Humour brings unexpected bliss to difficult themes
I've never made any secret of my love of a harrowing read. I love a book that leaves me feeling pummelled and wrung out ... and it gets extra points…
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 point in time when emotions are big and raw and…
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 a year ago, it was such a joy to see…
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 that are central to writers. So, it is no surprise…
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 at the Bendigo Writers Festival. First, they chatted about the…
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 have been enough to attract me to the event -…
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 he devoured the series. However, having finished the final book…
Book Review: The Happiest Man on Earth by Eddie Jaku
The Happiest Man on Earth by Eddie Jaku I listened to The Happiest Man on Earth by Eddie Jaku and it was an absolute delight. It was one of those…
Book review: Animal by Lisa Taddeo
The title of Lisa Taddeo’s book speaks volumes about what lies within. Animal is a book of trauma and its consequences, played out by Joan, who is introduced to the…
The Arsonist: A Mind on Fire by Chloe Hooper
The Arsonist: A Mind on Fire attracted a lot of attention when it was published, which was unsurprising, given its topic. Chloe Hooper’s book looks at Victoria’s Black Saturday fires…
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 a car accident. The mother, who happened to be the…
Book review: A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
There are many books that I forget almost as soon as I finish reading them. Even those that I love are often lost in a dusty part of my mind.…
Book review: The Leavers by Lisa Ko
The Leavers centres on the story of a young boy, Deming, who is seemingly abandoned by his Chinese mother in New York. The story revolves around the impact of the…
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 social occasions sometimes do, they make no demands of me.…
Book review: Phosphorescence by Julia Baird
I usually steer well clear of self-help or emotional wellbeing-type books, but this one was given to me by a friend so I ended up flicking through it. I did…
Book review: A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
During one of Victoria’s many lockdowns, A Gentleman in Moscow provided a vision of a different kind of lockdown. And it was refreshing to read about a man dealing with…
Book review: The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel
This was a long read to start the year, but a great one. The third in the Thomas Cromwell series was quite the tome, beginning after the death of Anne…
Book review: Infinite Splendours by Sofie Laguna
Sofie Laguna has to be my favourite Australian author. I absolutely love her style of writing and the emotional subjects she broaches in her books. Infinite Splendours once again deals…
Book review: American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins
I shied away from American Dirt after hearing controversy surrounding Jeanine Cummins’ bestseller. However, after one of my best friends said she had loved it and I found it at…
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 Devotion. In Kent’s book, a religious community arrives in South…
Book review: Devotion by Hannah Kent
After loving Burial Rites and The Good People, I was pretty sure that I’d enjoy Hannah Kent’s latest novel. And when I started reading Devotion, I immediately knew I was…
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 time during the Christmas holidays. But, I figure that it…
The bittersweet sense of an ending
My husband and I recently finished watching The Bureau on SBS, a series that followed the French intelligence service as it carried out missions around the world. It was engrossing…
In a life of ups and downs, reading is a constant
I have been fortunate enough to cuddle, squeeze and smell two babies who were only months old recently. It has been a few years since my children were that little…
Book review: The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker
Gosh, I really like Greek mythology. First, I read Circe and The Song of Achilles, and now Pat Barker’s The Silence of the Girls. I have loved them all. While…
Book Review: The Labyrinth by Amanda Lohrey
Any book that starts with a mother visiting her son in prison is bound to capture my attention and Amanda Lohrey’s novel was certainly promising. The book won the 2021…
Historical fiction is the ultimate 2-for-1
There is plenty to be learnt from fiction, where you can inhabit someone else’s reality for a time. But when a book is a work of historical fiction, it feels…
Book review: Still Life by Sarah Winman
I started Sarah Winman’s Still Life with extremely high expectations after hearing from friends and social media that it was a must-read. I had also heard that it was set…
Book review: The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
Matt Haig’s The Midnight Library is a modern-day fable that tells the story of a young woman’s journey towards the discovery that her life is worthwhile, and in fact, beautiful.…
Books in which setting is character, plot and mood
Some books are all about character, while others depend on their plot. Then there is another type of book altogether in which the setting plays the role of both character…
I’ll read anything written by my favourite authors … even if it’s a book about footy
In my mind, my favourite writers are organised in a heirarchy of how desperately I will try to get my hands on their latest book. For instance, as soon as…
I wonder if Geek Love would have survived cancel culture
I have to admit that I felt more than a little uneasy reading Katherine Dunn’s cult classic, Geek Love … almost as if I needed to look over my shoulder.…
Book review: A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler
I listened to A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler on audiobook and it I think I enjoyed it more in that format than I would have in hard…
The battle of the bookshelves
There are a lot of reasons to disagree at the moment. We can argue endlessly about the advantages and disadvantages of COVID lockdowns, whether to get vaccinated (YES!), and how…
Book review: Three Women by Lisa Taddeo
Can you enjoy a book that disturbs you and frighten you? Who am I kidding, I love a book that makes your stomach churn and your heart sink, and that's…
You can’t judge a book by its review
The last book I read was fabulous. Lisa Taddeo’s Three Women shocked me, and moved me, and changed me. When I finished it, I wanted to talk about it to…
Book review: The Plains by Gerald Murnane
It’s rare to encounter a book that is so far removed from anything else you have read. But that was exactly what happened when I picked up The Plains by…
Book review: Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams
It took me a while to get to The Dictionary of Lost Words, after hearing rave reviews about it, and I have to say it was well worth the wait.…
Why I’m Stocking My Bookshelf with Books I’ve Already Read
I visited the charity shop earlier in the week and was thrilled to find Hilary Mantel’s Bring Up the Bodies, the second in the Wolf Hall trilogy, on the shelves…
Book review: The Good Turn by Dervla McTiernan
I have to admit that Cormac Reilly is REALLY growing on me. I think Dervla McTiernan might have found the perfect hero in her good cop at the centre of…
Book review: When Life Gives You Lemons by Fiona Gibson
The optimistic title of When Life Gives You Lemons sums up Fiona Gibson's book - it is sweet and positive and heart warming. I picked up this book when I…
Book review: Kokomo by Victoria Hannan
I have to admit that the first page got my attention, describing in vivid detail a full-frontal performance by the protagonist’s workmate. Victoria Hannan’s debut novel, Kokomo, is certainly easy…
I’m suffering from bookish FOMO
I’m about to start reading The Dictionary of Lost Words and I can’t get into it quickly enough. You see, I suffer from bookish FOMO. I hate hearing about a…
The Discomfort of Evening by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld
I really don’t know what to make of this one. The Booker Prize winner for 2020, The Discomfort of Evening is set on a cattle farm, capturing the story of…
Maybe the Horse Will Talk by Elliot Perlman
Elliot Perlman’s Maybe the Horse Will Talk is entirely different from his other books I have read – Three Dollars and Seven Types of Ambiguity. This one was a romp…
Book review: The Confession by Jessie Burton
Jessie Burton’s The Confession is a book split into the past and the present – one set n the 1980s when a glamorous woman falls under the spell of successful…
Book review: Luster by Raven Leilani
Who could resist the pull of the red lips on the cover of Luster? And true to first impressions, the story intimate, pushing boundaries in love. But unfortunately, the boundaries…
My reading highlights of the first half of 2021
Like last year, when it took me months to plough through The Brothers Karamazov, this year my reading has been slowed down by another LONG read – this time it…
Should authors shut up and let their books do the talking?
Sometimes I really hate it when writers open their mouths. I was reminded of this recently when I heard that Naomi Wolf had been banned from Twitter for spouting outlandish…
More feel-good fiction for our fourth (and final?) lockdown
None of us thought we’d be here, did we? As Melbourne endures its fourth lockdown, we're all feeling a little jaded. We had hoped that the vaccine rollout would have…
Book review: Apeirogon by Colum McCann
Apeirogon is by no means a comfortable or enjoyable read. I didn’t find myself excitedly reaching for it or wanting to keep reading deep into the night. But the more…
I’ve had enough of the childish narrator … for now
Some of my favourite narrators are children. It can be incredibly moving to immerse yourself in the life of a child and once again see the world through innocent eyes.…
Book review: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by JK Rowling
Harry and his friends really are growing up in the sixth instalment of the Harry Potter series. There is less mischief and a little more darkness in Harry Potter and…
Book recommendations for every reader
My brother has just jetted of on holiday in Darwin and before he left he asked for some book recommendations. He has been an occasional reader since school, but had…
Book review: Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams
Queenie was one of the funniest books I’ve read in a long time. The book follows the sharp and hilarious title character, Queenie, after her boyfriend decides he wants a…
Book review: The Girl on the Page by John Purcell
If there’s one thing I like even better than books, it’s books about … books. John Purcell’s The Girl on the Page is delightfully obsessed with books – the different…
How would you be described in a book?
Writers can be brutal in their descriptions of their minor characters. While the protagonist is usually complex and multilayered, writers have the freedom to let loose when they describe the…
Book Review: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix begins dramatically, with Harry and his cousin being attacked by Dementors. Forced to use magic to defend them both, Harry is threatened…
Book review: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by JK Rowling
It might be that I really, really want Harry to have someone watching over him like a parent might, but I think this is my favourite book of the Harry…
Book review: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by JK Rowling
The adorable Dobby is more than slightly frustrating in the second instalment of JK Rowling's Harry Potter series. At the beginning of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, he…
