Since last week's Monday Musings post on Melbourne's curious, but now defunct, Bread and Cheese Club, I've been doing further research into its various activities, and have found it to be an amazingly vibrant organisation. The club's motto was "Mateship, Art and Letters" and a major focus seemed to have been Australian writers. Certainly its … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Bread and Cheese Club and Indigenous Australians
Evie Wyld, All the birds, singing (Review)
Quite by coincidence, I read Evie Wyld's second novel All the birds, singing straight after Eleanor Catton's The luminaries. I was intrigued by some similarities - both have a mystery at their core, and both use a complex narrative structure - but enjoyed their differences. Wyld's book is tightly focused on one main character while Catton's sprawls (albeit in … Continue reading Evie Wyld, All the birds, singing (Review)
Monday musings on Australian literature: The Bread and Cheese Club
I bet that title has you wondering! It was certainly new to me when I came across a book in my late mother-in-law's collection titled Fellows all: The chronicles of the Bread and Cheese Club. Published in 1943, and written by HW Malloch, this book is a history of the early years of the club … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: The Bread and Cheese Club
Delicious descriptions: More on Eleanor Catton’s The Luminaries
Rightly or wrongly, I try to keep my reviews to a reasonable length. When they start creeping up to 1200 words, I worry that readers will be discouraged from reading. There's so much to read out there - so many books, so many blogs, so many articles. And so, when my review of The luminaries … Continue reading Delicious descriptions: More on Eleanor Catton’s The Luminaries
Eleanor Catton, The luminaries (Review)
Now here's the thing ... I don't make a practice of reading mysteries. I really don't care about who dunnit. When Mr Gums and I watch television crime shows, I rarely concentrate enough to work out the plot intricacies, but I do watch the characters. I'm always interested in the detectives and their relationships. I … Continue reading Eleanor Catton, The luminaries (Review)
Vale Pete Seeger
If music is powerful, and words are powerful, what power can words set to music have? Pete Seeger knew, but I don't need to tell anyone that do I? What a legacy he has left us from his 94 years on this earth! I'm an Australian of course, but Seeger, who first came to me … Continue reading Vale Pete Seeger
Monday musings on Australian literature: Australia’s difficult novels
A week or so ago I wrote a post about reading difficult novels. As I researched that post, I came across many lists of difficult novels, including the one I included at the end of the post. The interesting thing is that none of the lists I saw included any Australian novels, and yet they … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Australia’s difficult novels
Jane Austen on reading novels
Jane Austen's defence of the novel in Northanger Abbey is famous. Not only does the hero, Henry Tilney, tell the heroine Catherine, that: The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid ... but Austen, in an authorial comment early in the book, says ... … Continue reading Jane Austen on reading novels
Harriet Ann Jacobs, The lover (Review)
It's a while since I read a story from the Library of America's (LOA) Story of the Week program, but when I saw Harriet Ann Jacobs' story "The lover" appear in its list of Top 10 stories from 2013 I felt it was time to rectify my tardiness - particularly with the movie, 12 Years a … Continue reading Harriet Ann Jacobs, The lover (Review)
Forgiveness or Revenge, Love or Hatred?
This rather personal post departs somewhat from my usual fare - and replaces my usual Monday Musings, for a reason that will become obvious at the end. Last week I saw the film The Railway Man. For those of you who haven't seen or heard of it, it is about Eric Lomax, a British soldier … Continue reading Forgiveness or Revenge, Love or Hatred?
Whispering Gums 