As COVID-19 now demands a greater degree of social distancing in Australia, it is likely that public libraries will be closed in most locations this week. Already practising the required hygiene demands of sanitiser and distancing, our local library faced a steady flow of residents getting book piles ready for home isolation recently, before closure. […]
What do you have ready in case you have to stay at home for a period of time? Aside from the pile of TBRs beside your bed, have you thought about access to: 1. Local/state/national libraries 2. Ebooks 3. Audiobooks 4. Bookshop deliveries These are some of the options I am pondering. Unfortunately, some local […]
As the 75-year commemoration of the liberation of Auschwitz approached on January 2020, it was a good time to revisit the ‘Once’ series. Written by 2018-19 Australian Children’s Laureate, Morris Gleitzman, this series has had world-renown for many years.* The first book, ‘Once’, was written in 2005 and presents Felix, a young Jewish boy, who […]
Patrick Ness, the author of ‘a Monster Calls‘ and ‘the Chaos Walking‘ trilogy, is known for looking at things from a different perspective – so the inverted point of view in ‘And the Ocean was our Sky‘ should come as no surprise. It is a tale told from the point of view of Bathsheba. Who […]
‘Saga Land’ was not what I was expecting – but then, the collaboration between broadcaster, Richard Fidler, and Kari Gislason, a writer and academic born in Iceland starts with multiple but different needs to investigate Icelandic history. So really, you could expect something unexpected. Kári was born Iceland – the product of an affair, hidden […]
I hereby certify that on this day, 26 November 1803, in the city of Charleston, in the state of California, I set free from slavery, Hetty Grimke, and bestow this certificate of manumission upon her. Sarah Moore Grimke. So begins Sarah Grimke’s attempts to free her personal slave, Handful – a gift from her parents […]
‘Burial Rites’ is an amazing achievement for debutant novelist, Hannah Kent. It is based on historical fact, but seeks to present the story of an historic victim, Agnes Magnusdottir – the last person to be executed in Iceland. Much of the origins of or inspiration for the manuscript derive from Kent’s time in Iceland as an […]
One of the great values of ‘reading’ an audiobook occurs when there is a distinct accent that knits the story together. This is certainly the case for Unpolished Gem, which I have been enjoying recently on my way to work. The story is the memoir of Alice Pung’s immigrant family – their heritage including past lives in […]
I’m currently reading as I drive – by using an audio book version of ‘Inheritance of Loss’ by Kira Desai. It’s an interesting exercise with these being my observations so far: 1.I need to have a fair way to drive (at least a half-hour journey or more…) 2. It’s great to have a book where […]