Tara June Winch's Swallow the air is another book that has been languishing too long on my TBR pile, though not as long as Sara Dowse's Schemetime. For Swallow the air, it was a case of third time lucky, because this was the third year I planned to read it for ANZLitLovers Indigenous Literature Week. Like the … Continue reading Tara June Winch, Swallow the air (Review for Indigenous Literature Week)
Literature by period
Sara Dowse, Schemetime (Review)
What Sara Dowse didn't know when she recently commented here on her love-hate relationship with Los Angeles was that I was in the closing stages of reading her novel, Schemetime, set there. I'm somewhat embarrassed to say that I've had this novel since Christmas 1990 when I was living in the LA area (in adjoining Orange … Continue reading Sara Dowse, Schemetime (Review)
Richard Rossiter (ed), The trouble with flying and other stories (Review)
The trouble with flying and other stories is the second collection I've read from the Margaret River Short Story Competition. I greatly enjoyed last year's collection, Knitting and other stories, so was very happy to read this one. I'm pleased to see Margaret Press maintain its commitment to publishing stories from the competition, and hope that annual publication will help … Continue reading Richard Rossiter (ed), The trouble with flying and other stories (Review)
Wallace Stegner, Crossing to safety (Review)
Nearly two decades ago, I read Wallace Stegner's Angle of repose. I loved it. Indeed, for many years I had the following quote from it on my work whiteboard: "Civilisations grow by agreements and accommodations and accretions, not by repudiations". Not just civilisations, I thought, but marriages, teams, organisations. I like the way this man thinks. … Continue reading Wallace Stegner, Crossing to safety (Review)
J. Sterling Morton, About trees (Review)
One of the first Library of America stories I wrote about here was John Muir's "A wind-storm in the forests", so when I saw one titled "About trees" pop up recently, I had to read it. By recently, I mean April - as the Library of America published it to coincide with Arbor Day in the … Continue reading J. Sterling Morton, About trees (Review)
Howard Goldenberg, Carrots and Jaffas (Review)
Howard Goldenberg, we are told in "About the Author" at the back of his debut novel Carrots and Jaffas, is the sole practitioner of a literary genre - the rhyming medical referral letter! Wouldn't I love to see some of those! Anyhow, you've probably guessed now that Goldenberg is a doctor, and you'd be right. But … Continue reading Howard Goldenberg, Carrots and Jaffas (Review)
Barbara Baynton, Bush church (Review)
"Bush church" is my sixth and last* story from Barbara Baynton's Bush studies, and it presented a rather pleasant change in tone from most of the others in the book. I'm sorry in a way that I read these stories quite out-of-order. "Bush church" is the fifth story in the collection, appearing after "Billy Skywonkie" … Continue reading Barbara Baynton, Bush church (Review)
Dinah Fried, Fictitious dishes (Review)
Regular readers here know that I recently spent a few weeks in North America - mostly in Toronto, bookended by a few days in Southern California. We spent our last day with a friend I "met" many years ago through online reading groups. We actually met Trudy for the first time in 2008, so this … Continue reading Dinah Fried, Fictitious dishes (Review)
Adam Johnson, The orphan master’s son (Review)
Given my current reading preferences, I probably wouldn't have read Adam Johnson's Pulitzer prize-winning novel, The orphan master's son, if it hadn't been for my reading group, but I'm rather glad I did. It's a confronting novel, not only because of its brutal content, but also because it is an outsider's critique. I always feel more … Continue reading Adam Johnson, The orphan master’s son (Review)
Deborah Sheldon, 300 degree days & other stories (Review)
What I found particularly interesting about Deborah Sheldon's short story collection, 300 degree days & other stories, is that the stories deal almost exclusively with a particular type of family relationship, the one to do with children, parents and, sometimes, grandparents. I'm not sure I've read a short story collection before that has been quite so tightly focused, but … Continue reading Deborah Sheldon, 300 degree days & other stories (Review)
Whispering Gums 