1. Bendigo Writers Festival is on this weekend. I'm seeing a stream of tweets in my feed. Looks like some good sessions, but what I've really noticed are the staging and flower arrangements. Gorgeous. One day I'll get up there for the festival. 2. And on aesthetics, here is an article from today about [...]
Category: Books
Willy Literary Festival 2017
I've never been to this festival (talk about being a bad Melburnian writer) but it's on next weekend and I am doing two things and really excited about being there. First is The Age of Experience on Saturday 17 June, 3.30-4.30pm where Christy Collins, Paul Dalgarno and I talk to Jane Rawson about being debut [...]
Writers Under the Influence
Are you a scotch drinker or whiskey fiend? Neither? I am somewhat on the wagon these days but I do have a partiality to an occasional snifter of Laphroaig. I have been invited to appear at a series called Writers Under the Influence, at funky Northcote Buck Mulligan's Bar on Wednesday 7 June at 7.30pm. Buck [...]
Bayside Local Authors Expo
On Sunday I was on a panel at a local writers' expo, hosted by the fantastic Beaumaris Library. Also on my panel were Jane Sullivan (wearing her two hats: white for writer, black for critic/reviewer), Olga Lorenzo (fellow Allen & Unwin stable-mate) and Lorraine Campbell (author of The Butterfly Enigma, and other titles). Our [...]
Battling on with Sir Salman
I am in the final stages of Midnight's Children and what a struggle it is. This is not a novel that will give itself over to me in any way. Just when I think I'm getting a grip, it slips away from me, like one of the frequent snake motifs scattered through the book, or [...]
Read #1: The God of Small Things
I finished my first Reading India book last night, Arundhati Roy's first - and only - published novel, The God of Small Things. It's a book I had tried once before to read, and not gotten through the first twenty or so pages. This time, because of my challenge, I persisted. And for a long [...]
Plans for 2016
As I said before, this is my Year of Reading India. The rules are I don't buy any new local or overseas fiction, with the following exceptions: my friend's book, coming out this year some time books that fit into my written by an Indian author/set in India/about India books that are necessary for my reading [...]
Signing off, festively yours
It's that time of year to go quiet, but before I do, here are my top 5 reads for 2015: A Little Life, Hanya Hanagihara The Wonder Lover, Malcolm Knox A Strangeness in My Mind, Orhan Pamuk H is for Hawk, Helen Macdonald All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr Yes, they are [...]
Reading plans for 2016 – the Year of Reading India
While I was in Ubud recently, I decided that next year will be my Year of Reading India. I plan for 2016 to be the beginning of a new type of reading approach for me. Why India? Because I have a bunch of books written by Indian authors already, including a few of Salman Rushdie's [...]
Reading catch-up, almost end of 2015
But I will squeeze a few more books in by the end of the year. Last book I listed was Pamuk's A Strangeness in My Mind, which was book 44. Then, I went to Ubud. In my suitcase I took one bottle of champagne, and several books, including Lucy Treloar's Salt Creek; Hanya Yanagihara's A [...]
2, 2 and 2 at Amanda Curtin’s blog
The lovely Amanda Curtin (who I met at the recent Ubud Writers Festival) asked me if I'd participate in a series she runs on her blog, looking up looking down. The idea is you write about 2 things that inspired your book, 2 places connected with the book (geographical or metaphysical) and 2 favourite 'anythings' somehow connected [...]
5 influential books
Culture Street asked me to write about five books that influenced me, including one from childhood. This was a fantastic exercise as it made me really think hard about which books - among many many - had some sort of influence that I could trace. I had 100 words limit to spend on each, they [...]
Back from my fishing trip aka The Ubud Writers and Readers Festival 2015
It was really good and while the added six days were kind of not good, they were also good. Good. Here are some photos from my launch, which was held at the divine Sri Ratih Cottages in Ubud, which was also where I stayed. It was really fun doing a launch with a different format. First, [...]
Just me, Toni & Salman
So check out the link below. I'll wait here for you to come back. Radio National Books & Arts Daily I was very excited when I got a message from Kate Evans of Books+Arts and Books+ on Radio National to let me know my interview with her would be broadcast this morning. I listened 'live' and was [...]
My first author Q&A for The Secret Son
My publicist at Allen & Unwin was approached by a reviewer, who'd read my book and reviewed it on her website. Would I consider answering some questions, about the book and how I wrote it? Oh, yes I would! The questions were fantastic, and it's made me realise that after so long with a book, so [...]
The Fishermen, by Chigozie Obioma
Book 42: I finished this earlier today and did so with tears in my eyes. None rolled, but they were there. I found it moving, at the end, and also found that it seemed perfectly paced, the last quarter of the book. I felt doom, I felt apprehension and I felt admiration. It's a fine [...]
The Secret Son, review in The Australian newspaper
Was very happy to see this review of The Secret Son (alongside Leah Kaminsky's first novel The Waiting Room) in the paper over the weekend. An author dreams of reviews, and they don't always happen, small or big, positive or negative. They don't always happen quickly, and they don't always happen at all. With 400 new [...]
How good is this?
Am catching up with an old school friend on Monday (she lives in Sydney, me in Melbourne). She texted confirmation for our coffee and then included a link to an article in which she shared her response to my book with her readers. She also tweeted about it. She didn't have to do any of this, and [...]
Sunday reading catch up including PURITY by Jonathan Franzen
But first, looky here: This is what I saw in The Age Sunday Life magazine this morning. Nice! This is what I cooked last night. I don't think anyone can make a better spaghetti marinara than me. Romeo's in Toorak? I think not. TIAMO in Carlton? Pffft. * Yesterday I spent a lot of the day [...]
Chigozie Obioma and the case for ‘audacious prose’
This week, Chigozie Obioma's debut novel The Fishermen was short-listed for the Man Booker Prize. Obioma was already on my radar, first because I'd been hearing about the book, and then because I booked into a workshop he's running at the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival next month. I booked into it so fast, it was like [...]
Book launch for THE SECRET SON
Last Wednesday night I had my book launch party at Bella Union in Melbourne. It was a fantastic night, I couldn't be happier with how it went. We had a belly dancer and drummer: My book was graciously and intelligently launched by AS Patrić. He said lovely things about it and it was quite overwhelming. He read [...]
Official publication day for The Secret Son
Even though my book has been in shops for a few days now, today is the official pub date. My dad flew in from Perth, where he's almost at the end of a drive-Australia trip with his wife. He's come for my launch. A friend has come from New Zealand to be here for my [...]
Happening
My book is in all good book shops. My book is quite comfortable, in a stack, as a pillow. My book is very beautiful and quite nice to read too. My book wants to be in your house, in your bookcase. My book has the most beautiful cover. Did I say that? My book is [...]
QUICKSAND Steve Toltz
Let me say first, I have A Fraction of a Whole, I've had it for years, but I haven't read it. Yet. I will, because now I know how Steve Toltz writes, I will be eating up all his words. Book number 35 for the year was Quicksand, ah what to say about it. It's [...]
Dancing in the Dark
I am a bit obsessed with Karl Ove Knausgaard, and am almost finished the fourth book in his My Struggle series. This volume covers him leaving home after school and going to teach in a small town in northern Norway. He hasn't done any training but it doesn't matter, apparently post-secondary school kids can teach. We [...]
Another book giveaway
Goodreads is hosting another Allen & Unwin book give-away of my novel, THE SECRET SON. Twenty more copies are now up for grabs, so head there if you'd like to be in it. Competition is open until 16 August (AUS and NZ only). But hey, good luck! Enter here.
Monday musings
Melbourne is very cold at the moment so I'm sitting propped in bed, 'working'. And as usual I have a bunch of pages open in my Mozilla browser. I'm always envious of anybody who has gotten to see The Museum of Innocence in Istanbul. I know I'll get there, and I've known about it since it opened. [...]
Book give-away | THE SECRET SON
The ace people at Allen & Unwin are giving away 5 advance reading copies of my book THE SECRET SON, on Goodreads. Click on THIS LINK to go to the page to enter. I can't give any better instructions than that. I've forgotten my Goodreads password, which isn't a good look. Competition is open until 19 July, and Australian and [...]
What I’ve been reading, what I stopped reading, what I want to be reading
But first, congratulations to Sofie Laguna for her Miles Franklin win, for THE EYE OF THE SHEEP. You can read more about that here at Allen & Unwin's website. I found out that Sofie had no idea she was going to win, in fact had been told not to expect a win, so what a triumph, and [...]
Things of interest (to me anyway)
Once more I have a raft of open browser windows across the top of my screen. I haven't made much progress on the footy scarf I'm knitting for my husband's boy. Luckily I told him it would probably be ready for next season. The reason why I'm going slowly with this project is mainly because [...]
Wednesday wrap with lettuce
Today the most important thing I'll do is go here: Kate has been talking about this place for ages, on twitter, and while I have done three drive bys in an effort to get a gelato, it just hasn't worked out. I couldn't see the shop, there were no parks available, and so on. But today [...]
When you think a book is merde but it’s a best-seller
It's not often I abandon a book knowing I will never try it again. I often put books down, but I know I'll go back to them. I'm enjoying them, but it's like eating too much of the same thing , you want something different on the tongue. [beat] I know I should be kinder [...]
So there’s this
Allen & Unwin just tweeted this. How is the beauty? And I was so happy to see the bee. Just the week before I'd seen another book with bees on the cover and thought wistfully 'I wish I had a bee on my cover' and then forgot about it. And there it is. Meant to bee. [...]
The Secret Son update – the cover
Last night I saw the cover design for my book. I was standing on Princes Bridge, at about 5.30pm, with a photographer, doing a few extra shots. The sky was full-on moody and the wind was wildish. It looked liked this: I was taking a few snaps on my phone, in between Mark doing his, and [...]
FALLEN
Today's post is dedicated to the 22nd book I've read this year, Fallen, a memoir, by Rochelle Siemienowicz (HURRAH, that is the first time I've been able to spell Rochelle's surname, without looking. And funnily enough, my spell check has offered 'Microeconomics' instead.) I was always going to read this book, because: DISCLOSURE, I know Rochelle in [...]
Long time, no blog
Melbourne has been particularly beautiful over recent days. Last week I went to Rickett's Point to get some author photos done. This is how gorgeous it was: The photographer had said 'Let's wait for a dark, stormy day, get some moody clouds.' Well, Melbourne [shakes fist at sky] you aren't behaving. I am, apparently, one of [...]
Yaşar Kemal (1923-2015)
Yaşar Kemal was one of Turkey's leading authors, before anyone had heard of Orhan Pamuk. He was also the first Turkish author I read. It was Kemal's Wind from the Plain trilogy that I loved. I read the first book in 1999, during one of my times living in Istanbul. There was an English-language bookshop on Divan [...]
Gone fishing
Leaving Friday for my trip but wanted to close the blog down now, as I have a lot to do before I go. Like googling directions and printing them out. Making sure I have enough boots packed. And hats. When I come back in mid Feb I have a first meeting with my new [...]
Not a review – UNDER THE SKIN by Michel Faber
Well, my first book is read for 2015. Started it yesterday, finished it today (but before that had read a couple of pages of the next Karl Ove (number 2) as well as continuing with a re-read of John Irving's The Water Method Man - must be the fourth time I've read that book). But I've [...]
Goodbye 2014, you’ve been pretty amazing
EDITED: to include Donna Tartt's THE GOLDFINCH. Below I mention the risk of not recording what I've read through the year. This year, Tartt's book divided readers, quite violently. Some people were in critic James Wood's camp - surly haters all - but there were others who loved it, including me. I read it twice. The first [...]
Not a review: books of strange, new things
For my final book post for the year, I have chosen recent local fiction (plus one non-local interloper) to present. These are all VERY exciting novels, especially for this reader who usually sticks to The Real. Annabel Smith's THE ARK Paddy O'Reilly's THE WONDERS Jane Rawson's A WRONG TURN AT THE OFFICE OF UNMADE LISTS [...]
Not a review, on How to Be Both by Ali Smith
This year I've tested out a couple of book clubs, run by local bookshops. I have a fairly non-existent history with book groups. I went along once to a friend's meeting. I hadn't finished the book, and felt incredibly inarticulate. I don't know whether finishing the book would have made any difference, to be honest. One [...]
What I’ve been reading
I've been reading a lot lately, probably because I'm not writing en ce moment (more about that later, or soon, I hope. There are a couple of reasons for it and one is that my daughter is up against her Year 12 exams, beginning Cup Day, so maman has been in attendance, on the couch [...]
Interview with author Annabel Smith about her new book THE ARK (and some other stuff)
Let me tell you a bit about writer Annabel Smith. I first 'met' her on twitter, and then I met her for real earlier this year when I went to Perth for the writers festival. I think I went galloping down to her in one of the tiered venues, after she was on a panel, [...]
Dave Eggers | Closing at MWF14
Look how gorgeous the sky is through the glass of whatever it is they are calling that space now. ¤ I know, I know, I'm late with this but better late than... you know. Eggers opened with reading a piece, something he's been playing with, that he's never read before, that he thinks might become [...]
Salman ‘Let’s drop the Sir shit’ Rushdie, at MWF 2014 (28 August)
Rushdie, sans zoom Almost done with my catch-up posts. I went to see Salman Rushdie speak at what I call Dallas Brooks Hall but which I think now has another name. I can't move with the times which is why it's always 'Spencer Street Station', 'Telstra Dome' and 'Kardinia Park'. I had a good [...]
Friday wrap, with lettuce
Ouf how time is pressing against me, with lots of things clamouring for my attention. Once I worked in a place where a (wonderful) graphic designer used to call out to the room "priority conflict!" when deadlines were ticking closer and she had heaps to do and now it's what I feel like shouting too, [...]
‘Hemingway Keeper’ Michael Katakis talks to Laura Jean McKay
The Wheeler Centre has a fabulous program of events throughout the year, including the occasional 'lunch time treat' such as yesterday's chat with writer and photographer Michael Katakis, and author Laura Jean McKay. The name of the event was 'Hemingway's Keeper' and it caught my eye, bien sur. I have a love for Hemingway that [...]
Helen Garner’s opening at the 2014 Melbourne Writers Festival
I went along to the Melbourne Town Hall to see Helen Garner talking to Romana Koval. it was a buzzy night, lots of people, and I'd booked my ticket using the 'select seat yourself' button, instead of the 'best available.' This meant I got a ticket in the first row and as I walked [...]
MWF14 catch-up post MORNING READ W/ THUY ON, & Philip Hensher
Thuy On with novelist Mark Henshaw I first met Thuy when The Big Issue published my story 'Dead Man's Cake' last year. I perched awkwardly at the team's table in the Optic bar after the launch. To be fair, they called me over, and I was introduced to everyone else. Thuy said she really liked [...]
MWF14 – MEG WOLITZER & JOAN LONDON
MEG WOLITZER TALKS TO JANE SULLIVAN, Saturday 23 August Sullivan introduced Wolitzer, an author whose book The Interestings has been on my list for a long time, saying she's written seven novels, and is admired and enjoyed in equal measure. Wolitzer grew up with a mother who wrote, and still writes in her eighties, her [...]
Qaisra Shahraz @ Readings Hawthorn PEN event
My friend Athi and I went along to see my twitter friend Qaisra earlier this month, to hear her speak about her work. Qaisra has been very warm and friendly on twitter, and when I read last year that she was Australia-bound for the Byron Bay Writers Festival, I thought I might make the trip [...]
Helen Garner at Nunawading Library, 23 July
The Friends of the Nunawading Library (FONL) work to make funds available to community libraries in the area to invite guest speakers along to talk to readers. A few weeks ago it was Helen G, and I headed along with my dad to listen to her. Helen is my dad's second cousin but this time [...]
Alex Miller & Helen Garner at Mildura, 18 July 2014
I saw Helen Garner at two events in the last week. It's a bit exciting because before that, I'd never seen her and I'm not sure I'd even heard her voice. So it was interesting. This session at Mildura was billed as a reading, and both writers read. Apparently they arm wrestled (really?) and Helen [...]
Friday wrap w/ lettuce
Well, what news have I other than that my sleeping time is being sucked by the Tour de France and I am finding myself wanting to cook and eat Franch food? Not much other than I've been reading (nothing stops me reading). So how heinous are these book covers? Wuthering Heights (like Lolita) has so [...]
A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
Finished this last night. It is wonderful. I'd been hearing about it for quite a while (you know when you hear about books. Other books I hear about, and have yet to read are Claire Messud The Woman Upstairs, Louise Erdich's The Round House (I think, I've got it written down somewhere) and AM Homes's [...]
Melbourne Jewish Writers Festival 2014
On Saturday night I went to the gala opening of the inaugural MJWF, held at the Glen Eira Town Hall. Hosted by comedian Rachel Berger, and with appearances by some of the featured writers from the festival, it was a fun entrée to the next days of the festival (sessions ran yesterday and continue today.) [...]
Annabel Smith’s Friday Faves
Author Annabel Smith asked me if I'd appear on her Friday Faves regular feature over at her blog. She invites bookish people to share one of their favourite books and explain a bit about the book and their connection to it. it's a terrific feature and I was really happy to be asked. I have [...]
Catch-up post: what I’ve been reading
I want to share my thoughts on three recent reads.These are selected because I very much liked the first two, am confused by the third, but all of them I read straight through without stopping and picking something else up. This is odd for me these days so there was something about all of these [...]
PWF2014 catch-up: The Luminaries, Eleanor Catton speaks with Susan Wyndham
On the Saturday (22 Feb) I went to listen to Eleanor Catton talk with Susan Wyndham about The Luminaries. I think this was the day I wore my new navy skirt I had bought in the op-shop at Freo the day before, when we went to find the Eyrie building. This is a skirt which [...]
How Orhan does it
Manuscript page from Orhan Pamuk’s notebook for “The Black Book." “There is no constant formula. But I make it my business not to write two novels in the same mode. I try to change everything. This is why so many of my readers tell me, I liked this novel of yours, it’s a shame you [...]
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
It's a big image for a big book. I loved everything about The Goldfinch and for me it was the best read of last year and possibly for several years. There were only two things that bugged me. The first was disappointing, the second more of an irritation. 1. Boris's voice wasn't very good. For [...]
Some small thoughts on Wrecked, by Charlotte Roche
I have a note here I made a year or so ago while reading Charlotte Roche's Wrecked. Like her other book Wetlands, this is a confronting story (though not as much. I don't think I've read a more confronting book than Wetlands?) There is a tragedy at the heart of this book, and one detail [...]
Tracing influences
TS Eliot said Mediocre writers borrow. Great writers steal. I have, on order, a book entitled Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative by Austin Kleon. I'm interested in the idea of stories being recycled but also in the idea of plagiarism (am writing a new manuscript which has plagiarism [...]
Messages from 2004 – no one is taking a punt any more
I have several large ring binder folders that are stuffed with clipped newspaper articles, book reviews, my handwritten notes from courses and other printed material, mainly pieces on writing that I've found online. Sometimes when my mind is too buzzy to settle on fiction when I'm in bed at night, before sleeping, I pull out [...]
Sarah Drummond’s Salt Story
Photograph by Tracey Armstrong ABC South Coast This is a photo of my blog buddy Sarah Drummond who has a new book out about sea dogs (Bill, aka Salt above) and fisherwomen (aka, her own good self) working in the south-west Australian region of Albany. There's a partial interview with her, link below and also [...]
Daily Rituals by Mason Currey
What more fascinating thing to read about than how artists work? I bought a book about the daily rituals of a long list of writers and painters and it is wonderful to be able to browse details on how they approach(ed) their craft. Anthony Trollope — a writer I haven't read but whose books my [...]
Obsessions
My mother loves Dickens's works, and loves to read about his life. This morning on twitter among a conversational back-and-forth on Dickens, there was a link to an article about Dickens and his children. From the London Review of Books How Does he Come to Be Mine? by Tim Parks, which is a review of [...]
Excited about MWF13
I haven't been this excited about the Melbourne Writers Festival in like, forever, and I haven't been to anything at any festival for ages. No offence to previous organisers, but this year is pretty dang fabulous and I've diarised a total of 16 spots. This is what caught my interest this year: There are various [...]
A not-review of Jill Stark’s HIGH SOBRIETY
I was going to be very clever with this. I thought to use a 12-step framework to present the review. Geddit? I got to two steps and then stopped writing (but not reading, finished it like that [snaps fingers] and have been proselytising about it all over the city.) I've also decided this will not [...]
The Review Page, still in the factory
I'm still trying to work out how to drive this bloody wordpress. I've created a new page at the top for 'Reviews' and I want to have pages linked off that, for each review I write. Not so easy it seems but I shall prevail. Somehow. The last couple of days I've read two blog [...]
During the whilst
While looking for pictures to use in the review section, I found this:Annotations on Hemingway's A Moveable Feast which contain page references, links to youtube clips, photos and extra quotations.It's quite simply extraordinary.I know Ernest Hemingway is passé and a lot of people bag him and/or his writing but if anyone wanted a taster, A [...]
So my dear ones
I was going to write my first review on Jill Stark's High Sobriety. No, it's not a novel, yes it's like a memoir of a year without alcohol. But it was so important, I lent it to a friend this morning to read. So, I'm thinking The Great Gatsby will be my first review. Why [...]
As promised, the book review post # 3
While I gird my loins to write my first, thoughtful and considered book review (and egads, which one to choose?), here is my third installment of notes and thoughts. It's messy and somewhat incoherent, something I will try to avoid when reviewing though I can't promise much. I haven't had a chance to proof this, [...]
While I’m cogitating on the next ‘How-to’ book review post…
I wanted to quickly list the books that I have on my shelves that I have found (variously) helpful in improving my writing skills but thought I'd also write a bit about my beliefs for revising work. Editing Knowing and clearly understanding what the different types of revision are is a first step and this [...]
Writing book reviews: How to post # 2
I have three new books: Madeleine: A Life of Madeleine St John by Helen Trinca The Memory Trap by Andrea Goldsmith All That Is by James Salter I don't know when I'll read them. I already have so many unread. But I'll put them into my inventory and put them beside the bed and get [...]
Learn with me: Book reviews ‘How to’ post #1
So, I feel I'm crap at writing the sort of book reviews I want to write. I know good ones when I see them, I enjoy lengthy and meaty reviews, ones where the focus can shift from the specific book at hand and include other works by the same author, and indeed relevant pieces by [...]
Game of Thrones – Friday video
While I'm getting my act together to put up some more stuff about book reviewing, please enjoy the interview below with George RR Martin, creator of the Fire and Ice series (Game of Thrones). Even if you are not a GoT watcher/reader, or 'fantasy person' (I'm not ordinarily but I will confess to loving this [...]
The art of reviewing
There's been a bit of talk around the traps lately about literary criticism, blog reviewers (or should I say bloggers who review) and readers who review. Also aspiring authors who review. I was recently asked if I would be interested in doing reviewing and my knee-jerk reaction was to say NO. There were various sentiments [...]
Overnight successes
Here is an interesting article/interview with The Rosie Project author Graeme Simsion, on how his wildly-successful debut novel came into existence. For what seems like an overnight success, this project was years in the making. It gives those of us working hard at our 'things' hope and reassures us too (or me, anyway) that persistence [...]
Scattered
I remember a few years ago feeling I had reached the point where I was so stuffed with fiction I couldn't read it anymore, and turned to NF. I am wondering whether it's not happening again. I feel like my reading is flighty, agitated and skittish. I can't commit, I flit around, looking for something [...]
Tracing influence
I'm reading an interview with Michel Houellebecq in The Paris Review. These interviews are marvellous; along with First Tuesday Book Club catch ups on iView, these Paris interviews I think will take up much of my eyeball time over summer. I've never read any of Houellebecq's novels; I can barely spell his surname, there's a [...]
American Psycho, almost unreadable
[I have the cover on the left but the one on the right is super creepy and disturbing, don't you think?] I'm almost finished Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho. It is as bad as they say. At times it is simply unreadable and I have physical reactions - gasping and putting hands over my eyes. [...]
Influences – I feel strongly about John Irving
It's time to own it, I suppose. I have to say, his early stuff was fantastic and then it did get very self-indulgent which is disappointing but I did just recently see a quotation from someone saying that a writer does their best work in the first twenty years. (Maybe? maybe not.) If you want [...]
Notes on a Scandal, part 1
Jumping the gun here because I haven't finished reading this yet BUT I just had to mark my enjoyment of this book by a mini-post about the language used in this slender, satisfying novel. Am I the last person on earth to read this book? Published in 2003, the movie (I saw) came out in [...]
House of Sticks by Peggy Frew
I really enjoyed House of Sticks. It's about a mother who has put aside her music career to look after her three children. She has a husband, Pete, who is a fairly equal partner in the domestic running of things, and he is a solid and loving presence. It was refreshing to see a male [...]
Lola Bensky by Lily Brett
I was going to write only a few of paragraphs on this because I want this wordpress space to be pithy but I simply can't harness myself with this one. As Lola Bensky's father Edek would say: Oy, cholera. Lola Bensky is a rock journalist for an Australian publication. No doubt elements of Lola [...]
The Lighthouse by Alison Moore
I read two books last week and this 2012 Man Booker short-listed novel was one of them. The main character, Futh, is a man who is contained and restrained, and Moore's writerly hand was so light it was as if she left him alone to wend his way through the narrative. I am still haunted [...]
Maybe I’ll do a little something each day
So it's not often you experience an 'AH FUCK' moment in a book or film these days. Maybe it's my age - my jaded feeling that nothing much can surprise me, that things are usually predictable. Not saying there's not a HEAP of pleasure to be found in many many things, including books but I [...]
Day two of my lovely wordpress
Look how fresh and clean it is. And dull. I'm not sure what I'm doing, just want to get a few more pages on here. Let me tell you about the books I bought yesterday: The Mother's Group by Fiona Higgins. I think this one is going to surprise me and I like that. Not [...]
SERAGLIO 