Wirlomin-Noongar woman Claire G. Coleman's short story "Night bird" is the second First Nations Australia story in Ellen van Neerven and Rafeif Ismail's anthology Unlimited futures: Speculative, visionary Blak+Black fiction, the book I chose for Bill's (The Australian Legend) Australian Women Writers Gen 5 Week. The week finished officially a week ago, but I'm hoping … Continue reading Claire G. Coleman, Night bird (#Review)
Review
D’Arcy Niland, The parachutist (#Review)
D'Arcy Niland has appeared in my blog before but not in his own right. He was the Australian-born husband of the New Zealand-born Australian writer Ruth Park. I have posted on their collaborative memoir, The drums go bang, and have written specifically about Ruth Park, but have never written specifically on Niland before. Niland is … Continue reading D’Arcy Niland, The parachutist (#Review)
Ambelin Kwaymullina, Fifteen days on Mars (#Review)
In 2014, Ambelin Kwaymullina, whose people are the Palyku of the Pilbara region of Western Australia, described herself in a Kill Your Darlings essay as writing "speculative fiction for young adults". Three years later, in the 2017 Twelfth Planet Press anthology, Mother of invention, she said that she was "a Palyku author of Indigenous Futurisms", … Continue reading Ambelin Kwaymullina, Fifteen days on Mars (#Review)
Jessica Au, Cold enough for snow (#BookReview)
What did I say about mothers and daughters recently? Just when I thought I'd done with them for the year, along came another, Jessica Au's gorgeous novella, Cold enough for snow. However, before I get to that, let me describe the award it won, The Novel Prize. Cold enough for snow was the inaugural winner … Continue reading Jessica Au, Cold enough for snow (#BookReview)
Nell Pierce, A place near Eden (#BookReview)
Nell Pierce's debut novel, A place near Eden, won the 2022 The Australian/Vogel Literary Award. It was my reading group's last book of the year, and it engendered a lively discussion, partly because our response was mixed and partly because its setting on the south coast of New South Wales is well-known to us. Part … Continue reading Nell Pierce, A place near Eden (#BookReview)
Lucy Neave, Believe in me (#BookReview)
Mother-daughter stories - in fiction and nonfiction - seem to have been particularly popular in recent years. Lucy Neave's second novel Believe in me is one of these, but just this year I've read several others, including Larissa Behrendt's novel After story and Jane Sinclair's hybrid biography-memoir Shy love smiles and acid drops. Their trajectories … Continue reading Lucy Neave, Believe in me (#BookReview)
Elizabeth von Arnim, Expiation (#BookReview #1929 Club)
I cannot remember when I last laughed out loud - a lot - when reading a book. The book that broke the drought is Elizabeth von Arnim's Expiation. Even in her darkest, grimmest novel, Vera (my review), Von Arnim managed to make me splutter several times, albeit ruefully. Expiation, though, caused no such qualms. I … Continue reading Elizabeth von Arnim, Expiation (#BookReview #1929 Club)
Elisa Shua Dusapin, Winter in Sokcho (#BookReview)
French Korean writer Elisa Shua Dusapin's award-winning debut novella, Winter in Sokcho, was published when she was just 22 years old. As the title conveys, it is set in Sokcho, a tourist town in the Republic of Korea near the border between the two Koreas. In fact, when the Korean peninsula was divided into two … Continue reading Elisa Shua Dusapin, Winter in Sokcho (#BookReview)
Frederic Manning, The middle parts of fortune, Ch. 1 (#Review, #1929 Club)
I had identified two novels for my 1929 read, M. Barnard Eldershaw's A house is built and another. With Lisa also considering A house is built, I decided to go for the other. I started it, and am loving it, but I won't finish it in time, so I thought I'd check my Australian anthologies … Continue reading Frederic Manning, The middle parts of fortune, Ch. 1 (#Review, #1929 Club)
Biff Ward, The third chopstick: Tracks through the Vietnam War (#BookReview)
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)
