When I was nine years old I was a good little girl, though this hadn’t always been the case. Have you ever noticed that the books you really enjoyed reading - a lot - and would like to read again, are the ones you find the hardest to write something about? The Inseparables has been … Continue reading The Inseparables | Simone de Beauvoir #FRAfiction
This incredible book is a testament to the renaissance of First Nations poetry happening in Australia right now.UQP website Fire Front: First Nations Poetry and Power Today is an anthology of poems and essays from many well-known and emerging First Nations writers and thinkers. It is powerful and confronting stuff. It is very contemporary, yet … Continue reading Fire Front | edited by Alison Whittaker #AUSpoetry
Even with months of planning and anticipation, Bill @The Australian Legend's Gen 4 Reading Week has still caught me by surprise! Bill describes Gen 4 as Australian "women who began writing in the 1960s, 70s and 80s." Postmodernism and Magic Realism were some of their tools of trade, but for Bill, this generation is defined … Continue reading Collected Stories | Shirley Hazzard #AWWshortstories
When the Moon rose in the Third Northern Hall I went to the Ninth Vestibule to witness the joining of Three Tides. This is something that happens only every eight years. I'm really not sure how I can write a review for this story that will do the reading experience justice. Piranesi was the book … Continue reading Piranesi | Susanna Clarke #WomensPrize
'All over the country, brooding on squatters' verandahs, or mooning in selectors' huts,' so A. G. Stephens wrote in the Bulletin in 1901, 'there are scattered here and there hundreds of lively, dreamy Australian girls whose queer uncomprehended ambitions are the despair of the household. They yearn, they aspire for they know not what...' I … Continue reading Friends & Rivals | Brenda Niall #AWWbiography
Émile Zola: A Very Short Introduction is part of the very excellent Oxford University Press Very Short Introduction series. There are over 700 titles in the series covering everything from author biographies, religions and philosophers, medicine and health topics, periods of history, cultural and social issues, to science and maths. If you're on the brink … Continue reading Émile Zola: A Very Short Introduction | Brian Nelson #LiteraryCompanion
Let me begin in my father's house. A good opening line tells you a lot. Right from the get-go we see there is a story to be told. There is a father (but not a mother) and that houses will be significant. We start with Erica returning to her old family home - a cottage … Continue reading The Labyrinth | Amanda Lohrey #AWW
My nana used to call it the 'change of life'. It was a change alright. If you take a quick glance at the health section in most Australian bookshops, you will notice that suddenly there are quite a few books about older women's health, specifically perimenopause and menopause, being published. I can only assume it's … Continue reading The M Word | Dr Ginni Mansberg #AWWnonfiction
A few minutes past midnight on Tuesday, 10 September 1940, an air raid struck Mecklenburgh Square. After a mini-reading slump in April, I needed something to capture my attention and my heart. Normally I would go to some cosy crime, or pick up a Jane Austen. Instead, this time, I found myself in the warm … Continue reading Square Haunting | Francesca Wade #GBRnonfiction
Once the queen's head is severed, he walks away. Didn't Anne die in the previous book? And didn't we deal with the time immediately after her death already? Is this opening line a signal that a big recap is coming? Yes and no. As it turns out The Mirror and the Light is an overlong … Continue reading The Mirror and the Light | Hilary Mantel #Readalong
Lauren Mackay has created a very appealing companion book, to have to hand, whilst reading Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall trilogy. I love beautifully produced and packaged books - this is definitely one. Now that I have reread and read all three Wolf Hall books, I suspect I will not need to read them again and … Continue reading Wolf Hall Companion | Lauren Mackay #AWWliterarycompanion
A new series from Europa Editions, The Passenger collects the best new writing, photography, art and reportage from around the world. There are five books in The Passenger series to date - Japan, Greece, Brazil, Turkey and India. Two more are imminent - Berlin and Paris. I'm often a sucker for good packaging, and these books are … Continue reading The Passenger: Japan #travelwriting
There are few things as startling as encountering an unearthly glow in the wild. Confession one: this book was a chore to read. Confession two: for the past week I have been trying to read three books that were a chore to read. Why, I hear you ask? Confession three: I made myself finish one, … Continue reading Phosphorescence | Julia Baird #AWWessays
‘we are strong, we are beautiful and we should be proud of our culture, our stories, our languages.’ – Danzal Baker (aka Baker Boy) Homeland Calling is a collection of poems created from hip-hop song lyrics that channel culture and challenge stereotypes. Written by First Nations youth from communities all around Australia, the powerful words display … Continue reading Homeland Calling | edited by Ellen Van Neervan #AWWpoetry
Mayflies by Andrew O'Hagan appears to be one of those books especially designed for that subset of people born in the 1960's - the babies of the baby boomers and the very first Gen X-er's. Those people too young to get caught up in the whole 60's music scene, but by dint of being born … Continue reading Mayflies | Andrew O’Hagan #GBRfiction
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