And so, suddenly, it's December and the last Six Degrees post of the year. What will 2021 bring. This time last year we could never have imagined what 2020 was going to be for us. I hope we don't have another one like it again, but ... it's not over yet isn it? Anyhow, on … Continue reading Six degrees of separation, FROM Are you there, Margaret … TO …
Julie Janson, Benevolence (#BookReview)
In a rather curious synchronicity, the last three books I've read have all had single word, multiple-meaning, titles, all relating to the colonial settlement of Australia - Gay Lynch's historical fiction Unsettled (my review), John Kinsella's memoir Displaced (my review), and now Julie Janson's historical fiction Benevolence whose title drips with irony. Recently, I commented … Continue reading Julie Janson, Benevolence (#BookReview)
Monday musings on Australian literature: Nonfiction November
Every November for a few years now, a group of bloggers have coordinated a focus on nonfiction for bloggers in November. They set up a plan of topics, one per week, with a different blogger being responsible for each week, as follows: Leann (Week 1) (Shelf Aware), Julie (Week 2) (Julz Reads), Rennie (Week 3) … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Nonfiction November
Yarra Valley Writers Festival 2020 (Online): New Release Sundays: Ramona Koval
Four weeks ago I posted on another session from the Yarra Valley Writers Festival's New Release Sundays, the one with Robert Dessaix talking about his book about growing older, The time of our lives. In that post, I mentioned that Dessaix had presented a couple of radio programs on ABC RN, including Books and writing. … Continue reading Yarra Valley Writers Festival 2020 (Online): New Release Sundays: Ramona Koval
Anna Goldsworthy, Melting moments (#BookReview)
Melting moments is Australian writer and concert pianist Anna Goldsworthy's debut novel, following her highly successful memoir of a decade ago, Piano lessons (my review). Melting moments - for those not familiar with this Antipodean classic - are little shortbread-based biscuits (cookies) sandwiched together with buttercream. In titling her book by these little treats, with … Continue reading Anna Goldsworthy, Melting moments (#BookReview)
Monday musings on Australian literature: “Returning novels”
In his review of Tara June Winch's The yield (my review), Jonathan Shaw (Me fail? I fly!) writes that "Ellen van Neerven, in a review in the Australian Book Review, describes The Yield as a ‘returning novel’". I loved this way of framing the novel, so I checked the review. Van Neerven, who has featured several times on this … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: “Returning novels”
Jane Austen, Juvenilia, Volume the first (#Review)
Jane Austen's Juvenilia, which range over three manuscript notebooks, contain twenty-seven items, which, says Austen scholar Brian Southam, she put together "as a record of her work and for the convenience of reading aloud to the family and friends." While only four of the pieces are specifically dated, Austen scholars have worked out an order … Continue reading Jane Austen, Juvenilia, Volume the first (#Review)
Barbara Jefferis Award 2020 Winner Announced
In early October, the shortlist for the biennial Barbara Jefferis Award, worth $50,000, was announced. This award, for those of you who don't remember it, has very specific criteria: "the best novel written by an Australian author that depicts women and girls in a positive way or otherwise empowers the status of women and girls … Continue reading Barbara Jefferis Award 2020 Winner Announced
Monday musings on Australian literature: Political biography
With the US election going, going ... but not quite gone it seems ... and with a new biography of President-elect Joe Biden, Joe Biden: The life, the run, and what matters now by Evan Osnos, hitting the bookstands, I thought it might be apposite to consider the political biography in Australia. By "political biography", … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Political biography
John Kinsella, Displaced: A rural life (#BookReview)
I haven't talked about reading synchronicities for some time, but when I started reading John Kinsella's memoir, Displaced, I couldn't help but think of the book I had just finished, Gay Lynch's historical novel Unsettled (my review). Both have one word titles which play with opposites; in both cases, those opposites refer to physical meanings … Continue reading John Kinsella, Displaced: A rural life (#BookReview)
Whispering Gums 