I have been to the Brisbane Writers Festival and created pretty new tsundoku. This one lives at my house. Here’s why bought each one (starting from the bottom). Jesse Ball, How to Set a Fire and Why: Let’s start with the title. Wow. I saw Jesse Ball a session entitled Lost between the Lines which was about the … Continue reading
This month the Pocket Bookclub read Dark Emu Black Seeds: agriculture or accident by Bruce Pascoe. Bruce Pascoe was at the Byron Writers Festival and I heard him speak about his sense of obligation to write this book about Aboriginal agriculture because even did not initially believe the stories people told him. It seems we … Continue reading
Have you ever dreamt you find a ‘new’ room in your house? Or perhaps you are in a new house discovering new rooms. I have this dream all the time. Well, at least a couple of times a year. If Kirsten Tranter hasn’t had a similar dream I will eat my hat. Early on in … Continue reading
Its #6Degrees time again. This month we start with Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay. I have not read this book. I do not know how that has been allowed to happen. I have always intended to read it. I really want to read it. Somehow I never have. So, it being Lifeline Bookfest … Continue reading
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
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
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
