The longlist for the 2021 Miles Franklin Literary Award was announced this afternoon. What is the Miles Franklin Literary Award (MFLA), I hear some of you ask? According to the MFLA website it is, “Australia’s most prestigious literary award was established through the will of the writer Stella Miles Franklin, best known for her novel My … Continue reading Miles Franklin Longlist 2021
Confession one: this story 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, but I have decided to abandon the other two. Sometimes a book does not … Continue reading All That Swagger | Miles Franklin #1936Club
Mr Books and I recently enjoyed a roadtrip through rural Victoria and NSW to visit relatives we hadn't seen for over a year. The journey between Echuca and Rutherglen allowed us to see two of the silo art installations popping up in various country towns across the two states in recent years. Jimmy Dvate has … Continue reading Parrots | Rex Ingamells #1936Club
Returning home after a journey is always a little weird. I'm struggling to let go of that wonderful feeling of being on the road, with nothing but unhurried time up my sleeve and where to eat tonight, the most pressing thing on my mind. Mr Books and I love exploring the back ways and byways, … Continue reading A Poem For A Thursday #HomeAgain
Born Into This is a collection of short stories by an exciting new voice in Indigenous writing, Adam Thompson. Adam Thompson may be an emerging Pakana writer from Launceston, but there are powerful and promising things going on here. Some of his stories pack a serious punch, others creep in quietly under your skin. Either … Continue reading Born Into This | Adam Thompson #ShortStories
This is a post I first drafted seven years ago as our eldest was starting his senior school years. I was already six years removed from my own teaching days, but once a teacher, always a teacher! This time of the year will always brins to mind those anxious, exciting first days of a new … Continue reading First Day of School
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
I spotted this book tag initially as one for books in translation. But after an amazing few months of reading mostly Australian books, I wanted to keep the green and gold momentum going. To join in though, simply change the country to one of your choosing. It could be your country of origin, where you … Continue reading Australian Literature Book Tag
My first illness was that one most common to the children of the poor...a bad education and, like the bite of a goanna, it was incurable and ran for years. Ethel Jane (Eve) Langley was born in Forbes on the 1st September 1904. After her father, Arthur died in 1915, her mother, Myra moved her … Continue reading The Pea-Pickers | Eve Langley #AWW
Writers on Writers In the Writers on Writers series, leading authors reflect on an Australian writer who has inspired and influenced them. Provocative and crisp, these books start a fresh conversation between past and present, shed new light on the craft of writing, and introduce some intriguing and talented authors and their work. Published … Continue reading Writers on Writers: Josephine Rowe on Beverley Farmer #AWW
I find reading Helen Garner a curious affair. There's a real push me/pull me effect, that intrigues me and wow's me, then repels me all in the same sentence. I'm intrigued and wowed by her writing, the turn of phrase that captures a moment brilliantly. There's a candour and earthiness that seems grounded in her … Continue reading The Spare Room | Helen Garner #AWW
It's time for another Classics Club Spin. The rules are easy: compile your list of 20 books by Sunday 22nd November. On that day a number will be randomly selected. That's the book you read. You have until the 30th January 2021 to finish your book and review it. Join in the … Continue reading Classics Club Spin #25
