"Well, there’s so much to read, and I’m so far behind." Wallace Stegner
The night light in the blue-tinged glass on the mantleshelf burned behind a book, which cast a shadow across half the bedroom. The quiet glow spreading over the bedside table and the chaise lounge, bathed the wide folds of the velvet curtains, and flooded the mirror on the rosewood cupboard between the two windows with … Continue reading A Love Story | Émile Zola
She returned to the island on Friday, August 16, on the three o'clock ferry. She was wearing jeans, a plaid shirt, plain flat shoes without socks, carrying a satin parasol and a handbag, and her only luggage was a beach bag. Some things should just be left alone. Despite some hints and flashes of the … Continue reading Until August | Gabriel García Márquez
After chatting with both Kim and Lisa about their reading progress through Richard Flanagan's latest book, Question 7, I was prepared for two difficulties. Firstly, it would be almost impossible to take in everything Flanagan was posing in one reading and two, it would be extremely difficult to review the book. It only took me … Continue reading Question 7 | Richard Flanagan (1)
Today I saw a picture of Jude with a child. Not one of the fair-haired nieces I remember from photographs around the Old House, who would be grown by now, but a dark-haired little girl. We've all done it. At some point before, during or after a relationship we have typed their name into our … Continue reading Thirst For Salt | Madelaine Lucas #AWWfiction
Throughout Poetry Month I am on the lookout for serendiptious poetic moments in my reading and my daily life. It's rather surprising how and where a poem will suddenly present itself. Perhaps not surprising to find a poet or a poem in a book, but a recent visit to The White Rabbit Gallery threw up … Continue reading Bao Guang | Roses Made From Water #poetry
Laura Palmer-Archer c.1904 | John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland We were married at six in the morning, and now my brand-new husband and myself are starting to our station home, sixty-five miles from the little Queensland township. When the Classics Club announced their latest Dare - Love is in the Air, I went … Continue reading A Bush Honeymoon | Laura M. Palmer-Archer #AWWshortstory
A woman sat in a hotel bar, watching the door. Sally Rooney writes about the glorious and torturous intimacies that are a part of all the close relationships that we create for ourselves - best friends, lovers, siblings, colleagues. In Beautiful World, Where Are You Rooney continues this process, moving through the world of twenty-somethings … Continue reading Beautiful World, Where Are You | Sally Rooney
It's not yet eight. Stefan Valeriu can tell by the sunlight, which has crept only as far as the edge of his chaise lounge. He can sense it climbing the wooden legs, feel it caressing his fingers, his hands, his naked arm, as warm as a shawl... Such a sensuous, delicious, lazy way to open … Continue reading Women | Mihail Sebastian #ROUfiction
Sketch of Laura as Venus C1444 Early in chapter six of One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the suitor, Pietro Crespi is wooing Amaranta. He 'would arrive at dusk, with a gardenia in his buttonhole, and he would translate Petrarch's sonnets for Amaranta. They would sit on the porch, suffocated by oregano … Continue reading The Fifteen Sonnets of Petrarch #Classic
Today is our tenth wedding anniversary.We've enjoyed ten years of love, laughter and happiness. Mr Books is a man of endless patience, with a big heart and a generous nature. Every day I am full of gratitude for our life together.When I spotted this poem last week, I knew it would be the perfect choice … Continue reading A Poem for A Thursday – How to Love Bronwyn
The profoundly moving new novel from the critically acclaimed and Miles Franklin shortlisted author of PAST THE SHALLOWS and WHEN THE NIGHT COMES. A tender and masterfully told story of memory, family and love. Prague, 1938: Eva flies down the street from her sister. Suddenly a man steps out, a man wearing a hat. Eva … Continue reading There Was Still Love | Favel Parrett
Your Love's Coming Down Like Rain by Lorette C Luzajic Love's Coming (1896) Quietly as lovers Creep at the middle noon, Softly as players tremble In the tears of a tune; Quietly as lilies Their faint vows declare, Came the shy pilgrim: I knew not he was there. Quietly as tears fall On a wild sin, … Continue reading Love’s Coming by John Shaw Neilson
Following on from my recent post featuring several fabulous Australian junior fiction titles, I thought it was time to venture further afield to see what the rest of the world (or at least the US, UK and Japan) were doing in this field.The Afterwards is a new story by U.K. poet A. F. Harrold, illustrated … Continue reading Junior Fiction – the rest!
I'm heart broken. And I may just have read my most favourite and best book for 2018. Sally Rooney has written a gut-wrenching, painfully poignant love story about two young damaged souls that will stay with me for a very long time. In Normal People she has captured perfectly all the angst, insecurity and missteps … Continue reading Normal People | Sally Rooney
I've loved Japanese literature for many years now, but since visiting Japan earlier this year, my fascination and interest has exploded! Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto popped up on several lists as a great contemporary example of Japanese literature. Kitchen is a slim book containing two stories - Kitchen and Moonlight Shadow - both deal with death, … Continue reading Kitchen | Banana Yoshimoto #JPNshortstories
This Reading Life 