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
Glaston had been in the doldrums for forty years when I arrived. Not so much dead or dying as undecided. Worn down by branch closures and businesses leaving, by farming changes and the fickleness of markets; held up by a solid past and the confidence of those who saw beauty in it. It's streets are … Continue reading Glass Houses: A Novel | Anne Coombs #AWWfiction
Me, Antman and our mongrel, Fleabag, like partyin outside. We both come from the bush. Me, I'm a NSW desert girl and Antman's mob are river people. Cos we aint got no river or desert here in the city, we like sittin in the park yarnin, having a charge, playin country music. We don't cause … Continue reading Me, Antman & Fleabag | Gayle Kennedy #AWWfiction
I had planned on writing extended reviews for some of these books, but Covid. Assembly especially, which packed a punch much weightier than its mere 100 pages would suggest, deserves to be more widely considered and discussed. But for now, all I will say is READ IT. You have to stop this, she said. This … Continue reading June Mini Reviews [2]
Gillian Mears often likened herself to a Clarence Valley butcherbird, a creature filled with beautiful song who could also peck out the eyes of fledglings. I have put off writing this book response for weeks now. Reading Leaping Into Waterfalls: The Enigmatic Gillian Mears by Bernadette Brennan was such a tremendous example of how to … Continue reading Leaping Into Waterfalls | Bernadette Brennan #AWWbiography
Little did I know when I started posting these chronicles of our times back in March last year, that I would still be doing so nearly two years later. It was December 2019 when we first started hearing about a nasty flu virus in Wuhan in China (although apparently our governments had been talking about … Continue reading The Covid Chronicles #14
My dear son James has given me a task for my last years, or months, or whatever time I have left beyond the many years I have lived so far. Sometime in April or May last year, I was given an advance reading copy of Kate Grenville's A Room Made of Leaves. I was very … Continue reading A Room Made of Leaves | Kate Grenville #AWW
In her Preface, Louise Crisp describes her collection of poetry, Yuiquimbiang as an 'ecopoetic form that integrates political essay and environmental poetics: a project that evolved out of my double life as a poet and environmental activist'. The regions she writes about the East Gippsland and the Monaro. Crisp's poems and texts evolve from her … Continue reading Yuiquimbiang | Louise Crisp #PoetryMonth
Let me begin in my father's house. A good opening line tells you a lot. Right from the get-go we see there is a story to be told. There is a father (but not a mother) and that houses will be significant. We start with Erica returning to her old family home - a cottage … Continue reading The Labyrinth | Amanda Lohrey #AWW
And reports from Bairnsdale, in the Gippsland district, indicate that Mr Nils Desperandum, of Sarsfield, will have the largest crop of apples, this year, for miles around. - INTERSTATE WEEKLY. On a hot Australian morning I read the above advertisement out to June as we sat in the low-roofed kitchen of our old home in … Continue reading The Pea-Pickers | Eve Langley Part 2 #AWWfiction
Confession one: this story was a chore to read. Confession two: for the past week I have been trying to read three books that were a chore to read. Why, I hear you ask? Confession three: I made myself finish one, but I have decided to abandon the other two. Sometimes a book does not … Continue reading All That Swagger | Miles Franklin #1936Club
The first draft of Gentlemen at Gyang Gyang was written in 1928 by Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin (1879 - 1954) upon her return to Australia to care for her ageing parents. However it wasn't published until after her death in 1956. You may have also noticed that the name on the book is not that … Continue reading Gentlemen at Gyang Gyang | Miles Franklin #1956club
Don't let me mislead you into thinking that In the Gardens of the Fugitives is a book about gardening, food and recipes, even though I'm going to start with a recipe. Apparently one of the food items uncovered during the excavations of Pompeii, was a medallion of ham flavoured with bay leaves and fig slices. Normally … Continue reading In the Garden of Fugitives | Ceridwen Dovey
Image source Sydney has once again woken up shrouded in bush fire smoke. Air quality is very poor and people are being asked to avoid exercising outdoors. It's hot one day, cold and blustery the next. It's hard to breath freely and it's not even summer yet. Two weeks ago it was the smoke from … Continue reading A Poem for a Thursday by Melissa Lucashenko
This little curiosity has been sitting by my bed for over a year now. It has taken a hectic schedule and a determination to read as much Australian literature this month as possible to bring this particular book to the top of the pile. Why? Simply because, as the title says, it is 99 stories … Continue reading 99 Interpretations of The Drover’s Wives | Ryan O’Neill
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