Why Sally Rooney’s latest left me a bit cold … and old
It’s hard to resist Sally Rooney’s books of youthful love, lust and friendship. Somehow, the 31-year-old writer perfectly captures a…
The joy of a film adaptation of a well-loved book
Today I went to the movies and watched Mothering Sunday, and it was fabulous. After having read Graham Swift's novella…
Cli-fi is a little too close to home right now
The best books reflect the times in which they were written. They capture the zeitgeist by addressing the social issues…
Reflection on BWF – do books make us think?
It was wonderful to listen to Lucy Treloar, Charlotte Wood and Jane Rawson discuss whether books can change a reader…
Makes You Think at Bendigo Writers’ Festival
This weekend I'm heading to the Bendigo Writers' Festival to attend the Makes You Think session. While the panelists might…
Beyond Harry Potter – books for 10 to 13-year-olds
My 11-year-old son loved reading Harry Potter and Harry, Hermione and Ron kept him enthralled for almost a year as…
Do harrowing books prepare you for the worst or make you fear it?
I heard an interesting TED Talk on resilience recently, delivered by a mother who had lost her 12-year-old daughter in…
The best book characters I’ve encountered recently
As an introvert, I find that book characters can be better company than real people. Rather than exhausting me as…
Book review: A Room Made of Leaves by Kate Grenville
It was interesting to read Kate Grenville’s historical fiction about the settlers’ experience of Australia straight after finishing Hannah Kent’s…
My favourite books of 2021
I’m a bit late off the mark with my best of 2021 list seeing I decided to have some laptop-free…
