The beauty of a book in which nothing ‘happens’
Most journalism students learn to write a news story as if describing an event to a friend. Start with the most important part, and that should be the first paragraph. However, in reviewing books I...
View ArticleThere’s more to life than a happy ending
It was unlikely that the ending was going to be a happy one, given the title of the most recent book I read was Extinctions. After all, isn’t an extinction the unhappiness ending of all? While the...
View ArticleOlive’s ordinariness is just the tonic for extraordinary times
I’ve been reading Elisabeth Strout’s Olive, Again and in doing so have been reminded of how endearing the often grumpy, straight-talking, occasionally insensitive, Olive can be. The follow up to the...
View ArticleCilka is a real-life hero who is too good to be true
In Cilka’s Journey, we are introduced to Cilka Klein, who first appeared in the bestselling The Tattooist of Auschwitz. Cilka survived the Nazi death camp after senior officers took a liking to her,...
View ArticleI’ve had enough of the childish narrator … for now
Some of my favourite narrators are children. It can be incredibly moving to immerse yourself in the life of a child and once again see the world through innocent eyes. There is a sense of nostalgia to...
View ArticleThe best book characters I’ve encountered recently
As an introvert, I find that book characters can be better company than real people. Rather than exhausting me as social occasions sometimes do, they make no demands of me. I don’t have to put on...
View ArticleReflection on BWF – do books make us think?
It was wonderful to listen to Lucy Treloar, Charlotte Wood and Jane Rawson discuss whether books can change a reader at the Bendigo Writers Festival. First, they chatted about the idea that reading can...
View Article
