Anthologies, almost by definition, have a unifying theme, something that explains their existence. There are the "best of" type, as in best of a year or of a genre, for example. There are those drawn from a prize, such as The trouble with flying, and other stories (my review) from the Margaret River Short Story competition. And of course there … Continue reading David Carlin and Francesca Rendle-Short (eds), The near and the far: New stories from the Asia-Pacific region (Review)
Six degrees of separation, FROM Fever pitch TO Please look after mom
You probably know all about the Six Degrees of Separation monthly "meme" by now, but here's the gen for newbies. It's currently hosted by Kate (booksaremyfavouriteandbest), who, each month, nominates a book from which we players create a chain of seven books, linking one from the other as the spirit moves. Unfortunately, once again, I haven't read the starting book, Nick … Continue reading Six degrees of separation, FROM Fever pitch TO Please look after mom
Graham Greene, Travels with my aunt (Review)
Every year, my reading group aims to do at least one classic - usually something from the nineteenth century - but this year someone suggested Graham Greene. Yes, we all responded, why not? But which one? For reasons I don't recollect, Travels with my aunt was suggested and given none of us had a burning desire to … Continue reading Graham Greene, Travels with my aunt (Review)
Monday musings on Australian literature: Three Australian scriptwriters
In a tiny nod to Oscars week, I thought I'd introduce three Australian scriptwriters. I have written one Monday Musings on scriptwriters before in a post on the AWGIEs. There I named a few scriptwriters who also write novels, Luke Davies (who was, in fact, nominated for this year's Oscars for his script of Lion), Helen … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Three Australian scriptwriters
Carson McCullers, The great eaters of Georgia (Review)
Regular readers of my Library of America (LOA) Story of the Week posts will probably guess why I've chosen to write about this story: it's by an appealing American writer and it's about food. However, it's quite different from the other food stories. Firstly, while it's called "the great eaters" it's more of a little memoir essay … Continue reading Carson McCullers, The great eaters of Georgia (Review)
Northanger Abbey musings (1)
My Jane Austen group is reading Northanger Abbey - again - because this year is the 200th anniversary of its publication. However, I did write about the novel when we did it in 2015, so what to do? Well, the thing is that every time I read Austen something else pops into my mind to think about … Continue reading Northanger Abbey musings (1)
Monday musings on Australian literature: Arnold Haskell on the arts (3)
This should be my last post on Mr Haskell's survey of the arts in Australia, and it focuses on Radio and the Movies. First though, in his section on literature, he talked about Australian readers and bookselling. He wrote that the average Australian "is a great reader; more books are bought per head of population in … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Arnold Haskell on the arts (3)
Kate Chopin, Fedora (Review)
Time methinks for another Library of America (LOA) Story of the Week, particularly since one of their recent offerings was one of my favourite American authors, Kate Chopin. "Fedora" is the sixth story by Chopin I've discussed here, and is probably the shortest, more of a "sketch". In fact its original title was apparently "“The Falling in Love … Continue reading Kate Chopin, Fedora (Review)
William Lane, The salamanders (Review)
William Lane's latest novel, The salamanders, is a book that keeps you thinking from beginning to end. As I started it, I was thinking of it as a cross between Julian Davies' Crow mellow (my review), a satirical novel about a house party for artists and their patrons, and Emily Bitto's The strays (my review) about an … Continue reading William Lane, The salamanders (Review)
Monday musings on Australian literature: Memory of the World and Dorothea Mackellar
If you're an Australian, did you know that last week seven new entries were added to the UNESCO Memory of the World Australian Register? If not, let me start at the beginning ... with UNESCO's Memory of the World programme. Established in 1992, it's the documentary heritage equivalent of the World Heritage Site programme which protects physical sites of natural … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Memory of the World and Dorothea Mackellar
