tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22561308050765114962024-03-15T01:43:05.776+10:00Luvvie's MusingsWelcome to my little blog. I feel compelled to blog from time to time. If you feel compelled to comment/follow, I'd be delighted to share thoughts. Consider this a friendly wave to the universe.Alex Dawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05083753053051713061noreply@blogger.comBlogger214125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2256130805076511496.post-12755754076840245612022-06-07T11:19:00.000+10:002022-06-07T11:19:12.041+10:00The Registrar by Neela Janakiramanan #BRPreview<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLa04WoAhZwO3YcJsIeqg2HWMbsMGlDNeMADless8hof7nG_4oHs55-NsXRSgZ-8a8tLrF8S6TzmXUpsqNdS8cSRXgcVgvYQzxwKuZYmwPeavtDHdYuRCbz17fpJ41sZteMIP-N1lELuaql3iT6-_WhVXmpylX_JhaCKL1dGjXRMJGVevePqLuFfrTpQ/s475/The%20Registrar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="311" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLa04WoAhZwO3YcJsIeqg2HWMbsMGlDNeMADless8hof7nG_4oHs55-NsXRSgZ-8a8tLrF8S6TzmXUpsqNdS8cSRXgcVgvYQzxwKuZYmwPeavtDHdYuRCbz17fpJ41sZteMIP-N1lELuaql3iT6-_WhVXmpylX_JhaCKL1dGjXRMJGVevePqLuFfrTpQ/w263-h400/The%20Registrar.jpg" width="263" /></a></div><p></p><p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;">The mental health of those who work in the health sector is
in crisis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Anyone who reads the news can
attest to this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;">This is a fictional
account of the crisis but grounded in truth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The author has a wide experience working in the public health sector and
her writing is authentic and convincing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;">We are
carried on the whirlwind of Emma’s journey training to be a surgeon as a
registrar.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The hours are relentless and
unforgiving but Emma is all you would want in a trainee surgeon, brilliant but
empathic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her baptism into the grueling
work is made bearable by the support of her older brother, Andy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He becomes her guide and chief counsel in
times of unbearable stress.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;">I was
barracking for Emma all the way and incredulous at such a flawed system
designed to trip up rather than support those in it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> Emma makes some poor choices personally but given the extraordinary challenges she faces on a daily basis, I think we can forgive her her occasional lapse of judgement. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;">Light relief </span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>is provided by the description of the ludicrous attempts of the human resources
department to band-aid the gaping wounds in the system.Bu</span>t they of course are not to blame.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The blame lies fairly and squarely in the
hands of the surgeons themselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An
outdated apprenticeship system, like a stack of cards, is doomed to
collapse.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But will the system or its new recruits collapse first?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">This book is not for everyone. There are some rather squeamish descriptions of operations and there are definitely a few trigger incidents in the story. But if you care deeply about surely one of the most important sectors in our country, you owe it to those who care for us in our darkest hours, to acknowledge their journey and its challenges.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">I was lucky enough to be selected for a review copy of this book through Better Reading. Thank you @betterreadingau! </span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-small;">#BRPreview</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span></span></p>
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<![endif]--></p>Alex Dawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05083753053051713061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2256130805076511496.post-22978060992254392202022-01-01T20:26:00.007+10:002022-01-01T20:55:43.370+10:002022 Reading Goals<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjBlAXBsjCrtpDr4EM6zaOP08WPyRorog7pOML7srjZMWeJ4wdyYY9lNsDWRznoQWbEWzaO1YE_43H8nzBT3qownDFVRHFG8lUc_tBNyjbX1ncTZ6PgjWNgVSvYjHLTEf3FdnTP-AOu-U5TouNn2o_0KBejqx1BxAN0Xp9zE8JLiZ2WsOR4mriA7Xvbmg=s509" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="340" data-original-width="509" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjBlAXBsjCrtpDr4EM6zaOP08WPyRorog7pOML7srjZMWeJ4wdyYY9lNsDWRznoQWbEWzaO1YE_43H8nzBT3qownDFVRHFG8lUc_tBNyjbX1ncTZ6PgjWNgVSvYjHLTEf3FdnTP-AOu-U5TouNn2o_0KBejqx1BxAN0Xp9zE8JLiZ2WsOR4mriA7Xvbmg=w320-h214" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">How was your reading year? </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">I set myself a goal of 50 books but only managed to read 32.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Too much bridge playing me thinks ;)</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">This year, because I never learn, I've set an even higher goal. But more of that in a moment.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">So here are the titles I read (or listened to) in 2021. The blurbs are from Goodreads:</span></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57768107-love-virtue" target="_blank"><i> Love and Virtue</i> by Diana Reid</a> - <i>Feminism, power and sex play out through the eyes of young Australian uni students in a contemporary narrative that is fiercely authentic. </i>On The Australian's Books of the Year list. And the Chat 10 Looks 3 list. <b>Contemporary Fiction.</b><br /></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34673294-the-lost-book-of-the-grail" target="_blank"><i>The Lost Book of the Grail</i> by Charlie Lovatt </a>- <i>Arthur Prescott is happiest when surrounded by the ancient manuscripts of the Barchester Cathedral library, nurturing his obsession with the Holy Grail and researching his perennially unfinished guidebook to the medieval cathedral. But when Bethany Davis arrives in Barchester to digitize the library's manuscripts, Arthur's tranquility is broken. Appalled by the threat of modern technology, he sets out to thwart Bethany, only to find in her a kindred spirit - and a fellow Grail fanatic.</i>I listened to the audio version which was great. <b>Mystery/Historical Fiction</b><br /></span></li><li><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49392474-the-godmother" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>The Godmother</i> by Hannelore Cayre</span></a><span style="font-family: arial;"> - I<i>nspiration for the major motion picture Mama Weed; translated from the international bestseller La Daronne, winner of the European Crime Fiction Prize and the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière, France’s most prestigious prize for crime fiction. </i><b>Crime/Mystery</b><br /></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31134108-the-adventure-of-the-christmas-pudding" target="_blank">Adventure of the Christmas Pudding</a></i> by Agatha Christie -<i>First came a sinister warning to Poirot not to eat any plum pudding...then the discovery of a corpse in a chest...next, an overheard quarrel that led to murder...the strange case of the dead man who altered his eating habits...and the puzzle of the victim who dreamt his own suicide.</i></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Crime/Mystery</b></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23280232-still-alice" target="_blank"><i>Still Alice</i> by Lisa Genova</a> - <i>Still Alice is a compelling debut novel about a 50-year-old woman's sudden descent into early onset Alzheimer's disease, written by first-time author Lisa Genova, who holds a Ph. D in neuroscience from Harvard University.</i></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Contemporary Fiction.</b></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58839948-betoota-isms" target="_blank"><i>Betoota-isms</i> by The Betoota Advociate</a> - <i>Sugarcane Champagne<br />/ sug-ar-cane sham-'pén /<br /><br />1. Bundaberg Rum/Bundy Rum<br />2. Biblical holy water produced and enjoyed in South East<br />Queensland<br />3. Official fighting fluid of North Queensland </i><b>Humour</b><br /><br /></span></li><li><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41436558-convenience-store-woman" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Convenience Store Woman</i> by Sayara Murata</span></a><span style="font-family: arial;"> - Convenience Store Woman is the heartwarming and surprising story of thirty-six-year-old Tokyo resident Keiko Furukura. Keiko has never fit in, neither in her family, nor in school, but when at the age of eighteen she begins working at the Hiiromachi branch of “Smile Mart,” she finds peace and purpose in her life.</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Contemporary Fiction.</b></span></span></li><li><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58134644-secrets-of-happiness" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Secrets of Happiness</i> by Joan Silber</span></a><span style="font-family: arial;"> - <i>Ethan, a young lawyer in New York, learns that his father has long kept a second family - a Thai wife and two kids living in Queens. In the aftermath of this revelation, Ethan's mother spends a year travelling abroad, returning much changed, just as her now ex-husband falls ill.</i> <b>Literary fiction.</b><br /></span></li><li><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36700347-good-talk" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Good Talk</i> by Mira Jacob</span></a><span style="font-family: arial;"> -<i>Mira Jacob's touching, often humorous, and utterly unique graphic memoir takes readers on her journey as a first-generation American. At an increasingly fraught time for immigrants and their families, Good Talk delves into the difficult conversations about race, sex, love, and family that seem to be unavoidable these days.</i><b>Memoir</b><br /></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45285943-the-beekeeper-of-aleppo" target="_blank"><i>The Beekeeper of Aleppo</i> by Christy Lefteri </a>- <i>Nuri is a beekeeper; his wife, Afra, an artist. They live a simple life, rich in family and friends, in the beautiful Syrian city of Aleppo - until the unthinkable happens. When all they care for is destroyed by war, they are forced to escape.</i><b>Historical fiction</b><br /></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57203577-still" target="_blank"><i>Still</i> by Matt Nable</a> - <i>The humidity sat heavy and thick over the town as Senior Constable Ned Potter looked down at a body that had been dragged from the shallow marshland. He didn't need a coroner to tell him this was a bad death.</i></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Crime/Mystery</b></span></span></span></li><li><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58645800-should-we-stay-or-should-we-go" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Should we stay or should we go</i> by Lionel Shriver</span></a><span style="font-family: arial;"> - <i>When her father dies, Kay Wilkinson can’t cry. Over ten years, Alzheimer’s had steadily eroded this erudite man. Surely one’s own father passing should never come as such a relief?</i> </span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Contemporary Fiction.</b></span></span></li><li><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53446093-patch-work" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Patch Work</i> by Claire Wilcox</span></a><span style="font-family: arial;"> - <i>A linen sheet, smooth with age. A box of buttons, mother-of-pearl and plastic, metal and glass, rattling and untethered. A hundred-year-old pin, forgotten in a hem. Fragile silks and fugitive dyes, fans and crinolines, and the faint mark on leather from a buckle now lost. Claire Wilcox has worked as a curator in Fashion at the Victoria & Albert Museum for most of her working life</i>. </span><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Memoir</b></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57597917-how-to-love-your-laundry" target="_blank"><i>How to Love Your Laundry</i> by Patric Richardson -</a> </span><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Humour and yes it is about doing your laundry/Household Management<br /></b></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54563619-the-dictionary-of-lost-words" target="_blank"><i>The Dictionary of Lost Words</i> by Pip Williams</a> - <i>In 1901, the word ‘Bondmaid’ was discovered missing from the Oxford English Dictionary. This is the story of the girl who stole it. </i></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Historical fiction</b></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58366123-a-clear-vision" target="_blank"><i>A Clear Vision</i> by Elisabeth Wheeler</a> - <i>A Clear Vision is the story of Mrs Janet O'Connor, first Lady Principal of the new Brisbane Girls Grammar School in 1875. Her philosophy of education would clash with the grammar mode and she went on to found her own school in the City which moved to Oxley and was called Duporth</i>.<b>Non-Fiction/History</b><br /></span></li><li><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53368423-a-lonely-girl-is-a-dangerous-thing" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>A Lonely Girl is a Dangerous Thing</i> by Jessie Tu</span></a><span style="font-family: arial;"> - <i>Growing up is always hard, but especially when so many think you're a washed-up has-been at twenty-two.</i></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Contemporary Fiction</b></span></span></span></li><li><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/46029381-downsizing-with-family-history-in-mind" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Downsizing with Family History in Mind</i> by Devon Noel Lee and Andrew Lee</span></a><span style="font-family: arial;"> -<i>Whether you have 1 hour or 1 year to downsize your possessions or those of a loved one, the task is overwhelming and fraught with error. Downsizing with Family History in Mind guides you through the process with Action Plans based on the time you have available to complete the downsizing process</i>. <b>Non-Fiction/Genealogy</b><br /></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38651118-at-home" target="_blank"><i>Isabel Lopez-Quesada at Home</i> by Isabel Lopez-Quesada</a> -<i>Innovatively combining period and contemporary furniture and art in a sophisticated mix, the homes of Isabel López-Quesada are inspirational and unforgettable. In At Home, the Spanish designer tells her own story. </i></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Memoir</b></span></span></li><li><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52384536-this-lovely-city" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>This Lovely City </i>by Louise Hare</span></a><span style="font-family: arial;"> - <i>London, 1950. With the war over and London still rebuilding, jazz musician Lawrie Matthews has answered England’s call for labour. Arriving from Jamaica aboard the Empire Windrush, he’s rented a tiny room in south London and fallen in love with the girl next door.</i></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Historical fiction</b></span></span></span></li><li><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1818286.Our_Spoons_Came_from_Woolworths" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Our Spoons Came from Woolworths</i> by Barbara Comyns</span></a><span style="font-family: arial;"> - <i>Marry in haste, repent at leisure. Sophia is twenty-one years old, carries a newt -- Great Warty -- around in her pocket and marries -- in haste -- a young artist called Charles. Swept into bohemian London of the thirties, Sophia is ill-equipped to cope.</i><b>Classic/Virago</b><br /></span></li><li><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2702242-sisters-by-a-river" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Sisters by a River</i> by Barbara Comyns</span></a><span style="font-family: arial;"> - <i>On the banks of the River Avon, six sisters are born. The seasons come and go, the girls take their lessons under the ash tree, and always there is the sound of water swirling through the weir. Then, unexpectedly, an air of decay descends upon the house: ivy grows unchecked over the windows, angry shouts split the summer air, the milk sours in the larder and their father takes out his gun.</i></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Classic/Virago</b></span></span></li><li><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26079330-flesh-wounds" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Flesh Wounds </i>by Richard Glover</span></a><span style="font-family: arial;"> - <i>A mother who invented her past, a father who was often absent, a son who wondered if this could really be his family</i>. </span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Memoir</b></span></span></li><li><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31204188-the-spyglass-file" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>The Spyglass File</i> by Nathan Dylan Goodwin</span></a><span style="font-family: arial;"> - <i>Morton Farrier was no longer at the top of his game. His forensic genealogy career was faltering and he was refusing to accept any new cases, preferring instead to concentrate on locating his own elusive biological father. Yet, when a particular case presents itself, that of finding the family of a woman abandoned in the midst of the Battle of Britain, Morton is compelled to help her to unravel her past. </i></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Historical fiction/Genealogy Mystery</b></span></span></span><i><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><br /></b></span></span></span></i></span></li><li><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53287007-girl-in-the-walls" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Girl in the Walls</i> by AJ Gnuse</span></a><span style="font-family: arial;"> - <i>Elise knows every inch of the house. She knows which boards will creak. She knows where the gaps are in the walls. She knows which parts can take her in, hide her away. It’s home, after all. </i><b>Thriller </b><br /></span></li><li><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2348251.Certain_Lives" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Certain Lives </i>by Margaret Reeson</span></a><span style="font-family: arial;"> - <i>Spanning the century from 1830 to the First World War and the Great Depression comes this dramatic story of three generations of Australian women. Bestselling author Margaret Reeson evokes with warmth and insight the pain and progress, joy and tragedy of Anna, Mary and Grace – mother, daughter and granddaughter. </i><b>Family History/Faction</b><br /></span></li><li><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53415294-the-champagne-war" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>The Champagne War</i> by Fiona McIntosh</span></a><span style="font-family: arial;"> - <i>In the summer of 1914, vigneron Jerome Mea heads off to war, certain he’ll be home by Christmas. His new bride Sophie Delancré, a fifth generation champenoise, is determined to ensure the forthcoming vintages will be testament to their love and the power of the people of Épernay, especially its strong women who have elevated champagne to favourite beverage of the rich and royal worldwide.</i></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Historical fiction</b></span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55506121-the-mountains-sing" target="_blank"><i>The Mountains Sing</i> by Nguyen Phan Que Mai</a> - <i>With the epic sweep of Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko or Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing and the lyrical beauty of Vaddey Ratner’s In the Shadow of the Banyan, The Mountains Sing tells an enveloping, multigenerational tale of the Tran family, set against the backdrop of the Viet Nam War.</i></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Historical fiction</b></span></span></span></span></span></li><li><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52804098-nobody-will-tell-you-this-but-me" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Nobody will tell you this but Me</i> by Bess Kalb</span></a><span style="font-family: arial;"> -<i>Bess Kalb--whip-smart, Twitter-famous TV comedy writer and regular New Yorker "Daily Shouts" columnist--has saved every voicemail message her grandmother, Bobby Bell, ever left her. The two were best friends and confidantes. Bobby doted on her granddaughter; Bess adored Bobby. In 2017, nearly ninety, Bobby died </i></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Memoir</b></span></span></span></li><li><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53952835-honeybee" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Honeybee</i> by Craig Silvey</span></a><span style="font-family: arial;"> - <i>Honeybee is a heart-breaking, life-affirming novel that throws us headlong into a world of petty thefts, extortion plots, botched bank robberies, daring dog rescues and one spectacular drag show</i>.</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Contemporary Fiction/Bookclub</b></span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49085800-weather" target="_blank"><i>Weather</i> by Jenny Offill</a> - <i>a shimmering tour de force about a family, and a nation, in crisis </i></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Contemporary Fiction</b></span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48613168-memorial-drive" target="_blank"><i>Memorial Drive</i> by Natasha Trethewey</a> - <i>Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Natasha Trethewey explores this profound experience of pain, loss, and grief as an entry point into understanding the tragic course of her mother’s life and the way her own life has been shaped by a legacy of fierce love and resilience</i></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>. Memoir</b></span></span></span></span></li></ol><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;">So, 7 contemporary fiction, 7 historical fiction, 3 crime/mystery, 2 humour, 6 Memoirs, 2 classics, 1 history, 1 thriller, 1 genealogy book, 1 family history, 1 Literary fiction.It's also important to acknowledge that I did start reading 24 other books but I'm not going to put them here. Most of these were new to me authors with the exception of Agatha Christie, Lionel Shriver, Fiona McIntosh and Nathan Dylan-Goodwin.<br /></span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;">If you asked me which books I liked reading best I'd have to say <b><i>Honeybee, The Mountains Sing, Flesh Wounds, A Lonely Girl is a Dangerous Thing, Should we stay or should we go, Good Talk, Convenience Store Woman, Still Alice, The Lost Book of the Grail and Love and Virtue</i></b>. 10. Not bad out of 32. Not that some of the others weren't good but they were the ones I like best or found easy to read and enjoyed.</span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhKabbpsS4b6CMJXrrzGTBbSsjBUEQHFxowZzVpNZhGSik8rjr7JQuL8af-EYKeF8wVzE-782fkWs8BBT4fbaEOKGk5molN7iKE6fHvtWdPKqEkSkTbya_SDyWVXDJpiniwSaPVV5vJULolupqMWMavH9g-SkZ39W4PiRhJHz4QvYq7rIvVXa6RCVxzdg=s960" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="960" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhKabbpsS4b6CMJXrrzGTBbSsjBUEQHFxowZzVpNZhGSik8rjr7JQuL8af-EYKeF8wVzE-782fkWs8BBT4fbaEOKGk5molN7iKE6fHvtWdPKqEkSkTbya_SDyWVXDJpiniwSaPVV5vJULolupqMWMavH9g-SkZ39W4PiRhJHz4QvYq7rIvVXa6RCVxzdg=w320-h213" width="320" /></a></span></span></span></div><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Okay here is the plan for 2022</span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;">January<br /></span></span></span></span></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Journey to Paradise</i> by Dorothy M Richardson </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Virago</b></span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Second Place</i> by Rachel Cusk <b>Contemporary Fiction</b><br /></span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Burning Island</i> by Jock Serong <b>Historical Fiction</b><br /></span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>The Promise</i> by Damon Galgut - <b>Book club</b><br /></span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Fancy Meeting You Here</i> by Ali Berg - <b>Romance</b><br /></span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Sweetness of Water</i> by Nathan Harris </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Historical Fiction</b></span></span></span></span></li></ol><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> February</span></span></span></span></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>The First Stone </i>by Helen Garner <b>Feminism</b><br /></span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>All Passion Spent </i>by Vita Sackville-West <b>Virago</b><br /></span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Bobbin Up</i> by Dorothy Hewitt </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Virago</b></span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Without My Cloak</i> by Kate O'Brien </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Virago</b></span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Canticle Creek</i> by Adrian Hyland <b>Crime Mystery</b><br /></span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Dissolve</i> by Nikki Gemell <b>Memoir</b><br /></span></span></span></span></li></ol><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> March</span></span></span></span></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Miss Herbert</i> by Christina Stead </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Virago</b></span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Crowded Street </i>by Winifred Holtby </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Virago</b></span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Devoted Ladies</i> by Molly Keane </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Virago</b></span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Letty Fox - Her Luck</i> by Christina Stead </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Virago</b></span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Devotion</i> by Hannah Kent </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Historical Fiction</b></span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>By Pass</i> by Michael McGirr <br /></span></span></span></span></li></ol><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;">April <br /></span></span></span></span></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Ann Veronica </i>by HG Wells </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Virago</b></span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Ethan Frome</i> by Edith Wharton </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Virago</b></span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Frost in May</i> by Antonia White</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b> Virago</b></span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Lucy Gayheart </i>by Willa Cather </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Virago</b></span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Murder Rule</i> by Dervla McTiernan <b>New release Mystery</b><br /></span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Believe in Me</i> by Lucy Neave <b>Contemporary Fiction</b></span><br /></li></ol><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;">May </span></span></span></span></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Mad Puppetstown</i> by Molly Keane </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Virago</b></span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Glitter of Mica</i> by Jessie Keeson </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Virago</b></span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Invitation to the Waltz</i> by Rosamond Lehmann </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Virago</b></span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Reckoning</i> by Magda Szubanski </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Memoir</b></span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>The Erratics</i> by Vicki Laveau-Harvie </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Memoir</b></span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Your Own kind of Girl </i>by Clare Bowditch </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Memoir</b></span></span></span></span></li></ol><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;">June</span></span></span></span></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Jamaica Inn</i> by Daphne du Maurier </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Virago</b></span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>The Holiday</i> by Stevie Smith </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Virago</b></span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>A doll's House</i> by Henrik Ibsen </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Classic</b></span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Poisonwood Bible</i> by Barbara Kingsolver </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Classic</b></span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Wolf Hall </i>by Hilary Mantel </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Historical Fiction</b></span></span></span></span></li><li><i><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Daughters of the Labyrinth </span></span></span></span></i><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;">by Ruth Padel </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Contemporary Fiction</b></span></li></ol><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;">July</span></span></span></span></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Jenny Wren</i> by EH Young </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Virago</b></span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Illyrian Spring</i> by Ann Bridge </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Virago</b></span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>The Cuckoo's Cry</i> by Caroline Overington </span><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Contemporary Fiction</b></span></li><li><i><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The Streets</span></span></span></span></i><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> by Anthony Quinn</span></span></span></span><i><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></span></span></i><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Classic</b></span></span></span></span></li><li><i><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Power of the Dog </span></span></span></span></i><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;">by Thomas Savage</span></span></span></span><i><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></span></span></i><b><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Mystery/Crime</span></span></span></span></b><i><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></span></span></i></li><li><i><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Sacred Hunger </span></span></span></span></i><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;">by Barry Unsworth </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Historical Fiction</b></span></span></span></span></li></ol><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;">August <br /></span></span></span></span></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Ante Room </i>by Kate O'Brien </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Virago</b></span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>The Little Company</i> by Eleanor Dark </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Virago</b></span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Moonraker </i>by F Tennyson Jesse </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Virago</b></span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Story on the Stone</i> by Cao Xuegin </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Classic</b></span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Dinner with the Schnabels</i> by Toni Jordan <b>New release Contemporary Fiction</b><br /></span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Fatal Grace</i> by Louise Penny </span></span></span></span><b><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Mystery/Crime</span></span></span></span></b><i><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></span></span></i></li></ol><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;">September</span></span></span></span></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Some Everyday Folk and Dawn </i>by Miles Franklin </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Virago</b></span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>One Fine Day</i> by Mollie Panter-Downes </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Virago</b></span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Painted Clay</i> by Capel Boake </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Virago</b></span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>O Quinze</i> by Rachel de Queiroz </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Memoir</b></span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>The Friendly Young Ladies </i>by Mary Renault </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Virago</b></span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>The Memorial Feast for Kokotoy-Khan</i> by Saimbay orozbq uulu </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Classic</b></span></span></span></span></li></ol><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;">October</span></span></span></span></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Oh William</i> by Elizabeth Strout<br /></span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>The Squire's Daughter </i>by FM Mayor </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Virago</b></span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>The Rector and the Doctor's Family</i> by Mrs Oliphant </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Virago</b></span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>The Sheltered Life </i>by Ellen Glasgow </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Virago</b></span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>The Four Chambered Heart </i>by Anais Nin </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Classic</b></span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> <i>The Curate's Wife</i> by EH Young </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Virago</b></span></span></span></span></li></ol><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;">November</span></span></span></span></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Never No More</i> by Maura Laverty </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Virago</b></span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Solitary Summer</i> by Elizabeth von Arnim </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Virago</b></span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Three Miss Kings </i>by Ada Cambridge </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Virago</b></span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>The Semi-attached Couple in the Semi-Detatched House </i>by Emily Eden </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Virago</b></span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> <i>A Kestrel for a Knave </i>by Barry Hines </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Classic</b></span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i> Novel on Yellow Paper </i>by Stevie Smith </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Virago</b></span></span></span></span></li></ol><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;">December</span></span></span></span></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Deerbrook</i> by Harriet Martineau </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Virago</b></span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>The Unlit Lamp</i> by Radclyffe Hall </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Virago</b></span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Vanity Fair </i>by William Makepeace-Thakeray </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Classic</b></span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Zadig </i>by Voltaire </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Classic</b></span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Marcella</i> by Mrs Humphrey Ward </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Virago</b></span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Germinal</i> by Emile Zola <b>Classic</b></span></span></span></span><br /></li></ol><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;">There's a proliferation of Virago Modern Classics and other classics here. I've got 317 Viragos and it's time I read them. That was the plan when I bought them. Read them in retirement. Well retirement is here. Get on with it girl!</span></span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I've joined about half a dozen Reading Challenges on Goodreads just because they are so much fun to write up. Of course, there are so many more books I want to read. I don't know what to do in terms of what I order from the library. I think I need to be much more restrained about what I order in. And of course I've got bookclub books yet which I don't know about.</span></span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Such is life. How has your reading year been? How's this year shaping up? </span></span></span> </span><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span><br /></p></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>Alex Dawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05083753053051713061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2256130805076511496.post-31125318308784192082021-06-05T15:49:00.002+10:002021-06-05T15:49:16.064+10:00What I borrowed today...<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3aAaZOpZ3qGXccuyzvExNRLu-IREzzJBFrU1m6leE_sPWeMCb8R0HqTjwuOIJr_nfYiUv4Q2zUpuPUYM5hKyR5Stut9p3uj2BizYQUUAgp3LvhQyfuldE4GK-LH3M5eQs4YOBX-fQgayM/s4608/20210605_143317.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4608" data-original-width="3456" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3aAaZOpZ3qGXccuyzvExNRLu-IREzzJBFrU1m6leE_sPWeMCb8R0HqTjwuOIJr_nfYiUv4Q2zUpuPUYM5hKyR5Stut9p3uj2BizYQUUAgp3LvhQyfuldE4GK-LH3M5eQs4YOBX-fQgayM/w480-h640/20210605_143317.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><p></p><p><br /></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">So here's the stack I borrowed from the library today. <a href="https://www.textpublishing.com.au/" target="_blank">Text Publishing</a> sent me an email this week highlighting their latest releases. I chose the Gail Jones and <a href="https://www.australianbookreview.com.au/abr-online/current-issue/812-fiction/6498-laura-elizabeth-woollett-reviews-the-rain-heron-by-robbie-arnott" target="_blank">Robbie Arnott</a> books, not because they're latest releases but because they have both been longlisted for the <a href="https://www.perpetual.com.au/milesfranklin" target="_blank">Miles Franklin Literary Award. </a></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> All I've read of Gail Jones is<i> Five Bells. </i>Robbie Arnott is new to me.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">I listened to the ABC's <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/the-bookshelf/the-book-club:-patricia-highsmith/13372414" target="_blank">Bookshelf </a>program yesterday on the way to Bel's place and so have been sucked in to reading more Patricia Highsmith. Yes, I have ordered the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/jan/21/devils-lusts-and-strange-desires-the-life-of-patricia-highsmith-review" target="_blank">new biography. </a>Eek! I'm such a goose. I now realize that <i>Those who Walk Away</i> is the only Patricia Highsmith I have read. I will have to order another. <i>Strangers on a Train </i>sounds good. I've also ordered <i>The Blunderer</i> because it is such a splendid title.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">I have wanted to read <a href="https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/books/fiction/A-Lonely-Girl-is-a-Dangerous-Thing-Jessie-Tu-9781760877194" target="_blank"><i>A Lonely Girl is a Dangerous Thing</i></a> for a while. Have you read it? Did you enjoy it?<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">And I borrowed a couple of magazines for idle browsing. I love the <a href="https://www.healthyfood.com/" target="_blank">healthyfood</a> magazine and I thought I would see what <a href="https://www.thesimplethings.com/" target="_blank"><i>The Simple Things</i></a> magazine is like. I get bored easily when making meals and need a bit of inspiration. Hence the <a href="https://www.lizmoody.com/cookbook/"><i>Healthier Together </i></a>cookbook as well. I find it challenging just cooking for two all the time. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Last but not least a knitting book because you can never look at too many knitting patterns. I don't think I know about <a href="http://klompelompe.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">KlompeLOMPE</a> but maybe I follow them on Instagram. At any rate, it looks fun and lovely.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">What am I reading currently? Well I started listening to <a href="https://charlielovett.com/" target="_blank"><i>The Lost Book of the Grail </i></a>by Charlie Lovett as suggested by <a href="https://modernmrsdarcy.com/backlist-summer-reading-guide-audiobooks/" target="_blank"><i>Modern Mrs Darcy. </i></a></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">I've also got<i> <a href="https://thestellaprize.com.au/prize/2020-prize/there-was-still-love/" target="_blank">There was still Love</a> </i>by Favel Parrett <i>beside the bed and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/nov/29/the-group-mary-mccarthy" target="_blank">The Group </a></i>by Mary McCarthy<i> </i>which I was trying to read for a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/VMCReaders/" target="_blank">Virago Book Club </a>discussion on Facebook.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><i><a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/02/17/968491790/the-echo-wife-layers-sci-fi-and-murder-mystery-for-a-twisty-treat" target="_blank">The Echo wife</a> </i>by Sarah Gailey, <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/140218-kolbert-book-extinction-climate-science-amazon-rain-forest-wilderness" target="_blank"><i>The Sixth Extinction</i> </a>by Elizabeth Kolbert and <a href="https://www.fremantlepress.com.au/products/the-edward-street-baby-farm" target="_blank"><i>The Edward Street Baby Farm</i> </a>by Stella Budrikis are also lying in wait for me.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">What did you borrow from the library this week? Any comfort books like me for long winter nights? Are you cooking and knitting more? Do you like reading Patricia Highsmith? Do you ever get to read the books you borrow? How do you commit to reading so you reach your goals? I'm 7 books behind on my goal of reading 50 books this year. How are you going?<br /></span></p>Alex Dawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05083753053051713061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2256130805076511496.post-22650993002681079392021-02-28T22:31:00.001+10:002021-02-28T22:31:48.173+10:00Certain Lives: The Compelling Story Of The Hope, Tragedy And Triumph Of Three Generations Of Women <p><span style="font-family: arial;"><span class="readable reviewText"><span id="freeTextreview3704130796"></span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8JdpdgE4WEoU95Cj46H3mnDpYTu1YkPuGS0PStptWeuaaOWXmm3WAgXxIbxmQAMC377qEkLfuKqjsPifamYTvU09mBd5t4EreDdMJ2nK77m926ym4KPRRFvwrWEGPRUwF30XmZgFuWNVR/s474/certain+lives.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="474" data-original-width="318" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8JdpdgE4WEoU95Cj46H3mnDpYTu1YkPuGS0PStptWeuaaOWXmm3WAgXxIbxmQAMC377qEkLfuKqjsPifamYTvU09mBd5t4EreDdMJ2nK77m926ym4KPRRFvwrWEGPRUwF30XmZgFuWNVR/s320/certain+lives.jpg" /></a></div><br />This novel was
recommended at a recent Society of Australian Genealogists Friday Book
Hangout. We we were all suggesting books that might appeal to family
historians. This one called out to me because it is partly set in the
Cowpastures/Camden area where my convict ancestors were married. <br /><br />This
is a three-generation (and probably more) story which starts in England
in about 1830 and follows the journey of a free couple and their
children out to Australia and the progress of their descendants. The
focus is on the matriarchs of the family; the grandmother, daughter and
grand-daughter. Much of the latter story is set in south western New
South Wales at Coolamon or thereabouts. There is a lot of history to
cover; early settlement, the Gold Rush, the first World War and the
Depression. <br /><br />The book is over 400 pages and had to be obtained as
an inter-library loan through the Brisbane City Council (thank you
Wagga Library for entrusting me with it). I had two weeks to read it so
was on a strict timetable. This did not allow me to savour it but rather
pushed me through some bits which I would have otherwise found somewhat
repetitive and indeed may have caused me to give up and toss aside.<br /><br />At
times I found the religious overtones almost too much and wondered if
younger readers might find them too off-putting. On reflection, however,
I was glad I persisted. Methodism, or what became the Uniting Church,
was a powerful force in this particular family's life (check out the
author's biography on Wikipedia). Whether we agree with it personally or
not, it certainly shaped the family's response to and experience of
historical events and should not be discounted. <br /><br />As always, this
account reconfirmed how much easier we have it these days in terms of
house-keeping/home-making. Just the business of preserving meat, fruit
and vegetables was a full-time job on its own without having to wash and
care for a family. As the old refrain goes, "I don't know how our
grandmothers did it all!"<br /><br />It was lovely to read the Epilogue and
hear how stories had been passed down through the generations. I
particularly liked the one of the pioneering grandmother who refused to
get off the boat until her husband went into Sydney to buy her a bonnet
to replace the one lost earlier on the long and arduous voyage. Bless
her heart. <br /><br />Did I learn anything new? Yes I think I did. I was
particularly fascinated to read about how the original wealthy
landowners went belly-up as it were in I think the 1840s-50s so I need
to read up more about that particular part of Australian history. I also
didn't know about how hard it was for farmers during the depression
with the government promising certain prices for prices for wheat and
then defaulting on those promises. And as I say, it also opened my eyes
to how much religion can be a driving force in a family and how that
should be taken into account in considering ancestor's lives, even if
it's not the case in today's world.<br /><br />This novel is testament to
the love the author has for her ancestors' fortitude and strength of
character. Reeson has also written biographies and historical accounts
covering a wide range of topics. I may have to read more!<p></p>Alex Dawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05083753053051713061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2256130805076511496.post-30134652039617485432021-02-21T13:20:00.000+10:002021-02-21T13:20:01.362+10:00Girl in the Walls by A.J. Gnuse<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkRX1Kl6jPYbVOlggdcX9pF3XqjcnPGqNa-kb0MYzQtI6Ak7hwbKZ3_VHmGHhKYwcTzAmbU7KCyTX6ODffdmh7ub0OZU8ikfNmdIQ-247pm_53Xq4ECDineCiDKpzxbAP7IEIZh18TS9Jm/s283/girl+in+the+walls.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="283" data-original-width="178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkRX1Kl6jPYbVOlggdcX9pF3XqjcnPGqNa-kb0MYzQtI6Ak7hwbKZ3_VHmGHhKYwcTzAmbU7KCyTX6ODffdmh7ub0OZU8ikfNmdIQ-247pm_53Xq4ECDineCiDKpzxbAP7IEIZh18TS9Jm/s0/girl+in+the+walls.jpg" /></a></div><p></p><p><br /></p><p><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I received this book as part of #BRPreview. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I am not usually a gothic novel reader so was initially apprehensive. The story ticks all the boxes when it comes to the conventions of a Gothic novel but it is not Frankenstein. This is American Southern Gothic literature; something quite different. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The setting is in the months leading up to Hurricane Katrina in 2005. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: arial;">At first, I wrestled with the premise of a young girl living inside the walls of her old home while a new family lived there. As she climbed up and down inside the walls like a spider monkey, I was mentally sputtering "Preposterous!". But I have lived long enough now to know nothing is impossible. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Once disbelief was suspended, I had a fine old time, scaring myself silly with the "monster" who inevitably shows up. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: arial;">This book is a triumph on many levels: the writing, the characters, the pacing. I loved the short little chapters. They helped ease me into the story and made me feel I could dip my toes in carefully. A big thank you to all who brought this story to life. So many important ideas to think and talk about; what is home, a monster, fear ? Great job!</span></span><br /><br /></p>Alex Dawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05083753053051713061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2256130805076511496.post-31873408176387088112021-02-06T17:07:00.001+10:002021-02-06T17:07:39.105+10:00The Mountains Sing by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai <p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU1cc4xMWtoLpZNXdR_dNMGMzNLFIfHbXMxCKesMRbIWOdQUiPXPjz7Fu8k2GmZTMKq-wOGrXYiCWw6Rd9ht8cK7Rf0h-omY4UefXPEy1qJmr48Y-cvwanJssIYnHpe3zkHoOue4_pqw4m/s193/mountains+sing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="193" data-original-width="128" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU1cc4xMWtoLpZNXdR_dNMGMzNLFIfHbXMxCKesMRbIWOdQUiPXPjz7Fu8k2GmZTMKq-wOGrXYiCWw6Rd9ht8cK7Rf0h-omY4UefXPEy1qJmr48Y-cvwanJssIYnHpe3zkHoOue4_pqw4m/w212-h320/mountains+sing.jpg" width="212" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p><br /></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">I read this book in a bit of a rush because I decided I wanted to participate in the first Avid Reader online bookclub. (If you would like to participate, you can register for the next one on <a href="https://avidreader.com.au/events/avid-at-home-book-club-the-labyrinth" target="_blank">2 March</a>. It will be about Labyrinth by Amanda Lohrey). Thanks to Gold Coast Libraries I was able to find an e-version quickly.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">This from Avid Reader's website:</span></p><p></p><blockquote><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai was born in Việt Nam in 1973, and grew up witnessing the war's devastation of her country. She worked as a street seller and rice farmer before winning a scholarship to attend university in Australia. She is the author of eight books of poetry, short fiction and non-fiction in Vietnamese. Her writing has been translated and published in more than ten countries and has received many honors, including the Hà Nội Writers Association's Poetry of the Year 2010 Award. She currently divides her time between Indonesia and Việt Nam.</i></span></blockquote><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">I had about five days to read </span><i style="font-family: arial;">The Mountains Sing</i><span style="font-family: arial;">. Let me tell you, I had no trouble reading it at all. It was very engaging from the get-go. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">As a family historian, I was delighted to see the Tran Family Tree on the first page. And indeed, this is a family saga, told from two points of view, see-sawing between the grand-daughter's and then the grandmother's point of view. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">My bookclub read <i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34051011-pachinko?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=UzHIGgEzYz&rank=1" target="_blank">Pachinko</a></i> last year which was a real eye-opener to me in terms of history and this was much the same. I was transported immediately into the Vietnam war and its terror. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">This is not a memoir, rather a fictitious story made from stories told to </span><span style="font-family: arial;">Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai combined with her own memories and experience. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">What I loved about the book was that it was by-and-large a compelling read. I say by-and-large because there was one point in the book, about two-thirds of the way through, where I started to feel it getting "soapy" and I felt "outside" the story rather than being immersed in it. I almost felt that it was written by another author in bits. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">The online bookclub discussion was very good and other readers offered insights into why I might have felt this way e.g. problems with translation; sometimes it is hard to capture subtleties in language. But not to worry, this was only for a short while and then I became engaged in the story again.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">I also loved the lyrical quality of the language. There are some standout passages in this story. The one that resonated or touched me deeply was the following one:</span></p><p></p><blockquote><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>My mother was like a tree uprooted. She would just sit there on the phan, her gaze distant and empty. Minh, Ngoc and Dat didn't leave her alone, though.They surrounded her, becoming the soil of her life, demanding that she grow new roots. "Grandma, play with us," they said, pulling her arms, leading her out of the house, and into their childhood games.</i></span></blockquote><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Just beautiful, no?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">I gave this 4/5 stars in the end. It certainly stimulated me emotionally AND intellectually and I learned heaps e.g. I grew up thinking Hanoi and Saigon were just that but no, they are Ha Noi and Sai Gon. Just little things like that makes me realize how ignorant I am. As if I didn't need more reminders ;) The author describes the complexity of the Vietnam War from the families who didn't fit neatly into North and South, or indeed the soldiers. I had no idea about the Great Hunger and the description of Land Reform was truly shocking.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai wrote this story as a plea for no more war. She didn't need to convince me but I hope her book is widely read and disabused anyone who thinks there might be glory or salvation in war. </span></p><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">If you would like to see the Avid Reader interview with </span><span style="font-family: arial;">Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai you can catch it on YouTube <a href="https://youtu.be/mFgrCSxKsvg">here.</a></span></p>Alex Dawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05083753053051713061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2256130805076511496.post-90151591690321128222021-02-06T14:46:00.000+10:002021-02-06T14:46:35.710+10:00Honeybee by Craig Silvey<span style="font-family: arial;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLE6KSBqLFxa88wnz-ogbFVOpEewwgBJn78MHGBWVEySnP9A9tySkN3hljy9Ef47_nbYZHszL09V5x_k41b0oEbzfXVkBieeZFp_9Cy7H1FOk1PapsU6BeIqTgHoKhWtt-7zH0EZz-BG_Q/s475/HONEYBEE.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="311" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLE6KSBqLFxa88wnz-ogbFVOpEewwgBJn78MHGBWVEySnP9A9tySkN3hljy9Ef47_nbYZHszL09V5x_k41b0oEbzfXVkBieeZFp_9Cy7H1FOk1PapsU6BeIqTgHoKhWtt-7zH0EZz-BG_Q/s320/HONEYBEE.JPG" /></a></div><br />I finished 4 books in January. My review of <i>Memorial Drive</i> is the blog post before this. Then I read <i>Weather</i> by Jenny Offill, <i>Honeybee</i> by Craig Silvey and <i>Nobody Will Tell you this but Me </i>by Bess Kalb. All very different books.</span><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Today I will review <i>Honeybee</i> by Craig Silvey.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Craig is an Australian writer based in Western Australia. He is probably most famous for his novel <i>Jasper Jones</i>. I confess to not having read <i>Jasper Jones</i> but I did see the movie. Does that count? I can highly recommend it. It was directed by Rachel Perkins and has a to-die-for cast including Toni Collette, Hugo Weaving, Dan Wyllie, and Susan Prior. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">I was very slow to read <i>Honeybee</i>. Everybody else seemed to read it waaaay before I did. I was lucky to borrow it from the <a href="https://www.ipswichlibraries.com.au/" target="_blank">Ipswich Library service</a> and they had plenty of copies to borrow at their wonderful Karalee Book Pod.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNzD6fCWkkEOs8YdxmNHe7PlouKTl2xnxrobKrr4BIVzBLploGXzPkcBhiL5erjaXQeHo7RHUO-9DOR9NpTxOht8cBKABvsPlbobVx10szlmJXgRx34TjODXSwN2sIPkL91hQpnqwnIgyz/s918/book+pod.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="918" data-original-width="688" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNzD6fCWkkEOs8YdxmNHe7PlouKTl2xnxrobKrr4BIVzBLploGXzPkcBhiL5erjaXQeHo7RHUO-9DOR9NpTxOht8cBKABvsPlbobVx10szlmJXgRx34TjODXSwN2sIPkL91hQpnqwnIgyz/s320/book+pod.jpg" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">The subject matter didn't feel very original to me at the beginning. I kept thinking to myself "Oh this is a bit of <i>Julie and Julia</i> or <i>Animal Kingdom</i>. But I persevered and slowly the characters started to grab hold of me. More importantly, I began to worry for Sam. There is a wide range of characters in this story from drug addicts to bullies, to drag queens and Vietnam Vets. Craig did a great job of making them all believable. In particular, I loved Sam's friend Aggie's character to bits; so unique and funny as well as being heartbreakingly honest and a real friend. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Going back through the book I am surprised how quickly the story unfolds (much quicker than I remember). The best bit about the book was that you weren't told why Sam was called Honeybee until the very end. I loved that.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">I gave <i>Honeybee</i> 4/5 stars and mostly because Craig captured the kind of ghastly conversations someone has with a bully. They were so gut-wrenching for me to read. Let me give you an example:</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></div><blockquote><div><span style="font-family: arial;">"The fuck are you doing?"</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">'Nothing'</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">I tried to close the door, but he blocked me.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">"The fuck is this?"</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">'Nothing.'</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">"Doesn't fucking look like nothing.'</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">He stepped inside and I backed away.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">'It's nothing. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.'</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">He pushed me hard. I fell back. He closed the door behind him. Then he picked up the iPad.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">'Who's this? What are you, a faggot?"</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">I shook my head.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Steve snapped the iPad in half and threw it aside.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">"You're not a faggot?'</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">'No"</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">'Then what are you?'</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">"Nothing.'</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">"You're nothing?"</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">'Yes. No."</span></div></blockquote><div><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">And so on. You get the picture. Pretty harrowing stuff to read. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">But it's not all doom and gloom. Sam thankfully meets some wonderful people who give them just the support they need to discover who they are, grow strong and be at ease with their identity.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">So in summary, the plot is compelling and I think Craig deal with the issues sympathetically but without pulling any punches. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Yes, I would recommend this book to others but it's not for everyone and comes with a language warning and flags for issues like suicide and gender-identity. </span></div>Alex Dawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05083753053051713061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2256130805076511496.post-17480140818622445292021-01-03T18:56:00.000+10:002021-01-03T18:56:28.648+10:00Memorial Drive by Natasha Trethewey<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh5QjP772roKRe24Esbg27VeTocdsQYzWaVjuzr_jFTTtzAWDV_tXR-3Sa0_Aiw_U4qH_g7eUEFDgqfSr1MmpQeFLouhweYnoqlH7_bMUmo4DCDkwr5Sfw7VU6gJaHdQMaswnWTHA02Mvw/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="264" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh5QjP772roKRe24Esbg27VeTocdsQYzWaVjuzr_jFTTtzAWDV_tXR-3Sa0_Aiw_U4qH_g7eUEFDgqfSr1MmpQeFLouhweYnoqlH7_bMUmo4DCDkwr5Sfw7VU6gJaHdQMaswnWTHA02Mvw/" width="158" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">This memoir ticked quite a few boxes for me in terms of my reading goals. </span><i style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48613168-memorial-drive" target="_blank">Memorial Drive</a></i><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48613168-memorial-drive" target="_blank"> </a>was a nominee for the Goodreads Choice Award for memoir & Autobiography which is why I chose to read it. </span><span style="font-family: arial;">I became quite obsessed with reading memoirs last year, so this was a continuation of that. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">For 2021, I am keen to increase my empathy for those whose life experience is very different from mine. I also wanted to read a Pulitzer Prize winner. Whilst this book didn't win a Pulitzer Prize, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natasha_Trethewey">Natasha Trethewey</a> did win the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 2007. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">It's a slim volume at 212 pages but it is by no means an easy read or a book you want to read too quickly. It needs to be digested slowly.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">This is an exploration of delayed grief. A picking away at a wound, buried for many years. The author observes:</span></p><p></p><blockquote><span style="font-family: arial;"> "<i>The whole time I have been working to tell this story, I have done so incrementally, parsing it so that I could bear it: neat, compartmentalized segments that have allowed me to carry on these three decades without falling apart.</i>"</span></blockquote><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Structure</span></h3><div><span style="font-family: arial;">The book is broken into two parts.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">The first part is about the author's childhood. The second part is the author's attempt at experiential research; an attempt to reconstruct her mother's life in the final days before her second, estranged husband kills her.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Trethewey breaks up the writing from time to time with bracketed reflections. Wikipedia tells us that square brackets or crotchets are used to insert explanatory material. There are five of these bracketed reflections. They are reflections on the creative process and the subconsious experience of grief. The first reflection is an account of the author's dream three weeks after her mother dies. The second reflection is about the dreams that began once the author announced the intention to write about the experience of her mother's death. The final three reflections are about the writing process.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Time and Place</span></h3><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Trethewey was born in 1966 in Gulfport Mississippi. On her birth certificate her mother is described as coloured and her father Canadian. In fact her parents had to marry in Cincinatti, Ohio as it was illegal for them to marry in the south. Her mother gave birth in the coloured ward of the hospital. In 1966. I am dumbstruck that segregation was still operating this late in the day. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Trethewey's birthday was the 100th Anniversary of the Confederate Memorial Day. That fact and having two well-educated parents who imparted a great love of writing and literature gives Trethewey a unique perspective and ability to articulate the complexity of her heritage and the challenge of straddling both worlds. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">I've included a map below for those not familiar with the locations described in the book. You can zoom in and out for context.</span></div><p><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></p><iframe allowfullscreen="" aria-hidden="false" frameborder="0" height="450" src="https://www.google.com/maps/embed?pb=!1m28!1m12!1m3!1d6912041.874993261!2d-90.12205235246103!3d32.230615931170604!2m3!1f0!2f0!3f0!3m2!1i1024!2i768!4f13.1!4m13!3e0!4m5!1s0x88f5045d6993098d%3A0x66fede2f990b630b!2sAtlanta%2C%20GA%2C%20USA!3m2!1d33.7489954!2d-84.3879824!4m5!1s0x889c166ee80114e5%3A0xc2614d446e819544!2sGulfport%2C%20MS%2C%20USA!3m2!1d30.367419799999997!2d-89.0928155!5e0!3m2!1sen!2sau!4v1609632081747!5m2!1sen!2sau" style="border: 0;" tabindex="0" width="600"></iframe><div><br /></div><div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Themes and Issues</span></h3><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">There are so many themes and issues in this little memoir, its difficult to know where to begin. There is the issue of racial segregation, black and white, north and south, divorce, separation, post-traumatic stress disorder and addiction, mother-daughter relationships, blended families, domestic violence, trauma. </span></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Recommend?</span></h3><div><span style="font-family: arial;">As a family historian and lover of literature I found this both a visceral and deeply intellectual approach to a memoir. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">The author states:</span></div></div><div><blockquote><span style="font-family: arial;">"To survive trauma, one must be able to tell a story about it."</span></blockquote><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Her account of being "sideswiped" by grief in reading real records resonated strongly with me. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">As did the crazy happenstance or synchronicity, often in timing, of people connecting you with materials vital to your research.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">As the daughter of a writer and a scholar, Trethewey is familiar with the device of metaphor to help us tell stories. She trawls through her past examining the stories, including dreams, she has told herself, looking for reinterpretation and new meaning. </span> </p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">She has suffered survivor's guilt and the challenge of acknowledging and/or coming to grips with how much our parents, and particularly our mothers, sacrifice in order to ensure not only our survival but our growth. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Her testament to her mother's life, and the cruel robbing thereof, is powerful reading indeed and gives much food for thought.</span></p></div>Alex Dawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05083753053051713061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2256130805076511496.post-56980370590631259302021-01-02T14:18:00.020+10:002021-07-21T16:09:52.490+10:00#mmdchallenge<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioKA4bLDR1VKZKeDsiIZadX4ARvQiXMErvJ6xbqJZ6JKCUh3mVGJdlPe4aLoMfjefowoVD0jU3ZhbM6aL0ztxiOKHhL_exzb9Zd8D4MVmQGVfWQ97V5sonyDrM0JDcotdyPqDv_w6qGb_p/s960/woman-4599055_960_720.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="549" data-original-width="960" height="229" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioKA4bLDR1VKZKeDsiIZadX4ARvQiXMErvJ6xbqJZ6JKCUh3mVGJdlPe4aLoMfjefowoVD0jU3ZhbM6aL0ztxiOKHhL_exzb9Zd8D4MVmQGVfWQ97V5sonyDrM0JDcotdyPqDv_w6qGb_p/w400-h229/woman-4599055_960_720.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p><br /></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Every year I set myself so many reading challenges, it is just ridiculous. I've signed up for a few already. <a href="https://australianwomenwriters.com/sign-up/" target="_blank">#AWW2021</a> for example and a couple of others on Goodreads - an A to Z of places and an A to Z of titles. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Now, I've decided to sign up for #mmdchallenge which is the <a href="https://modernmrsdarcy.com/reading-life-challenge/" target="_blank">Modern Mrs Darcy Challenge</a>. I liked the sound of this one because there was a little more thought put into it. I had to think about what my intentions were and what my reading life needed. So here we go. My goal is to read 50 books this year.</span></p><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Intentions</span></h2><div><span style="font-family: arial;">I want the following from my reading life:</span></div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: arial;">learning</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;">new experiences</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;">empathy</span></li></ul><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Reading Life Needs</span></h2></div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: arial;">consistency in reading</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;">taking notes</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;">writing reviews</span></li></ul><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Mini Projects to give my reading life a boost</span></h2></div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: arial;">participation in a reading retreat - nup I've never done one. Nup, I've got no idea what they involve. If you do, let me know.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;">Give away books - we have too many and there are ones that quite frankly I don't want to keep</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;">Try bibliotherapy or being involved in a literacy charity</span></li></ul><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Potential categories</span></h2></div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: arial;">a book in translation</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;">a book set somewhere I've never been but would like to visit</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;">a classic I didn't read in school</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;">a Pulitzer Prize winner</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;">a book by an author new to me</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;">A Newbery Award winner</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;">three books by the same author</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;">a memoir or book of creative nonfiction</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;">a book by an author of a different race, ethnicity or religion than my own</span></li></ul><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">My reading list</span></h2></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Now, this is really a combination of all the challenges I have signed up for already but also making sure that I have captured some of the potential categories above. AA stands for an Australian author. 11-29 are the books listed A-Z by title. The next lot are by place. The remainder will probably be pulled from my <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/5893725-alexandra-daw?order=d&shelf=to-read&sort=date_added" target="_blank">TBR pile</a>. Wish me luck!</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><strike><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53415294.The_Champagne_War" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="The Champagne War by Fiona McIntosh">The Champagne War</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;"> by </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/47792.Fiona_McIntosh" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="Fiona McIntosh">Fiona McIntosh</a></strike><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;"><strike> </strike>#AWW2021. This also doubles as C in A-Z of titles and E for Epernay in A-Z of places</span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;">E </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17399095.Elemental" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="Elemental by Amanda Curtin">Elemental</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;"> by </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1115582.Amanda_Curtin" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="Amanda Curtin">Amanda Curtin</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;"> #AWW2021. This also doubles as E in A-Z of titles and F for Fremantle for A-Z of places</span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;">K </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52334565.Kokomo" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="Kokomo by Victoria Hannan">Kokomo</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;"> by </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/19495751.Victoria_Hannan" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="Victoria Hannan">Victoria Hannan</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;"> #AWW2021. This also doubles as K in A-Z of titles.</span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;">J </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/634137.Joan_Makes_History" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="Joan Makes History by Kate Grenville">Joan Makes History</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;"> by </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/132420.Kate_Grenville" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="Kate Grenville">Kate Grenville</a> #AWW2021. This also doubles as J in A-Z of titles.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;">P </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21844042.The_Power_of_Bones" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="The Power of Bones by Keelen Mailman">The Power of Bones</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;"> by </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8120089.Keelen_Mailman" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="Keelen Mailman">Keelen Mailman</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;"> </span> #AWW2021. This also doubles as P in A-Z of titles</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;">T </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36232975.The_Trauma_Cleaner_One_Woman_s_Extraordinary_Life_in_Death__Decay___Disaster" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="The Trauma Cleaner One Woman's Extraordinary Life in Death, Decay & Disaster by Sarah Krasnostein">The Trauma Cleaner: One Woman's Extraordinary Life in Death, Decay & Disaster</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;"> by </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7811034.Sarah_Krasnostein" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="Sarah Krasnostein">Sarah Krasnostein</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;"> </span> #AWW2021. This also doubles as T in A-Z of titles</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;">Y </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4965.Year_of_Wonders" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks">Year of Wonders</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;"> by </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/211268.Geraldine_Brooks" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="Geraldine Brooks">Geraldine Brooks</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;"> </span>#AWW2021. This also doubles as Y in A-Z of titles.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;">M: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52734707.Loner" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="Loner by Georgina Young">Loner</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;"> by </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3111734.Georgina_Young" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="Georgina Young">Georgina Young</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;"> </span>#AWW2021. This also doubles as M for Melbounre in places A-Z</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;">T: Toronto <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55140004.Cherry_Beach" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="Cherry Beach by Laura McPhee-Browne">Cherry Beach</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;">by </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7798277.Laura_McPhee_Browne" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="Laura McPhee-Browne">Laura McPhee-Browne</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;"> </span>#AWW2021 and doubles as T for Toronto in A-Z of places.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;">#AWW</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;">A <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36391803.All_the_Lives_We_Never_Lived" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="All the Lives We Never Lived by Anuradha Roy">All the Lives We Never Lived</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;"> by </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/980934.Anuradha_Roy" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="Anuradha Roy">Anuradha Roy</a> and doubles for I for India in A-Z of places</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;">B </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6656750.Born_or_Bred__Martin_Bryant_the_making_of_a_mass_murderer" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="Born or Bred? Martin Bryant the making of a mass murderer by Robert Wainwright">Born or Bred? Martin Bryant: the making of a mass murderer</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;"> by </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/756202.Robert_Wainwright" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="Robert Wainwright">Robert Wainwright</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;"> AA</span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;">D </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17164599.The_Daughters_of_Mars" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="The Daughters of Mars by Thomas Keneally">The Daughters of Mars</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;"> by </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6900.Thomas_Keneally" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="Thomas Keneally">Thomas Keneally</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;"> AA</span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;">F </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2302650.Finding_Nouf__Nayir_Sharqi___Katya_Hijazi__1_" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="Finding Nouf (Nayir Sharqi & Katya Hijazi #1) by Zoë Ferraris">Finding Nouf</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;"> by </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1035794.Zo__Ferraris" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="Zoë Ferraris">Zoë Ferraris</a> and doubles for U in SaUdi Arabia in A-Z of places</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;">G </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25942744.Ghost_River" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="Ghost River by Tony Birch">Ghost River</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;"> by </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/121144.Tony_Birch" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="Tony Birch">Tony Birch</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;"> AA and doubles for Y as in Yarra River in A-Z of places</span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;">H </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51816539.Home_Stretch" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="Home Stretch by Graham Norton">Home Stretch</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;"> by </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/805593.Graham_Norton" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="Graham Norton">Graham Norton</a> and doubles for N for New York in A-Z of places</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;">I </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40538657.The_Island_of_Sea_Women" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See">The Island of Sea Women</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;"> by </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/713.Lisa_See" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="Lisa See">Lisa See</a> and doubles for J for Jeju in A-Z of places</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;">L </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50358031.Leave_the_World_Behind" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam">Leave the World Behind</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;"> by </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4425884.Rumaan_Alam" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="Rumaan Alam">Rumaan Alam</a> and L for Long Island in A-Z of places</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><strike><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;">M </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48613168.Memorial_Drive_A_Daughter_s_Memoir" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="Memorial Drive A Daughter's Memoir by Natasha Trethewey">Memorial Drive: A Daughter's Memoir</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;"> by </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/55944.Natasha_Trethewey" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="Natasha Trethewey">Natasha Trethewey</a></strike></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;">N<strike> </strike></span><strike><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52804098.Nobody_Will_Tell_You_This_But_Me" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="Nobody Will Tell You This But Me by Bess Kalb">Nobody Will Tell You This But Me</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;"> by </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/18169449.Bess_Kalb" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="Bess Kalb">Bess Kalb</a></strike></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;">O </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49110169.One_Bright_Moon" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="One Bright Moon by Andrew Kwong">One Bright Moon</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;"> by </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6078674.Andrew_Kwong" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="Andrew Kwong">Andrew Kwong</a></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;">Q </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43811212.Quichotte" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="Quichotte by Salman Rushdie">Quichotte</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;"> by </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3299.Salman_Rushdie" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="Salman Rushdie">Salman Rushdie</a></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;">R </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/162862.Roughing_It_in_the_Bush" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="Roughing It in the Bush by Susanna Moodie">Roughing It in the Bush</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;"> by </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/94474.Susanna_Moodie" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="Susanna Moodie">Susanna Moodie</a> and doubles for Q as in Quebec for A-Z of places</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;">S </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34931504.Snare__Reykjavik_Noir_Trilogy___1_" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="Snare (Reykjavik Noir Trilogy, #1) by Lilja Sigurðardóttir">Snare</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;"> by </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4406512.Lilja_Sigur_ard_ttir" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="Lilja Sigurðardóttir">Lilja Sigurðardóttir</a> and doubles for R for Reykijavik in A-Z of places</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;">U </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30555488.The_Underground_Railroad" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead">The Underground Railroad</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;"> by </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/10029.Colson_Whitehead" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="Colson Whitehead">Colson Whitehead</a></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;">V </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40594596.The_Volunteer" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="The Volunteer by Salvatore Scibona">The Volunteer</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;"> by </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1035721.Salvatore_Scibona" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="Salvatore Scibona">Salvatore Scibona</a></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><strike><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;">W </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37506228.Weather" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="Weather by Jenny Offill">Weather</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;"> by </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/33794.Jenny_Offill" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="Jenny Offill">Jenny Offill</a></strike></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;">X </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55227503.Max" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="Max by Alex Miller">Max</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;"> by </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/95802.Alex_Miller" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="Alex Miller">Alex Miller</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;"> AA</span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;">Z </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/395220.Zami_A_New_Spelling_of_My_Name" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="Zami A New Spelling of My Name by Audre Lorde">Zami: A New Spelling of My Name</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;"> by </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/18486.Audre_Lorde" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="Audre Lorde">Audre Lorde</a></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;">D: Durham </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43412959.The_Offing" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="The Offing by Benjamin Myers">The Offing</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;"> by </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6579300.Benjamin_Myers" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="Benjamin Myers">Benjamin Myers</a></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;">H: Hove </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/724007.Craven_House" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="Craven House by Patrick Hamilton">Craven House</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;"> by </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/76819.Patrick_Hamilton" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="Patrick Hamilton">Patrick Hamilton</a></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;">K: Kenya </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53796456.Enid" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="Enid by Robert Wainwright">Enid</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;">by </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/756202.Robert_Wainwright" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="Robert Wainwright">Robert Wainwright</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;"> AA</span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;">O: Oxford </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/77866.Any_Human_Heart" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="Any Human Heart by William Boyd">Any Human Heart</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;"> by </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8170.William_Boyd" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="William Boyd">William Boyd</a></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;">P: Portugal </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7849308.Pereira_Maintains" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="Pereira Maintains by Antonio Tabucchi">Pereira Maintains</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;"> by </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/64456.Antonio_Tabucchi" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="Antonio Tabucchi">Antonio Tabucchi</a></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;">S: Scotland </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/87580.The_Private_Memoirs_and_Confessions_of_a_Justified_Sinner" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg">The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;"> by </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/50314.James_Hogg" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="James Hogg">James Hogg</a></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;">V: Vietnam </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9160903.The_Happiest_Refugee" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="The Happiest Refugee by Anh Do">The Happiest Refugee</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;"> by </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2997895.Anh_Do" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="Anh Do">Anh Do</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;"> AA</span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;">W: West Bank </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50732671.Apeirogon" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="Apeirogon by Colum McCann">Apeirogon</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;"> by </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14080.Colum_McCann" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="Colum McCann">Colum McCann</a></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;">X: Mexico </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42306076.The_Murmur_of_Bees" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="The Murmur of Bees by Sofía Segovia">The Murmur of Bees</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;"> by </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/13495943.Sof_a_Segovia" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="Sofía Segovia">Sofía Segovia</a></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;">Z: Zanzibar </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55334011.The_Sultan_s_Daughter" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="The Sultan's Daughter by Jane Downing">The Sultan's Daughter</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;"> by </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/530260.Jane_Downing" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-color: white; color: #00635d;" title="Jane Downing">Jane Downing</a></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;">a book in translation</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38651118-at-home" target="_blank"><strike>Isabel López-Quesada at Home</strike> </a>- a book set somewhere I've never been but would like to visit</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;">a classic I didn't read in school</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;">a <a href="https://www.pulitzer.org/" target="_blank">Pulitzer Prize winner</a></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><strike>Honeybee by Craig Silvey</strike></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;">A <a href="http://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/newberymedal/newberyhonors/newberymedal" target="_blank">Newbery Award winner</a></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/397792.The_Last_Resort" target="_blank">The Last Resort</a> <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2046.Alison_Lurie">Alison Lurie</a></span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;">T<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/273424.Truth_and_Consequences" target="_blank">ruth and Consequences</a> Alison Lurie</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/202897.Foreign_Affairs" target="_blank">Foreign Affairs</a> Alison Lurie</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><strike><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26079330-flesh-wounds" target="_blank">Flesh Wounds</a></strike> by Richard Glover - a memoir or book of creative nonfiction</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;"><strike><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55506121-the-mountains-sing" target="_blank">The Mountains Sing</a></strike> by</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span itemprop="author" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person"><div class="authorName__container">by <a class="authorName" href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5046174.Nguy_n_Phan_Qu_Mai" itemprop="url"><span itemprop="name">Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai</span></a><span style="font-family: arial;"> - a book by an author of a different race, ethnicity or religion than my own</span></div></span></span></li></ol><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Have you set yourself a reading challenge for the year? What are your intentions? What does your reading life need? </span></div></div>Alex Dawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05083753053051713061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2256130805076511496.post-38193739320830959442020-12-30T15:57:00.000+10:002020-12-30T15:57:02.420+10:00Virago: Family Money by Nina Bawden<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJbVohLYlPcTqBEN4B2qFbknpejntcatZhJLItCPnBzduhd-ohShybBdrkOv8NISssWYlrcrLjiUyPK4H8iKwfDHpiQrZA1aV0Gf_agd3MyZHYfySdb76VLDPCGs9UIM7Gj22eGVuRuYYy/s475/family+money.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="306" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJbVohLYlPcTqBEN4B2qFbknpejntcatZhJLItCPnBzduhd-ohShybBdrkOv8NISssWYlrcrLjiUyPK4H8iKwfDHpiQrZA1aV0Gf_agd3MyZHYfySdb76VLDPCGs9UIM7Gj22eGVuRuYYy/s320/family+money.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Yes, it is my goal to read more Australian Women Writers but I have also been collecting Virago Modern Classics or Viragoes for a very long time. I have trained my son to buy me 2nd hand copies for my birthday and Christmas. And this year I was lucky enough to participate in the Virago Secret Santa run on Librarything.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">So here's my review of the first one of the 12 books I scored this Xmas.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">To the best of my knowledge/failing memory, I have not read a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nina_Bawden" target="_blank">Nina Bawden</a> since I was a child. On my kid's bookshelf at home, the only volume I have of Bawden's is <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Witch%27s_Daughter" target="_blank">The Witch's Daughter.</a></i> I don't remember reading Carrie's War and I must have liked The Witch's Daughter or I don't think I would have kept it.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">This slim volume (at 250pp) is the ideal post-Xmas read. Nothing too demanding or heavy but sufficiently interesting and thought-provoking. I knocked it off in 24 hours. Mostly because I'm under doctor's orders to rest a bit (I have an aggravated shoulder injury) and so what can one do but read?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Bawden wrote this in 1991 when I was pregnant with my first child. It is set in London. Property is the currency of the day and as you can imagine, those with property or the prospect of inheriting property in London would be rubbing their hands together with glee.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Our heroine is Fanny. Fanny has been recently widowed. Her husband was in the diplomatic service so most of their married life has been spent overseas, entertaining and living in quarters with staff.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">She is now living in their London pied-a-terre - a somewhat run-down Georgian terrace which, at five storeys, could be considered rather excess to her needs and not wholly suitable for a person who might need a wheelchair or some sort of assisted living in the future.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Fanny is the younger sister to Delia. Fanny was pulled out of school early and sent to secretarial college once it was established she had no great intellect fit for further education.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">But Fanny is feisty and has a strong desire to do what is "right". She goes to the aid of a young man who is being bashed in the street late at night on her way home alone from a restaurant and, for her trouble, is knocked unconscious and loses her memory of the inciting incident.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">I won't tell you anymore because that would ruin the story. It is, I guess a bit of a thriller, but also a bit more than that. Maybe it's just my age but, as I head towards pensioner-land, I am acutely aware of how, like dominoes, just one accident or slip can lead to a certain vulnerability both physically and mentally. It is so annoying not being as strong or self-sufficient as I used to be. And pain makes you cranky and miserable. As my father says, "Old age ain't for sissies!"</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">I was particularly fascinated by Bawden's description of Fanny's increasing anxiety. Her description is spot-on; the crippling effect of not being able to go anywhere or do anything because your legs (or rather your mind) just will not take you.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Lest you think this all doom and gloom, I want to assure you that Fanny receives help from some unexpected quarters, including her own gumption and survival instinct.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">I was saddened to read that Bawden and her husband were in a very serious train accident in <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-19341736" target="_blank">2002 -</a> the Potters Bar rail crash. Her husband Austen Kark was killed. Bawden suffered a broken ankle, arm, leg, shoulder, collarbone and ribs. Can you imagine? Her testimony was instrumental in ensuring justice for the victims of the crash.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">I suspect much of the material in this novel was taken from real life as Bawden's husband was a managing director at the BBC (Fanny'</span><span style="font-family: arial;">s son works for the BBC) and Fanny lives on a canal as did Bawden and her husband at Islington.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">I commend Family Money to you.</span></p>Alex Dawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05083753053051713061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2256130805076511496.post-72918613601741286602020-12-27T06:12:00.001+10:002020-12-27T06:12:10.829+10:00#AWW2021 Challenge<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0RqgC1wsfXZbo1vM_TTwZhli6o9HcHxHkpm9_xma9gDoch5ywlHh1UJQLlcC5CT8zNWkzvQ3Ja0IBzxLjtfdtp4O7WZcirjXeko3BckSCIJd7mFmlRd4aLMnavjxQm0oJBbfcv1JVEvM5/s300/AWW+challenge+2021.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0RqgC1wsfXZbo1vM_TTwZhli6o9HcHxHkpm9_xma9gDoch5ywlHh1UJQLlcC5CT8zNWkzvQ3Ja0IBzxLjtfdtp4O7WZcirjXeko3BckSCIJd7mFmlRd4aLMnavjxQm0oJBbfcv1JVEvM5/s320/AWW+challenge+2021.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-family: arial;">It's time to <a href="https://australianwomenwriters.com/sign-up/" target="_blank">sign up for the next Australian Women Writers Challenge</a>. This year I'm going for broke. The Franklin level. In honour of my new grandson, also called Franklin, and because I'm not working anymore, so I have no excuse not to read as many books by Australian Women Writers as I can :) That means I have to read 10 and review at least 6.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: arial;">At the beginning of 2020 I went for the Stella level i.e to read 4 books and review 3. How did I go?</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: arial;">So far this year I have read 42 books. There's always room for more over the next 5 days. I'm working on it. But let's see if we have hit goal already, or if there is more work to be done.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Australian Women Writers read in 2020</b></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: arial;">1. Dora Birtles <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2793382-the-overlanders" target="_blank">The Overlanders</a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2793382-the-overlanders" target="_blank">my review</a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: arial;">2. Amy Witting <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21535371-i-for-isobel" target="_blank">I for Isobel</a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="http://luvviesmusings.blogspot.com/2020/01/i-for-isobel-by-amy-witting.html" target="_blank">my review</a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: arial;">3. Amy Witting <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/965423.Marriages" target="_blank">Marriages</a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: arial;">4. Amy Witting <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4480000-maria-s-war" target="_blank">Maria's War</a> (can you tell I enjoyed finding Amy Witting?)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: arial;">5. Melanie Myers <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50792890-meet-me-at-lennon-s">Meet Me at Lennons</a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://familytreefrog.blogspot.com/2020/08/folio-friday.html" target="_blank">my review</a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: arial;">6. Betty O'Neill <a href="https://www.librarything.com/work/25530881" target="_blank">The Other Side of Absence</a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://familytreefrog.blogspot.com/2020/10/folio-friday-family-history-as-therapy.html" target="_blank">my review</a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Phew, scraped it in by a whisker.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: arial;">So this coming year, I really have to focus and read one book by an Australian Women Author preferably every month or every 5 weeks AND review one at least every 2 months. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Want to join me? </span><span style="color: #0000ee; font-family: arial;"><u></u></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><br /></div>Alex Dawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05083753053051713061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2256130805076511496.post-68447131781377378122020-03-08T09:54:00.001+10:002020-03-08T09:54:41.344+10:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45712927-actress" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px;"><img alt="Actress" border="0" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1563883047l/45712927._SY160_.jpg" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45712927-actress">Actress</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/52832.Anne_Enright">Anne Enright</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3148841458">5 of 5 stars</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I've only read one other of Anne Enright's books (<i>The Gathering)</i> which I know is a sad state of affairs, but there it is. I've been crook lately so this was the perfect size read to dip in and out of when one was feeling wan. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is essentially a story about a mother-daughter relationship and fits in well with my genre of reading this year which seems to be about memoirs. Written as a memoir, it is of course fiction first and foremost. Unless I am particularly unobservant (which is possible) we actually don't get to know the narrator's first name until halfway through the book. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The narrator is the daughter of a famous actress, currently pursued by a journalist/PhD student who wants to get to the bottom of her mother's sexuality. And so we meander down many a bewitching memory lane until we're pretty confident that none of us knows anything about anyone. Well, maybe a little bit. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There are many achingly good passages in this book but I was too busy reading them and enjoying them to flag them with stickies for easy retrieval later. I marvel at Enright's ability to fold us into the storytelling very lightly, making us feel that we are at the very centre of these people's lives, that we know them intimately and yet moves us along How do writers do that? They're just so clever. Honest to goodness they are. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Anyway, I enjoyed it. Don't ask me what it meant or was about. I just loved it. Much of it seemed authentic to me probably due to amateur theatrics in my youth and a spot of work in broadcasting and film. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I wish Anne well in the <a href="https://www.womensprizeforfiction.co.uk/reading-room/news/announcing-the-2020-womens-prize-for-fiction-longlist" target="_blank">Women's Prize for Fiction</a> for which this has been longlisted. We'll know the shortlist on 22nd April. Can I read the other 15 books before then? Not a chance? Glad I read this one? You bet!
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/5893725-alexandra-daw"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">View all my reviews</span></a>
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Alex Dawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05083753053051713061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2256130805076511496.post-32980683982482114212020-02-08T12:01:00.000+10:002020-02-08T12:01:05.768+10:00Heartburn by Nora Ephron<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39712864-heartburn" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="Heartburn" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1522790687l/39712864._SX98_.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39712864-heartburn">Heartburn</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5691.Nora_Ephron">Nora Ephron</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3172223522">4 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
The best thing about Ephron's "Heartburn" is the index to the recipes. Nah. I'm just being facetious. No really, it was a delight to turn over from the last page and find the index at the back. Very thoughtful. And see. I'm not one of those people who read the end of the book before they finish to see if it's worth reading. At 180 pages you've got to be very time poor if you're worried about whether it's worth reading or not.<br /><br />I'm delighted with myself to have read my second Virago for the year and my first Norah Ephron. I was so ignorant that I didn't realise she had written those wonderful romcoms When Harry Met Sally and Sleepless in Seattle. But important movies too like Silkwood. And the wonderful Julie and Julia.<br /><br />This is the kind of book that has you reaching for your phone to add all the quotes to your Goodreads profile and then getting frustrated with the app because it doesn't have that function. So you have to get out of bed and go to the study where your desktop is. But the kitchen is on the way and you wonder if you have the energy to make the Key Lime Pie recipe at one in the morning.<br /><br />If you like sharing great recipes, gossip and hearing someone delightfully witty crafting great stories out of the disastrous episodes of their life, this is your next read. Enjoy!
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/5893725-alexandra-daw">View all my reviews</a>
Alex Dawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05083753053051713061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2256130805076511496.post-8140597022814571082020-01-31T07:28:00.001+10:002020-01-31T07:28:13.708+10:00I for Isobel by Amy Witting<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21535371-i-for-isobel" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px;"><img alt="I for Isobel" border="0" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1398194994l/21535371._SX98_.jpg" /></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21535371-i-for-isobel">I for Isobel</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/398980.Amy_Witting">Amy Witting</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3134847756">4 of 5 stars</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"Am I good enough? Yes I am." This is the constant refrain Michelle Obama posited in her recent autobiography, <i>Becoming.</i> These words resonate when reading Amy Witting's, I for Isobel, first published in 1989. I read the version published by Text Classics in 2014 with an introduction by Charlotte Wood. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">How to begin describing this book? Many reviewers have talked about the deceptively juvenile or "beginner reader" sounding title of the book. It certainly is a broad hint at the subject matter. Isobel is our heroine and the I, or examined self, is paramount in this story. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I was going to call this a coming of age story. And then I saw another reader had called it a bildungsroman which I had to go and look up on Google. Ignorance is not bliss for this little black duck. Having read the Wikipedia article, I now think Künstlerroman is a more accurate description i.e the development of an artist.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Isobel labours as a child to navigate her way through a complex, some may say tortuous, relationship with her mother. As the psychologist says, let's remember our parents were children once too and wonder what happened to poor Isobel's mother to make her the way she was, dear children. Isobel (and her mother one suspects) longs for love, to be good, to be accepted, to fit in. A Catholic education offers heavenly intercession which works for a short while but Isobel always feels an imposter. Her true awkward self blurts out when she's in society; there are many occasions when she doesn't recognise the voice that comes out of her mouth. No don't worry, she's not schizophrenic; she's just a bit of a loner. She is most at ease when reading or escaping into the world of her imagination. At one point in the novel, she hugs a book to her chest to get her through a difficult day, warding off evil and giving her the confidence she needs. We chart Isobel's course through adolescence and finally adulthood as she discovers her tribe to a degree, or, if not her tribe, at least her calling and the joy of being comfortable in her own skin.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I was intrigued by this reasonably slim volume at 181 pages and surprised how long it took me to read it. I would like to read it again but I need a sustained period of uninterrupted leisure to do so and I would want to be sure of a group of fellow readers to explore certain passages. So yes, maybe a good book club read.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There were some passages in the book which I just did not understand and found quite frustrating. The style of writing is at times so introspective that I think unless you were Isobel, you could not really understand what was going on. I did enjoy recognising parts of my own youthful experience growing up in Sydney suburbs, such as Glebe. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So who would enjoy the book? Writers. Would-be writers. Readers. Anyone who loves books, reflection, pondering on the meaning of life and psychology.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This is a book about bad mothers, boarding houses, Catholicism, poetry, self. Give it a burl and let me know your thoughts.
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/5893725-alexandra-daw"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">View all my reviews</span></a>
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Alex Dawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05083753053051713061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2256130805076511496.post-67683583965750039952020-01-27T08:39:00.001+10:002020-01-27T08:39:35.793+10:00Life According to Literature Tag<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAWlXGM4dYRAfDltcJbyKvG1Sr97H3pJlsAR0-GVzPBZJA7mWPYZUSnIhf60Of_VmWLyY-a6ygo9yIMgU0orY99HPZU4-F9tAyk6nKG3N8hMy7uJRL93T1c_zLuzcZag7WsD5TuiUFzYZE/s1600/life-in-literature-logo.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="239" data-original-width="640" height="119" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAWlXGM4dYRAfDltcJbyKvG1Sr97H3pJlsAR0-GVzPBZJA7mWPYZUSnIhf60Of_VmWLyY-a6ygo9yIMgU0orY99HPZU4-F9tAyk6nKG3N8hMy7uJRL93T1c_zLuzcZag7WsD5TuiUFzYZE/s320/life-in-literature-logo.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Some bloggers have contributed to a meme started by <a href="http://bronasbooks.blogspot.com/2020/01/life-according-to-literature-tag.html?m=0" target="_blank">Brona's Books</a>. I found this on <a href="https://theresasmithwrites.com/2020/01/16/life-according-to-literature-tag/" target="_blank">Theresa Smith Writes</a> blog (via <a href="https://thatmomentintime-crissouli.blogspot.com/2020/01/friday-fossicking-24th-jan-2020.html?fbclid=IwAR2Lqp0NP5lWC_V9kHBvYUCrfgVT5m3cwh9JsKo1CsPlTeBruDdXI1Pj4t8" target="_blank">That Moment in Time</a>) and <a href="https://anzlitlovers.com/2020/01/15/life-according-to-literature-tag/" target="_blank">Lisa on ANZ Lit Lovers</a> picked it up too.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">THE RULES: Using only books you have read during the year (2019), answer these questions. Try not to repeat a book title. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here's my take on the meme....</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Describe yourself: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1793429.The_Uncommon_Reader" target="_blank">The Uncommon Reader</a> by Alan Bennett</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How do you feel: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32966553-never-mind" target="_blank">Never Mind </a>by Edward St Aubyn</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Describe where you currently live: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3074101287?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1" target="_blank">On Chapel Sands</a> by Laura Cumming</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you could go anywhere, where would you go: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/46194329-bruny" target="_blank">Bruny</a> by Heather Rose</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Your favourite form of transportation: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38664775-sea-prayer" target="_blank">Sea Prayer </a>by Khaled Hosseini</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Your best friend is: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28585478-blue-dog" target="_blank">Blue Dog </a>by Louis de Bernieres</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You and your friends are: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40229412-too-much-lip" target="_blank">Too Much Lip</a> by Melissa Lucashenko</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What’s the weather like: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/612532.Peak" target="_blank">Peak</a> by Chip Conley</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You fear: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2717003864?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1" target="_blank">Invitation to the Waltz </a>by Rosamond Lehmann</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What is the best advice you have to give: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2683934977?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1" target="_blank">Best Foot Forward</a> by Adam Hills</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thought for the day: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2761102768?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1" target="_blank">One Life</a> by Kate Grenville</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How would I like to die: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7181221-a-recipe-for-dreaming" target="_blank">A Recipe for Dreaming</a> by Bryce Courtenay</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My soul’s present condition: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2905311719" target="_blank">One Day</a> by David Nicholls</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That was fun! Let me know if you give it a try too!</span><br />
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Alex Dawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05083753053051713061noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2256130805076511496.post-14522239225192602352020-01-05T07:57:00.000+10:002020-01-05T07:58:05.471+10:00Book Review - The Overlanders by Dora Birtles<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I picked up <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2793382-the-overlanders" target="_blank">The Overlanders</a></i> as my first read for 2020 for a number of reasons.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was on my TBR list last year (but never
got read), it was a reasonably slim volume at 212 pages (achievable) and it was
also a Virago (of which I read precisely zero last year - sad face).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Early on in my reading, I reported to my son I was already
enjoying it despite being only being nine pages in; “Let’s watch <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Overlanders_(film)" target="_blank">the movie</a>
together. It could be fun.” I said.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Read
the book first,” he intoned “The movie might spoil it.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We tend to assume the book was written before
the movie was made but in this case, it was quite the reverse.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dora_Birtles" target="_blank">Dora Birtles </a>was originally employed as a
researcher by the movie’s producer/writer <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0914972/?ref_=tt_ov_dr" target="_blank">Harry Watt</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her role grew to become more of script
adviser and casting consultant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
movie was made in 1946 and the book published in 1947.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Dora says: “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The book had great success.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Ten editions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I got a station
wagon, one of the first six in Australia, out of it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No more bicycling</i>.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The film was also a great success.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Dora called it “<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Crocodile Dundee</i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> of its time</i>.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I grew up on a steady diet of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Little_Australians" target="_blank"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Seven Little Australians</i> </a>et al, so the writing is familiar, if
sometimes politically incorrect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Aborigines are referred to as Abos or blacks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s set during WWII and the Japanese are
called Japs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the female characters
are strong and hardy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They can catch and
throw down a steer when required and head off a stampeding mob; very satisfying
indeed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dora reminds us that “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Patriots
in Sydney were very fond of Russia in those days. At that time the Russians
retreating from the German eastern offensive were said to be destroying what
they could not carry with them.</i>”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
filmmakers wanted to create a story that would enshrine the scorched earth
policy and is based on a real cattle trek that happened during the war.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Apparently, t</span>he Minister for Food’s slogan was “Bully
beef not bullets” but I'm having trouble finding that easily in Trove.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An army marches on
its stomach and all that.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So why, in this day and age, read this book?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well, for a start, it’s a cracking good
read.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The plot is compelling and rolls
you along from one drama to the next.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>There’s fording of rivers, trapping of brumbies, stampedes, broken
bones, daring rescues and impossible feats of bravery and above all dogged perseverance,
laced with dry humour.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Birtles builds her characters up beautifully, from the somewhat
gormless, shell-shocked Scottish sailor who abandons ship in Wyndham and decides
to try droving, despite never having ridden a horse, to the wily old cattleman/trickster, Corky aka J.
Claverhouse Corkingdale aka Jimmy the Snoot who realizes his droving days are
numbered and is desperately looking for a get-rich-quick scheme.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Birtles’ language of the day had me googling furiously,
looking up Rolls Royce station wagons: did such things really exist?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes, they did!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>What on earth is a thorough brace waggon?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And so on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I enjoyed the hunt
and I loved the writing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here’s a
particularly evocative description of the homestead: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">He went in for a last
look around the kitchen, opening the shallow drawer at the far end of the
white-scrubbed kitchen table.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ma’s
cookery books lay in it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He took one
out, the mottled-covered, thick exercise book in which she had written out every
special recipe ever since they were married, with the donor’s name on the top
of every recipe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was like a garland of
Ma’s friendships through the years: Rosa’s sago plum pudding and Miss Woodget’s
special orange cake.</i> “ <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Above all, there’s passion and love for the country which
rang particularly true for me during <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-05/fires-nsw-victoria-sa-emergency-level-australia-bushfire-crisis/11841280" target="_blank">these heartbreaking times</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here is an impassioned speech by Dan
McAlpine, the drover, which you could be forgiven for thinking was taken from
an Extinction Rebellion protestor today:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Exploitation’s
wrong.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s the trouble with the whole
caboodle down south.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s the trouble
with the whole of this country from the coast to inland.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We’ve torn the heart out of it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We’ve lost the timber and we’re losing the
soil.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We’re losing the rivers and we’re
losing the grass.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All these
get-rich-quick exploiters think of nothing but money, how to make money as
quickly as possible, and now how Australians are going to live twenty, thirty
years from now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Exploit men if you like,
they can fight back, but the land can’t fight back.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Punish it too much and it gives up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The desert creeps in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I love the Territory too much to see it go
the way of a lot of the rest of this country.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And it won’t take so long to ruin it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It’s a peculiar country.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s got
to be handled right by people who know it and can use it to the best advantage
for the future as well as themselves</i>.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Australia’s population lives mostly on the eastern coast of
Australia, clinging to its edge like limpets and bearing a deep love for the mysterious
“outback”; rugged but beautiful terrain which is mostly inhospitable to
humans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You can imagine our real terror
when we face the loss of what is usually considered “safe” country – the coastal
strip - and are faced with the large, empty abyss of the interior.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Birtles’ tale reminds us that we have faced
testing times before and that our national character will stand us in good
stead in the toughest of times.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Here's one more quote from her Afterword:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"<i>War breeds a strange state of mind. There is all the anxiety, the fear, the dread, the burdens of being alive and keeping going and the sudden need of pleasure, of real friendships, of hilarity. In that climate, we made The Overlanders."</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I hope
you enjoy this book as much as I did. </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">PS I have since tried to find the movie on the net. I looked for it on Kanopy, SBS On Demand, ABC iView, Netflix, Stan etc. I could only find it on Daily Motion which is just hideous, full of ads, so I can only recommend that you try finding a copy at your local library or, in Australia, at one of the National Film and Sound Archives' <a href="https://www.nfsa.gov.au/collection/using-collection/access-centres" target="_blank">Access Centres</a>. Gold Coast City Council Library has a copy on DVD which I have ordered or keep an eye out for it on free-to-air. It's sure to pop up again sometime soon. </span></div>
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Alex Dawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05083753053051713061noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2256130805076511496.post-84243942586878201392020-01-01T00:00:00.001+10:002020-01-01T00:00:11.358+10:00Australian Women Writers Challenge #AWW2020<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGp6uJBxv0YIRm88444m9ZvYfykZqNJqYgx6W69d6XsFnnFyY4eGJ_vNzPKEdWjq4QAw4twnfz0CQqQFFoac_e-lnal332AtZmexISTDRLvEcIOi5X8_RexB8RhIhMamRKHybsykfARmdU/s1600/aww+2020+badge.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1073" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGp6uJBxv0YIRm88444m9ZvYfykZqNJqYgx6W69d6XsFnnFyY4eGJ_vNzPKEdWjq4QAw4twnfz0CQqQFFoac_e-lnal332AtZmexISTDRLvEcIOi5X8_RexB8RhIhMamRKHybsykfARmdU/s320/aww+2020+badge.jpg" width="214" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I've decided to sign up for the AWW2020 challenge. It's great having reading goals and this is one I'm particularly passionate about. If you are interested in finding out more, go to this page <a href="http://australianwomenwriters.com/sign-up/" target="_blank">here.</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm setting my sights low to avoid disappointment. I really hope I exceed them. I am going for the Stella level, which is to read 4 books by Australian women writers and review 3 of them. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There is a searchable database of reviews of books <a href="http://australianwomenwriters.com/book-search/" target="_blank">here. </a> How good is that?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In 2019 I read 41 books of which 14 were by Australian women writers as follows:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Serina Bird - <i>The Joyful Frugalista</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Georgie Dent - <i>Breaking Badly</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sandy Docker - <i>The Cottage at Rosella Cove</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Kitty Flanagan - <i>488 Rules for Life</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <i>Bridge Burning and other hobbies</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Kate Grenville - <i>One Life</i> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <i>Dark Places</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Bri Lee - <i>Egg Shell Skull</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jaclyn Moriarty - <i>Gravity is the Thing</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Liane Moriarty - <i>Nine Perfect Strangers</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Heather Rose - <i>Bruny</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Gabbie Stroud - <i>Teacher</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Charlotte Wood - <i>The Weekend</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />So, theoretically, I smashed it and can claim the Franklin level, only I can't remember if I signed up for the challenge! And I had to review at least six of them. Whilst I gave reviews of some of them on Good Reads I need to be honest and say they were at the most two or three-sentence reviews which I don't think pass muster. So my goal for 2020 is to write decent reviews of maybe 300 words maximum and following the excellent guidelines <a href="http://australianwomenwriters.com/2012/09/what_makes_a_good_review/" target="_blank">here</a>, <a href="https://www.australianbookreview.com.au/images/PDFs_2015/Advice_for_new_reviewers_-_August_2016.pdf" target="_blank">here</a> and<a href="https://www.australianbookreview.com.au/images/PDFs_2015/Advice_for_new_ABR_contributors_2016.pdf" target="_blank"> here.</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What books do I hope to read? Well, I have started <i>The Overlanders</i> by Dora Birtle which is really interesting. And a Virago. And I really want to read more Viragos.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Wish me luck and let me know if you are going to join in too.</span><br />
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Alex Dawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05083753053051713061noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2256130805076511496.post-90088003124286877492018-12-26T17:10:00.002+10:002018-12-26T17:10:36.958+10:00The Promised Land by Barry Maitland<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42426534-the-promised-land" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px;"><img alt="The Promised Land (Brock & Kolla #13)" border="0" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1540343508m/42426534.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42426534-the-promised-land">The Promised Land</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/86734.Barry_Maitland">Barry Maitland</a><br />
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2636298968">5 of 5 stars</a><br />
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Imagine my delight when I discovered I had won an advanced copy of this title from Allen and Unwin. <br />
It proved to be a Christmas cracker of a mystery! Pages were turned faster and faster as I tried to discover if my hunches were correct. <br />
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This is #13 in the Brock and Kolla series but I don't think you need to have read any of the previous stories to keep up. No doubt there are many fans out there champing at the bit for the next instalment and they won't be disappointed. <br />
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Set in London, Detective Chief Inspector Kathy Kolla is now working alone, since her long-time partner Brock recently retired. Can she crack the new case without his help? More importantly, can he survive retirement? This is very much a play within a play, and without wanting to give too much away, it will help to have your literary wits about you. Enjoy!
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/5893725-alexandra-daw">View all my reviews</a>
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Alex Dawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05083753053051713061noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2256130805076511496.post-71262443203356132802017-07-07T14:36:00.000+10:002017-07-07T14:36:43.954+10:00Six in six for 2017<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjryXnm_7eLYMPkHCGh2sfouD0cjQQM_TlZlwYfLeKw16MgbCoxTxj59t6QRK8pTV6v4IWvMe6jEdcGoUcFP08gh-VkbnfdLTX3wQRQyf4e8sO28ukwXWDYO3gciVhSuJWIxd683BSnjpWR/s1600/six+in+2017.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="246" data-original-width="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjryXnm_7eLYMPkHCGh2sfouD0cjQQM_TlZlwYfLeKw16MgbCoxTxj59t6QRK8pTV6v4IWvMe6jEdcGoUcFP08gh-VkbnfdLTX3wQRQyf4e8sO28ukwXWDYO3gciVhSuJWIxd683BSnjpWR/s1600/six+in+2017.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jo at the <a href="https://josbookjourney.wordpress.com/2017/06/12/the-sixth-six-in-six-2017-edition/" target="_blank">Book Jotter </a>came up with this meme and it is the first time I have participated, although it has been going for six years. The lovely Jane at <a href="https://beyondedenrock.com/" target="_blank">Beyond Eden Rock </a>made me aware of it though via Facebook - bless her.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2017 has not been a good year for me in terms of quantity of books read. I seem to be falling behind the 8 ball rather badly and seriously doubt my ability to get to my usual goal of 50 books. Where am I going wrong? I have certainly borrowed over 60 books from the library where I work in the past six months. Well - discovering <i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0402711/" target="_blank">Boston Legal</a></i> rather late in the game (thanks for that friend Karen) and devouring five seasons as quickly as I can hasn't helped. What is this obsession with <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000652/?ref_=tt_ov_st_sm" target="_blank">James Spader</a>???</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">However - for what it's worth - here are some musings about the 11 books I have read this year, as well as from last year...and a few musings about bookshops as well...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Six New Authors to Me</b></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpU4RmawyVUbX_kiNStP41D_vHncyCLbjuGFROB0xE_IGyqBH85h884nHdY9mfAoYOb8AG0XTDX3fUtUXrJ5SDdiKboP4pWurDC9Nvs6MIgaNCSX71jYyXw-Y-_lrc2-lwgk68ejf-6t-L/s1600/fathers+den.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="92" data-original-width="98" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpU4RmawyVUbX_kiNStP41D_vHncyCLbjuGFROB0xE_IGyqBH85h884nHdY9mfAoYOb8AG0XTDX3fUtUXrJ5SDdiKboP4pWurDC9Nvs6MIgaNCSX71jYyXw-Y-_lrc2-lwgk68ejf-6t-L/s1600/fathers+den.jpg" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.bookcouncil.org.nz/writer/gee-maurice/" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">Maurice Gee</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> -<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11444094-in-my-father-s-den" target="_blank"> <i>In my Father's Den</i> </a>- I had heard of the movie and was desperate for a talking book to get me through an extended commute while I worked at another library for 3 weeks. This did the trick...hooking me from the get go...never really sure who dunnit...Talking books are tricky beasts particularly as far as the narrator is concerned and I am delighted to report that Humphrey Bower did a great job. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM7je45FdZLvwqaKPoxktW1ChKOznWt9qhIqNdsST_Tf7fKUOz7QyGqw1ysCFVDuZ3g7ULckF7JYmv6qSPgTpAXXI9LSTj_GYkWVOlMAr_4FiO-CtVn899kHYaw3GAiPmikm3uR53HcN29/s1600/nathan+dylan+goodwin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="126" data-original-width="98" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM7je45FdZLvwqaKPoxktW1ChKOznWt9qhIqNdsST_Tf7fKUOz7QyGqw1ysCFVDuZ3g7ULckF7JYmv6qSPgTpAXXI9LSTj_GYkWVOlMAr_4FiO-CtVn899kHYaw3GAiPmikm3uR53HcN29/s1600/nathan+dylan+goodwin.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><a href="http://www.nathandylangoodwin.com/" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">Nathan Dylan Goodwin</a> - <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18491669-hiding-the-past" target="_blank">Hiding the Past </a>- </i>all my genie friends had been raving about this series on Facebook for a while so I couldn't stand it anymore and bought the first in the series. It was a very good light read of the crime/ministery genre with a bit of genealogy thrown in. I was delighted to find the rest of the series in my local family history society lending <a href="https://www.qfhs.org.au/resources/catalogue-search/" target="_blank">library</a> so I am sure to enjoy more.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtkiz-3A7z2fQNAmyvJMp6f_c4gY871FDShxuxtt9Jj-g_jGYe4N9foxYHPbpi7SQwXi0CcCs545k7jzvKSyL1WhV19KK9fpWNEM5YvjpDuMv0olUup8l1TqCc5ptfNFhag9hfZoHj-gTl/s1600/saroo+brierley.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="150" data-original-width="98" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtkiz-3A7z2fQNAmyvJMp6f_c4gY871FDShxuxtt9Jj-g_jGYe4N9foxYHPbpi7SQwXi0CcCs545k7jzvKSyL1WhV19KK9fpWNEM5YvjpDuMv0olUup8l1TqCc5ptfNFhag9hfZoHj-gTl/s1600/saroo+brierley.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><a href="http://saroobrierley.com/" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">Saroo Brierley</a> -<a href="https://www.blogger.com/goog_848997401"> </a><i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34674128-lion" target="_blank">Lion.</a> </span></i><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As soon as I saw the movie a month or so ago, I knew I would have to read the book. This is an extraordinary story and deserving of a film adaptation. But the film left many questions unanswered and so I wanted to get the book as quickly as possible. It's a very easy read and yes - it has a map of India - which I referred to numerous times. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span id="freeTextreview1955718119" style="background-color: white; color: #181818;"><br />For anyone who has ever lost a child - even if only for a few minutes - the story is a bit like your worst nightmare only with a very happy ending. Who could want more than that? And it doesn't matter that you know the ending really because the journey as they say, is always the interesting bit.<br /><br />As a family historian I loved this story from so many angles - the research, the obsession with finding family/identity, the love of parents and of good citizens who understand that it takes a village to raise a child and who wanted to look after those most vulnerable in society. Thank goodness for the Brierleys and all those who care for "lost" children. What special people they are and how lucky we are to have them in our world.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;"> </span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5htq5qxTPQYWbA5iTstBTS0hyiPxVCqUIbm46sCRVVaNEI7pVegE5YYqhhQIIvUtEPbuYO13PW1vreiSs4-8cnEesTV4vqskp-tRJ62yWYZ77osg85lQKwd1AklcOEn0pVr_A58y2epQl/s1600/Nona+and+me.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="309" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5htq5qxTPQYWbA5iTstBTS0hyiPxVCqUIbm46sCRVVaNEI7pVegE5YYqhhQIIvUtEPbuYO13PW1vreiSs4-8cnEesTV4vqskp-tRJ62yWYZ77osg85lQKwd1AklcOEn0pVr_A58y2epQl/s320/Nona+and+me.jpg" width="208" /></a></div>
<span style="color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></span><a href="http://clareatkins.com.au/" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">Clare Atkins</a> - <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22454873-nona-me" target="_blank">Nona and Me</a> - </i>I was delighted to be recommended this book by a self-confessed non-reader, friend Loani. It's a great YA read, tackling the oft times thorny issues of friendship and identity. I loved its honesty and heart.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><a href="http://www.katesummerscale.com/" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">Kate Summerscale</a> - <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32191387-the-wicked-boy" target="_blank">The Wicked Boy - the mystery of a Victorian child murderer.</a> </i>When my bookclub friend, Antonia, gave me the gist of this story over a cup of coffee one morning it sounded so preposterous and outrageous a story that I couldn't wait to get my hands on it and raced upstairs to Kenmore Library to nab a copy. I devoured it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Colvin" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">Mark Colvin</a> - <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32804572-light-and-shadow" style="font-style: italic;" target="_blank">Light and Shadow - Memoris of a Spy's Son</a><i>. </i>This was such a thoughtful Christmas gift from my step-brother and his wife who are never put off by buying books for a librarian. They manage to find stuff I've never heard of and just love. This was no exception. Mark Colvin's voice has been with me just about every day of my working life either as host of the World Today or PM. Reading his autobiography was a bit like six degrees of separation....his time in Canberra, his time at the ABC....whilst not mirroring my life, certainly shades thereof. This was a fascinating read by one of our best and much mourned. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Six authors I read last year - but not so far this year</b></span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Garner" target="_blank">Helen Garner</a> - </b>just about my favourite author - <i>Joe Cinque's Consolation </i>was even better than I hoped.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Tedeschi" target="_blank">Mark Tedeschi</a> - </b>always writes so well about such interesting cases</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><a href="http://darkdaysclub.com/" target="_blank">Alison Goodman</a> - </b>had a bit of fun with this YA author</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_Haruf" target="_blank">Kent Haruf</a> - </b>exquisite writing</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/06/books/review/akhil-sharmas-family-life.html" target="_blank">Akhil Sharna</a> - </b>lots<b> </b> to think about in <i>Family Life</i></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><a href="http://www.joannedrayton.net/" target="_blank">Joanne Drayton</a> - </b><i>The Search for Anne Perry</i> was gripping and un-put-downable. </span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Six books I abandoned</b></span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b style="font-style: italic;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29430788-faithful" target="_blank">Faithful </a></b>by Alice Hoffman - I'm having difficulty connecting with any of the characters so far. Should I persevere?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/835436.Coronation_Summer" target="_blank">Coronation Summer</a></i> </b>by Angela Thirkell <b>- </b>this was offered to me as an eBook for review but I was having a hard time getting to the end. Out of courtesy I must try and finish and review properly.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30232248-gifts-for-our-time?from_search=true" target="_blank">Gifts for our Time</a></b></i> by Anna Jacobs - sorry, I know she's popular but I thought it was sheer drivel and could not get past the first chapter. I felt like I was sitting with a bunch of old narrow-minded gossips.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23453099-eileen" target="_blank">Eileen </a></i></b>by Otessa Moshfegh - tried but couldn't get into it...too dark me thinks. Should I have persevered?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22749750-the-turner-house?from_search=true" target="_blank">The Turner House </a></i></b>by Angela Flournoy - I kind of got into it but not enough.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://moretonbay.spydus.com/cgi-bin/spydus.exe/ENQ/OPAC/BIBENQ?BRN=599523" target="_blank"><i><b>Train to Australia</b></i> </a>by Lidia Kardos - there were some amazing stories in this book and I really admire the author's perseverance with publishing this story and giving an account of her family's story and life. Ultimately I had some issues with the authorial voice/opinion and think that it could have done with some good editing to make it less rambling.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Six from non-fiction</b></span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b style="font-style: italic;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13074112-speaking-volumes">Speaking Volumes: The Victorian Parliamentary Library 1851 - 2001 </a></b>by Patrick Gregory<i> - </i>this is not really one of those books that you read from beginning to end. I used it as a reference I did for some of my family history which you can read about <a href="https://familytreefrog.blogspot.com.au/2017/02/the-body-okay-ancestor-in-library.html" target="_blank">here.</a></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b style="font-style: italic;"><a href="https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/books/general-books/writing-language/How-Writing-Works-Roslyn-Petelin-9781925266917" target="_blank">How writing works: a field guide to effective writing</a> </b>by Roslyn Petelin - such a good book I went ought and bought my own copy.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31214960-to-prey-and-to-silence" target="_blank">To Prey and to Silence: One Survivor's Story of Child Sexual Abuse and her fight for justice </a> </i>by Joan Katherine Isaacs. So wonderful to meet this author at our library. I only got about half way through the book and apparently I hadn't got to the really interesting bit yet. You can buy it online <a href="http://shortstoppress.com/non-fiction/to-prey-and-to-silence">here.</a></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13401151-mrs-robinson-s-disgrace" target="_blank">Mrs Robinson's Disgrace: The Private Diary of a Victorian Lady</a></i></b> by Kate Summerscale - I had little patience with the central character and it became a bit repetitive</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23296608-introducing-genetics" target="_blank">Introducing Genetics: A Graphic Guide</a> </b>by Steve Jones and Borin van Loon - it's only a little book given to me by my father for Christmas. I really should be able to finish it.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26236831-pistols-and-petticoats" target="_blank">Pistols and Petticoats: 175 years of Lady detectives in faction and fiction</a></i> </b>by Erika Janik. I heard about this on a radio interview and it sounded fascinating but I just haven't got the time to read it although I do wish I did. Maybe another time.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Six Bookshops I have visited</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well I have been out and about a bit this first six months of the year - Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra as well as my hometown of Brisbane.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We're a bit short on bookshops in Brisbane but I continue to be well-served by </span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.dymocks.com.au/" target="_blank"><b>Dymocks </b></a>at Indooroopilly and when they come to our author events at the library service where I work. This year I purchased some <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/122511.Kathy_Lette" target="_blank">Kathy Lette </a>books for friends/family and a copy of <b><i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/779126.Puberty_Blues?from_search=true" target="_blank">Puberty Blues</a></i></b> for me for old times' sake.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.shop.slq.qld.gov.au/" target="_blank"><b>The Library Shop at State Library of Queensland </b></a>- where they gave me a discount recently because I am a librarian - how lovely. You can get great cards and wrapping paper there and gifts for out-of-towners as well as all the best books - particularly books about books.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When I was in Canberra recently it was all I could do to drag myself away from the <b><a href="https://bookshop.nla.gov.au/australian-books/home.do;jsessionid=9DE461A75DD32AFFAF3A2136DC952C29" target="_blank">National Library's Bookshop.</a> </b>They had <i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29539626-emporium?from_search=true" target="_blank">Emporium: selling the dream in colonial Australia</a></i> by Edwin Barnard on sale for $19.99. Score!</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When I was in Melbourne the weekend before I was in Canberra my friend and I visited the Van Gogh exhibition and then meandered happily in possibly the largest <a href="https://store.ngv.vic.gov.au/" target="_blank">gallery bookshop </a>I have ever seen. Somehow I escaped.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When in Sydney I am always happy to stop by the <a href="https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/shop/" target="_blank">NSW Art Gallery shop.</a> They have quite a good craft book range there I find.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Strictly speaking I did not visit this last bookshop this year but it certainly was most helpful for Xmas shopping last year...<a href="https://pottspointbookshop.com.au/" target="_blank">.the Potts Point bookshop.</a> What a delight it was to spend quite a bit of time here. Thoroughly recommend this haven and hours of opening are very reasonable 9am - 7pm most days.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Six books that took me by the hand and led me into the past</b></span></div>
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<li><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/153530.The_Blessing" target="_blank">The Blessing</a></i></b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/153530.The_Blessing" target="_blank"> </a>by Nancy Mitford. I read this and</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/557271.The_Loved_and_Envied?from_search=true" target="_blank">T</a></i></b></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/557271.The_Loved_and_Envied?from_search=true" target="_blank">he Loved and Envied</a> </i></b>by Enid Bagnold for the #1951 Club meme and you can read my thoughts on them </span><a href="http://luvviesmusings.blogspot.com.au/2017/04/this-is-very-late-contribution-to-this.html" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">here.</a></li>
<li> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i>Light and Shadow </i></b>by Mark Colvin </span> </li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i>The Wicked Boy </i></b>by Kate Summerscale</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3190170-come-in-spinner?from_search=true" target="_blank"><b><i>Come in Spinner </i></b>b</a>y Dymphna Cusack - I loathed the talking book (mostly because of cheesy interstitial music and some mispronounciations by narrators) but hold out hope of reading the unabridged version one day when I have time.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Last but by no means least - <b><i>Emporium</i></b> by Edward Barnard which I have but dipped into and am relishing the thought of more opportunities to do so.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We're half way through our reading year. You can contribute to this meme too in July. How are you going with your goals? Have you discovered any new authors? Any gripping reads? What bookshops do you frequent?</span></div>
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Alex Dawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05083753053051713061noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2256130805076511496.post-69374616584450542922017-04-27T10:38:00.001+10:002017-04-27T18:00:42.441+10:00#1951 Club Meme - The Blessing and The Loved and Envied <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This is a very late contribution to this reading meme hosted by Simon from <a href="http://www.stuckinabook.com/" target="_blank">Stuck in a Book </a>and Kaggsy's from <a href="https://kaggsysbookishramblings.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Kaggsy's Bookish Ramblings</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As I get older, I seem to take longer and longer to read books.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The books I chose for this challenge were <i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/153530.The_Blessing?from_search=true" target="_blank">The Blessing </a></i>by Nancy Mitford and Enid Bagnold's <i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7133742-the-loved-and-envied" target="_blank">The Loved and Envied.</a></i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The picture shown above of the two books is not an entirely accurate representation of my reading as I heard, rather than read, <i>The Blessing. </i> I listened to a recording narrated by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jenny_Agutter" target="_blank">Jenny Agutter</a> and published in 2011. It was nearly 9 hours long and as my commute takes about half an hour each way, it took about a week to listen to it from whoa to go. The audio book was available the quickest from my library but I borrowed a large print copy this week so I could look up certain things I remembered from the recording. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>The Loved and Envied </i>took me exactly a week to read at 280 pages. It was a more difficult read than<i> The Blessing </i>being somewhat darker and, I found, a trickier structure. But let's look at them individually.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Just so you know, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Mitford" target="_blank">Nancy Mitford</a> was the eldest of six sisters and one brother. Her sister Diana married Bryan Guinness and then Sir Oswald Mosley, a fascist. Sister Unity was famous for idolizing Adolf Hitler and shooting herself, but missing. Youngest sister Deborah married the Duke of Devonshire. This novel was written at the height of Nancy Mitford's career when she was living in Paris. She was an agent for <a href="https://www.heywoodhill.com/" target="_blank">Heywood Hill's </a>bookshop, a regular columnist for the Sunday Times, an international best-selling author and playwright. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Whenever I hear the word "Bless" it seems to me rather quaint and old-fashioned. I do still say "Bless you!" when someone sneezes which apparently really annoys my son who is an avowed aethiest. My step-sister-in-law (there's a mouthful) and another English friend often say "Bless" when they hear something that sounds sweet/cute to them. In this instance, the blessing refers to a child, Sigi; the young and only son of Grace and Charles-Edouard, Grace refers to Sigi as "the blessing" several times throughout the book. Jonathan </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Guinness suggests that - whilst Charles-Edouard is an "idealized version of the Colonel", Nancy Mitford's French lover, Gaston Palewski - Grace and Sigi are probably drawn from her sister Diana and her sons Alexander and Max Mosley. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Grace is depicted as a rather delightfully vague, inoffensive English woman who would quite happily spend the rest of her days in the country with her goats (an allusion to Mitford's mother), far from the demands of society. She is powerless against the bulwark of her, and subsequently Sigi's, Nanny and this relationship provides endless opportunities throughout the book for amusement. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The novel opens with a visit from the hitherto unknown Charles-Edouard, a friend of Grace's fiance, Hughie. Charles Edouard sweeps Grace off her feet, marrying her before dashing back to the war for the next seven years. By the time Charles-Edouard returns, Sigi, their son, is a a typically precocious English boy who doesn't like "this daft kissing stuff" between his parents.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And so, the scene is set. Will Grace, the gentle English flower manage to hang on to her dashing French husband with the roving eye and, perhaps more importantly, will Sigi and Nanny adjust to a new life in France and continue to rule the roost? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">To tell you more of the plot would spoil the story. This is a fascinating insight into post-war Europe - in high society of course. Bits that will stay with me are as follows:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">1. Grace's entrance into Paris society:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>"She was unprepared for the scene that met her eyes on entering the </i></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>Fertés</i></span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> big salon. The door opened upon a kaleidoscope of glitter. The women, nearly all beauties, were in huge crinolines, from which rose naked shoulders and almost naked bosoms, sparkling with jewels."</i></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Did you do a double-take at the word crinoline? I did. Great ignoramus that I am, I associated crinolines with the 1850s not the 1950s. We are not talking about this kind of crinoline....</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Vintage Victorian Fashion Plate No 2 - Ladies Magazine June 1866 from <a href="https://flic.kr/p/8ZCcUu" target="_blank">CharmaineZoe on Flickr</a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> We are talking about this kind of crinoline....</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Published in Woman's Day, March 1953, Vol 16 No. 6 from <a href="https://flic.kr/p/hyUTi3" target="_blank">Classic Film on Flickr</a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Here's an extract from a letter Nancy Mitford wrote to her sister Diana in May 1950:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"<i>Oh dear I've just had a morning with my dressmaker - an evening dress now can't be made even by her under a tout dernier prix de £50. Isn't it dreadful, it seems such a lot of money. And that includes using an old one as foundations. She says 30-40 yards is the minimum if it's not to look skimpy and I know she's right. The dresses have never been so vast and elaborate."</i></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">2. Nanny's dreams turned to ashes upon returning to Hyde Park.....</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>"The Park, she found, had lost its old character. Not only had the railings disappeared, the beautiful fleur-de-lis railing which used to surround it, the stout stumps of Rotten Row, the elegant Regency railings of the flower beds, and the railings on which children loved to walk a tight-rope at the ends of the paths, but so, to a very great extent, had the nannies. Increasing numbers of little boys, it seemed, while they had a multiplicity of mummies and daddies, had no nannies at all....Park society was not what it had been. There was no wide range of choice, as in the past, and the few nannies who were left clung together, a sad little bunch, like the survivors in an autumnal poultry yard, most of whose fellows had already gone to the pot. Nanny had few friends among them and pronounced them to be, on the whole, a very inferior type of person."</i></span> </blockquote>
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<a href="https://flic.kr/p/i54ZyC" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">from Leonard Bentley on Flickr</a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">3. I was surprised and amused by the reasonably frequent reference to all sorts of sexual proclivities usually by aged French aunts e.g. Madame Rocher, who enquires of Charles-Edouard and Grace:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>"Is it today you go to the English Lesbians? The nephew of the old one is there, I believe - if he is her nephew. They've just bought a refrigerator, what extravagance! The Italian m</i></span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">énage à trois</i><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">? Have you explained to Grace that she only likes boys of sixteen and they get them for her ? An excellent cook, I hear, this year." </i></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Perhaps it was this sort of European raciness that amused my mother who was a staunch Anglophile in contrast to Mitford's known Francophilia.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">4. Being set post-war, there are references to the Iron Curtain and the Bomb...but in a farcical way. Grace's childhood friend Carolyn is married to Hector Dexter, the "important" (but deeply boring) American. Here he is describing a pamphlet called <i>The Bomb and You....</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>"(It is) designed to bring the bomb into every home and invest it with a certain degree of cosiness. This should calm and reassure the population in case of attack. There are plenty of guidance reunions, fork lunches, and so on where the subject is treated frankly, to familiarize it, as it were, and rob it of all unpleasantness. At these gathering the speakers stress that the observation of certain rules of atomic hygiene ought to be a matter of everyday routine."</i></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Crazy, I know. Even though Mitford made light of it in <i>The Blessing</i>, an extract from a letter to her sister Diana in December of 1950 gives another view:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>"The panicking here has reached such a pitch that even I have got a bit windy. It's just like I remember London in 1940, everybody showing you their pills. (As you know I'm never as frightened as most, but feel in a bad position here being a foreigner.)"</i></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Charlotte Mosley's very helpful notes remind us that President Truman had just declared a state of emergency because of the war in Korea. Hmmmm.....food for thought given the current political times.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>The Blessing</i> was a light-hearted read and my first Mitford. Reading it was a kind of homage to my mother who was slightly obsessed with the Mitford family. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It was wonderful to have a bit of background reading thanks to two volumes: <i>The House of Mitford </i>by Jonathan Guinness with Catherine Guinness from my mother's library and <i>The Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sisters </i>edited by Charlotte Mosley which I borrowed from the brand spanking new Chermside Library a fortnight ago.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>The Blessing </i>started out as a film treatment and was initially rejected, made into the novel, and then bought by MGM and made into <i>Count Your Blessings</i> starring Maurice Chevalier and Deborah Kerr. I haven't seen the film but from the extracts I've seen on YouTube, I suspect the book is much much better.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>The Loved and Envied</i></span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">My fortnight of reading was about firsts. The first time I'd read Mitford and the first time I'd read <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enid_Bagnold" target="_blank">Enid Bagnold. </a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This was an entirely different kettle of fish to Mitford and yet there were similarities in subject matter. The book is set in France and it's about English people living in France. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Here is an observation of Parisian society by one of Bagnold's more short-lived characters Tuxie which reminded me of similar description's in <i>The Blessing.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>"He realised then that Parisian society was the paradise of elderly women. But they were no fools. He had to watch his step. One way and another he was asked about, invited here and there. He was astonished with what an assumption of power women of sixty could enter a drawing-room, with what welcome, with what ludicrous kisses they were received if they had wit and confidence. "The pansies' molls" - he called them. But he had brains enough to realise that that wasn't fair and that it wasn't easy to reign: it must be done by personality, by achievement."</i></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I didn't realise until after I'd read it that, in fact, these two books were an ideal pigeon pair to read because of their connections. Mitford was born in 1904, the same year as my paternal grandmother. Bagnold on the other hand was fifteen years older than Mitford being born in 1889. The central character of<i> The Loved and Envied </i>Lady Ruby Maclean is based on Bagnold's friend <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Diana_Cooper" target="_blank">Lady Diana Cooper. </a>Guess who else moved in Diana Cooper's circles? Mitford. Bagnold also dealt with MGM in the adaptation of her book <i>National Velvet </i>which brought her fame and fortune.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Cooper and Bagnold were closer in age than Mitford and by 1951 were well into their senior years. And this really is the subject matter of the book. What is it like for a woman, famed for her beauty, to lose that beauty and face old age?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I found this book more difficult to read than Mitford. At first it was the naming of the characters that vexed me. There was a Rose and a Ruby and I was forever mixing them up. I had to re-read the first couple of chapters to get the characters straight and really work at figuring out what was going on and who was who. Bagnold tends to leap from one character to the next and draw quite absorbing in-depth vignettes. But then suddenly, you're off looking at another character and wondering if they are going to be the main focus. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Here is an example of her writing, this time focussing on Rose, Edouard's (another coincidence !) mistress:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"<i>She was haunted by the shop windows and by the mirror in the lift of the great house where she had tried (and failed) to buy the dress. The mirrors in the fitting-room itself had been different and by some quality in the silvering had given back to her for an instant a look of the Rose she had been. But in the lift and in the shop windows in the street she had seen again the sad coquettish old woman junketing by. "I'm in that army, that poor army at last -the army of ugly women!" After a length of street she had sat down in despair on the terrace of a cafe and, giving a small order, she concentrated on the women in the street. Some of the ugly ones had pride, she noticed. But then they had always been plain, had not fallen back to it as she had done. Her eyes sought out aged women but there were none. They stayed shaded and quiet at home..."</i></span><i> </i></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Whilst reading this book, I fell into a kind of torpor bordering on depression. Bagnold was about ten years older than I am now when she wrote this . It makes somewhat gloomy fare but there is some important philosophizing, I suppose, along the lines of "What is life about?" Here is Alberti's (Ruby's unrequited lover and old friend) thoughts on the meaning of life, the universe and everything....</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>"I think we're put here, my dearest, to lay this ghost of becoming individuals. It's our temporary destruction. It's why we hate, and fight, and among nations, why we die. Oh, remember childhood. The misery, the pain of what grows within one, the ignorant ache to catch attention, the long for fame (which is the revolt from anonymity), the shivering ego that can't bear laughter or sneers, that fights when slighted, that denigrates its neighbour, that won't admire, that can only envy....It's only now when we're old that the armaments race within ourselves can slow up and we see how we're situated, and we have the permission to allow the individual to give up its fight."</i></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The obsession with beauty and its passing forced me to reflect on whether or not woman's lot has changed since these books were written. I'm not so sure that our obsession with beauty has changed that much - one could argue that it may have even worsened. But at any rate, I think opportunities for women to define themselves other than by their appearance have vastly increased, no doubt due to the benefits of education, which I suspect Mitford and Bagnold may have been denied. Mosley has this to say:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>"Like most girls of their class and generation, the sisters were educated at home.....Jessica blamed their mother for this lack of formal education, even though Lord Redesdale was just as opposed to sending his daughters to school. 'Nothing would have induced him to waste money on anything so frivolous', wrote Deborah. He also worried that they might develop thick calves from being made to play hockey."</i></span></blockquote>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a data-flickr-embed="true" data-footer="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/brizzlebornandbred/9643543352/in/photolist-fGaFsQ-dZdDZZ-p9vrtj-hXXoDf-dTGin1-iimxNC-e5zXjp-p9y4ci-8Ktbdh-iimxPj-pNUESo-8HAMGU-iin1UZ-8HxF5r-cT2VFj-8HxH5P-iqCokx-8KtcKm-ipa6hz-joR8y6-8w3ULE-igQbw2-8Kt9bw-qaBVSs-kZFACu-8HAQsN-pNUEYW-cT2VXQ-pNSxzH-8KtbKQ-p9vso5-rqUkts-pNUFVL-cT2WbC-8Kta7q-pNSyFv-pNXw3q-8Kq71K-cT2Woo-mYu7X8-rcnoCf-9hDiLr-8HxEp2-cT2VMw-9hDi2P-mYudZP-8Kq622-8Kt8G3-8HAPN3-n11M9V" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="c1905 Wick Ladies Hockey Team, South Gloucestershire"><img alt="c1905 Wick Ladies Hockey Team, South Gloucestershire" height="246" src="https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2879/9643543352_1f21b3d721_n.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">c1905 Wick Ladies Hockey Team, South Gloucestershire from <a href="https://flic.kr/p/fGaFsQ" target="_blank">Paul Townsend on Flickr</a></span></td></tr>
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<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So that's where my thick calves came from! </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Many thanks to <a href="http://www.stuckinabook.com/" target="_blank">Simon </a>and <a href="https://kaggsysbookishramblings.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Kaggsy </a>for making me step outside my normal reading and for getting another one of my beloved Viragos under my belt, so to speak. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Bless ;)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
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Alex Dawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05083753053051713061noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2256130805076511496.post-26570106035502014552017-04-02T06:39:00.001+10:002017-04-02T06:39:15.014+10:00Lion or A Long Way Home by Saroo Brierley<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34674128-lion" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px;"><img alt="Lion" border="0" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1490355812m/34674128.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34674128-lion">Lion</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7145066.Saroo_Brierley">Saroo Brierley</a><br />
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1955718119">5 of 5 stars</a><br />
<br />
As soon as I saw the movie a month or so ago, I knew I would have to read the book. This is an extraordinary story and deserving of a film adaptation. But the film left many questions unanswered and so I wanted to get the book as quickly as possible. It's a very easy read and yes - it has a map of India - which I referred to numerous times. <br />
<br />
For anyone who has ever lost a child - even if only for a few minutes - the story is a bit like your worst nightmare only with a very happy ending. Who could want more than that? And it doesn't matter that you know the ending really because the journey as they say, is always the interesting bit. <br />
<br />
As a family historian I loved this story from so many angles - the research, the obsession with finding family/identity, the love of parents and of good citizens who understand that it takes a village to raise a child and who wanted to look after those most vulnerable in society. Thank goodness for the Brierleys and all those who care for "lost" children. What special people they are and how lucky we are to have them in our world.
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<br />
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/5893725-alexandra-daw">View all my reviews</a>
</div>
Alex Dawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05083753053051713061noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2256130805076511496.post-91779295156376311542016-12-18T17:35:00.000+10:002016-12-18T17:36:17.674+10:002017 Australian Women Writers Challenge<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrr-5-ipXRdPQwrtw_dBtl4QmFMxsrvHheBk0hG1MFcK4707avExg6n417t1Co1f-6L29McOEQzQpw99m-ZEn_SpcNuGyi31yD12RsdkfQ-nQnKxmLap-VqFrBnY4_253f2zynyCtXo8-k/s1600/AWW+2017.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrr-5-ipXRdPQwrtw_dBtl4QmFMxsrvHheBk0hG1MFcK4707avExg6n417t1Co1f-6L29McOEQzQpw99m-ZEn_SpcNuGyi31yD12RsdkfQ-nQnKxmLap-VqFrBnY4_253f2zynyCtXo8-k/s1600/AWW+2017.jpg" /></a></div>
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<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Just to say that yes I have signed up for the AWW 2017 challenge. You can too, if you are interested in reading more books by Austraian women writers. Just click <a href="http://australianwomenwriters.com/sign-up/" target="_blank">here.</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I think the addition of reviewing classic as well as contemporary books is great.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I have set an overall goal of 15 books - reasonably achievable given that I read 14 this year.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Of those 15, I have set a goal of reading 3-5 classic books and would like to combine that with my love of Virago Modern Classics. These are the ones that have taken my fancy so far:</span><br />
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4688442-tomorrow-and-tomorrow-and-tomorrow" target="_blank"><img alt="Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1340416767l/15717882.jpg" /></a><br />
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7133784-the-roaring-nineties?from_search=true" target="_blank"><img alt="The Roaring Nineties" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1389959461l/7133784.jpg" /></a><br />
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3151541-painted-clay?from_search=true" target="_blank"><img alt="Painted Clay" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1287945790l/3151541.jpg" /></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1683574.Bobbin_Up?from_search=true" target="_blank"><img alt="Bobbin Up" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1366004626l/1683574.jpg" /></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I wonder how I'll go.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What guides my choices? Prizes sometimes such as the Premier's or Prime Minister's Awards and the Book Industry Awards. Sometimes I'll see a review in the Good Reading magazine that takes my fancy.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I like to make myself read outside my normal range and explore crime, children's and young adult to name a few.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I wonder what treats 2017 will bring.</span><br />
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Alex Dawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05083753053051713061noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2256130805076511496.post-61549180813509044812016-12-18T11:39:00.000+10:002016-12-18T11:39:24.580+10:00Australian Women Writers' Challenge 2016 - Challenge Completed<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWwG6ERmrtjpeuktJMywVANA9i1tHuqhC97xchF83roEM2kyxGjgsDoKp4fFsEIZOYvhorMMd5H5_7ySV2PTUTjCv_1q83teQlHWb3AUtlZcr4GlJ1DqfD4U5vkTk0ZPuDnR39CgQmR3vs/s1600/alex+and+arwen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWwG6ERmrtjpeuktJMywVANA9i1tHuqhC97xchF83roEM2kyxGjgsDoKp4fFsEIZOYvhorMMd5H5_7ySV2PTUTjCv_1q83teQlHWb3AUtlZcr4GlJ1DqfD4U5vkTk0ZPuDnR39CgQmR3vs/s320/alex+and+arwen.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I always like to set goals at the beginning of the New Year - particularly with regard to health and reading. I've met a few challenges this year walking wise with the aid of my beautiful hound Arwen. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With regards to reading, one of my favourite goals is the <a href="http://australianwomenwriters.com/" target="_blank">Australian Women Writers Challenge. </a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I hoped to read 10 books this year and write 5 reviews for them. I think I may have fallen short of my goal in the reading department. And while I'm pretty sure I met the writing reviews goal, I confess that some of my reviews are on the short side. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here's my year in reading AWW.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>1.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<img alt="The House of Memories by Monica McInerney" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1343811284l/15780550.jpg" /><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I didn't really write a review for this. This was what I said at the beginning "Oh now this is a nice easy read and not predictable...well not yet anyway..."...I remember being a bit cross with the lead character by the end...she was so unforgiving and I think the other characters (step-brother from memory???) went to a lot of trouble over her and I wondered if that would happen in real life....anyway....not a stand out book for me but not unbearable.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>2.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<img alt="Small Acts of Disappearance by Fiona Wright" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1441539487l/26236641.jpg" /><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1545497377" target="_blank"><br /></a></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1545497377" target="_blank">Link to my review on Goodreads.</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>3.</b></span><br />
<br />
<img alt="Lady Helen and the Dark Days Club by Alison Goodman" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1442980040l/26066905.jpg" /><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1580461066" target="_blank">Link to my review on Goodreads</a></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>4.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<img alt="Violent Exposure (Detective Ella Marconi #4)" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1291303610l/9806641.jpg" /><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1621004900" target="_blank">Link to my review on Goodreads</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>5.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<img alt="Suri's Wall" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1444190898l/26878968.jpg" /><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1777756158" target="_blank">Link to my review on Goodreads</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>6.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<img alt="Incredibilia" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1461391158l/29981208.jpg" /><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1777734262" target="_blank">Link to my review on Goodreads</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>7.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<img alt="The Promise Seed" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1435187848l/25404430.jpg" /><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1767109167" target="_blank"><br /></a></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1767109167" target="_blank">Link to my review on Goodreads</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>8.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<img alt="Between a Wolf and a Dog" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1458267261l/29544404.jpg" /><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1780355487" target="_blank">Link to my review on Goodreads</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>9.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<img alt="KidGlovz" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1442105940l/26413618.jpg" /><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1784743478" target="_blank">Link to my review on Goodreads</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>10.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<img alt="Hades (Archer & Bennett, #1)" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1421712519l/22245474.jpg" /><br />
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1775253547" target="_blank"><br /></a>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1775253547" target="_blank">Link to my review on Goodreads</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Oh my goodness! Look at that ! I met my goal in terms of reading! In fact...I exceeded it!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQMgiC0ravJlWpiOzUY_BsqE6vaOFoOcrzKeg9QXhM6HBSFwnq-eAklTmoymSvD-t4T-qjQsI6Ciwv26PTio2oJbTanHogMoQCvEDi6-adqIxx12fZMURp1I322GRJD2zsXJ5vzkts7XaC/s1600/P1040579.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQMgiC0ravJlWpiOzUY_BsqE6vaOFoOcrzKeg9QXhM6HBSFwnq-eAklTmoymSvD-t4T-qjQsI6Ciwv26PTio2oJbTanHogMoQCvEDi6-adqIxx12fZMURp1I322GRJD2zsXJ5vzkts7XaC/s640/P1040579.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here's a gratuitous photo of me on a glacier taken by my father earlier this year on a fabulous holiday. I looked pretty pleased with myself don't I?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>11.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<img alt="A Few Days in the Country: And Other Stories" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1447140571l/26196144.jpg" /><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1789201293" target="_blank">Link to my review on Goodreads</a></span><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">12.</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<img alt="Everywhere I Look" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1455172355l/28818628.jpg" /><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm not going to link to my review on Good Reads because it is ridiculously short. It's a one-word review- and the word is???? <i><b>Wonderful! </b></i> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Oh and when I first started reading it, I logged the comment -<i> God it's great to be reading a good book</i>. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have to say that I am in love with Helen Garner's writing. I didn't think much of <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3014272-the-spare-room?from_search=true" target="_blank">The Spare Room</a> but I have gobbled up everything I have read of hers since.</span><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">13.</span></b><br />
<br />
<img alt="Not Just Black and White" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1441233595l/25942760.jpg" /><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1814698864" target="_blank">Link to my review on Goodreads</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>14.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<img alt="Joe Cinque's Consolation, A True Story of Death, Grief and the Law" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1207879679l/613475.jpg" /><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1837604067" target="_blank"><br /></a></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1837604067" target="_blank">Link to my review on Goodreads</a></span><br />
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<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So that's my year in reading. I really stepped outside my normal reading boundaries. I read my first graphic novel. I read a supernatural YA regency novel. I read crime. I read short stories. I read essays. I had never read 11/13 authors before.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Did I have a favourite? Oh this is so hard - Fiona Wright's work is so so smart, so insightful, so thoughtful - I am in awe of her self-knowledge. And then I really loved <i>Not just black and white </i>- what a story! And what a wonderful tribute to the relationship between mother and daughter - powerful stuff. But Helen Garner's <i>Joe Cinque's Consolation </i>takes the cake for me because it is ultimately a work of love - beautifully constructed, from the heart, seeking the truth and revealing love. Just beautiful.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thank you AWW Challenge for taking me beyond my normal reading boundaries and for introducing me to so many good authors.</span></div>
Alex Dawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05083753053051713061noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2256130805076511496.post-89853484195813396372016-11-06T11:38:00.000+10:002016-11-06T11:38:28.704+10:00I could have kissed her except...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The dog and I went for a walk this morning. We didn't go yesterday. I was weak and feeling sorry for myself after a late night. So we definitely had to go this morning. Definitely. Because, despite walking a little bit later in the day with friends.....</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They led me into temptation to <a href="http://www.lamacelleriagelateria.com/" target="_blank">a very good gelato shop</a> where self-control took a rapid dive into self-indulge....</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">No I didn't eat both tubs, silly, but I did eat the larger tub. So we definitely had to walk.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Only thing was that, from the minute we stepped out the front door, with me desperately trying to shush an over-excited 6 year old dog, yelping for all her worth like I was belting her instead of taking her for a walk, I was set upon by some very enthusiastic bush flies.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Shoo" I cried, waving my arms around my head. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And then I kept waving my arms around my head for the next 2.8 kilometres. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After 1k I found a handy branch of leaves which had fallen on the footpath so I fanned myself with that. "Shoo!". To no avail. They were stuck to me like glue. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was beginning to feel a lot like Pig Pen in the Charlie Brown cartoon. How embarrassing. Did I really smell that bad? What on earth was attracting them? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"I should never have let the dog lick me this morning." I thought to myself "Or maybe it was the last dregs of the sample pack eye makeup remover that I used to remove my owl eyes after wearing mascara the night before." </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Oh well" I thought "At least my arms are getting a workout too."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But then I started to get really cross. I don't know about you, but when I get going on my morning walk, I do tend to breathe through my mouth, rather than my nose. But this morning I had to keep my lips firmly shut. Aussie bush flies enjoy buzzing right past your ear or landing on your nose or....no!...lips firmly shut.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The dog, and I slogged on. Arwen seemed to be going faster and faster. Perhaps the flies were annoying her too or was it the promise of the descent down Mukurta Street where sometimes, foolishly, I joined her in a run downhill. As we hesitated to cross the street, a woman came up the hill towards us.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Are the bush flies really bad this morning?" she shouted at us.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Honestly, I could have kissed her except....we don't know each other at all...and those wretched bush flies would have got in on the act too.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"C'mon Arwen" I said "Let's out-run them." </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">P.S. And we're over-run with <a href="http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/millions-of-butterflies-flutter-through-southeast-queensland-skies-20161105-gsiryu.html" target="_blank">butterflies</a> too apparently. </span></div>
Alex Dawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05083753053051713061noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2256130805076511496.post-30610904311800596172016-10-31T21:23:00.001+10:002016-10-31T21:24:58.994+10:00#AWW2016 Bingo Challenge<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Ouf - well <a href="http://australianwomenwriters.com/2016/04/aww2016-bingo-challenge/" target="_blank">the challenge </a>was set quite a while ago and I don't seem to have done too well. At first I thought I would be able to complete Bingo Card 1:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A book with a mystery - <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1541552223?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1" target="_blank">Peter May's The Lewis Man</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A book by an indigenous author - um not sure if <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1763648677?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1" target="_blank">The Vegetarian by Han Kang </a>qualifies really</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A book set in the outback - hmmmm</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A book by someone under thirty - oh dear</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">FREE SQUARE - <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1545497377?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1" target="_blank">Small Acts of Disappearance by Fiona Wright</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A short story collection -<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1789201293?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1" target="_blank"> A few Days in the County and other stories by Elizabeth Harrower</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A book that's more than 10 years old - <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1636803736?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1" target="_blank">Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A bestseller - <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1465498346?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1" target="_blank">The Japanese Lover by Isabel Allende</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A book published this year - <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1791601645" target="_blank">Murder on the Serpentine by Anne Perry</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So no Bingo on Card 1 I'm afraid...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Let's try Card Two</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A book set in your favourite town or city -<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1775253547?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1" target="_blank"> Hades by Candice Fox</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A funny book - <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1777715378?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1" target="_blank">Me Teddy by Chris McKimmie </a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The first book by a favourite author - <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1767109167?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1" target="_blank">The Promise Seed by Cass Moriarty</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A forgotten classic - <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1509112967?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1" target="_blank">The Eye of Love by Margery Sharp</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Free Square - <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1499886456?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1" target="_blank">High Rising by Angela Thirkell</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A book with poems - well I did buy a book of poems in Canberra in April and I've been meaning to read it but that doesn't count does it - but just in case you are interested it is <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17071596-collected?from_search=true" target="_blank">Rosemary Dobson Collected.</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A book you heard about online - <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1780355487?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1" target="_blank">Between a Wolf and a Dog by Georgia Blain</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A book by someone of a different ethnicity to you - </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1763648677?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">The Vegetarian by Han Kang</a><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A book of non-fiction -</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1760917969?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1" target="_blank">The Radium Girls by Kate Moore</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So almost Bingo Card Two but not quite.</span><br />
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Alex Dawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05083753053051713061noreply@blogger.com2