Review: Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson
Often, family sagas centre on a great love, either thwarted or consummated. While Behind the Scenes at the Museum might be the story of a family, with limbs reaching back…
Let’s stop thinking of libraries as gifts, but as wise investments
There are plenty of things that young generations feel aggrieved about being saddled with. Climate change for one and a long-running war in the Middle East are two that leap…
Chasing a sense of community by the book
There are times in life when the goodwill of others is more obvious than usual. When you are walking using crutches, it is rare that a stranger doesn’t rush forward…
Some books bring the horror of war too close to home
Some scenes in The Narrow Road to the Deep North are hard to read and impossible to forget. Based on real events, Richard Flanagan’s award-winning novel tells of the experience…
Autobiography suffers from a missing chapter
“Everyone has a chapter they don’t read out loud.” (Anonymous) Bob Dylan’s memoir might be as lyrical as his songs and offer fascinating insights about his arrival on the music…
We need less news and more literature
We have global news at our finger tips, constant updates on social media and 24-hour services, meaning we can find out what is happening in the world, all day, every…
Book Review: Commonwealth by Ann Patchett
It can sometimes be difficult to describe what a book was ‘about’. While some might centre on an earth shattering event, others carry on quietly, with the reader bobbing along…
What do your book choices reveal about you?
How much do you ever really know about your workmates? Perhaps their daily coffee order. Maybe their favourite Netflix series. While we might spend a big chunk of our waking…
The voyeuristic pleasure of reading
As much as we might like to deny it, we are all voyeurs to some degree. Whether it is in the nightly news or reality television, we love to see…
Should parents teach their preschoolers to read?
From the time a baby is born, there are benchmarks that can be as frightening as they are imprecise. Anxious parents carefully jot down milestones in baby books and, at…
Never mistake simplicity for stupidity when it comes to books
There was a time in secondary school when only the longest, most obscure word would do. In Year 9, I remember waiting eagerly for the teacher to return an essay…
What I have learnt from six months of commuting
After six months of commuting to work three days a week, there remain few happier sights than the lights of the Melbourne-bound train rounding the bend as I stand on…
The peril of Book Week for the literature-loving parent
Parents of twins must be overjoyed during Book Week. Pop a couple of red onesies on their duo and they have Thing 1 and Thing 2. Simple and irresistible. While…
The bestseller list exposes a hole in Australians’ financial education
One book has dominated the Australian bestseller charts for the past year and a half since it was released. Could it be Liane Moriarty, with her irresistibly readable books and…
Great expectations can be the death of a book
It has been a long wait. Twenty years after writing The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy has released her second work of fiction, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness. Having…
How to avoid the battle of the school reader
It starts out a happy sign of a young learner’s first steps towards independent reading. The parent tucks their child under their arm to listen to them sound out words…
Book lovers are not always cut out to be booksellers
Many book lovers dream of opening their own bookstore. They imagine setting up a quaint and cosy shop, dimly lit, with little reading nooks and well-padded chairs. Fellow book lovers…
It is our responsibility to read painful books
Information is everywhere, overflowing from our phones and iPads, clogging up the internet and hijacking our free time. However, amid all of this information, a couple of years ago, my…
New tricks are fun, but the old arts endure
From Snapbook to Tingram, streaming to gaming, augmented reality to reality tv, the way we are entertained is constantly changing. No sooner does the next big technological advance emerge than…
Beware of the book that is impossible to forget
Most readers will have experienced the sense of panic of picking up their holiday read, only to realise a few pages in that the book is very familiar. It is a sad…
It’s hard to resist the lure of the perfect book title
Twitter demands the news of the day be condensed into 140 characters. In order to squeeze in our pithy commentary, we crop and substitute, abbreviate and summarise. Yet, Leo Tolstoy…
Bibliotourism isn’t just for bibliophiles
We've had agritourism, gastrotourism, sports tourism and volunteer tourism, but could the next big thing in travel be bibliotourism? Just like any worthwhile tourist attraction, libraries can tell you a…
Faraway tree or Andy Griffiths’ treehouse? Books for the inbetweeners.
It is not hard to find great books for young children. Libraries and bookshops have considerable areas dedicated to the under-fives, complete with beanbags and colourful posters. From Mem Fox…
Don’t sweat the small stuff when it comes to books
Nobel Prize winner Bob Dylan said in a recent lecture that you didn't really need to get a book, song or poem to enjoy it. For Dylan, the way a…
In defence of gossip magazines
It is easy to despise certain gossip magazines. They build up celebrities before brutally tearing them down with make-up free close-ups; they prey on women’s body insecurities; and they are,…
Why write?
The news is not good for writers. One of Australia’s great authors, Frank Moorhouse, is apparently going broke. He is unlikely to be the only one, with Australian writers earning…
The writer stripped bare
It can be hard to find gifts for a father-in-law. If he’s not into golf, footy or fishing, the choices are limited. With this in mind, I thought I had…
A winter of content has arrived for the bookish tribe
It's footy season again. Aussie Rules supporters have risen out of their summer hibernation and gathered their sashed or striped tribes. The games are watched in homes, pubs and clubs…
Fiction blurs the line between good and evil
A disabled child is killed, yet the reader finds themselves sympathising with the murderer. A family is slaughtered, but readers are surprised by the politeness and sensitivity of one of…
When pet names go wrong
Terms of endearment help bring people together. They are a way of displaying affection and familiarity between couples, parents, their children and friends. But sometimes they go wrong. I found…
We need to talk about motherhood
The ideal mother looms large in art and popular culture, from the ubiquitous image of Mary cradling Baby Jesus to the modern day supermum. In literature, motherhood is not always…
Books as gifts – to buy or not to buy?
There is a tradition in Iceland of giving loved ones the gift of a book on Christmas Eve. Closer to home, as we frantically hit the shops to find that…
The Lure of Shared Sadness
Sadness is something we shun. We shrink from the grieving as if their condition was contagious, and we implore the depressed to ‘cheer up’. In fear of the spectre of sadness,…
Why we should read difficult books
There are two types of people in the world: one who loves a challenge, and one who likes nothing less. I’ve always thought that I was in the latter category,…
A tale of two bookshops
To me, it seemed like the worst of times. A big, bright, multinational bookstore had opened up directly across the road from my favourite independent bookseller. Book lovers were miffed. How could…
Please don’t tell me reading is a waste of time
Conversation at polite dinner parties is constrained by an implicit set of rules. No talking religion, no talking politics and no talking sex. In the future, I might have to strike another category…
Don’t judge a book by its cover, but by its reader
It is easy for a reader to deliver a damning verdict on a book. Whether it is a debut novel or the masterpiece of a genius, the dismissal can be equally swift…
The upside of commuting
Commuting is bad for the body and mind. It increases the risk of depression, takes a toll on cardiovascular fitness and causes weight gain. It has even, somewhat melodramatically, been…
Cookbooks aren’t going to solve all our health problems
Food, glorious food. It is one of life’s great joys, and one that is constantly available in all of its wonderful fatty, salty, sweet diversity. As playwright George Bernard Shaw…
Can the real Australia be found in fiction?
It is a strange paradox that fiction can be a source of life's great truths. It is, after all, by its very nature made up. But there is no denying…
There’s no cure for the post-book blues
In the age of Skype, Twitter, Snapchat and Facebook, it is rare enough to disconnect from friends for an hour, let alone lose a friend for good. But letting go…
Do men and women read differently?
Children’s toys are famously gendered. On the shelves of a toy shop, dolls might stare across the aisle at the army figurines, but never the twain shall meet. And as…
Romantic fiction makes heroes of us all
‘Tis the season to watch 'Love Actually'. At least it was a couple of weeks ago, before the New Year set in and we turned our thoughts from romance, back…
The revenge of the book nerd
Growing up, I was never fond of being called a bookworm. And while Roald Dahl’s Matilda went some way to improving the reputation of young booklovers, no one wants to…
The arts can be an everyday reality
Reality television should come with a warning like that on cigarette packs, such is its addictiveness. Perhaps, then, I would have been aware of what I was getting myself into…
Books as gifts – to buy or not to buy?
There is a tradition in Iceland of giving loved ones the gift of a book on Christmas Eve. Closer to home, as we frantically hit the shops to find that…
Travel is better by the book than by the guidebook
Few travelers are disappointed by the sight of the Alhambra in Granada, Spain. The Moorish palace and fort is one of the world’s most impressive monuments, from its stunning architecture…
There’s more to teen fiction than Harry Potter
The teenage years are renowned as being some of life’s most impressionable. It is a time when Kurt Cobain speaks to the soul and Eddie Furlong speaks to the heart.…
Introverts can be saved by the book
High school years can be a minefield for introverts. During a typical day, opportunities to socialise are many, from arrival in the morning until the after-school pick-up. But opportunities for…
What makes a book ‘good’?
The idea of a book being good or bad is enough to send many book lovers into a flurry of indignation. All books, they might say with fierceness and finality,…
Facebook won’t change your mind, but books might
It can be hard to listen to someone whose opinion you don’t agree with. Infuriating, even. Imagine listening to that opinion daily for up to two months, without having the…
Let’s take the morality out of beauty
Rebecca Judd and Roald Dahl's The Twits might be strange bedfellows, but one response to the hoopla surrounding Judd's postpartum body selfie reminded me of a line from the book.…
Uniting the generations is not just a fairytale
Children’s literature doesn't always treat the elderly well. Fairytales often depict the elderly as wicked or weak, from the evil witch in Hansel and Gretel to Red Riding Hood’s helpless,…
The problem with book clubs
The best way to kill a book is to make it required reading at high school. Some of the world’s great novels have been ruined in this way, rendering tiresome…
In praise of modern libraries
The sound of toddlers singing ‘Heads, shoulders, knees and toes’ rings out across the room, punctuated by squeals of laughter and the occasional teary tantrum. No, we are not at…
Literary humour can be lost in translation
There is a particular kind of humour to be found in the pages of a book. It is often subtle and unexpected, creeping up on the reader who didn't expect…
Lessons are lovely but fun comes first
Children can be fickle creatures. One minute they like something, the next minute they push it away in disgust. I’ve seen my kids do it with food, toys and occasionally,…
The evolution of fatherhood in life and fiction
"For the times, they are a-changing" The lyrics of Bob Dylan's famous song continue to ring true, particularly in their call to writers and critics to herald change. One area…
What makes a word beautiful or ugly?
There is a beautiful village in the Cotswolds in England, all stone walls and flower boxes, called Upper Slaughter, and another called Lower Slaughter. The macabre place names could not…
How to read to a reluctant baby or toddler
Forget Sudoku for toddlers, in utero Mozart concertos and Baby Einstein DVDs, one of the best ways to promote babies' development is to read to them. And it is never…
