La Teuse came in and popped her broom and her feather duster against the alter. Confession one: this story ended up being a chore to read. After six engaging, enthralling Zola's I have hit my first dud with the seventh. Confession two: for the past week I have been trying to read three books that … Continue reading The Sin of Abbé Mouret | Émile Zola #FRAclassic
Last year, my friend at the Writer's Centre NSW, now called Writing NSW, was planning on hosting an Honouring event for Katharine Susannah Prichard. It's an annual event, of which I have managed to attend about half so far. I had just popped my name on the expressions of interest list early last year, when … Continue reading The Wild Oats Of Han | Katharine Susannah Prichard #AWW
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
It will be nigh on impossible to write anything new or insightful about Tolstoy's War and Peace that has not be said before, so this will be a collection of loose impressions and thoughts that occurred to me throughout 2020 as I read a chapter-a-day (or more accurately seven chapters a week) with Nick. The … Continue reading War and Peace | Leo Tolstoy #RUSclassic
Feeling very grateful, right now, that Tarissa @In the Bookcase is hosting A Literary Christmas this year. It made me search my shelves for something Christmassy that I hadn't read yet. It led me straight into the delightful and utterly charming arms of Beatrix Potter. I confess that I did not read any of the Peter Rabbit … Continue reading The Tailor of Gloucester | Beatrix Potter #ALiteraryChristmas
It would be very easy to read this lovely novella about a woman called Elizabeth and her love of gardens, as an autobiography in disguise. At least, it was very easy for me to be led down this particular garden path for quite some time. At every turn, Elizabeth and Her German Garden felt biographical. … Continue reading Elizabeth and Her German Garden | Elizabeth Von Armin #NovinNov
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
For the first half of this year, I was avoiding plague literature, like the plague! But since reading Camus' The Plague during August, I seem to be verging on obsession. What are the signs, I hear you ask? First up, how many people do you know, who take plague literature with them on a holiday … Continue reading A Journal of the Plague Year | Daniel Defoe #UKclassic
I've been wanting to read a Sherlock Holmes story for a long time now. I purchased my lovely Knickerbocker classic editions about five years ago with the good intentions of reading them in chronological order. Ever since then, I have been putting A Study in Scarlet on my CC Spin list, in the hope it … Continue reading A Study in Scarlet | Arthur Conan Doyle #CCSpin
What does one read during a pandemic that has changed the way we all live our lives? The Plague (La Peste) by Albert Camus of course! This existentialist (or absurdist, depending on who you talk to) classic from 1947 presents us with the day to day changes that occurred in a small city in Algeria … Continue reading The Plague | Albert Camus #ReadtheNobels
When the Classics Club originally asked this question in August 2012, I waffled on a bit about my love for all things Jane Austen, but eventually I came to the conclusion that my favourite classic of all time was Persuasion by Jane Austen.Eight years later, it is hard to top this.Persuasion is a story that bears … Continue reading My Favourite & Best Classics
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
