Louisa Atkinson, as I wrote in a post a few years ago, was a pioneer Australian writer. She was a significant botanist, our first Australian-born woman novelist, and the first Australian woman to have a long-running column in a major newspaper. It was a natural history series titled A Voice from the Country which ran in The Sydney Morning Herald for … Continue reading Louisa Atkinson, A voice from the country: January (Review)
Author: Whispering Gums
My literary week (6), this and that
Life is a bit busy at present, but I am still reading - this and that, here and there, as you do! First, there's politics I'm not a political blogger so I don't want to focus too much on politics, but I did enjoy some of the signs carried by people attending the various women's marches held … Continue reading My literary week (6), this and that
Monday musings on Australian literature: Some Australian adventurers
Regular readers here may remember that last year I wrote a few posts (this, this and this) inspired by books I found while clearing out my late aunt's house. Well, here comes another. It's inspired by a book that was probably a school text because my aunt wrote her name and her school in the front cover. The book is Some … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Some Australian adventurers
Claire Battershill, Circus (Review)
Metaphors and allusions can be dangerous. The inside-front-flap-blurb for Claire Battershill's debut collection of short stories, Circus, concludes that the book "is a beautiful reminder that sometimes everyday life can be the greatest show on earth". A reviewer on the back cover describes it as "the kind of book you'll want to run away with". As I … Continue reading Claire Battershill, Circus (Review)
Friedrich Gerstäcker, Australia: A German traveller in the Age of Gold (Review)
Friedrich Gerstäcker's Australia: A German traveller in the Age of Gold was first published in its original German, as Australien, in 1854. Gerstäcker did prepare, at that time, an English language version of his travels, but the section on Australia, at least, was much shorter than his German edition, and is all English readers have been able to … Continue reading Friedrich Gerstäcker, Australia: A German traveller in the Age of Gold (Review)
Monday musings on Australian literature: Angela Savage and setting in fiction
I have several ideas for my next few Monday Musings, but another one popped up on the weekend as I was perusing my Twitter feed. I don't check Twitter regularly enough - it's impossible to keep up with all the social media sites don't you think? - but when I do I regularly find a … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Angela Savage and setting in fiction
Olive Ann Burns, Cold Sassy Tree (Review)
As I explained in my post last year on Annie Dillard's The Maytrees, we are slowly listening to some of the audiobooks we gave Mr Gums' mother in the last years of her life, and have just finished Olive Ann Burn's epic-length, Cold Sassy Tree. From what I've read in Wikipedia, Olive Ann Burns was another late … Continue reading Olive Ann Burns, Cold Sassy Tree (Review)
Delicious descriptions: Louise Mack’s dialogue and satire
Over Christmas, during one of my conversations with Son Gums, he commented how he tires of meaningless conversations, conversations, for example, in which people discuss a television series they've seen but say nothing of note. He mimicked the sort of conversation he meant ... well, imagine my surprise when, in one of those surprising synchronicities, … Continue reading Delicious descriptions: Louise Mack’s dialogue and satire
Monday musings on Australian literature: Some New Releases in 2017
This is the last of what seems to have become my set of end-of-year-beginning-of-year posts - and it's about, as if you couldn't tell, the books that will be published this year. Obviously, I can't list them all - even if I could know them all - but it's fun to share a few that … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Some New Releases in 2017
Six degrees of separation, FROM The girl with the dragon tattoo TO The natural way of things
Ok, I admit it, I'm hooked on this meme, not only because it's a fun intellectual challenge to find links between books, but also because it gives me an opportunity to revisit books I've read, which helps keep them fresh in my mind. For those who haven't caught up with this meme, it's the Six Degrees of … Continue reading Six degrees of separation, FROM The girl with the dragon tattoo TO The natural way of things
Whispering Gums 