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The Book Chain #2: Six Degrees of Separation
May's Book is: The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath1) We have a beautiful beach house just south of Mandurah which is a summer library of sorts. It's where books that no longer fit on the shelf at home go to...
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Book Review + GIVEAWAY: The Blue Mile by Kim Kelly
The Blue MileKim KellyPan Macmillan9781742613918We all know by now that I am a huge fan of historical fiction, and if it's Australian history then I am a happy reader indeed. I'd never heard of Kim...
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Margaret River
Despite the fact that my mother was born there, and I have lived in this beautiful state my entire life, I have never been to Margaret River before this weekend. For those of you not from Western...
View ArticleWhy I Write Historical Fiction
Lately I've been getting asked the same question a lot. I don't mind, really; it's a fairly obvious question when I tell people what I do, but I find it really hard to answer. Or answer succinctly....
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Review: My Salinger Year
My Salinger YearJoanna RakoffBloomsbury, June 20149781408855508In the mid-1990s, Joanna Rakoff was an aspiring poet and recent arts graduate with very little idea about what direction to take in her...
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Review: The Trouble with Flying and Other Stories
The Trouble with Flying and Other StoriesMargaret River Short Story Competition Anthology 2014, edited by Richard Rossiter with Susan MidaliaMargaret River Press9780987561527In a short space of time,...
View ArticleThe Long and Short of It: The Testament of Mary by Colm Toibin
BOOK: The Testament of Mary by Colm ToibinFormat: Hardback, courtesy Simon Clark (on loan)Weighing in at just over 100 pages (something akin to between 30 000 and 40 000 words I think), The Testament...
View ArticleThe Long and Short of It: We Need New Names
BOOK: We Need New NamesFORMAT: Hardback (borrowed from Library)While voices in the diaspora are becoming more and more recognisable to the average reader, I would hazard a guess that only the smallest...
View ArticleThe Long and Short of It: The Kills
Book: The Kills by Richard HouseFormat: Hardback (Courtesy city of Melville Library)I would be lying if I said I was excited to read this particular book. The Kills is a 1000+ page novel about...
View ArticleThe Long and Short of It: TransAtlantic
Book: TransAtlantic by Colum McCannFormat: Trade Paperback (I own a copy)We're past the half way point now of last year's Man Booker Prize longlist, and I'm definitely finding that this sort of reading...
View ArticleThe Long and Short of It: Harvest
BOOK: Harvest by Jim CraceFormat: HardbackAlthough some sources name it the favourite to take out this year’s Man Booker prize, I have to say that Jim Crace’s Harvest was the title that interested me...
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Have Certain Nameless Online Retailers Changed the Way We Shop?
We all love convenience, and what's more convenient than being able to log onto a website and search for that book/ cd/ other that we want, pay a fraction of the price for it and then have it delivered...
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Book Review: Only The Animals
Only The AnimalsCeridwen DoveyPenguin, 2014Short stories can be wonderful things. As a reader, you immerse yourself in them quickly and emerge changed not long after you begin, so long as they are...
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Book Review: The Glass Kingdom
The Glass KingdomChris FlynnText, 2014Simply put, The Glass Kingdom is a novel about the ins and outs of meth dealing, set on a travelling carnival. It is narrated in turn by Corporal Ben Wallace, who...
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Book Review: Sweet One by Peter Docker
Sweet OnePeter DockerFremantle Press, 2014In a small town called Baalboorlie, up north in Western Australia, The Old Man (a decorated war veteran and Aboriginal elder) perishes in the back of a prison...
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Welcome to my Bookshelves, with Robert Schofield
This time around, we're joined by WA crime writer, Robert Schofield, whose first book Heist was reviewed by none other than... my Mum. Robert Schofield's second book, Marble Bar was released in...
View ArticleBook Review: Captives by Angela Meyer (AKA Literary Minded)
CaptivesAngela MeyerInkerman and Blunt, 20149780987540126Flash fiction might be a foreign term to many of you. It's a relatively new term in the mainstream literary world, a genre of short fiction...
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All the things I didn't get to say on the Radio
So if you missed it, this Wednesday past I was an expert guest on the ABC 720 Drive Program... for almost a whole five minutes.Oh yeah.Still, someone thought I was enough of an expert on something to...
View ArticleBook Review: The Giver
The GiverLois LowryIn a perfect world in what could possibly be the not too distant future, Jonas is born into a system where everything is organised for citizens by the council, right down to rights...
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My Favourite Links on 'Failing'
My most over-used word for June/ July? Fail.I think most people are fairly quick to use this word. I'm having what some writers refer to as a 'dry spell', meaning that I cannot place a story for love...
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