"Well, there’s so much to read, and I’m so far behind." Wallace Stegner
As his dying wish, Borges requested the epitaph 'He took the sword and laid the naked metal between them.' He asked this of Maria Kodama, his beautiful, younger wife and literary secretary, who had married Borges two months before he died, at the age of eighty-seven. He chose Geneva as the place of his passing: … Continue reading Greek Lessons | Han Kang
Before he left the family, my father worked as a sales representative for a pharmaceutical company. He travelled from chemist to chemist with samples of pills and lotions and pastes in the back of his Valiant station wagon. The best sales representatives visited modern chemists in the city and suburbs. My father had to drive … Continue reading Before He Left the Family | Carrie Tiffany #AUSshortstory
1950 "I'm your brother," he said, holding his cap in both hands. Book two of the Edith Trilogy, Dark Palace finished as the aftermath of WWII gave birth to the brand new United Nations. Book three, Cold Light sees us jumping forward four years to Canberra, Australia. 1950's Canberra. A city that was only conceived … Continue reading Cold Light | Frank Moorhouse #EdithReadalong
My mother was blue, a pale blue mixed with the colour of ashes. I find myself drawn to memoirs that dive deep into difficult, complicated mother-daughter relationships. It's a dynamic fraught with push me/pull me tensions. Tensions that seem to only evolve with time. Is it possible to work them out? Come to terms with … Continue reading Nothing Holds Back the Night | Delphine de Vigan #FRAmemoir
Nathaniel Philbrick's little book of essays about why one should read Moby-Dick is more a book about one man's love for this American classic and it's author than anything else. By sharing his passion and knowledge, Philbrick is hoping to inspire others to follow his example and dive right into this complex, challenging book feet … Continue reading Why Read Moby-Dick? by Nathaniel Philbrick
The extraordinary thing about Bill Gammage's award winning book, The Biggest Estate on Earth, is how obvious what he is saying really is when you look at the records - the letters, the journals, the paintings and sketches of early colonial times in Australia. How on earth did we not see this before? In every … Continue reading The Biggest Estate on Earth: How Aborigines Made Australia | Bill Gammage
I have a very good reason for being so quiet over the past ten days and it has nothing to do with the previous post.I've been on holidays! Mr Books and I had a 6 night child-free excursion to South Australia - specifically Adelaide and the Barossa Valley. I'm a pretty organised kind of person. We both … Continue reading Adelaide | Kerryn Goldsworthy
After is the fourth book in Gleitzman's series about Felix. After came as a bit of a surprise for all of us, including Gleitzman himself. We all thought the story was done and dusted after Now. But it turns out that Felix had more to say. After takes us back to the war. Felix is … Continue reading After | Morris Gleitzman
I confess that I knew next to nothing about Ernest Hemingway before reading The Paris Wife. I knew he was regarded as a literary hero by many Americans, that he lived in Paris during the 1920's and hung out with the Scott Fitzgerald's, Gertrude Stein, Ford Maddox Ford & Stella etc. I knew he was … Continue reading The Paris Wife | Paula McLain
"As Aboriginal people, if we lose our culture, we lose who we are and where we come from, and that's what we, as a community, don't want to happen". Compiled by Nadia Wheatley, Playground: Listening to stories from country and from inside the heart is a non-fiction title nominated for the Eve Pownall Award for … Continue reading Playground | Nadia Wheatley
Look, A Book is basically a wordless picture book. Only a few words and sentences litter the pages as two young children discover the joy of losing themselves in the pages of a good book. Imagination runs wild as the world of the book and reality overlap and intermingle. Gleeson and Blackwood show that it is often … Continue reading Look, A Book | Libby Gleeson and Freya Blackwood
"For if we can save one small island, perhaps we can save them all." Beautiful illustrations abound in One Small Island, a book about the history of Macquarie Island. They're complemented by photographs, maps and diagrams. Unfortunately I found the text a little bland, which is a shame, because history wrapped up with an environmental message doesn't have to … Continue reading One Small Island The Story of Macquarie Island | Alison Lester and Coral Tulloch
Sonya Harnett would have to be the darling of the CBCA; there are not many times in recent years when one of her books has not been on the shortlist. 2012 is no exception! This year she has a beautifully designed picture book on offer, Come Down, Cat! The illustrations have been done by Lucia … Continue reading Come Down, Cat! | Sonya Hartnett
For some reason I was confused about Au Revoir, Crazy European Chick at the start. I thought it was chick lit and for the first couple of chapters I thought the protagonist was a chick too. Maybe it was the yellow cover, the silhouette of the chick or the set-up...talking school, friends, family life, … Continue reading Au Revoir, Crazy European Chick | Joe Schreiber
I now have another title to add to my list of books that made me cry.When We Were Two was a real surprise package. I had put off reading it because I thought it was about two soldiers/brothers in the Vietnam War. I'm not philosophically opposed to war stories or the Vietnam War in particular, but … Continue reading When We Were Two | Robert Newton
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