One of the many pleasures of being a bookseller, is the insight I have gleaned into books no longer in print or hard to get. The pleasure part comes when enquiries by customers about said books, allows me to engage in some bookish research on their behalf. It is disheartening when I have to inform … Continue reading Book Stop #4
Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on UnsplashWhat do you do when you're behind in your blogging schedule?You make up a new list, of course!A new list that sucks hours of your time and does nothing to help you finish any of the other posts in draft, but leaves you feeling weirdly satisfied.A new list, inspired by … Continue reading My Australian TBR – Vote Now!
Can you believe this is our 21st CC Spin?And that I have participated in ALL 21.Now that we have come of age, I'm going to mix this spin up a little.Photo by Lysander Yuen on UnsplashThe rules are easy: compile your list of 20 books by Monday - the 23rd September.On that day a number … Continue reading CC Spin #21
Well!Gerald Murnane!What on earth am I going to say about you and this amazingly, stupendous, spectacular display of writing?How do you sum up or explain your experience with a book that pushes, exposes and plays around with so many ideas in one compact little piece of speculative writing? Where do you even begin to describe … Continue reading The Plains by Gerald Murnane
The Commandant came recommended to me in a roundabout fashion. Earlier on in the year, I attended an 'Honouring the Author' event at the State Library, NSW. The author in question was Jessica Anderson.Anderson won the Miles Franklin Prize twice (in 1978 & 1980), but not for The Commandant.By the end of the honouring event, … Continue reading The Commandant by Jessica Anderson
Happy Birthday Ada Cambridge!My copy of Sisters by Ada Cambridge (21st November 1844 - 19th July 1926) was a fairly recent find in a second hand book shop. It's a 1989 Penguin Australian Women's Library edition which was apparently the first time this glorious 1904 book had ever been reprinted.With wealth and good birth behind … Continue reading Sisters by Ada Cambridge
Regular followers of my blog will already know how much I love The Ladies of Missalonghi. It's not only a deliciously light, confectionery offering of a book, it's also a murky story mired down in a controversy involving plagiarism and L. M. Montgomery's The Blue Castle. A recent readalong for The Blue Castle was all the convincing I … Continue reading The Ladies of Missalonghi by Colleen McCullough
It's time to let everyone know that #AusReadingMonth is fast approaching.Many of you may have Aussie authors and Aussie books on your TBR piles, but some of you may need to visit the library, bookshop or plan your Netgalley reading to include a book from Australia in your November reading plans.To give you plenty of … Continue reading #AusReadingMonth – Q&A
Most of you know my love for the Rowland Sinclair series. I've had to wait nearly 12 months for the latest instalment, A Dangerous Language...and it was so worth the wait!I had the pleasure of hearing Sulari Gentill talk about her books recently and was thrilled to hear that she has long term plans for … Continue reading A Dangerous Language by Sulari Gentill
To help you find the right book for your #AusReadingMonth challenge, I've listed a selection of Aussie books by genre with their State or Territory. Which BINGO challenge will you be trying?Flyby NightIf time is of the essence, one book from the BINGO card may be the prefect option for you.A quick getaway is better than … Continue reading #AusReadingMonth – which book?
As many of you know, my TBR pile is out of control. A bigly number of those books are by Australian authors (I feel safe using bigly now that 1. we know that Trump actually said big league and 2. that bigly is a real work, although archaic and rarely used.)I thought I'd list some … Continue reading My #AusReadingMonth Possibilities
The Broke and the Bookish host a weekly meme called Top Ten Tuesday.Each week they nominate a topic to encourage those of us who love a good list to get all listy.This week is a freebie...I was meant to spend this past weekend reflecting on my AusReading Month format.After last year's November event I felt exhausted … Continue reading Top Ten Tuesday – Aussie, Aussie, Aussie
