Biff Ward's The third chopstick was my reading group's October selection. It's the second book by Ward that we've done, the first being her memoir, In my mother's hands (my review), about growing up with her academic father, the historian Russel Ward, and her mentally ill mother, at a time when mental illness was shameful … Continue reading Biff Ward, The third chopstick: Tracks through the Vietnam War (#BookReview)
Reading
Julian Barnes, Elizabeth Finch (#BookReview)
Julian Barnes’ Elizabeth Finch is a curious book. It’s my fourth Julian Barnes, and the third I've read with my reading group. In 1995 we read A history of the world in 10 1/2 chapters, and in 2012 it was his Booker Prize winning The sense of an ending (my review). (I have also read … Continue reading Julian Barnes, Elizabeth Finch (#BookReview)
Audrey Magee, The colony (#BookReview)
Irish novelist Audrey Magee's second novel, The colony, was my reading group's August book, and it proved an excellent choice. Literary and highly readable, with vivid characters and a sophisticated exploration of its subject matter, The colony engaged us on all levels. It was longlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize (and may yet be shortlisted. … Continue reading Audrey Magee, The colony (#BookReview)
Larissa Behrendt, After story (#BookReview)
Larissa Behrendt's latest novel After story has been on my wishlist since it came out last year, so I was thrilled when my reading group chose it as our 2022 NAIDOC-Week read. What self-respecting reader, after all, doesn’t like a literary tour? After story, for those who haven't caught up with it yet, is framed … Continue reading Larissa Behrendt, After story (#BookReview)
Jane Austen, Sense and sensibility (Vol. 3, redux)
I've called this post "Vol. 3, redux", although it is my first post on volume 3. The reason is that for my Jane Austen group's 2011 slow read of Sense and sensibility, I wrote posts on volumes 1 and 2, but not on volume 3 as I missed the meeting, and never did write up … Continue reading Jane Austen, Sense and sensibility (Vol. 3, redux)
Monday musings on Australian literature: Warm Winter Read
For several years now, Cathy of 746 books has been running a 20 Books of Summer challenge, which many Southern Hemisphere bloggers re-frame as "of Winter". It's a great initiative, and this year has over 120 participants. You go, Cathy! However, for something closer to home that's geared to this winter, I thought I'd share … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Warm Winter Read
Stephen Orr, Sincerely, Ethel Malley (#bookreview)
Like Lisa, I'm a Stephen Orr fan, but for some reason it took me forever to finish his latest book, Sincerely, Ethel Malley, partly I think because while its characters are engaging, it's a novel that deserves concentration which I seem to have in shorter supply this year. This is not meant to discourage readers, … Continue reading Stephen Orr, Sincerely, Ethel Malley (#bookreview)
Damon Galgut, The promise (#BookReview)
Damon Galgut's Booker Prize winning novel, The promise, is one of those novels that grabbed me intellectually and emotionally from its opening pages. The plot, itself, is straighforward. It concerns a White South African family's promise to give a house on their property to their Black maid, whom their grandfather had acquired "along with the … Continue reading Damon Galgut, The promise (#BookReview)
Jane Austen, Sense and sensibility (Vol. 1, redux)
In 2011, my Jane Austen group started a slow read of her novels in chronological order of publication, which meant that we started with the 1811-published Sense and sensibility. By slow read, we meant that each month we'd read a volume of the chosen novel, given most novels in those times were published in three … Continue reading Jane Austen, Sense and sensibility (Vol. 1, redux)
Mark McKenna, Return to Uluru (#BookReview)
Mark McKenna's engrossing history, Return to Uluru, takes as its starting point the arrival in Central Australia, in 1931, of 29-year-old police officer, Bill McKinnon. Of course, Uluru's true history reaches back into the almost-incomprehensible mists of geological time, and its human history back to the arrival of Indigenous Australians tens of thousands of years … Continue reading Mark McKenna, Return to Uluru (#BookReview)
Whispering Gums 