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Monday musings on Australian literature: June Wright, Crime novelist
Regular readers here may be surprised to see this subject for a Monday Musings given I’m not known as a crime aficionado, but never let it be said that I’m not open-minded. I came across June Wright...
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Delicious descriptions: Emma Ayres on music
If the bicycle trip gives Emma Ayres’ travel memoir Cadence its chronological spine, it is music which provides its skeleton. However, before I discuss music, I need to respond to those commenters on...
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Phillip Stamatellis, Growing up café: a short memoir (Review)
Phillip Stametellis’ Growing up café is the third book I’ve read in publisher Finlay Lloyd’s fl smalls collection. Unlike the previous two, by established creators Paul McDermott and Carmel Bird, it is...
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Monday musings on Australian literature: Aussie writing duos
My inspiration for Monday Musings comes from various sources – my own interests, roving around Trove, news articles or stories I come across, or other bloggers. Today’s post was inspired by Lisa’s...
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Halina Rubin, Journeys with my mother (Review)
I’ve read a lot of World War 2 literature over the years, but very little from the Polish point of view, so I was more than willing to read Halina Rubin’s Journeys with my mother when it was offered to...
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Monday musings on Australian literature: New Australian releases for 2016
With the first month of 2016 already gone, I thought it was time I had a look around to see what new works are in the pipeline this year from our Aussie authors. This is a serendipitous list, partly...
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Steve Toltz, Quicksand (Review)
Aldo Benjamin, the anti-hero of Quicksand, accuses wannabe-writer-friend Liam of having “such little imagination”. You could not, however, accuse the novel’s author, Steve Toltz, of this. Quicksand...
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George G. Foster, The eating-houses (Review)
Some of you will know that Mr Gums and I love to eat out. So, when I saw a Library of America (LOA) Story of the Week titled “The eating-houses” by one George G Foster appear in my in-box at the end of...
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Monday musings on Australian literature: National Libraries Day (UK)
Caroline of Book Word blog has written a wonderful post about National Libraries Day in the UK, which took place just this last weekend, on Saturday, 6th February. Caroline provides three witnesses to...
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Stella Prize 2016 Longlist
The announcement of the Stella Prize Longlist is a red-letter day for the Australian Women Writers Challenge … and also for me of course. So, today, I share the list with you. The shortlist will be...
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School friend annual 1964
The things you find when you start to declutter! School friend annual 1964 is a blast from my very distant past. Yes, I know, some of you weren’t born then, but I can’t resist sharing the sort of books...
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Annie Dillard, The Maytrees (Review)
I am not, as I wrote in my recent post on Emma Ayres’ memoir Cadence, a big “reader” of audiobooks. In fact, until Cadence, I hadn’t listened to one for a few years. However, we do have a few here that...
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Monday musings on Australian literature: Spotlight on Robert Dessaix
Courtesy: Annette Marfording Last year, I published a guest post by Annette Marfording, who was, for many years, the Program Director of the Bellingen Readers and Writers Festival. At the time of this...
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Gerald Murnane: Something for the pain: A memoir of the turf (Review)
When I heard Australian author Gerald Murnane had written a memoir, and even more when I heard its title, Something for the pain: A memoir of the turf, I knew I had to read it. I am not a horse racing...
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Delicious descriptions: Gerald Murnane’s landscape and imagination
A couple of years ago I reviewed Gerald Murnane’s The plains. I found it a mesmerising book, but a challenging one to fully get my head around, to grasp and hang onto what I’d grasped. Then a couple of...
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Monday musings on Australian literature: Blak and Bright
I should have written about the Blak and Bright last Monday, as the Festival was held last weekend, but unfortunately I only heard about it – my inattention, I’m sure – a few days ago, via an ABC RN...
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Jane Austen on history and historians
Jane Austen, we know from her letters, was a keen reader. She read novels, sermons, plays and poetry, magazines and, of course, histories. Did you know, though, that she also wrote a history? This is...
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Hail, Caesar: Not a movie review, not really
I go to the movies reasonably regularly and have seen many movies in the last few months. Some impressed me immensely, such as Spotlight and Brooklyn; some I enjoyed a lot with the odd reservation,...
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Kate Jennings, Moral hazard (Review)
How often do you read a book that connects in some ways with something you’ve recently read or thought about? Kate Jennings’ award-winning Moral hazard, my latest read, links pretty directly to our...
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Monday musings on Australian literature: Some Australian screenwriters
Funny things sure do happen sometimes. I decided on the weekend that, with my comment about screenwriters in my post on Hail, Caesar and with the Oscars being screened today, Monday (downunder time),...
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