Kathryn Gossow: Storytelling and Garden Growing
This book made me cry three times and gasp with pleasure/surprise twice. It has no words. That is irrelevant to its storytelling power. The book is Shaun Tan's award-winning The Arrival. Tan's artwork is phenomenally beautiful. I am emotionally engaged with the characters within the first pages regardless of the lack of dialogue or actual words. I've… Continue reading Wordless Books
What are your best all time most favourite books? It's hard to choose, right? There are a lot to choose from but it is also a moving feast. If I commit to a top 10 and then find another sweet love which one to do I throw off of the list? So, as of June… Continue reading What are your favourite books?
This month the Pocket Book Club did not stray far. Sort of. We read Angela Slatter's Vigil, set in Brisbane but in a world far weirder than our own. Vigil is urban fantasy but owes a great deal to the detective novel. Verity Fassbinder's mother was Normal but her father was Weyrd. (As in child-eating-Weyrd) You… Continue reading Could the Angel Cake be nice than Angels?
It is #6degrees time and I am here to play again. This month's starting point is Shopgirl by Steve Martin. Yes, that Steve Martin. I have learned that Steve Martin is an actor, comedian, banjo player and writer. Shop Girl is a novella published in 2000 and I have not read it. However, I have… Continue reading 6 Degrees of Separation: Shop Girl to Tirra Lirra by the River
When I was 19 I had a job selling cleaning products door to door. The product was called Dussall (or was it Duzzall?) because it does all. I hated it. I travelled as far west at Mt Isa and as far north as Emerald living in motels and turning up cold turkey and saying 'have… Continue reading Selling Books for Introverts
The Golden Age by Joan London is a novel set 1950's Perth. The Golden Age was an old pub repurposed to care for children with polio. Frank Gold, the oldest resident is the child of Hungarian refugees and the book is in part about his parents' trauma and sense of being different in the big… Continue reading Pocket Bookclub get clucky and talk polio
I have been so keen to play #6 degrees but every month the date catches up with me every time. I have tried to prepare but it still almost caught me out. For real this time. I have read Room by Emma Donahue several times. I think it is a great example of a child as… Continue reading Six degrees of separation: Room to Peter Pan