Born Into This is a collection of short stories by an exciting new voice in Indigenous writing, Adam Thompson. Adam Thompson may be an emerging Pakana writer from Launceston, but there are powerful and promising things going on here. Some of his stories pack a serious punch, others creep in quietly under your skin. Either … Continue reading Born Into This | Adam Thompson #ShortStories
From the best-selling author of Strange Weather in Tokyo comes a collection of playful, delightful, delectable Japanese micro-fiction. Take a story and shrink it. Make it tiny, so small it can fit in the palm of your hand. Carry the story with you everywhere, let it sit with you while you eat, let it watch you while … Continue reading People From My Neighbourhood | Hiromi Kawakami #ShortStories
Back in March, when Covid news was dominating every airway and program, I turned to Angela Thirkell's High Rising for some light relief and old-fashioned comfort. So when I spotted A Literary Christmas over at In the Bookcase, I knew that another trip to High Rising was imminent. Christmas at High Rising is a collection … Continue reading Christmas at High Rising | Angela Thirkell #ALiteraryChristmas
An Indiscreet Journey was a short story written in 1915 by Katherine Mansfield but published posthumously in the 1924 collection, Something Childish and other stories by her husband John Middleton Murry. Initially it reads like a fairly straight forward story about a woman on a train journey to visit her aunt and uncle in the middle … Continue reading An Indiscreet Journey | Katherine Mansfield #ShortStory
Je ne Parle pas Français, or I Do Not Speak French was written in early 1918 and published in Bliss and other stories (1920).There is a rather long and complicated story about the publication of this particular short story. It started life as a pamphlet published by Heron Press, which was run by John Middleton … Continue reading Je ne Parle pas Français | Katherine Mansfield #ShortStory
William Lipincott | Loves Ambush | 1890Psychology is a short story by Katherine Mansfield first published in Bliss and Other Stories (1920).As luck would have it, I've managed to select three very different types of Mansfield stories for the #1920Club reading week.Miss Brill was set in post-war France with a focus on loneliness and that confronting … Continue reading Psychology | Katherine Mansfield #1920Club
The Wind Blows was first published in the Athenaeum on 27th August 1920 and then included in Bliss and Other Stories (1920), although I have also spotted on the Katherine Mansfield Society page that they claim it was published in 1915. So I dug a little deeper.I discovered a reference in J. McDonnell's Katherine Mansfield and the Modernist Marketplace: … Continue reading The Wind Blows | Katherine Mansfield #1920Club
Miss Brill is a short story by New Zealand author Katherine Mansfield. It was first published in Athenaeum on 26 November 1920 and later included in The Garden Party and Other Stories (1922). I knew I wouldn't have the time or reading energy to tackle a novel published in 1920 for this week's 1920's Club with Kaggsy and … Continue reading Miss Brill | Katherine Mansfield #1920Club
As part of our year long readalong of War and Peace (it's not too late to join!), Nick has selected a number of Tolstoy's short stories and essays to make our 361 chapter book stretch to 366 days.At the end of Volume 1, we have the first such extension read. Perfectly timed, too, I have to … Continue reading The Three Questions | Leo Tolstoy #ShortStory
Image: James Tylor, Turralyendi Yerta (Womma) 2017 Photograph with ochre & charcoal.Place. Land. Country. Home. These words frame the settings of our stories. Griffith Review 63: Writing the Country focuses on Australia’s vast raft of environments to investigate how these places are changing and what they might become; what is flourishing and what is at … Continue reading Griffith Review 63: Writing the Country edited by Julianne Schultz & Ashley Hay
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 re-interpreting Henry … Continue reading 99 Interpretations of The Drover’s Wives by Ryan O’Neill
It's that time of year again.Time to start thinking about how many Australian books we can read before the end of November.Given how many of my favourite reading events now seem to be congregating around this time of year, I will make joining in AusReadingMonth as easy as possible.So let's pack our bags and travel … Continue reading AusReadingMonth Bingo
