"Ready ?""Ready.""Now ?""Soon.""Do the scientists really know? Will it happen today, will it ?" First published on the 1st March 1954, Ray Bradbury's short story came to my attention today thanks to a chat on our local ABC radio morning show. One of the presenters remembered a story she read as a child about a … Continue reading All Summer in a Day | Ray Bradbury #USAshortstory
I know there is a lot of love for The Living Sea in Waking Dreams out there already. It's not that I didn't love it, or even admire what Flanagan was trying to achieve, but it's not easy to read a book where you feel like you're being smashed over the head, not just with … Continue reading The Living Sea of Waking Dreams | Richard Flanagan #AUSfiction
Charlotte McConaghy has written an intense, emotional story about the effects of mass extinction in The Last Migration. I don't normally quote the back blurb of the book, but in this case it so aptly describes the book, I'm really not sure I can top it. The Last Migration is a wild, gripping and … Continue reading The Last Migration | Charlotte McConaghy #AWWfiction
I recently read an interview with Ann Patchett where see was asked about how hard it was to scrap a piece of writing that wasn't working, and to start again. The interviewer thought it might be like a little death to let go a hard-won piece of writing, but Patchett was more pragmatic. Her reply … Continue reading The End of the World is Bigger than Love | Davina Bell #AWW
Thank goodness for Robbie. After a spate of so-so books and DNF's, I finally landed on this beautifully imagined, eco-dystopian tour de force from my new favourite contemporary Australian writer. My love affair with Arnott started last year, when I read his debut novel, Flames. This is a little of what I had to say … Continue reading The Rain Heron | Robbie Arnott #AUSfiction
Fathoms: The World in the Whale was a recent binge read. The weather had turned suddenly cold and it was bleak outside. Curling up on the lounge with a throw rug and a good book was the only logical response. Rebecca Giggs was the perfect companion for such a session - engaging, personable and … Continue reading Fathoms: The World in the Whale | Rebecca Giggs #AWWnonfiction
City of Trees: Essays on Life, Death and the Need for a Forest by Sophie Cunningham was one of the books I took on holidays a couple of months ago (along with Richard Powers, The Overstory) to Far North Queensland on the edge of the Daintree Rainforest. Both books seemed very appropriate for the occasion. And except … Continue reading City of Trees by Sophie Cunningham
I do love to theme my holiday reads where possible. A recent week long Far North Queensland break in beautiful, sunny Port Douglas on the edge of the Daintree Rainforest, gave me a chance to finally read this year's Pulitzer Prize winning book by Richard Power's The Overstory. (I also packed a book of essays … Continue reading The Overstory by Richard Powers
There is a lot of space in Megan Hunter's The End We Start From. Known as a poet until now, her debut novel is written almost like a poem, but not quite. It's not prose as we know it either. It's fragmentary, somewhere in between.Stark, sparse paragraphs, poetic words, no names, just letters of the … Continue reading The End We Start From From by Megan Hunter
Circle is one of those amazing, gorgeous picture books that I love and adore...right up until the very last page.But that last page does my head in every single time I read it. Before I go into the final page, let me tell you all the reasons why I love and adore the rest of … Continue reading Circle by Jeannie Baker
Speculative fiction is not usually my cup of tea, but I had heard interesting things about this debut author and his book of short stories.This is part of the rave book blurb from goodreads -AN EXTRAORDINARILY RESONANT AND PROPHETIC COLLECTION OF SPECULATIVE SHORT FICTION FOR OUR TECH-SAVVY ERA BY DEBUT AUTHOR ALEXANDER WEINSTEIN.Children of the … Continue reading Children of the New World by Alexander Weinstein
I started reading This Changes Everything way back when in November 2015 in preparation for Cop21 in Paris. Not that I planned to go or even had any high hopes for the outcomes, but I wanted to have more knowledge about the main issues and catch up on the latest thinking about climate change.I knew this … Continue reading This Changes Everything by Naomi Klein
Way back when, I picked up a book that changed my life.I think the year was 1989 or 1990 and the book was The Green Consumer Guide by John Elkington & Julia Hailes.In collaboration with the Australian Conservation Foundation and CHOICE magazine, the UK pair had tweeked their best-selling book for an Australian audience.At the … Continue reading The Handbook: Surviving & Living With Climate Change by Jane Rawson &James Whitmore
The Reef: A Passionate History does exactly as its cover promises - it delivers 12 'extraordinary tales' about Australia's Great Barrier Reef.The only thing it missed to my mind, was a thirteenth chapter where McCalman included some of the local Indigenous tribes stories about the reef. There must be Dreamtime stories, rock paintings and oral traditions … Continue reading The Reef: A Passionate History by Iain McCalman
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