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Diary of a Weekend Farmer by Elizabeth Jolley
I’ve not read anything by Elizabeth Jolley before, and perhaps “Diary of a Weekend Farmer” was a strange place to start. Nonetheless, these selected extracts from her journal have the bare immediacy of poetry, and indeed, include poems. The paintings by Evelyn Kotai reproduced in the book were haunting and are part of the strange…
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Australian Romance eBooks
Three for the price of one, today. I’m reviewing Wish by Kelly Hunter, One Perfect Night by Rachael Johns and When Harriet Came Home by Coleen Kwan in alphabetical order by author’s surname, and what really interested me was how much these stories had in common. What didn’t surprise me was how much I enjoyed…
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The Blood Countess by Tara Moss
One of the best parts of the Australian Women Writers Reading and Reviewing Challenge is the list of reviews by participants (and anyone can participate). There are some wonderful books out there that I suspect Iād never have stumbled across without this challenge. There are also some wonderfully talented authors out there whose work, this…
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The Griffith Review
At the end of 2011 I prepared for the new year by buying a couple of digital zine subscriptions. The Griffith Review was one of them and I received its 35th edition a couple of weeks ago. The theme of this issue is “surviving”. I expected mostly fiction and got mostly fact. It made for…
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Savage or Civilised? by Penny Russell
For all its wealth of well-researched detail, Savage or Civilised? Manners in Colonial Australia by Penny Russell is a subtle book. It opens with mention of Norbert Elias’s notions of manners and power, and this theme underpins the history. The reader isn’t hit over the head with discussions of power, but the reality of the…