With that extended conflict known as the Yugoslav Wars (1991-2001) now over for more than a decade, we are starting to see books written about them. I've reviewed two on this blog to date, Aminatta Forna's novel The hired man (2013) (my review) on the Croatian War of Independence, and Olivera Simić's memoir Surviving peace (2014) (my review) on … Continue reading AS Patrić, Black rock white city (Review)
Australian writers
Monday musings on Australian literature: Aussie novels titled with foreign place names
I've done two Monday Musings posts inspired by Tony (from Tony's Book World) - one on novels with real place names in their titles and one with fictional. To complete the trifecta, I thought why not look at Australian novels with foreign place names in their titles. This turned out to be rather fun to do. Many … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Aussie novels titled with foreign place names
Maxine Beneba Clarke, The hate race: A memoir (Review)
This is how it changes us. This is how we are altered. Maxine Beneba Clarke's Stella Prize short-listed memoir, The hate race, is one powerful book. I've been reading about racism since my teens during the Civil Rights years, and have read many moving novels and memoirs. Clarke's book holds its own in this company. The … Continue reading Maxine Beneba Clarke, The hate race: A memoir (Review)
Monday musings on Australian literature: Aussie novels titled with fictional place names
Last week, inspired by Tony (from Tony's Book World)'s post, I posted on novels with places in their titles. I limited my titles then to "real" places, but in my research I came across many books with fictional places in their titles, so, well, you know what I decided to do with that! There are good reasons for … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Aussie novels titled with fictional place names
Carmel Bird, Family skeleton (Review)
I love a cheeky writer, and Carmel Bird must be the doyenne of cheeky writers, so it goes without saying, really, that I thoroughly enjoyed her latest novel Family Skeleton. The cheekiness starts with the epigraph, which, as she is wont to do, is a quote from her fictional character Carillo Mean. As Bird has … Continue reading Carmel Bird, Family skeleton (Review)
Monday musings on Australian literature: Aussie novels titled with place names
I was searching around for a light, fun idea for this week's Monday Musings, as life is a bit busy at present, when up popped in my inbox Tony (from Tony's Book World)'s post on novels with city or town names in their titles. That seemed like just the thing: it demanded a little thinking but … Continue reading Monday musings on Australian literature: Aussie novels titled with place names
Janette Turner Hospital, Orpheus lost (Mini-review)
Last year I did a mini-review of Elizabeth Jolley's An innocent gentleman using some scrappy notes from when I read the book long before blogging. This post on Janette Turner Hospital's Orpheus lost has similar origins. I'm keen to add it here because I've read several of her novels, but none since blogging, and I really … Continue reading Janette Turner Hospital, Orpheus lost (Mini-review)
Madelaine Dickie, Troppo (Review)
"Write what you know" is the advice commonly given to writers, and this is exactly what Madelaine Dickie has done in her debut novel, Troppo, which won the City of Fremantle TAG Hungerford Award. For readers, on the other hand, the opposite could be true, as in "read what you don't know." This is certainly what I've done … Continue reading Madelaine Dickie, Troppo (Review)
Mena Calthorpe, The dyehouse (Review)
Mena Calthorpe's novel The dyehouse was, as I wrote in a post last year, Text Publishing's choice for its 100th Text Classic, which surely says something about its quality or worth, wouldn't you think? And yet, as Lisa (ANZLitLovers) pointed out in her post, it is not mentioned in recent books discussing the history of Australian literature, … Continue reading Mena Calthorpe, The dyehouse (Review)
David Carlin and Francesca Rendle-Short (eds), The near and the far: New stories from the Asia-Pacific region (Review)
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)
Whispering Gums 