Last week, as most of you will know, I shared the favourite Aussie fiction books named by writers in the Sydney Morning Herald's Best Reads of the Year 2022, Readings Bookshop's Best Fiction, and the ABC RN's Bookshelf Panel's Books of the Year 2022. This week, as promised, I'm sharing their nonfiction and poetry favourites … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Favourite books 2022, Part 2: Nonfiction and Poetry
Australian literature
Nell Pierce, A place near Eden (#BookReview)
Nell Pierce's debut novel, A place near Eden, won the 2022 The Australian/Vogel Literary Award. It was my reading group's last book of the year, and it engendered a lively discussion, partly because our response was mixed and partly because its setting on the south coast of New South Wales is well-known to us. Part … Continue reading Nell Pierce, A place near Eden (#BookReview)
Monday musings on Australian literature: Favourite books 2022, Part 1: Fiction
Over recent years, I've shared favourite Aussie reads of the year from various sources, with the specific sources varying a little from time to time. This year, my main sources are The Sydney Morning Herald's Best Reads of the Year chosen by writers, Readings bookshop's Best Australian fiction, and ABC RN's Bookshelf panel. As last … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Favourite books 2022, Part 1: Fiction
Lucy Neave, Believe in me (#BookReview)
Mother-daughter stories - in fiction and nonfiction - seem to have been particularly popular in recent years. Lucy Neave's second novel Believe in me is one of these, but just this year I've read several others, including Larissa Behrendt's novel After story and Jane Sinclair's hybrid biography-memoir Shy love smiles and acid drops. Their trajectories … Continue reading Lucy Neave, Believe in me (#BookReview)
Monday musings on Australian literature: First Nations Classics
Over the years I have written several posts on publishers who have made a commitment to publishing Australian classics, such as Text, Allen and Unwin and the Sydney University Press, to name a few. I was thrilled last week to come across another one, this time from UQP, the University of Queensland Press, which has … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: First Nations Classics
Monday musings on Australian literature: Prime Minister’s Summer Reading List
The Grattan Institute is an Australian non-aligned, public policy think tank that was established in 2008. Since 2009 it has published, at the end of the year, their Prime Minister's Summer Reading List. This list, as they wrote on the inaugural 2009 list, comprises "books and articles that the Prime Minister, or any Australian interested … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Prime Minister’s Summer Reading List
Heather Rose in conversation with Sally Pryor
As I've written before, Muse Canberra, a restaurant-cum-bookshop or vice versa, offers a wonderful program of book events, year after year. I don't get to many, but today I attended a conversation featuring Tasmanian author Heather Rose with local journalist Sally Pryor. The participants Heather Rose has written three children's books and five novels, of … Continue reading Heather Rose in conversation with Sally Pryor
Monday musings on Australian literature: Canberra’s children’s picture book creators
Who would have thought that my little capital city of Canberra would have such a rich children's picture book community, but over recent years I've been discovering just how much is going on here. So much so that I thought it might be a worthwhile topic for Brona's AusReadingMonth. There's no way I can be … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Canberra’s children’s picture book creators
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
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
