Anita Heiss's Am I black enough for you? is a challenge to categorise, so I'll start with writer Benjamin Law's description on the cover of my edition. He calls it "part family history, part manifesto" to which I'd add "part memoir" because "family history" does not really cover the self-description aspect of the book. For … Continue reading Anita Heiss, Am I black enough for you (Review)
Review – Non-fiction
Anna Krien, Night games: Sex, power and sport (Review)
Towards the end of her most recent non-fiction work, Night games, Anna Krien writes: I wish I'd chosen to follow an 'easier' rape trial. She's concerned that what she's written, what she's finding, won't "sit well with feminists or footballers". She might be right, but that would be a shame, because what she's produced is … Continue reading Anna Krien, Night games: Sex, power and sport (Review)
Anna Funder, Stasiland (Review)
Anna Funder's Stasiland, which won the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction, is one of those books that can be reviewed from multiple angles, and I know that when I get to the end of this review I'm going to be sorry about the angles I didn't get to discuss. But, I can only do what … Continue reading Anna Funder, Stasiland (Review)
Helene Hanff, 84 Charing Cross Road
Before you all (well, those of you of a certain age at least) gasp and wonder how it could be that I haven't read this delightful little tome before, I assure you that I have. However, on our drive home today from our week at the coast, we listened to an unabridged audiobook version, and … Continue reading Helene Hanff, 84 Charing Cross Road
Literary encounters, Australian style
I've been remiss. I could have solved some of your Christmas shopping challenges by telling you about two books which would be perfect gifts for readers: Shane Maloney and Chris Grosz's Australian encounters, and Susannah Fullerton's Brief encounters. Both have "encounters" in the title, but they use the word in slightly different ways, as you'll see … Continue reading Literary encounters, Australian style
Anna Krien, Into the woods
How can so many people all be looking at the same thing and see it so differently? The man moseying around in front of me looks at a 300-year old tree and sees a nursing home, while an activist twenty minutes down the road sees a block of flats for furry and feathered creatures. Vive … Continue reading Anna Krien, Into the woods
Kate Jennings, Trouble: Evolution of a radical
I'm not going to beat about the bush but tell it like it is: I absolutely gobbled up Kate Jennings' Trouble: Evolution of a radical: Selected writings 1970-2010. It took me a fortnight to read it, partly because I've been pretty busy but also because there was so much to savour and take in that … Continue reading Kate Jennings, Trouble: Evolution of a radical
Louann Brizendine, The female brain
Beware - the F-word is coming! Yes, Feminism. It might be a dirty word in some quarters, but I regard myself as a feminist - 1970s style - and so I approached Brizendine's best-selling book, The female brain, with my cautionary antennae out. It's not the sort of book I would necessarily have chosen myself … Continue reading Louann Brizendine, The female brain
Alan Bennett, The lady in the van
It is a truism that truth is stranger than fiction, and Alan Bennett's The lady in the van is one work that proves it. It is strange - and wonderful - that a woman could have lived the way the eponymous lady did for as long as she did, and it is equally strange - … Continue reading Alan Bennett, The lady in the van
Richard Allen and Kimbal Baker, Australia’s remarkable trees
It's odd, don't you think, that a poem by Thomas Hardy is used to introduce a book titled Australia's remarkable trees? The poem, "Throwing a tree", starts with a line that leaves you in no doubt as to the poet's sympathies: The two executioners stalk along over the knolls ... and concludes with the poignant, … Continue reading Richard Allen and Kimbal Baker, Australia’s remarkable trees
Whispering Gums 