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 #AWW
‘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 #poetry
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 #UKfiction
From the best-selling author of Strange Weather in Tokyo comes a collection of playful, delightful, delectable Japanese micro-fiction. Take a story and shrink it. Make it tiny, so small it can fit in the palm of your hand. Carry the story with you everywhere, let it sit with you while you eat, let it watch you while … Continue reading People From My Neighbourhood | Hiromi Kawakami #ShortStories
I missed out on reading Helen Macdonald's H is for Hawke a few years ago when it first came out to great acclaim. No good reason, just one of those things, so I was determined not to miss out on Vesper Flights. Especially since Macdonald was fortunate enough to get Chris Wormell to once … Continue reading Vesper Flights | Helen Macdonald #UKNonFiction
Honeybee by Craig Silvey is my first book club read for 2021. It has taken Silvey over ten years to write this book, after the huge success of his second book, Jasper Jones back in 2009. “I put everything I have into writing Honeybee. It tore me up, but it filled me with joy. I’m enormously … Continue reading Honeybee | Craig Silvey #AUSfiction
What a mad, mad ride Laura Jean McKay takes you on in The Animals in That Country! During the past week McKay won the Victorian Premier's Literary Award for fiction. That was enough for me to rat through my TBR piles looking for the ARC I knew I had tucked away somewhere. In this year … Continue reading The Animals in That Country | Laura Jean McKay #AWW
Thanks to the 2015 Stella Prize, I picked up Ellen Van Neervan's book, Heat and Light to discover the most extraordinary and eclectic collection of stories. I still think about them five years later. So I was thrilled when they published a book of poetry entitled Throat last year. It did not have an easy … Continue reading Throat | Ellen Van Neerven #Poetry
Dearly: Poems by Margaret Atwood was a book I savoured slowly over the Christmas/New Year period. I tucked the lovely slim volume into my work backpack to read one or two before work over my morning coffee, or to take with me to lunch. I would read a few more each time, sometimes rereading lines, … Continue reading Dearly: Poems | Margaret Atwood #Poetry
image source Putting together a 2020 review post was something that had me feeling rather churlish. But as the week has progressed, a desire to honour the big blogging change I've just made, has crept in. Moving from Blogger to WP was, at one level, done very spontaneously and in a fit of frustration. … Continue reading 2020: The Stats
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
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
