When I mention fairy tales, most people’s eyes glaze over, and I imagine they are thinking ‘Disney Princess’ and Happily Ever After. Perhaps if people knew Bluebeard they would not jump to the fairy tale = Disney conclusion. Disney will never be able to Disneyfy Bluebeard. The most well-known version was written by Charles Perrault … Continue reading Bloody Fairy Tales: Bluebeard
Writer, gardener, booklover
This book could break you
Adjectives that come to mind when I think of Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart: devastating, heartbreaking, ruthless, brutal, distressing. And yet, in the last sentence of the book, I glimpsed hope. The last sentence made me cry, the only time I shed tears despite all the shocking events of the previous 430 pages. All those … Continue reading This book could break you
Fear for Words
Pocket Book Club's first book for 2021 was The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams. I am very pleased to say there is madeira Cake in this book. One of our best hopes for any book is for it to include some delicious food and I got to bake the madeira cake twice due … Continue reading Fear for Words
2020 Wins
2020 was a Cracker! Ok, sure there was a pandemic and general mayhem but on the bright side, Pocket Book Club read some mighty fine books. This is how the votes came in! A yellow or blue dot is a yes vote and a red dot is a 'I like it less' vote. We rarely … Continue reading 2020 Wins
Nature Girl meets Courtroom Drama
"Where the Crawdads Sing" is a North Carolina way of saying "Beyond the Blackstump" which would probably also be a good name for a book if it is not already taken. Everything you need to know about the main character in "Where the Crawdads Sing" by Delia Owens is contained within her deer analogy. “Kya … Continue reading Nature Girl meets Courtroom Drama
Creative Resilience
Life can be crappy. Not only does it throw curveballs, sometimes it throws cricket balls right at your face. Bang! When you're not even looking. What I like about the idea of resilience is that you don't have to be born with it. It's not like my inability to ever be tall. I will never … Continue reading Creative Resilience
Serious Readers Only
It's difficult to write about Pocket Bookclub's recent read, The Plains by Gerald Murnane. This book requires some patience to read and interrogate. It generated considerable discussion at our meeting, a lot of it about magic mushrooms. I will begin with the man. Murnane was born in 1939 in Victoria and has never flown anywhere. … Continue reading Serious Readers Only
Fiction & non-fiction in harmony
When Pocket book-club read The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman I knew how it would end and I knew which book I had to re-read next. A few years ago I read Zealot: The Life an Times of Jesus of Nazareth by Reza Aslan. Aslan describes himself as having come from a family of lukewarm Muslims … Continue reading Fiction & non-fiction in harmony
For the love of Toy Story
After my book launch, we went to see Toy Story 4. I figured it would be a good way to recoup after all the peopling I had done. Introvert therapy. We went to see Toy Story 1 before we had children. We love movies and the fact that it was a kids movie was irrelevant. … Continue reading For the love of Toy Story
Wild things and Wild birds
There were two Kevin Bacon films on TV this morning. They must be there to remind it is time for #6degrees of separation. So, I pop on over to booksaremybestandfavourite and see our starting book this month is Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. 1. You gotta love Where the Wild Things Are, … Continue reading Wild things and Wild birds