I am thrilled to host this post by Amanda who responded to my call on the Australian Women Writers Challenge for a review of Maria Tumarkin's Axiomatic, which won the Best Writing Award in this year's Melbourne Prize for Literature awards. However, Amanda does not have a place to post reviews on-line, so we agreed … Continue reading Maria Tumarkin, Axiomatic (Guest post by Amanda) (#BookReview)
21st century literature
Clare Wright, You daughters of freedom (#BookReview)
Well, that was a tome and a half! And in saying this I'm referring less to the length of Clare Wright's new history, You daughters of freedom: The Australians who won the vote and inspired the world, than to its depth and richness. There are, in fact, two main stories going on here - the story of … Continue reading Clare Wright, You daughters of freedom (#BookReview)
Rebecca Skloot, The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks (#BookReview)
In her extensive acknowledgements at the end of her book, The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot thanks "Heather at The Book Store, who tracked down every good novel she could find with a disjointed structure, all of which I devoured while trying to figure out the structure of this book." Interesting that she looked … Continue reading Rebecca Skloot, The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks (#BookReview)
Emily O’Grady, The yellow house (#BookReview)
Although Emily O'Grady's debut novel The yellow house won this year's prestigious The Australian/Vogel's Literary Award for unpublished manuscripts by authors under 35, I wasn't sure at first that I was going to like it. I think this was because I was feeling I'd read a surfeit of books this year about young people living challenging lives … Continue reading Emily O’Grady, The yellow house (#BookReview)
Margaret Merrilees, Big rough stones (#BookReview)
In her latest novel Big rough stones, Margaret Merrilees seems to have done for Australian lesbians what Armistead Maupin did for the American gay community in his Tales of the city series. It is the story, spanning roughly three decades from around 1970s on, of a character named Ro and her lesbian sisterhood in Adelaide. … Continue reading Margaret Merrilees, Big rough stones (#BookReview)
Amanda Duthie (ed.), Margaret & David: 5 stars (#BookReview)
Margaret and David, the subjects of this delightful, eponymously named collection of reminiscences and essays, do not need last names here in Australia. They are just "margaretanddavid". But, since we have an international readership here, I should formally introduce them. Margaret and David are Margaret Pomeranz and David Stratton, Australia's best-known and best-loved film critics … Continue reading Amanda Duthie (ed.), Margaret & David: 5 stars (#BookReview)
Nadia Wheatley, Her mother’s daughter: A memoir (#BookReview)
In Her mother's daughter: A memoir, Australian writer Nadia Wheatley has written the sort of hybrid biography-memoir that I've reviewed a few times in this blog. All of them, as I mentioned in my recent Meet the Author post, have been mother-daughter stories, Susan Varga’s Heddy and me, Anna Rosner Blay’s Sister, sister, and Halina Rubin’s … Continue reading Nadia Wheatley, Her mother’s daughter: A memoir (#BookReview)
Sue Williams, Live and let fry (#BookReview)
Well, 2018 is clearly "the year of the Mallee" here at Whispering Gums, with Sue Williams' Rusty Bore Mystery, Live and let fry, being my third Mallee-set book so far this year. The others are Jenny Ackland's Little gods (my review) and Charlie Archbold's Mallee boys (my review). By the time I visit the Mallee … Continue reading Sue Williams, Live and let fry (#BookReview)
HC Gildfind, The worry front (#BookReview)
The first thing to note about HC Gildfind's short story collection, The worry front, is its striking, inspired cover. Designed by Susan Miller, it features a weather map which captures the central motif of the title story, but it also suggests the unsettled lives which characterise the book. Gildfind, however, writing a post on the … Continue reading HC Gildfind, The worry front (#BookReview)
Robyn Cadwallader, Book of colours (#BookReview)
What makes historical fiction worth reading for me is the exploration of universal ''truths". Fortunately, Robyn Cadwallader's second novel, Book of colours, does this, albeit I wish that some of the universals - gender inequity, class (meaning social and economic inequity), and fear of foreigners - were no longer universal! The book explores other more general universals, … Continue reading Robyn Cadwallader, Book of colours (#BookReview)
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