A week or so ago my local Jane Austen group had a guest speaker at our meeting, Roslyn Russell, the author of Maria returns: Barbados to Mansfield Park. Russell is a local historian who has written this historical novel based on Jane Austen's novel, Mansfield Park. She is also a lapsed member of our group, … Continue reading Roslyn Russell, Maria returns: Barbados to Mansfield Park (Review)
Review
Eleanor Dark’s Juvenilia (Review)
Eleanor Dark was quite a star in Australia's literary firmament of the 1930s to 1950s, and has left an important legacy, not only in her most famous book The timeless land but also in the fact that her home Varuna in the Blue Mountains is now one of Australia's most significant and loved writers' retreats. It's … Continue reading Eleanor Dark’s Juvenilia (Review)
Bangarra Dance Theatre’s Patyegarang
This year is Bangarra Dance Theatre's 25th anniversary. For those of you who don't know, Bangarra Dance Theatre is an Indigenous Australian contemporary dance company that was established - obviously - in 1989. Its artistic director since 1991 has been Stephen Page. His brother, David Page, does the music. These are two very talented brothers … Continue reading Bangarra Dance Theatre’s Patyegarang
John Updike, The lovely troubled daughters of our old crowd (Review)
I have an old-friend-cum-ex-colleague who has been asking me for longer than I can remember to read John Updike. He even, a year or so ago, sent me a link to a Kindle special for Rabbit, Run. I obediently bought it, and I do intend to read it, I do. However, I recently reorganised my Kindle and … Continue reading John Updike, The lovely troubled daughters of our old crowd (Review)
Tara June Winch, Swallow the air (Review for Indigenous Literature Week)
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)
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)
