Yesterday I posted my review of Sara Dowse's novel As the lonely fly, which centres on the lives of three sisters (well, primarily, two sisters, and the daughter of the other sister), and today, playwright Joanna Murray-Smith mentioned another book about sisters, Shirley Hazzard's The transit of Venus, when giving her Top Shelf on Radio National's … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Sisters in Australian fiction
Monday musings
Monday musings on Australian literature: NLA Publishing, and some free e-Books
I was idly following links around the 'net over the weekend and somehow ended up at NLA Publishing's site. For those of you who don't know, they are the publishing arm of the National Library of Australia. I first mentioned them back in 2011 when I referred to publisher Alec Bolton as the person who established … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: NLA Publishing, and some free e-Books
Monday musings on Australian literature: ABDA 2017 Shortlist
Five years ago, I wrote a Monday Musings on book design, in which I featured three book designers. I've mentioned book design occasionally since then but, having just seen the shortlist for this year's ABDA (Australian Book Design Awards) which are sponsored by the ABDA (the Australian Book Designers Association), I've decided to write another … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: ABDA 2017 Shortlist
Monday musings on Australian literature: Aussie novels titled with foreign place names
I've done two Monday Musings posts inspired by Tony (from Tony's Book World) - one on novels with real place names in their titles and one with fictional. To complete the trifecta, I thought why not look at Australian novels with foreign place names in their titles. This turned out to be rather fun to do. Many … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Aussie novels titled with foreign place names
Monday musings on Australian literature: Aussie novels titled with fictional place names
Last week, inspired by Tony (from Tony's Book World)'s post, I posted on novels with places in their titles. I limited my titles then to "real" places, but in my research I came across many books with fictional places in their titles, so, well, you know what I decided to do with that! There are good reasons for … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Aussie novels titled with fictional place names
Monday musings on Australian literature: Aussie novels titled with place names
I was searching around for a light, fun idea for this week's Monday Musings, as life is a bit busy at present, when up popped in my inbox Tony (from Tony's Book World)'s post on novels with city or town names in their titles. That seemed like just the thing: it demanded a little thinking but … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Aussie novels titled with place names
Monday musings on Australian literature: 5 Australian novels to theatre
Having recently posted on Alana Valentine's adaptation of Frank Moorehouse's Cold light, I thought I'd explore other theatrical adaptations of Australian novels, because we tend, when thinking of adaptations, to focus mostly on movies - at least, I think we do. Now, I haven't seen many theatrical adaptations of Aussie novels. We get some theatre … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: 5 Australian novels to theatre
Monday musings on Australian literature: Boosting women’s entries on Wikipedia
Have you heard or read about the large discrepancy in Wikipedia between biographical entries (or "individual profiles") for women and for men? The actual figure is a bit fluid because, of course, Wikipedia is a dynamic site, but most researchers on the topic come up with a figure of around 15-20% as the percentage of biographical articles … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Boosting women’s entries on Wikipedia
Monday musings on Australian literature: Whither magazines?
Are you a magazine reader? I was once a big magazine reader and subscriber - Ms Magazine, the Smithsonian, Choice and Australian Gourmet were my favourites in the 1980s and 1990s. In more recent times, I've gravitated to local literary journals like Griffith Review, Meanjin and Kill Your Darlings, but I tend not to subscribe to them. … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Whither magazines?
Monday musings on Australian literature: Books that matter
In the comments on her post about Alan Paton's Cry, the beloved country, Lisa (ANZLitLovers) commented that we need "politically aware authors to keep writing books that matter". Hmm, I thought, most books I read matter, I think, but then a few posts later, when reviewing Jared Thomas' Songs that sound like blood, she made … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Books that matter
Whispering Gums 