flanagan #AUSfiction
My Week: An ordinary few days as my hayfever symptoms ramp up another notch. Enjoying our mini-wine bottle Advent calendar - a lot! Restacked my TBR piles into a semblance of order and jettisoned a few old ones I will never read now. I Am Reading: The Living Sea of Waking Dreams | Richard Flanagan … Continue reading Stories & Shout Outs #35
2020 was the year of many things. Some planned and expected, like the War and Peace chapter-a-day readalong. But many things unexpected and impossible to plan for as well. Who knew that Plague-Lit would become a thing? Or that I would waste one whole perfectly good reading month by feeling weird and distracted about a certain … Continue reading 2021 Here We Come!
As they say in show business, that's a wrap folks! AusReading Month is tucked away for another year. In a strange year of uncertainly, Covid-19 and change, it has been wonderful to pause a while to read, blog and celebrate Australian literature. Thank you to everyone who contributed with reviews, comments and social media activity. … Continue reading AusReading Month – Wrap Up Post
I had planned on squeezing in one more post for AusReading Month, but our Sunday in Sydney was the first super hot summer's day of the season, with temperatures going 40℃ + around NSW. After grabbing a quick early morning walk before the heat ramped up, I stayed inside with the air con, lazing … Continue reading AusReading Month 2020 Bingo
Independent Scottish publisher Canongate Books brings together some of the world’s finest writers, in the Myth series, each of whom has retold a myth from various cultures in a contemporary and memorable way. The project was conceived in 1999 by Jamie Byng, owner of Canongate, who hopes that 100 titles will eventually be published in the … Continue reading The Penelopiad | Margaret Atwood #CANnovella
2019 was the International Year of Indigenous Languages: It is through language that we communicate with the world, define our identity, express our history and culture, learn, defend our human rights and participate in all aspects of society, to name but a few. Through language, people preserve their community’s history, customs and traditions, memory, … Continue reading Kindred | Kirli Saunders #AWWpoetry
Writers on Writers In the Writers on Writers series, leading authors reflect on an Australian writer who has inspired and influenced them. Provocative and crisp, these books start a fresh conversation between past and present, shed new light on the craft of writing, and introduce some intriguing and talented authors and their work. Published … Continue reading Writers on Writers: Josephine Rowe on Beverley Farmer #AWWliterarycompanion
bronasbooks.com 