Whispering Gums is now 15 months old and I'm still playing with what I am doing here - but one thing I haven't played with is my desire to help promote Australian literature. And so I've decided to formalise this a bit through a weekly post titled "Monday musings on Australian literature". This is somewhat … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Making a start
What is a classic: Guest post at DesertBookChick
Those who read this blog may have come across DesertBookChick (DBC) before. She's the one who doesn't like Jane Austen! In fact, she admits that, despite being a PhD, she's a bit anxious about classics in general. However, not one to shy away from a challenge, she has declared August Classics Month on her blog. … Continue reading What is a classic: Guest post at DesertBookChick
Helen Garner, Cosmo cosmolino
When I returned to seriously reading Australian writers back in the 1980s, there were four women writers who caught my attention, and I have loved them ever since. They were Elizabeth Jolley (1923-2007), Thea Astley (1925-2004), Olga Masters (1919-1986) and Helen Garner (b. 1942). Garner, the youngest by a couple of decades, is the only … Continue reading Helen Garner, Cosmo cosmolino
Howard Zinn, Finishing school for pickets
I have been remiss lately with my Library of America reading. Busy-ness has taken its toll, but it just so happened that this week I was (briefly) between books and the LOA offering looked right up my alley, so I decided to read it over breakfast. "Finishing school for pickets" was published in 1960, making … Continue reading Howard Zinn, Finishing school for pickets
South Solitary (Movie)
What is it about lighthouses? They conjure up such a romantic notion of life in the wild, of communing with and/or battling the elements. They excite us with their extremes of remoteness and loneliness which can push people to their limits. And they paradoxically symbolise both life (light) and danger (warning). All of these are … Continue reading South Solitary (Movie)
Ian McEwan, Solar
I don't know whether I believe your story, but I've enjoyed it. So says McEwan's latest creation, Michael Beard, to a character he has "done wrong". This more or less sums up my feelings about Solar, the novel in which this statement appears. I am a McEwan fan and have greatly liked most of the … Continue reading Ian McEwan, Solar
Evening with a Nobel Laureate
And now for something completely different! Tonight I was way out of my comfort zone, mixing as I was with physicists and mathematicians at an event involving staff, students, alumni (pas moi, but Mr Gums) of the Research School of Physics and Engineering at the Australian National University (ANU). The event involved a reception followed … Continue reading Evening with a Nobel Laureate
ALS Gold Medal, 2009 (announced 2010)
Since many book bloggers are posting the Booker longlist, I don't think I need to do so here. I don't expect to read many of them, not so much due to a lack of interest as to the fact that I've a pretty full reading schedule in front of me without adding these to it! … Continue reading ALS Gold Medal, 2009 (announced 2010)
Introducing the Griffyn Ensemble
A painted Griffin, Knossos (Courtesy: Paginazero, via Wikipedia, using CC-BY-SA 3.0 Unported) The Griffyn Ensemble is an exciting chamber music ensemble based right here in our (that is downunder's) national capital. The ensemble is named, in a fun wordplay, after Walter Burley Griffin, Canberra's designer, and the mythical beast (the griffin, gryffin, or gryphon). The … Continue reading Introducing the Griffyn Ensemble
M.J. Hyland, This is how
If you want to read a book that is quick (and seemingly simple) to read and yet satisfyingly complex, then MJ Hyland's This is how is for you. I've been wanting to read Hyland for a while and, having now done so, this won't be the last. So where to start? The novel is a … Continue reading M.J. Hyland, This is how
Whispering Gums 