Do you often wonder how many of the writers we love now will still be read a few decades on? How good are we at identifying those who will continue to be read? So-so, I think you'll agree if you've noticed the many unfamiliar, but well-regarded-at-the time, names amongst the authors mentioned in my various … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Forgotten writers 1, Helen Simpson
Literature by period
Margaret Hickey, Rural dreams (#BookReview)
Rural dreams is another collection of short stories from small independent publisher MidnightSun, and it's another good one. I hadn't heard of Margaret Hickey before, but her website says that she's won a number of awards and is a performed playwright. Relevant to this book is that Hickey grew up in small country towns in … Continue reading Margaret Hickey, Rural dreams (#BookReview)
Bernadine Evaristo, Girl, woman, other (#BookReview)
If ever there was a "zeitgeist" book, Bernadine Evaristo's 2019 Booker Prize winning novel, Girl, woman, other is it. It might be an English-set novel about black British women, "the embodiment of Otherness", but its concerns, ranging from ingrained inequality, racism and sexism to newer issues such as globalisation, are contemporary - and relevant far … Continue reading Bernadine Evaristo, Girl, woman, other (#BookReview)
Jane Austen, Juvenilia, Volume the second (#Review)
Last November, my Jane Austen group read the first volume (my review) of Jane Austen's Juvenilia, with a plan to read the next two volumes during 2021. This month, we read the second volume, which contains pieces written, it is believed, between 1790 and 1793, when Austen was 14 to 17 years old. As with … Continue reading Jane Austen, Juvenilia, Volume the second (#Review)
Leah Swann, Sheerwater (#BookReview)
I've been wanting to read Leah Swann's Sheerwater, having read and enjoyed, a few years ago, her short story collection, Bearings (my review). However, I didn't get around to buying a copy, so was pleased to see it available as an audio book when I was looking for listening matter for our recent Melbourne trip. … Continue reading Leah Swann, Sheerwater (#BookReview)
Garry Disher, Bitter Wash Road (#BookReview)
Garry Disher's Bitter Wash Road has been sitting on my TBR pile for over seven years. It was sent to me on spec but, as crime is not my preferred reading, I didn't feel obliged to read it - and yet, I hung onto it, just in case... So, when Kim (Reading Matters) decided to … Continue reading Garry Disher, Bitter Wash Road (#BookReview)
Jayant Kaikini, No presents please: Mumbai stories (#BookReview)
Jayant Kaikini is an Indian (Kannada) poet, short story writer, playwright, a public intellectual and a lyricist in Kannada Cinema. Kannada is new to me, but it's the language widely spoken in the Indian state of Karnataka, where Kaikini was born (in 1955). He is regarded, according to Wikipedia, as one of the most significant contemporary writers in … Continue reading Jayant Kaikini, No presents please: Mumbai stories (#BookReview)
Tsitsi Dangarembga, This mournable body (#BookReview)
Zimbabwean author Tsitsi Dangarembga's This mournable body was my reading group's February book. Shortlisted for the Booker Prize, it is Dangarembga's third novel, and is a sequel to Nervous conditions (1988) and The book of not (2006), neither of which I've read. These novels are written in English, the language of Dangarembga's schooling, though she … Continue reading Tsitsi Dangarembga, This mournable body (#BookReview)
Elizabeth Harrower, The long prospect (#BookReview)
Oppression and tyranny, power and manipulation in human relationships are the stuff of Elizabeth Harrower's writing, at least in my experience of it, and so I found it again in her second novel The long prospect. Unlike The watch tower (my review), however, which explores the more traditional domination of women by a man, The … Continue reading Elizabeth Harrower, The long prospect (#BookReview)
Gene Stratton-Porter, The last Passsenger Pigeon (#Review)
I have passed up reading and/or posting on so many Library of America (LOA) Story of the Week offerings over the last months - sadly, because there have been some excellent selections chosen for their political relevance. However, when I saw a sentimental favourite, Gene Stratton-Porter (1863-1924), pop up, I knew I had to break the drought. … Continue reading Gene Stratton-Porter, The last Passsenger Pigeon (#Review)
Whispering Gums 