In recent times I have been mostly writing quick reviews for the kids books I read on Goodreads, but every now and again I read one that I feel is worthy of a bigger post here. A book that I want to spend more time with, thinking about it - it's impact on me, the … Continue reading How It Feels To Float by Helena Fox
Sometimes a reading experience is not as straight forward as you might first think. There are some books that demand more of the reader. The Death of Noah Glass by Gail Jones was one of those books for me. I feel a little guilty about confessing that this was my first Gail Jones. One of … Continue reading The Death of Noah Glass | Gail Jones #AWW
I wanted to love Shell so much. I thought it would be easy.I adored the beautiful pearlescent cover on the hardback edition. It's dreamy quality felt nostalgic and apocalyptic at the same time (rather like Sydney last week during the dust storm)!I love historical fiction. The building of the Opera House combined with Vietnam War … Continue reading Shell by Kristina Olsson
The World Was Whole by Fiona Wright is a difficult book to review. It's a personal collection of Wright's essays, anecdotes and snippets. They are revealing and specific, almost like reading someone's private journal. Yet, all these sketches are written with such emotional intelligence and compassion that they become universal, finding their own connection with … Continue reading The World Was Whole by Fiona Wright
The Story of a Baby by Ethel Turner was a rather sad, and unexpected excursion into young love, an early marriage and societal expectations about gender roles. In this short story, Turner also took a rather nostalgic look into the changing face of Sydney and it's outer suburbs in the late 1890's. In cool weather … Continue reading The Story of a Baby | Ethel Turner #AWWfiction
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
Rusted Off: Why Country Australia is Fed Up by Gabrielle Chan didn't quite live up to my expectations, or to her marvellous Introduction. In fact, the rest of the book was little more than an extended version of the fine points she made early on.I've spent most off my life in rural Australia; this last … Continue reading Rusted Off by Gabrielle Chan
I feel that the CBCA has slightly tweeked their judging criteria this year. The categories for the Early Childhood Prize and Picture Book of the Year have been clearly differentiated by how the illustrations are used and by the ages of their readers.CBCA Book of the Year: Early Childhood:Entries in this category should be books … Continue reading A Walk in the Bush by Gwyn Perkins
Regular visitors to my blog know that at Christmas time I need safe, easy reads to get me through the crazy season in one piece. This year Three Wishes played its part perfectly.The story of a set of triplets - two identical, one fraternal, seemed a bit contrived at the outset, but after a little settling … Continue reading Three Wishes by Liane Moriarty
As many of you know, my TBR pile is out of control. A bigly number of those books are by Australian authors (I feel safe using bigly now that 1. we know that Trump actually said big league and 2. that bigly is a real work, although archaic and rarely used.)I thought I'd list some … Continue reading My #AusReadingMonth Possibilities
The September Equinox is upon us. For those of us in the Southern Hemisphere, it is the Vernal (or Spring) Equinox; for our cousins in the Northern Hemisphere it is time for the Autumnal Equinox.Daffodils & jonquils from my gardenThe September equinox occurs when the Sun crosses the celestial equator. This is the imaginary line … Continue reading Happy September Equinox
I've needed a lot of comfort reads this year, so it was only a matter of time before another Moriarty made an appearance!Her stories are light-hearted fun, featuring characters that we all know. The Hypnotist's Love Story had less characters to get to know and love, than most of her other stories, but you still … Continue reading The Hypnotist’s Love Story by Liane Moriarty
The Last Days of Ava Langdon has been shortlisted for this year's Miles Franklin award, that fact, and it's striking cover, brought it into my life at this time. I have yet to read Eve Langley's The Pea-Pickers (1942) - it has been on my TBR pile for quite some time though. Reading O'Flynn's fictionalised account … Continue reading The Last Days of Ava Langdon by Mark O’Flynn
Ruth Park (1917 - 2010) won the 1977 Miles Franklin Award with her penultimate adult novel, Swords and Crowns and Rings.Until it was republished under the Text Classics umbrella in 2012, I had never even heard of it, let alone read any reviews about it.I've been wondering how this was possible?I read and loved some … Continue reading Swords and Crowns and Rings by Ruth Park
Truly, Madly, Guilty starts off as the type of chick-lit I tend to avoid. It was what I had initially feared (snobbishly) that all of Moriarty's work was like.However that was before Big, Little Lies!Sixteen chapters of waiting, with very little suspence or enticement to keep going, before the first big reveal occurred. That's fifty … Continue reading Truly, Madly, Guilty by Liane Moriarty
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