Infidelity and Other Affairs | Kate Legge #AWWmemoir

Affairs are a little like childbirth. Someone is always having one somewhere, usually right under the nose of a spouse because nobody knows everything that happens inside a marriage, not even the people in it. I have no idea how I'm going to respond to this memoir. To say Infidelity and Other Affairs has generated … Continue reading Infidelity and Other Affairs | Kate Legge #AWWmemoir

Everything Feels Like the End of the World | Else Fitzgerald #AWWshortstories

We drove home along the forest road, the trees like exposed bones in the headlights, trunks bending in over the gravel track. From the first story in the collection, 'River' Everything Feels Like the End of the World is a speculative fiction short story collection 'exploring possible futures in an Australia not so different from … Continue reading Everything Feels Like the End of the World | Else Fitzgerald #AWWshortstories

Lone Wolf: Albanese and the New Politics: Quarterly Essay 88 | Katharine Murphy

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

Another Christmas | William Trevor #ALiteraryChristmas

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

Miss Carter and the Ifrit | Susan Alice Kerby #DeanStreetDecember

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

Spam Tomorrow | Verily Anderson #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

Salonika Burning | Gail Jones #AWWfiction

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

This Changes Everything | Niki Bezzant #NZnonfiction

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