Garry Disher and Gail Jones with Michael Brissenden The program described the session as follows: Join two of Australia's most highly regarded writers speak about the lure of the Australian outback with its landscapes, characters and unsettled complexity. Here we have different tales of desperate searches to uncover what has happened to two women in … Continue reading Canberra Writers Festival 2025: 2, What happened in the outback
Crime fiction
Shelley Burr, Vanish (#BookReview)
With Vanish, the third novel in her Lane Holland series, Burr mixes it up yet again, which appeals to me because my main reason for not liking genre fiction is that it can be formulaic. I know this is why many like it, and I understand that need for comforting reading. It's just not my … Continue reading Shelley Burr, Vanish (#BookReview)
Lisa Kenway, All you took from me (#GuestThoughts)
With my Review TBR pile teetering on the brink, I decided to call in a favour from Mr Gums, and handed him Lisa Kenway's debut novel, All you took from me, thinking it might be up his alley. Now, a word about Mr Gums. He is an engineer by training, and not the world's biggest … Continue reading Lisa Kenway, All you took from me (#GuestThoughts)
Author Talk: the Craft of Crime, Sulari Gentill & Chris Hammer with Anna Steele
This author talk was not one of my usual series - that is, not ANU/Canberra Times Meet the Author or Muse Canberra's conversations. Instead, it was presented by the Friends of the National Library of Australia, of which I am a member. Despite the cold, drizzly night, it was a full house, which is not … Continue reading Author Talk: the Craft of Crime, Sulari Gentill & Chris Hammer with Anna Steele
Holly Throsby, Clarke (#BookReview)
My reading group's last book of the year, Holly Throsby's third novel, Clarke, was a popular end-of-year choice. It's a straightforward but compelling read that was inspired by a story we were all across, the Lynette Dawson story. Inspired, though, is the operative word, as Clarke is not Lynette Dawson's story. For a start, while … Continue reading Holly Throsby, Clarke (#BookReview)
Chris Hammer in conversation with Jack Heath
Apologies for those of you expecting a Monday Musings. I did think about it, as this conversation turned out to be a bit of a Chris Hammer retrospective so it could have worked as one of my Monday Musings spotlight-on-an-author post. However, after considering my options, I decided to call this post what it is, … Continue reading Chris Hammer in conversation with Jack Heath
Patrick Modiano, Sundays in August (#BookReview)
Disappointingly, I ended up missing my bookgroup's discussion of the book I had encouraged us to read, Sundays in August by 2014 Nobel prize-winner Patrick Modiano. I have no-one else to blame but myself, since I did the schedule and should have remembered that I was going to be in Hobart for my brother's exhibition. … Continue reading Patrick Modiano, Sundays in August (#BookReview)
Susan Glaspell, A jury of her peers (#Review)
One of my retirement activities is to co-ordinate a little band of volunteer indexers at the National Film and Sound Archive. Not only do we do useful work for the Archive, but we get to socialise a little with our peers, meaning we talk about what we are watching, listening to, and reading. Recently, one … Continue reading Susan Glaspell, A jury of her peers (#Review)
Shelley Burr, Ripper (#BookReview)
When I started reading Ripper, Shelley Burr's follow-up novel to her bestselling award-winning debut novel Wake (my review), I thought about crime novels, about how they are often written in series and how I am not a big series fan. Ripper looked to me like a stand-alone novel - and it is, somewhat! I say … Continue reading Shelley Burr, Ripper (#BookReview)
Meet the Author: Dervla McTiernan
You’ve heard me say it before and I’m sure to say it again, I am not a “crime reader” - but I do read crime novels when something about them catches my attention. I have been interested to read Irish-born Australian writer Dervla McTiernan since her first book started appearing with positive reviews on the … Continue reading Meet the Author: Dervla McTiernan
Whispering Gums 