Sydney, 1971The American family rented the house without having seen it - how could they have, halfway around the world? - so they did not know what it meant. Tablo Tales is a new Melbourne-based imprint in the hands of Jemma Birrell (some of you might know of Jemma as the Artistic Director of the … Continue reading A Dream Life | Claire Messud #AUSnovella
Eve Langley (1904 -1974) is an enigmatic figure in Australian literary history. One of the (many) reasons why Eve Langley is considered enigmatic is her writing. There was a LOT of it, but was it fiction or was it autobiographical? And how is it possible to tell the difference when the author deliberately leads you … Continue reading Eve Langley and The Pea Pickers | Helen Vines #AWWbiography
April 1939: The wisteria was heavy with blossoms; the roses scrambled around the windows of the old French farmhouse. Joyce Morgan's biography of Elizabeth von Armin, The Countess From Kirribilli, is an utter delight from start to finish. I could just leave that thought there and be done with this post. But, of course, I … Continue reading The Countess From Kirribilli | Joyce Morgan #AWWbiography
Three scary monsters - racism, misogyny and ageism - roam through this mesmerising novel. Its reversible format enacts the disorientation that migrants experience when changing countries changes the story of their lives. With this suspenseful, funny and profound book, Michelle de Kretser has made something thrilling and new.Which comes first, the future or the past?Back … Continue reading Scary Monsters | Michelle de Kretser #AWWfiction
In a basement bar on a university campus, a boy and a girl hold each other, their limbs loose with alcohol. First, an apology for being pretty absent in blogger land lately. I'm keeping up with AusReadingMonth posts (just) and that's about it. Post scheduling errors, computer updates that end up requiring some IT input … Continue reading Love & Virtue | Diana Reid #AWWfiction
The women at the heart of this story come from all walks of life. In 1990 a study of 2000 Australian women, aged between 45 to 55, was undertaken to provide a 'wide-frame snapshot of women's health in this phase of life (menopausal transition)'. It was designed to last for five years. One of the … Continue reading Secrets of Women’s Healthy Ageing | Cassandra Szoeke #AWWnonfiction
My dear son James has given me a task for my last years, or months, or whatever time I have left beyond the many years I have lived so far. Sometime in April or May last year, I was given an advance reading copy of Kate Grenville's A Room Made of Leaves. I was very … Continue reading A Room Made of Leaves | Kate Grenville #AWW
When my three children left home all at the same time thirty-five years ago. I decided to leave too and travel around the Mediterranean. I went alone, a l'aventure - without plans or arrangements. I'm never quite sure how to review a cookbook. Obviously I'm not going to read every single word or cook every … Continue reading Med: A Cookbook | Claudia Roden #cookbook
A woman sat in a hotel bar, watching the door. Sally Rooney writes about the glorious and torturous intimacies that are a part of all the close relationships that we create for ourselves - best friends, lovers, siblings, colleagues. In Beautiful World, Where Are You Rooney continues this process, moving through the world of twenty-somethings … Continue reading Beautiful World, Where Are You | Sally Rooney #IRLfiction
George Marsh had written another book. Virginia Feito was raised in Madrid and Paris, and studied English and drama at Queen Mary University of London. Mrs Marsh is her debut novel. She lives in Madrid. A movie starring Elizabeth Moss is on the cards. These are the things one quickly learns, when you Duck, Duck, … Continue reading Mrs March: A Novel | Virginia Feito #ESPfiction
"Well done." Perveen Mistry spoke aloud as she slid the signed contracts into envelopes. The Bombay Prince is the third book in Sujata Massey's Perveen Mistry Murder Mystery series. Although the Australian cover declares the series as a murder mystery, Allen & Unwin classify it on their website under historical fiction (you can also read … Continue reading The Bombay Prince | Sujata Massey #INDcosycrime
His mother waited upstairs while the servants took coats and scarves and hats from the guests. Some books are not easy to review. If you had asked me a couple of month ago, I would have said, unreservedly, that I was a fan of Colm Tóibin, particularly his Irish stories, since that is all I … Continue reading The Magician | Colm Tóibin #IRLfiction
Brona (This Reading Life) 
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