The genesis of this book was a desire to find out what were the effects on society of the most lethal disaster of recorded history - that is to say, of the Black Death of 1348-50, which killed an estimated one third of the population living between India and Iceland. A number of times throughout … Continue reading A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century | Barbara Tuchman #USAnon-fiction
I cannot believe the last time I sat down to write a Covid Chronicle was back in July. Melbourne was at the beginning of it's second wave, while the rest of the country held it's collective breath. Would the outbreak spread? Would we all have to go into another lockdown? Numbers steadily increased around the … Continue reading The Covid Chronicles #9
Week 3: (Nov. 16 to 20) – Be The Expert/Ask the Expert/Become the Expert (Rennie of What’s Nonfiction): Three ways to join in this week! You can either share 3 or more books on a single topic that you have read and can recommend (be the expert), you can put the call out for good … Continue reading Non-Fiction November – Week Three
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 #GBRclassic
After reading a number of slow, reflective reads lately, I needed something a bit easier and faster. The Pull of the Stars fit the bill nicely. It was easy to read, even with the rather detailed 1918 midwifery and autopsy scenes that left me gasping and wincing in sympathy! In keeping with my current Plague … Continue reading The Pull of the Stars | Emma Donoghue #IRLfiction
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
It feels like this may be my last Covid Chronicles for the time being.NSW has just clocked over 10 days of no new community transmission cases of Covid-19. Restrictions have eased. gradually but dramatically over the past few weeks, and life is almost back as it was. Except for the containers of hand sanitiser at … Continue reading The Covid Chronicles #7
It's day 44 of the NSW lockdown and the end is in sight. Restrictions have been gradually easing these past couple of weeks, and by Friday we will once again, be able to enjoy a coffee or a meal in a restaurant, 10 people at a time. People who have been working from home for nearly … Continue reading The Covid Chronicles #6
When last we met, lockdown restrictions had just begun in NSW and across Australia. That was three weeks ago.How have we managed ourselves during this time?As a country, we seemed to have embraced the seriousness of the situation and done the right thing. However, a few areas and pockets of people are not really on … Continue reading The Covid Chronicles #5
Photo by Viktor Forgacs on UnsplashJennifer @HoldsOnHappiness wrote a post recently about keeping calm in a world suddenly gone mad. Her simple solution was to stockpile books, not toilet paper. And tea.It would seem that all the end-of-the-world stories I've read over the years, have seeped into my subconscious, as I would have to self-isolate … Continue reading #JustSaying – Stay Calm & Read
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