Antelopes have 10x vision, you said. It was the beginning or close to it. That means that on a clear night they can see the rings of Saturn. Written as a series of vignettes, Dept. of Speculation is a snapshot of a marriage, with a healthy dash of philosophical musings thrown in for good measure. … Continue reading Dept. of Speculation | Jenny Offill
When I was seventeen years old and still living in the seaside town where I spent my childhood, I would go for a few hours every Sunday morning to the home of a retired teacher of English literature to talk about books. I have four outstanding book reviews (plus several short story reviews that I … Continue reading The Road to Middlemarch: My Life with George Eliot | Rebecca Mead
One does not have to be a combat soldier, or visit a refugee camp in Syria or the Congo to encounter trauma. Trauma happens to us, our friends, our families, and our neighbours. Research by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has shown that one in five Americans are sexually molested as a child; … Continue reading The Body Keeps the Score | Bessel van der Kolk
The hawk was everything I wanted to be: solitary, self-possessed, free from grief, and numb to the hurts of human life. In an attempt to get back into blogging about individual books again, I have decided to revive the 'favourite' format I was using pre-pandemic. I'm not sure why I stopped as I found it … Continue reading H is For Hawk | Helen Macdonald
The very first thing I want to know is how does Emily pronounce her middle name? Does she say it as it looks, 'saint john', or does she use the English pronunciation 'sinjin'? I have no idea, or any good reason, why it has taken me so long to get around to reading this terrific … Continue reading Station Eleven | Emily St. John Mandel
I learnt something new this weekend. Whilst listening to a podcast with David Mitchell about his latest book, Utopia Avenue, he was asked about a not-yet-published book, called From Me Flows What You Call Time. It turns out this is a book he was invited to write by artist Katie Paterson for her Future Library … Continue reading The Future Library Project | Katie Paterson
Smile and Sisters have been two very popular books at work with 11-14 year old girls. Now I see why. Raina Telgemeier has created two very personal, engaging stories from two significant events in her pre-teen years. Smile details her rather horrific orthodontic work, while Sisters not only features her relationship with her younger sister, … Continue reading Smile & Sisters by Raina Telgemeier
Dark Emu Black Seeds challenges the orthodoxy of how Australia was settled and what the settlers actually saw when they arrived. To the victor goes the spoils...as well as the right to write history their way. Reading E.H. Carr's What is History? during my first year at Uni was the first time I had cause … Continue reading Dark Emu Black Seeds: Agriculture or Accident? by Bruce Pascoe
Sometimes the perfect book lands on your doorstep at exactly the right time. This past month or so has been pretty ordinary. The loss of a much loved family member to cancer has left us all exhausted and numb. I'm sure many of you know the drill we've been through lately. The shock, followed by … Continue reading The Murderer’s Ape | Jakob Wegelius
This slim, stylish short story has got under my skin. I wasn't really expecting it to - before, during or immediately after reading it. But somehow, two days later, Springtime has subtly tiptoed into my imagination and opened up a whole host of possibilities. The power of de Krestser's story is in her descriptions and … Continue reading Springtime: A Ghost Story | Michelle de Kretser #AUSnovella
Being Mortal was nothing like what I expected it to be. I thought it was going to be a philosophical discourse on the nature of aging. Instead I quickly discovered an anecdotal journey through the US aged care system.However, interspersed amongst the anecdotes were loads of interesting facts and discussions about aging through the times … Continue reading Being Mortal | Atul Gawande
So, yes. I am a woman of a certain age. I don't quite know how I got to this age so quickly. I still think of this age as being my mother's age, not mine. Nevertheless, here we are. For the past couple of years I have been in the over 45 age bracket! Me! … Continue reading You’re Still Hot To Me | Jean Kittson #AWWnonfiction
For the first time in a very long time, two Christmas books have made this year's CBCA shortlist. Little Dog and the Christmas Wish by Corinne Fenton and Robin Cowcher is shortlisted for the Crichton Award for New Illustrators.Tea and Sugar Christmas by Jane Jolly and Robert Ingpen is shortlisted for the Eve Pownall Award … Continue reading Christmas comes to the CBCA
One of the things I love about the new Stella Prize is that it encourages me to read authors & books that I might otherwise overlook. Heat and Light had slipped under my radar last year, but when it was shortlisted I did a little research and found some very interesting reviews. I dived in … Continue reading Heat and Light | Ellen Van Neerven
One of the many pleasures of being a bookseller, is meeting the authors and attending their book launches. I've known about this little gem based on real life events in Albury, NSW for a while now.Loretta lives locally and a year or so ago, she popped into our bookshop to discuss publication options and, eventually, … Continue reading Stand Up and Cheer by Loretta Re
