Week 3 of Nonfiction November (November 14-18) focuses on "all the great nonfiction books that almost don’t seem real. A sports biography involving overcoming massive obstacles, a profile on a bizarre scam, a look into the natural wonders in our world—basically, if it makes your jaw drop, you can highlight it for this week’s topic" … Continue reading Nonfiction November 2022: Stranger than fiction
Author: Whispering Gums
Monday musings on Australian literature: on 20/40, a new publishing prize
We all like to see a new literary or publishing prize. That is, most of us do, because I do appreciate that prizes in the arts are problematic, and that some do not, for perfectly valid reasons, like them. However, for most, the positives outweigh the negatives. These positives include - in different combinations - … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: on 20/40, a new publishing prize
Elisa Shua Dusapin, Winter in Sokcho (#BookReview)
French Korean writer Elisa Shua Dusapin's award-winning debut novella, Winter in Sokcho, was published when she was just 22 years old. As the title conveys, it is set in Sokcho, a tourist town in the Republic of Korea near the border between the two Koreas. In fact, when the Korean peninsula was divided into two … Continue reading Elisa Shua Dusapin, Winter in Sokcho (#BookReview)
Nonfiction November 2022: Book pairings
Week 2 of Nonfiction November and hanging in. This meme/blog event/reading month/challenge (what do we call it?) is hosted by several bloggers, with Week 2: (November 7-11) – Book Pairing, being hosted by Rennie (of What's Nonfiction). The challenge is to pair a nonfiction book with something else - a fiction title, another nonfiction work, or … Continue reading Nonfiction November 2022: Book pairings
Monday musings on Australian literature: Classic Australian novellas
I have written on and reviewed novellas almost since this blog started, because I love the form. Last year, for Novellas in November (run by Cathy of 746 Books and Rebecca of Bookish Beck), I wrote a Monday Musings on Supporting Novellas (here in Australia). This year, I thought I'd address the meme's first week's … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Classic Australian novellas
Six degrees of separation, FROM The naked chef TO …
Oh my, oh my, I'm becoming one of those people who complains about the weather - but really, we've had so much rain in our neck of the woods. It's proving difficult to get our washing dry, to carry out some necessary house maintenance, and so on. The problem is, though, that I feel embarrassed … Continue reading Six degrees of separation, FROM The naked chef TO …
Nonfiction November 2022: Your year in nonfiction
My participation in Nonfiction November is usually a bit catch-as-catch-can - that is, I often don't manage to complete every week's topic - but I do like to start off as though I might, so here I am. Nonfiction November, as most of you know, is hosted by several bloggers. This year, Week 1 – … Continue reading Nonfiction November 2022: Your year in nonfiction
Monday musings on Australian literature: Vietnam War fiction
Having just posted on Biff Ward's The third chopstick, and with the 50th anniversary of Gough Whitlam's election (which set in train our final withdrawal from the war) being imminent, I felt now seemed an appropriate time to devote a Monday MusingsAustralian fiction about the war. Ward's book is nonfiction, but here I want to … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Vietnam War fiction
Frederic Manning, The middle parts of fortune, Ch. 1 (#Review, #1929 Club)
I had identified two novels for my 1929 read, M. Barnard Eldershaw's A house is built and another. With Lisa also considering A house is built, I decided to go for the other. I started it, and am loving it, but I won't finish it in time, so I thought I'd check my Australian anthologies … Continue reading Frederic Manning, The middle parts of fortune, Ch. 1 (#Review, #1929 Club)
Biff Ward, The third chopstick: Tracks through the Vietnam War (#BookReview)
Biff Ward's The third chopstick was my reading group's October selection. It's the second book by Ward that we've done, the first being her memoir, In my mother's hands (my review), about growing up with her academic father, the historian Russel Ward, and her mentally ill mother, at a time when mental illness was shameful … Continue reading Biff Ward, The third chopstick: Tracks through the Vietnam War (#BookReview)
