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 | 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 … Continue reading In the Mist of the Mountains | Ethel Turner #AWWfiction
I knew next to nothing about the mother/daughter Mary Wollstonecraft/Shelley pair until reading Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley. I had started reading Frankenstein for the very first time as a #CCdare when the Preface alerted me to the fact that there had been an ongoing controversy about who wrote Frankenstein. … Continue reading Romantic Outlaws | Charlotte Gordon
This is one graphic novel that really packs a punch. The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman is one man's journey to understand what happened to his father during WWII. It's obvious from the opening pages that what happened to Vladek during the war had a huge impact on everything that came after. His marriages, his … Continue reading The Complete Maus | Art Spiegelman
In one of those curious book-geek things that I do sometimes, I decided to read two books about Australian author, Joan Lindsay, at the same time.One was her own 'reminiscence' Time Without Clocks from 1962, the other was the recently published biography, Beyond the Rock by Janelle McCulloch. However, I have been putting off writing about my … Continue reading Joan Lindsay and that Rock!
It would be nice to think that books were one of the places where equality of access and representation were available to both sexes, especially given that over half the authors of all books written are now women. Sadly, though, it is still not the case. Reviews of books in leading newspapers and journals around … Continue reading Fantastically, Fearless, Rebel Women #PictureBooks
Brona's Salon is a newish meme which aims to gather a group of like-minded bookish people 'under the roof of an inspiring host, held partly to amuse one another and partly to refine the taste and increase the knowledge of the participants through conversation.'(wikipedia)I will provide a bookish prompt or two to inspire our conversation.However please feel … Continue reading Brona’s Salon
The Invention of Nature: The Adventures of Alexander Von Humboldt The Lost Hero of Science has been on my radar ever since it first came out in 2015.But it was our forthcoming trip to Cuba that brought it front and centre. There is a national park near Baracoa, in eastern Cuba that is named after … Continue reading The Invention of Nature by Andrea Wulf
I haven't read anything about Joan since I studied George Bernard Shaw's Saint Joan for my HSC. I'm now tempted to reread the play as well as search out any other stories that fictionalise her life.The facts that did exist about Joan's life are scarce and sometimes conflicting. They are now also so clouded in … Continue reading Joan of Arc: The Story of Jehanne Darc by Lili Wilkinson
The Little People Big Dreams series is published by Frances Lincoln Children's Books.Written by Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara and translated into English by Emma Martinez, this biographical series featuring iconic women for young readers is set to capture our hearts and imaginations big time.Starting with Coco Chanel and Frida Kahlo earlier this year, we can … Continue reading Little People Big Dreams
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