Around a month ago I wrote a Monday Musings post on the Juvenilia Press, and said that I would read and post on some of its publications. Well, here is the first of those posts. While I discovered the press through its Jane Austen juvenilia, the books I ordered were those for juvenilia by Australian authors. … Continue reading Mary Grant Bruce, The early tales (Review)
Literature by period
Mansfield Park Symposium, Jane Austen Festival Australia, 2014 (Part 2)
WORDPRESS GREMLIN: Those of you who subscribe to my blog will have received two notifications yesterday of my Part 1 post - as the result of what was rather a nightmare. I published the post. Up popped WordPress's successfully published screen as usual, and then POOF it all disappeared. It was nowhere to be seen … Continue reading Mansfield Park Symposium, Jane Austen Festival Australia, 2014 (Part 2)
Mansfield Park Symposium, Jane Austen Festival Australia, 2014 (Part 1)
The seventh annual Jane Austen Festival Australia, which was held in early April, is establishing itself as a comprehensive affair. Originally focusing primarily on Regency times and activities, it has gradually increased its literary content. This year it introduced a new feature, a half-day literary symposium dedicated to in-depth discussion of the year’s feature novel, Mansfield Park. … Continue reading Mansfield Park Symposium, Jane Austen Festival Australia, 2014 (Part 1)
Kirsten Krauth, just_a_girl (Review)
If you've already heard about Kirsten Krauth's debut novel just_a_girl, you'll know something about its confronting nature - and it is confronting, though perhaps not quite in the way I expected. It was both more and less, if that makes sense. However, if you're not Australian, you may not have heard about this novel. Essentially a … Continue reading Kirsten Krauth, just_a_girl (Review)
Angela Meyer (ed), The great unknown (Review)
The great unknown is a mind-bending collection of short stories which explores, as editor Angela Meyer says, "the unknown, the mysterious, or even just the slightly off." I was, in fact, expecting more horror, thriller even, which are genres that don't really interest me, but this collection is not that. There are some truly scary scenes … Continue reading Angela Meyer (ed), The great unknown (Review)
Jessica Anderson, One of the wattle birds (Review)
I have finally read Jessica Anderson's final novel, One of the wattle birds, which has been sitting in my beside cabinet since my parents gave it to me in 1998! Never let it be said that I don't read books given to me - though, on reflection, I'd prefer you didn't hold me to that! … Continue reading Jessica Anderson, One of the wattle birds (Review)
Barbara Baynton, Billy Skywonkie (Review)
Well, I must say that "Billy Skywonkie", my fifth* story from Barbara Baynton's Bush studies, fair near defeated me, so I was rather relieved to read in Susan Sheridan's introduction that "in this story and others, Baynton's use of dialect to represent the speech of these uneducated bush folk can also act as a barrier … Continue reading Barbara Baynton, Billy Skywonkie (Review)
Hannah Kent, Burial rites (Review)
"We'll remember you" says Margrét to Agnes on the day of her execution. We sure will, if Hannah Kent's debut novel Burial rites has anything to say about it. Kent's book is the second novel set in Iceland I've read, the first being Icelandic writer Halldor Laxness's unforgettable Independent people. Although Laxness's novel is set a century after Burial rites, … Continue reading Hannah Kent, Burial rites (Review)
William Wells Brown, Madison Washington (Review)
Having recently reviewed Harriet Ann Jacobs' story "The lover" in the Library of America's (LOA) Story of the Week program - and also having seen the movie 12 Years a Slave - I couldn't ignore William Wells Brown's story, Madison Washington, when it appeared last month as an LOA offering. Brown (1814-1884), like Jacobs, was born into slavery. He managed to … Continue reading William Wells Brown, Madison Washington (Review)
Jo Baker, Longbourn (Review)
"Never say never" is one of my favourite mottos, though I must admit there are some things I never will do, such as climb Mt Everest, say, or even write a novel. However, when it comes to reading choices, there are certain types of books that are not my preference, such as crime and Jane … Continue reading Jo Baker, Longbourn (Review)
Whispering Gums 