It's becoming a habit of mine at the end of each year to reflect back on the books I've read in the past 12 months -- and invariably I decide the list is not long enough, or diverse enough, or recent enough and I resolve to do better. (Here's what I read in 2012.) This … Continue reading What I read in 2013
It's always exciting to attend book launches, especially when the author is a member of one's writing group and an all-round nice guy. So it was with a spring in my step that I trekked north to the inner Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy yesterday evening to attend the launch of Andrew Macrae's debut novel, Trucksong, … Continue reading Trucksong launch party
I can't remember who recommended it, or where I heard about it, but I recently read Nicola Griffith's Slow River, republished as part of Hachette's SF Masterworks series (it won the 1996 Nebula Award and Lambda Literary Award). Set in the not-too-distant future in a city that might be in England, Slow River is about … Continue reading Book Review: Slow River
I recently read Jo Walton's Among Others, winner of the 2012 Nebula, Hugo and British Fantasy Awards for best novel. Since it's one of the few recent SF novels I've read of late, I thought I would share some of my thoughts. [Mild spoilers...] Among Others has been described as many things: a fairy story, … Continue reading Thoughts on Among Others by Jo Walton
My introduction to Tolkien came when my dad read The Hobbit to my sisters and I as we sat around a campfire. Could there be a more perfect scenario? Our family was camping in South Australia's Flinders Ranges. I was about 11, my sisters younger. Our evening's entertainment consisted of hunkering around the fire that … Continue reading A campfire memory
My 10 year-old niece rang me this morning, all excited, to tell me she had won a top reading award at her school. Basically, they get points for the books they read, the harder books accruing more points and so forth. She's accumulated more points than anyone else in her school, and so was the … Continue reading Oh, to be a bookworm again
Today's Friday blogging theme is: Share a book you can read again and again without getting bored. Well, I have to admit I'm a big re-reader of novels. Often I wish I wasn't, because just think of all the marvellous books out there I never seem to have time to read. But the simple fact … Continue reading My re-reading book: The Lions of Al-Rassan
First published in 2002, Across the Nightingale Floor (Tales of the Otori #1) by Lian Hearn is the second novel I'm reviewing for the 2013 Australian Women Writers Challenge. I first read it in 2006, but for some unfathomable reason never did read the rest of the series. I must have been distracted by something, because … Continue reading Book Review: Across the Nightingale Floor by Lian Hearn
As part of the Australian Women Writers Challenge 2013, I recently finished reading Shadow Queen (The Binding #1 -- first published Allen&Unwin 2009), a fantasy novel by my good friend and cafe writing buddy, Deborah Kalin. It's the story of Matilde, a young woman groomed to rule over a seething conglomeration of houses all vying against each other, … Continue reading Book Review: Shadow Queen by Deborah Kalin
Last year, I gave my nine year old niece the first Harry Potter book for her birthday. She wasn't much of a bookworm... in fact, she preferred books on science or the natural world. Nonetheless, I decided to impose my love of Harry Potter on her and crossed my fingers that she would like it. … Continue reading But what if Hogwarts really does exist?
Ellen Gregory 