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 #UKnonfiction
Marie Curie is one of my personal heroes. Ever since my Year 12 science depth-study on her, (which incidentally helped me to top the class and receive my one and only first-in-class medal) I have been constantly drawn to her story. As part of my depth-study research, I read Ève Curie's bio about her mother, … Continue reading Marie Curie & Her Daughters | Imogen & Isobel Greenberg
Gabrielle Carey, with this book about Elizabeth von Armin, had the honour of being the very first author event by zoom, that I participated in during this Covid year. Also in attendance was Lisa from ANZLitLovers, who had alerted me to the event in the first place. It was lovely to be able to … Continue reading Only Happiness Here | Gabrielle Carey #AWW
Writing regularly blog posts seems to be something quite beyond right now. But thanks to Karen @Booker Talk I've be revisiting some of my older posts to find fresh inspiration. This post about the rather silent author, Randolph Stow, was originally published on the 29th August 2015.I've been thinking about Gabrielle Carey a lot, over the … Continue reading Moving Among Strangers by Gabrielle Carey
Truganini: Journey through the apocalypse is an extraordinary read. Cassandra Pybus has compiled a thorough and very personal history of Truganini's life and times. I say personal, because what gives this book that little extra something special is Pybus' relationship to Truganini. As she says in her Preface, the 'rapid dispossession (of the original people of … Continue reading Truganini | Cassandra Pybus #AWW
Biography:Since my last post I've read a biography called Herman Melville - Mariner and Mystic by Raymond Melbourne Weaver. It was a fairly lacklustre, uninspiring bio in the end. It was a straight down the line linear look at Melville's life, as one might expect from a book first published in 1921. There was a lot … Continue reading Moby-Dick – Chapters 91 – 100
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Invention of Nature, comes a breathtakingly illustrated and brilliantly evocative recounting of Alexander von Humboldt’s five–year expedition in South America. Humboldt (1769-1859) was an intrepid explorer and the most famous scientist of his age. His restless life was packed with adventure and discovery, but his most … Continue reading The Adventures of Alexander von Humboldt by Andrea Wulf & Lillian Melcher
The Real Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things has been sitting on my TBR for a few years now. I was fortunate enough to be gifted it during an #AusteninAugust competition with Adam @Roof Beam Reader, and I hang my head in shame that it has taken me so long to finish it.My only excuse … Continue reading The Real Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things by Paula Byrne
Becoming ended up being an epic read for me, simply because I put the book down when I was half way through it in the New Year, when we were away and busy with family and summer and stuff, and then I forgot to pick it up again.Other new, shiny books caught my eye and … Continue reading Becoming by Michelle Obama
From Secret Ballot to Democracy Sausage by Judith Brett was a surprise bestseller at work in the week leading up to the recent NSW state elections. I'll be curious to see if it has the same surge during the weeks leading up to our Federal elections in May.Brett has written a fascinating and informative book about … Continue reading From Secret Ballot to Democracy Sausage: How Australia Got Compulsory Voting by Judith Brett
Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography. I started reading it in 2016. I thoroughly enjoyed the early part - Matteson wrote a very thorough and in-depth look at Louisa's childhood. But the font was small and things began to get difficult thanks … Continue reading Eden’s Outcasts by John Matteson
Thanks to Bill @The Australian Legend's Australian Women Writer's Gen II Week I have read my very first ebook from start to finish.As with almost everything in my life at the last moment, I left it to the minute to prepare for Bill's Gen II week, even though I've known about it for months. I really … Continue reading In the Mist of the Mountains by Ethel Turner
