It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

I had no intention of blogging tonight.

We had a huge weekend away with Mr Books' 30 yr school reunion. 

Monday is also my late night shift at work. 

The most I usually do on Monday nights is check my social media, sometimes publish a previously written post, chat with Mr Books, read a few chapters of my book and fall asleep as soon as possible!

But tonight social media sucked me in. 

I had a facebook notification from Michael @Literary Explorations, on the Aussie Book Bloggers page, about the It's Monday! What Are You Reading meme, hosted by Book Journey.

In the past I have avoided most of these BIG meme's - so many participants & so little time to visit other blogs & leave thoughtful comments. It's a pressure I don't usually put myself under.

However Michael has now created a spot for Aussie participants to leave their links, so that we can all support each other. Bloody brilliant!

So, what am I reading this week?

I have just started AusReading Month, so all my books will be Australian for the next four weeks.

I finished Golden Boys by Sonya Hartnett yesterday (rave review TBW). 

It's her first book for adults, although the protagonists are still children.

This is what Linda Funnell from the SMH had to say recently about it: 

 "Spanning only a scant few weeks, Golden Boys flows as easily as a bike ride on a summer afternoon. But within its effortless unfolding are sombre themes: of the neighbourhood's acceptance of domestic violence, and its effects on children; of the way class and money can enable and protect a predator; and how resilient, vulnerable, opportunistic and courageous children can be."

I am half way through The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka by Clare Wright and about a third of the way into The Biggest Estate on Earth by Bill Gammage.

Clare Wright won this year's Stella Prize with her non-fiction work about women on the gold fields of Victoria. It's a wonderful read so far - full of fascinating details and interesting stories.

Kerryn Goldsworthy, chair of the judging panel had this to say about it:

"A rare combination of true scholarship with a warmly engaging narrative voice, along with a wealth of detail about individual characters and daily life on the goldfields, makes this book compulsively readable. It has a highly visual, almost cinematic quality, with vivid snapshots and pen-portraits of goldfields life. It also moves briskly from one scene or character to the next, with variations in pace and mood, in a way that heightens anticipation and suspense even though we know about the violence that will eventually explode as the tensions between the miners and the forces of officialdom increase to a point beyond containment."

The Biggest Estate on Earth is proving to be a much slower read, though equally as compelling and fascinating. The coloured plates used to highlight Gammage's points are also a wonderful excursion into early Australian art.

Adrian Hyland in the SMH said that this book is: 

"...history of the most readable kind: a fascinating amalgam of scientific enigma, bush lore and anecdote.

 This is a beautiful and profound piece of writing, one that has importance for us all. We live in the most fire-prone environment on Earth. It was built to burn. Aboriginal people thrived in this environment for thousands of years, their chief defences being mobility, continual burning and an intricate understanding of the bush."

 

Last night I started the 1910 coming of age classic The Getting of Wisdom by Henry Handel Richardson.

Henry Handel was the pseudonym of Ethel Florence Lindesay Richardson.

She was born in 1870 in Victoria. Her family was fairly well-off in the early days, but fell on hard times, after her father died. She attended the Presbyterian Ladies' College in Melbourne from age 13 - 17.

It was this experience that she based her boarding school story about Laura Rambotham on.