Stories & Shout Outs #35

 

My Week:

• An ordinary few days as my hayfever symptoms ramp up another notch.
• Enjoying our mini-wine bottle Advent calendar - a lot!
• Restacked my TBR piles into a semblance of order and jettisoned a few old ones I will never read now.

I Am Reading:

• The Living Sea of Waking Dreams | Richard Flanagan | 65% done
• My Love Must Wait | Ernestine Hill | introduction read
• Dearly | Margaret Atwood | 41% done
• Throat | Ellen van Neervan | 75% done
• How We Live Now: Scenes from the Pandemic | Bill Hayes | 34% done
• The Salt Path | Raynor Winn | 46 % done
• War and Peace | Leo Tolstoy | 87% done 

Read But Not Reviewed

• Life After Truth | Ceridwen Dovey
• Homeland Calling | edited by Ellen van Neervan

New To the Pile:

• A Cheesemonger's History of the British Isles | Ned Palmer
• Women | Mihail Sebastian
• To Calais, In Ordinary Time | James Meek
• The Decameron Project: 29 Stories from the Pandemic | The New York Times
• Yolk | Mary H K Choi
• A House For Mr Biswas | V S Naipaul
  
• Klara and the Sun | Kazuo Ishiguro (with HUGE thanks to my wonderful A&U rep!)

On My Radar:

• The best of 2020 posts.
• The Kirkus Review - Historical Fiction
• The Kirkus Review - Best Read in Translation
• The Guardian Best Books of 2020 Chosen by Booksellers
• The Financial Times 
• Best Australian Fiction - Readings Staff
• I look forward to Kate's always impressive compilation of all these best of lists later on this month.
• Her 2019 Big List (I only read nine of the books that made up these lists, four of which made my own top 19 of 2019. A couple will also make it onto my 2020 best of list.)
• A Covid Chronicles update coming soon.
• Nick @One Catholic Life's surprise big announcement for 2021....what will it be?
• UPDATE
• OMG! It was this!

• But how will I fit this into my schedule?
• One of my all-time favourite series, read before I started blogging.
• I'd LOVE to reread them all again (even the one or two duds) just to be back in Aubrey and Stephen's world...
• And so I can blog about each one as well.
• Oh, what to do!

Stories & Shout Outs #34

 

My Week: 

• In the past few weeks I've suddenly been confronted by the ageing process and genes. 
• I am now taking cholesterol reducing tablets (not so surprising, the numbers have been heading in that direction for a few years now).
• But not so expected was the sudden sharp spike in my blood pressure. I'm slim, I eat well, and exercise some, but the bad genes will get you in the end! 

What I'm Reading:

• The Last Migration | Charlotte McConaghy
• Vesper Flights | Helen Macdonald
• Phosphorescence, On Awe, Wonder And Things That Sustain You When The World Goes Dark | Julia Baird
• The Salt Path | Raynor Winn
• Hansel and Greta: A Fairy Tale Revolution | Jeanette Winterson
• Duckling: A Fairy Tale Revolution | Kamila Shamsie
• Cinderella Liberator: A Fairy Tale Revolution | Rebecca Solnit
• Blueblood: A Fairy Tale Revolution | Malorie Blackman

Read But Not Reviewed:

• Intimations: Six Essays | Zadie Smith
• Our Shadows | Gail Jones
• Fracture | Andrés Neuman
• The Stolen Prince of Cloudburst | Jaclyn Moriarty
• Landing With Wings | Trace Balla

New to the Pile:

• A Russian Journal | John Steinbeck
• The Cat and the City | Nick Bradley
• Coventry | Rachel Cusk

Bookish Events:

• Last week I attended my first Zoom book event thanks to Avid Reader Bookshop in Brisbane and Lisa @ANZLitLover alerting me to the fact that they were hosting a chat with Gabrielle Carey about her new bio-memoir, Only Happiness Here. Lisa summed up the chat beautifully and now I just have to find time to read the book!
• Next week I plan to join another Zoom event, this time with Gleebooks in Sydney for Gail Jones' Our Shadows. 

Shout Outs:

• Cathy @746Books has created a trend-setting Venn diagram to help her work out what to read in November with FIVE reading challenges on the cards (listed below).
1. German Lit Month - is the month for reading all things originally written in German – in whatever language you wish to read it – and then telling the world about it #germanlitmonth - I plan to read The Land of Green Plums by Herta Müller - a very slim book that has the benefit of also being another #ReadingtheNobels contender. 
2. Non-Fiction November - with 4 weekly hosts & questions/discussion points to help you through the month. I plan to finish Vesper Flights, The Salt Path and Phosphorescence (Australian) and if I have time I would like to read Stasiland by Anna Funder (an Australian writer on East Germany) or dip into The Griffith Review #68 Getting On (also Australian).
3. Margaret Atwood Reading Month - with Naomi & Marci. I have a slim copy of The Penelopiad waiting for this event. I'm trying to work out if this is slim enough to also register as a novella?
4. Novella November is still up in the air for 2020, but I have a few possibilities up my sleeve if it firms as an event.
5. AusReading Month - hosted by moi. I have several non-fiction titles I'd like to finish, plus I have high hopes of dipping into another Miles Franklin-writing-as-Brent of Bin Bin story.

Stories & Shout Outs #33

 

My Life This Week:

• I'm struggling to find blogging time again, now that I'm back at work. 
• A quick Stories & Shout Out post seemed the best solution for now.
• Our brief foray into Spring has departed once again, but I guess that's what happens in the springtime; it comes and goes.
• I've managed to get my phone screen time down to a daily average of 1hr & 27 mins. Yay me!
• Our relaxing week at the beach, 2 weeks ago, already feels like it happened in another lifetime.

What I Am Reading:

• Our Shadows by Gail Jones - I accidentally started this at lunch on Monday & now I'm hooked!
• The Stolen Prince of Cloudburst by Jaclyn Moriarty - utterly delightful middle grade adventure fantasy that is ticking all my boxes for humour, great protagonist and fantasy that feels real. 
• The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett - my next book club read.
• Fracture by Andre Neuman - I don't know why I'm reading this one so slowly. I'm enjoying it every time I pick it up, yet I'm not prioritising it. I seem to be doing this a lot this year.
• I still have lots of non-fiction lying around the house waiting for me to be in the right mood to read it, including:
• The Golden Maze by Richard Fidler - a personal history of Prague - so far so good.
• A Distant Mirror by Barbara Tuckman - just started. I have no idea why I started another non-fiction book when I have several partly read ones lying all around the house and especially one that is soooo long!
• Salt Fat Acid Heat by Samin Nostrat (my kitchen read)
• The Cloud Spotter's Guide by Gavin Pretor-Pinney - almost finished. 
• White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo - by my bed.
• Vesper Flights by Helen Macdonald - another accidental lunch time read! Some of the essays are stronger than others, particularly loved Tekels Park, the story about her childhood home and the meadow that turned her into a naturalist.
• War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy - one chapter at a time.

Read but not Reviewed:

• A Journal of a Plague Year by Daniel Defoe
• Landing With Wings by Trace Balla

New to the Pile:

• Intimations by Zadie Smith
• People of the River by Grace Karskens
• The Perfect World of Miwako Sumida by Clarissa Goenawan
• Piranesi by Suzanna Clarke

Gratitude:

• To all the many wonderful blogger friends who took the time to offer constructive feedback about my blog during Personal Bloggiesta week. Thank you all so much for your generosity and support. I hope the tweeks have made it easier for you to navigate Brona's Books.

On My Radar:

• Dewey's 24 hr Readalong. October 24. More here.
• 1956 Club with Simon and Kaggsy. This October. Tomorrow! What to read?
• Harry the Dirty Dog
• The Fall
• Giovanni's Room
• My Family and Other Animals
• The 101 Dalmations
• The Silver Sword
• Dead Man's Folly
• Peyton Place
• Palace Walk
• Pygmalion
• The Key
• Long Day's Journey into Night
• The Awakening
• The Seeds of Time 
• Australian options:
• A Haunted Land
• The Honey Flow
• Beyond the Black Stump
• Shortlist for this year's Kirkus non-fiction prize.
• Dublin Literary Award shortlist.
• Always love the Giller Prize longlist - great Canadian writers to explore.
• Nobel Prize for Literature TBA 8th October.
• The Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-fiction will announce their shortlist on the 15th Oct.
• The Nib Literary Award shortlist recognises the value of research in fiction and non-fiction.

Underwhelmed: 

• I think I'm in a minority of one, but completely not excited by this year's Booker shortlist. 
• Had planned on reading The Shadow King at some point.
• Will probably also read Burnt Sugar.
• I miss the Commonwealth community. 
• Feels like this has just become another prize for British and American authors.

Contemplating:

• AusReadingMonth in November. Will I or won't I? 

Stories & Shout Outs #32

So, I've caught a cold.

Just a regular, end-of-winter cold, but for the first day or two one now lives on tenterhooks, waiting to see if it might be something worse.

What I'm Reading:

• A Study in Scarlet | Arthur Conan Doyle - my latest CC Spin book
• Fracture | Andre Neuman - I don't know why I'm reading this one so slowly. I'm enjoying it every time I pick it up, yet I'm not prioritising it. I seem to be doing this a lot this year.
• The Golden Maze | Richard Fidler - a personal history of Prague - so far so good.
• A Distant Mirror | Barbara Tuckman - I have no idea why I started another non-fiction book when I have several partly read ones lying all around the house and especially one that is soooo long!
• The non-fiction lying around the house:
• Salt Fat Acid Heat | Samin Nostrat (my kitchen read)
• The Fire This Time | edited Jesmyn Ward (my walking read)
• The Cloud Spotter's Guide | Gavin Pretor-Pinney (my work backpack read)
• White Fragility | Robin DiAngelo (by my bed)
• War and Peace | Leo Tolstoy - one chapter at a time.

Read But Not Reviewed:

• The Dictionary of Lost Words | Pip Williams - my next book club book.

New to the Pile: 

• A Start in Life | Anita Brookner
• Passing | Nella Larsen (a cute Macmillan Collector's Library edition)
• Lark Rise to Candleford | Flora Thompson (another cute Macmillan Collector's Library edition)
• Crossed Lines | Marie Darriessecq (translated by Penny Hueston)
• Our Shadows | Gail Jones
• The Offing | Benjamin Myers
• The Bastard of Istanbul | Elif Shafak
• Amrita | Banana Yoshimoto (translated by Russell F. Wasden)
• Lavinia | Ursula Le Guin

On My Radar:

• Spring!
• Warmer days & longer days so I can resume evening walks after work with Mr Books.
• Van Gogh Alive - we have tickets for mid October - fingers crossed!
• Archibald, Wynne, Sulman Prizes at the AGNSW - tickets to be booked.
• Hamilton - we have tickets for May 2021 - HUZZAH!

Smart Phone Spring Clean:

• Last Tuesday I was bemoaning the fact that I spend too much time on my phone and that for the month of Sept I was going to reduce my daily average. Last week my daily average was 4 hrs & 3 mins.
• This week's my daily average was 4 hrs & 31 mins!
• Okay, so reducing my screen time begins next week!!

Blogging Spring Clean:

• I use Feedly to keep track of my favourite blogs. But over the years it has become an unwieldy beast. Too many blogs and not enough time to read them all, let alone the ones I really want to read.
• A few years ago I thought I had sorted this issue by creating a daily favourites folder for those I really wanted to keep up with.
• Trouble is, the overwhelming numbers next to the other folders distracted me each time I logged in. I felt the need to tidy them up before attending to my favourites!
• On the weekend, I attacked these folders and deleted many, many blogs. If there was no post in the past month that had attracted my attention enough to read it through, then that blog was removed. 
• I also discovered how to make each new post notification open in the appropriate blog, rather than into the Feedly feed. Leaving comments should become an easier process now.
• I feel lighter and I now hope that I will find more time to visit the blogs I really want to visit.
• A question for iphone Twitter users - why is it all but impossible to leave comments on blogs that have been opened by their Twitter link?

Shout Outs:

• Jonathan @Me Fail? I Fly has written a fabulous post about Grace Karskens' The Colony....this book has been lurking on my TBR for quite some time. I'm also keen to tackle her new book, People of the River.
• My new boss is very keen to get our author event program up and running, despite the Covid restrictions. Which means we've embraced online video chats in a way we would never have anticipated 6 months ago. Check out the first 4 events here with Stuart Coupe, Richard Fidler, John Baker and Malcolm Knox. 
• Upcoming events can be found here on our blog. Next is Aminata Conteh-Biger discussing her book Rising Heart followed by Marian Wilkinson on The Carbon Club.

Stories & Shout Outs #31

 

Everything feels like a bit of a chore at the moment.

I have a backlog of un-reviewed books that I should could be preparing a post for instead of fluffling around with this. Yet here I am, fluffing around with another post that does nothing to advance the reviewing situation!

The positive? I will, very soon, run out of my usual fluffing around posts and be forced to finish those review posts instead. Although, I'm probably due to write another Covid Chronicles, or an update on my progress for 20 Books of Summer Winter, or lament the passing of Austen in August, or start thinking about AusReadingMonth in November, or, or, or....!

What I'm Reading:

• Fracture | Andre Neuman (loving this a LOT so far)
• The Vanishing Half | Brit Bennett (just started - too soon to tell)
• Maisie Dobbs #13 The American Agent | Jacqueline Winspear (not as instantly cosy & comforting as I had hoped, but okay)
• The Fire This Time | edited Jesmyn Ward (my walking backpack read that comes with me to my favourite coffee shop on my days off work)
• War and Peace | Leo Tolstoy (finding the war scenes around the half way mark to be a bit dull to be honest)

Read, but not Reviewed:

• The Plague | Albert Camus
• The Gravity of Us | Phil Stamper
• Heartstopper Vol 2 | Alice Oseman
• The White Girl | Tony Birch
• Humankind | Rutger Bregman
• Homeland Elegies | Ayad Akhtar

New to the Pile:

• American Wife | Curtis Sittenfeld
• Loner | Georgina Young
• Pale Horse, Pale Rider | Katherine Anne Porter (Spanish flu short stories)
• The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas | Gertrude Stein
• The Last Migration | Charlotte McConaghy
• The Pull of the Stars | Emma Donoghue (Spanish flu in Ireland)
• An Odyssey | Daniel Mendelsohn
• Adam Bede | George Eliot
• The Narrow Land | Christine Dwyer Hickey

What I'm Struggling with:

• Writing review posts.
• Constantly feeling tired.
• Winter blues.
• Cold, dark mornings and walking home in the cold & dark from work.
• Having to wear so many layers of clothing to feel warm.
• The extra washing each week thanks to said layers & coronavirus concerns.
• Scary electricity bills!
• Clutter.
• Dry hands from using so much sanitiser.
• Mask etiquette.
• People who don't/won't social distance.
• Missing my friends.

Loving:

• My new woollen moccasins for blogging in.
• My new beanie for wearing in the mountains.
• My new fleecy jacket for winter walks.
• Finally seeing snow fall around our house in the mountains.
• The new grand-puppy, Tony. A gorgeous King Charles Cavalier adopted by B23 and his GF.

Tony

Watching Out For:

• Season 2 of The Great. Huzzah!
• Season 4 of The Crown
• The winner of the 2020 Booker International Prize - fingers & toes crossed for The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree by Shokoofeh Azar.
• My new silk masks that have been on order for a month.
• Readalongs that I could be tempted to join.

Underwhelmed:

• By the 2020 Longlist announcement for the Booker Prize.

Anticipating:

• A week off work on the coast with Mr Books in September.
• A small glass of muscat & a piece of dark chocolate when I finish this post.
• The electric blanket warming up my sheets before bedtime.
• A roadtrip.

Shout Outs:

• Classics Club spin #24 - I spun the first Sherlock Holmes story, A Study in Scarlet. Excited to finally get my Holmes & Watson journey started.
• The Melbourne Writers Festival Digital | 7-16th August

Sunday afternoon snow at our holiday home in the mountains!

Stories & Shout Outs #30

I'm feeling rather blah today. 

It's my day off work and we should be heading off to lunch with friends, but their daughter has come down with a cold - tested for Covid and not positive - but in this new world we all live it, it's enough to put a lunch date on hold for a week.

I spent last night down a Twitter dark hole when I tried to research the furore around J K Rowling. I deliberately curate my twitter account to only included bookish people, so I forget how hateful some people (or bots) can be on social media platforms. I learnt nothing edifying and still feel dirty this morning.

So I need some bookish solace to cleanse my soul! And I need it now!

What I'm Reading:

• Rodham: A Novel | Curtis Sittenfeld (fascinating but now finding the political manoeuvrings dull as we near the end.)
• Humankind | Rutger Bregman (nice to be reminded that human beings generally err on the side of kindness. Not always easy to remember that at the moment.)
• Homeland Elegies: A Novel | Ayad Akhtar (I have no idea where this is going, but loving the ride so far!)
• The Fire This Time | Jesmyn Ward (it was time to read this book that has been lingering on my TBR pile for too long.)
• War and Peace | Tolstoy (chapter-a-day readalong that has fallen off the rails a little. A rainy day today & a cancelled lunch date, may mean that I catch up this afternoon.)
• The Parisian | Isabella Hammad (started reading this in March, but put it aside as Covid lockdown started. I was enjoying it, but it required concentration....)

New to the Pile:

• Mammoth | Chris Flynn (looks quirky and unusual.)
• Griffith Review 68 Getting On (my last GR took me 6 months to read all the articles. I wonder how long this one will take?)
• The Plague | Albert Camus (for all the obvious reasons!)
• Love in the Time of Cholera | Gabriel Garcia Marquez (ditto!)

Read, but not Reviewed:

• 7 Steps to Get Your Child Reading | Louise Park

Cover Lover:

• Is it bad that I want to read a book based entirely on the cover?

Abandoned:

• I started The Golden Bough Readalong with Jean and Cleo in the hope I would finally finish the edition I've had lurking on my bookshelves for a couple of decades now. But alas! The first chapter defeated me. I just couldn't work up enough interest in the 'dodgy anthropology' as Jean has so delightfully tagged her most recent recap posts. I admire her tenacity.

Latest Find:

• The Great | series stars Elle Fanning as Catherine, Nicholas Hoult, Phoebe Fox, Adam Godley, Gwilym Lee, Charity Wakefield, Douglas Hodge and Sacha Shawan.
• "the wildly comedic rise of Catherine the Nothing to Catherine the Great, in a genre-bending, anti-historical ride through 18th Century Russia."
• What a hoot! Three episodes in and I'm hooked. Huzzah

Keeping an Eye On:

• Rather excited to hear that Kazuo Ishiguro has a new book coming out next year - Klara and the Sun.
• The Miles Franklin Award is announcing their shortlist via Youtube at 4pm today.
• The winner of this year's Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction is Christine Dwyer Hickey with her book The Narrow Land.
• The Judges of the Prize said:

‘It’s a risky business, portraying the marriage of two artists, particularly when both the marriage and the art have already been picked over by biographers and art historians. Christine Dwyer Hickey has embraced the risk and created a masterpiece. In The Narrow Land, she reaches into the guts of the marriage of Jo and Edward Hopper and into the heart of the creative impulse itself. And more, much more. Quietly, inexorably, and with pinpoint perception, our winner has brought to dramatic life not just the Hoppers’ intimate eruptions but the tensions and complexities in those around them, from two young boys scarred by war to the transient summer crowd at Cape Cod, and though this forensic lens we glimpse the upheavals that were to shake all Americans in the post-war world. With the pull of a shifting sea, The Narrow Land drew the judges back again and again, each reading richer than the one before.’

Shout Outs:

• Tamara is once again hosting her very elegant, very enticing Paris in July. Sign up here and share the badge. I have a couple of Maigret's to while away a grey winter's day and a new French cookbook with which to experiment!
• Coco Chanel | "Elegance is when the inside is as beautiful as the outside."

Stories & Shout Outs #29

I should be writing one of the five outstanding book responses I have building up next to my computer. Instead, I decided to tidy up the stack of books spreading around my chair, in preparation for this weekend's Dewey's Readathon.

What will I be reading?
With so many choices, I may need your help to decide?
Have you read any of these books? Or do you plan to?

New(ish) to the Pile:

• Three Apples Fell From the Sky | Narine Abgaryan
• Truganini | Cassandra Pybus
• She I Dare Not Name | Donna Ward
• The Inland Sea | Madeleine Watts
• The Dickens Boy | Tom Keneally
• The Weekend | Charlotte Wood
• The World in the Whale | Rebecca Giggs
• The Book of Longings | Sue Monk Kidd
• The Loudness of Unsaid Things | Hilde Hinton

ARC's in the Pile:

• On the Line: Notes From a Factory | Joseph Ponthus | translator Stephanie Smee
• Black Inc | July release
• In this celebrated French bestseller, translated by Stephanie Smee, Ponthus captures the mundane, the beautiful and the strange, writing with an elegance and humour that sit in poignant contrast with the blood and sweat of the factory floor. On the Line (À la ligne) is a poet’s ode to manual labour, and to the human spirit that makes it bearable.

• A Room Made of Leaves | Kate Grenville
• Text Publishing | July release
• What if Elizabeth Macarthur—wife of the notorious John Macarthur, wool baron in the earliest days of Sydney—had written a shockingly frank secret memoir? And what if novelist Kate Grenville had miraculously found and published it? That’s the starting point for A Room Made of Leaves, a playful dance of possibilities between the real and the invented.

• The Vanishing Half | Brit Bennett
• Dialogue Books - PRH Australia | June release
• a powerful new novel about the parallel lives of estranged twin sisters who choose to live in two very different worlds - one black and one white....Looking well beyond issues of race, THE VANISHING HALF considers the lasting influence of the past as it shapes a person's decisions, desires, and expectations, and explores some of the multiple reasons and realms in which people sometimes feel pulled to live as something other than their origins.

• The Things She Owned | Katherine Tamiko Arguile
• Affirm Press | 28 April release
• Years after the death of her cruel and complicated mother, Erika is still surrounded by the things she left behind: an onigiri basket, a Wedgwood tea set, a knotted ring from Okinawa. Against her Japanese family’s wishes, Erika has also kept the urn containing her mother’s ashes and bones, refusing to put Michiko’s memory to rest....Beautiful and mysterious, The Things She Owned explores the complexity of lives lived between cultures, the weight of crossgenerational trauma, and a mother and daughter on a tortuous path to forgiveness.

• The Paris Library | Janet Skeslien Charles
• Two Roads - Hachette Australia | June release
Based on the true World War II story of the heroic librarians at the American Library in Paris, this is an unforgettable story of romance, friendship, family, and the power of literature to bring us together....A powerful novel that explores the consequences of our choices and the relationships that make us who we are—family, friends, and favourite authors—The Paris Library shows that extraordinary heroism can sometimes be found in the quietest of places.

• The Jane Austen Society | Natalie Jenner
• Orion - Hachette Australia | May release
It's only a few months since the war ended but the little village of Chawton is about to be hit by another devastating blow. The heart of the community, the Chawton estate, and site of Jane Austen's cherished former home, is in danger of being sold to the highest bidder.
Eight villagers are brought together by their love for the famous author's novels, to create THE JANE AUSTEN SOCIETY. As new friendships form and the pain of the past begins to heal, surely they can find a way to preserve Austen's legacy before it is too late?

• Latitudes of Longing | Shubhangi Swarup 
• Riverrun Books - Hachette Australia | May release
• A sweeping, lyrical debut about the love and longing between humanity and the earth itself.... The novel sweeps across India, from an island, to a valley, a city, and a snow desert, to tell a love story of epic proportions. We follow a scientist who studies trees and a clairvoyant who speaks to them; a geologist working to end futile wars over a glacier; octogenarian lovers; a mother struggling to free her revolutionary son; a yeti who seeks human companionship; a turtle who transforms first into a boat and then a woman; and the ghost of an evaporated ocean as restless as the continents. Binding them all together is a vision of life as vast as the universe itself.

What I'm Reading Right Now:

• Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line | Deepa Anappara
• War and Peace | Leo Tolstoy
• The Conquest of the Plassans | Emile Zola

Read But Not Reviewed (Yet):

• Cherry Beach | Laura McPhee-Browne
• Redhead by the Side of the Road | Anne Tyler
• Some Tame Gazelle | Barbara Pym
• 488 Rules for Life | Kitty Flanagan
• Talking to My Daughter About the Economy | Yanis Varoufakis

On My Radar:

• Thanks to being back at work this past couple of weeks, I've gone back to the age-old issues of not enough time and weariness at the end of each day, that keeps me from getting around to visit other blogs. So I have very little knowledge of what's going on out there at the moment.
• Please alert me to any upcoming readalongs you think I might be interested in.
• Dewey's Readathon this weekend is one of those events I've tried not to miss for about 8 or 9 years now. Even on those days I can only read for part of it, I still love the focus on reading and the community who gathers around for it. Sadly, this is the last time we will have Andi & Heather at the helm. I believe a BIG announcement about a new host will be made over the weekend.

Until then, TGIF!

Stories & Shout Outs #28

I Am Reading:

• Moby-Dick | Herman Melville | #slowread
• War and Peace | Leo Tolstoy | chapter-a-day
• The Rotters' Club | Jonathan Coe
• Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat | Samin Nosrat
• The Gravity of Us | Phil Stamper | my YA lunch time read.

New to the Pile:

• Here Until August | Josephine Rowe | Stella Prize longlist 2020
• The Eighth Life | Nino Haratischvili
• Fire Country | Victor Steffensen
• The Dictionary of Lost Words | Pip Williams | ARC | April release | Affirm Press
• The Animals in that Country | Laura Jean McKay | ARC | April release | Scribe Publications

On My Radar:

• One Hundred Years of Solitude readalong with Silvia & Ruth starts on 6th March.
• This will be a reread for me.
• I first read it in 1996.
• My Penguin edition is translated by Gregory Rabassa.
• Silvia has written a fabulous introductory post, complete with schedule & notes on the names, symbolism and magic realism.
• Paula @Book Jotter hosts the marvellous Dewithon every March. 
• It's a great chance to read books set in Wales or by Welsh authors.
• I'm planning to read Under Milkwood by Dylan Thomas if I can find where Mr Books has 'shelved' it.

Cover Lover:

• When trying to find my Penguin cover for the upcoming One Hundred Years of Solitude Read Along, I discovered an array of gorgeous cover choices.
• Which one do you prefer?
• I'm rather partial to the lush green garden, but the moustache on that skeleton also amuses me.

Keeping An Eye On:

• The Stella Prize 2020 Longlist
• My money is on The Yield | Tara June Winch
• I've also read There Was Still Love | Favel Parrett
• I hope to read the Josephine Rowe (see above), Song Spirals & The House of Youssef.
• The Women's Prize longlist will be announced on the 3rd March.
• I've now read 14 of the International Dublin Literary Award 2020 VERY LONG longlist.
• I will read at least one more | Where the Crawdads Sing | my March book group book.
• Curious to see which ones will get shortlisted on the 2nd April.
• Waiting with baited breath to see who will appear on this year's Sydney Writer's Festival program.

Stories & Shout Outs #27

My Week: didn't really go to plan.

• The dishwasher died last Friday. 
• Not a huge drama in the scheme of things, except we had visitors for the weekend, then midweek visitors as well. Everyone concerned revisited the lost art of washing up by hand with good grace, and Mr Books and myself even rediscovered how nice it can be to wash and wipe up side by side, chatting as we go.
• On Monday B19 left for Canberra to return to his part-time job, and in a few more weeks, the start of his new university year. The usual bittersweet emotions accompanied me with this departure.
• An hour before our midweek visitors arrived, I unexpectedly felt a drop of water on my head as I was sitting at the dining room table. I raced up the stairs, squelched through our sodden bedroom carpet to discover the hot water pipe under our ensuite vanity basin had burst. Hot water was gushing everywhere.
• Amazingly a plumber turned up within the hour, my work place let me borrow their wet/dry vac and we introduced my young niece and nephew to the joys of a sushi train.
• A professional carper cleaner/dryer turned up the following day with dehumidifiers and blowers. Mr Books & I have been camping out in B19's bedroom ever since.
• Rain returned to Sydney on Thursday, along with thunder and lightning and a power surge that took out the air conditioner unit.
• The rule of three says we should now be done!
• Needless to say, all my chapter-a-day reads fell by the wayside this week. 
• The good news is that thanks to the rain of the past two days, most of the bushfires are now out or completely under the control of the RFS, CFS and other agencies. The mop up begins. As does the political blame-game and buck-passing.

The end of Hat Hill Rd, Blackheath, NSW Dec 2019

What I'm Reading Right Now?

• Moby-Dick | Herman Melville | #slowread
• War and Peace | Leo Tolstoy | chapter-a-day
• Bridge of Clay | Marcus Zusak | book group
• In Love With George Eliot |  Kathy O'Shaughnessy | pure pleasure
• Such a Fun Age | Kiley Reid | pleasure
• Yellow Notebook: Diaries Vol 1 | Helen Garner | a dubious pleasure
• The Cloud Spotters Guide | Gavin Pretor-Pinney | non-fiction comfort read after all the bush fires 
• The Tempest | William Shakespeare | CC Spin

Should I Stay or Should I Go?

• So, I'm reading The Bridge of Clay for my February book group meeting. 
• I'm loving the language. On almost every page, there's a gorgeous turn of phrase, or a line that makes me stop and smile for the pure pleasure of it. At every turn, you can sense how important this book was to Zusak. 
• Yet I'm struggling to feel invested in the story or the characters. The back story of the parents has been interesting, but I have to regularly remind myself to give BoC some of my spare reading time (and not just pick up one of the other books that I REALLY want to read).
• I've made it to the 30% mark.
• Sound I stay or should I go?
• Yellow Notebook. Hmmmm. 
• Like Garner, I wrote a journal for most of my twenties and thirties. It was a pretty angst filled journey as I worked out how to become an adult and live in the adult world. In amongst the emotional dross, were some interesting (most likely only to me) observations, commentary and personal milestones. 
• During a major upheaval in my life in my late thirties, I decided it was time to jettison the numerous journals clogging up my life office. They were not only clogging up my physical space, but they also felt like an emotional burden I didn't want to have with me any longer. But before I tossed them, I decided to read them one last time, looking out for any interesting, important, significant sections. I then typed these snippets up over a period of about a year. I'm in no way suggesting that I am a writer of Garner's calibre or experience, but my snippets look and sound just like hers in the Yellow Notebook.
• I completely understand how it's an interesting exercise for the individual to go through this process, but I'm not so convinced that it's such an interesting exercise for the reader.
• I've ho-hummed my way to the 10% mark.
• Should I stay or should I go?

New to the Pile:

• The Year Without Summer | Guinevere Glasfurd
• Coventry | Rachel Cusk
• Murder in Midsummer | selected by Cecily Gayford
• Nothing to See Here | Kevin Wilson
• Hamnet | Maggie O'Farrell
• Middle England | Jonathan Coe
• The Water Dancer | Ta-Nehisi Coates
• The Shadow King | Maaa Mengiste
• Cherry Beach | Laura McPhee-Browne
• The Night Watchman | Louise Erdrich
• The Girl With the Louding Voice | Abi Dare

Yes, I know I have a problem!
I want to read ALL of the books right now.

On My Radar:

• A Margaret Atwood Live event is happening in Sydney in February. Mr Books & I have booked our tickets. I can't wait.
• The Little Women movie - Sunday - fingers crossed.

Shout Outs:

• A timely reminder/discussion by Laurie @Relevant Obscurity of the pleasures of reading for pleasure, slow, thoughtful reading  and ditching reading goals.
• Check out Bill @The Australian Legend's Gen 3 reading week to learn all you ever wanted to know about Australian Women Writers from 1919-1960.
• January is the month when all the editors @Australian Women Writer's challenge offer up their year in review stats and thoughts, including yours truly for the non-fiction/poetry page.

Stories & Shout Outs #26

My Week:

• Change of management at work plus renovations = stress and uncertainty.
• A couple of much-loved colleagues left work = emotional upheaval.
• New boss seems organised, easy to get along with and professional = huge sense of relief.
• B18 became B19.
• Mr Books and I enjoyed a fun night out at the theatre to see Chicago.
• A sunny, spring-like weekend = lots of walks.
• Empty-nesting = a Saturday afternoon in a salt soak spa with Mr Books.
• But we still miss the boys = Sunday afternoon on the sidelines watching soccer.
• Council clean-up = ridding the garage of all the junky, broken furniture, bibs & bobs that have collected there since last council clean-up.
• Sunday evening = time to write a blog post = time to enjoy a beer with cheese & biscuits.
• Halfway through writing this post, Mr Books asked me to check my Super fund for my FY19 statement = can of worms.
• Discovered that my insurance fees were rather large = exorbitant.
• Realised that the changes that occurred to my fund's web page earlier this year were more than skin deep = my cover reverted to default mode = me paying for a cover that was more than they would have actually paid out!
• Lesson - even if you think you've done all the right things with your super, double-check it now. Especially if your fund has just proudly updated its web page!
• How to kill a Sunday evening beer & cheese buzz with one click of the mouse.

I Am Reading:

• Moby-Dick
• The Count of Monte Cristo
• Ordinary People by Diana Evans (plus listening to the playlist she created for the book)
• Three Women by Lisa Taddeo
• The Fast 800 by Michael Mosley (obviously Sunday is not one of my fast days 😃

Read But Not Reviewed:

• The Feel Good Guide to Menopause by Dr Nicola Gates

Keeping An Eye On:

• The end date for the Archibald Prize exhibition at the Art Gallery NSW - only 2 more weeks to fit in a visit!
• The next CC Spin due in September.
• There are only 4 more books left to read in Liz' Great Iris Murdoch Readalong, and September's offering, The Book and the Brotherhood is the final one left on my TBR pile.

Strange, But True:

• I finished my 20 Books of Summer Winter challenge three weeks early!

New To The Pile:

• There Was Still Love by Favel Parrett - TBP 24th September by Hachette Australia

A tender and masterfully told story of memory, family and love.

Prague, 1938: Eva flies down the street from her sister. Suddenly a man steps out, a man wearing a hat. Eva runs into him, hits the pavement hard. His hat is in the gutter. His anger slaps Eva, but his hate will change everything, as war forces so many lives into small, brown suitcases. 

Prague, 1980: No one sees Ludek. A young boy can slip right under the heavy blanket that covers this city - the fear cannot touch him. Ludek is free. And he sees everything. The world can do what it likes. The world can go to hell for all he cares because Babi is waiting for him in the warm flat. His whole world 

Melbourne, 1980: Mala Li ka's grandma holds her hand as they climb the stairs to their third floor flat. Inside, the smell of warm pipe tobacco and homemade cakes. Here, Mana and Bill have made a life for themselves and their granddaughter. A life imbued with the spirit of Prague and the loved ones left behind. 

Favel Parrett's deep emotional insight and stellar literary talent shine through in this love letter to the strong women who bind families together, despite dislocation and distance. It is a tender and beautifully told story of memory, family and love. Because there is still love. No matter what.

• The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin - reading for my next book club gathering.
• Kindred by Kirla Saunders - Indigenous poet plus gorgeous cover.

• Quichotte by Salmon Rushdie - TBP 29th August Penguin Random House Australia. I just hope it's funnier and less monotonous than the original Don Quixote!
• The Far Field by Madhuri Vijay plus pretty cover.

Gorgeously tactile and sweeping in historical and socio-political scope, Pushcart Prize-winner Madhuri Vijay’s The Far Field follows a complicated flaneuse across the Indian subcontinent as she reckons with her past, her desires, and the tumultuous present.

In the wake of her mother’s death, Shalini, a privileged and restless young woman from Bangalore, sets out for a remote Himalayan village in the troubled northern region of Kashmir. Certain that the loss of her mother is somehow connected to the decade-old disappearance of Bashir Ahmed, a charming Kashmiri salesman who frequented her childhood home, she is determined to confront him. But upon her arrival, Shalini is brought face to face with Kashmir’s politics, as well as the tangled history of the local family that takes her in. And when life in the village turns volatile and old hatreds threaten to erupt into violence, Shalini finds herself forced to make a series of choices that could hold dangerous repercussions for the very people she has come to love. 

With rare acumen and evocative prose, in The Far Field Madhuri Vijay masterfully examines Indian politics, class prejudice, and sexuality through the lens of an outsider, offering a profound meditation on grief, guilt, and the limits of compassion.

Stories & Shout Outs #25

Some days the word won't flow.

I have several posts half-written, but over the past few days I haven't been able to find the inspiration or energy to complete any of them. I guess a big weekend away, is enough to throw my routine these days.

So it's time for a housekeeping post to clear my head.

I Am Reading:

• The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (chapter-a-day readalong)
• Blakwork by Alison Whittaker (Indigenous poetry)
• Yield by Tara June Winch (Indigenous author)
• The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey (#1 in a new cosy crime series set in 1920's India)
• The Fast 800 by Michael Mosley (time to get back on track and into my jeans)

Read But Not Reviewed:

• a stack of Indigenous picture books that I've read for Lisa's Indigenous Literature Week.

My Week:

B21 moved out of home last weekend - a week before he became B22. He hasn't accumulated much stuff yet, so the move was hassle free with only minimal withdrawal symptoms on behalf of myself and Mr Books.

When someone is so ready and so pleased with themselves about taking this next step into the adult world, it's hard to feel sad about it. Pride in the lovely young man he has become as well as in our efforts to get him there have been the predominate feelings instead.

We enjoyed one night of being empty-nesters before B18 came home for a week during his Uni semester break.

Off My Radar Completely Until Right Now:

Writing about my week just now made me realise that I missed the 10th anniversary of my blog!

How on earth did that happen, I hear you ask?

On the 6th July 2009, I sat down with a great deal of trepidation and opened my first blogging account. It was B22's twelfth birthday. I should be able to remember that date, but every year, I forget.

So, anyway, YAY me!

I wish I had something profound to say after all this time, some blogging words of wisdom to share with you all. But really, it's quite simple.

• If you love what you're doing, then you'll find a way to keep on doing it.
• If you want to be a writer, then write. 
• Even when you don't want to or when it feels too hard. 
• Especially when you don't want to and it feels too hard. 
• Write something.
• Write what you would like to read.
• Edit.
• Write some more.

Recently Discovered:

• The Guardian Books podcast during a solo roadtrip last week. 

New To The Pile:

• The Adventures of Alexander von Humboldt by Andrea Wulf & illustrated by Lillian Melcher (gorgeous, coffee table, graphic non-fiction that I discovered thanks to the Guardian Books podcast)
• The Bookshop of the Broken Hearted by Robert Hillman (a book about books? how could I possibly be broken hearted)
• Autumn Light by Pico Iyer (it's Japanese, enough said)
• The Parisian by Isabella Hammad (rave review from a regular customer at work)
• Dear Reader by Debra Adelaide (October release - part bibliomemoir, part user's manual apparently)

Stories & Shout Outs #24

I Am Reading:

• The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (readalong)
• Blakwork by Alison Whittaker (poetry)
• Circe by Madeline Miller (20booksofsummerwinter)
• Strong in the Rain: Surviving Japan's Earthquake, Tsunami and Fukushima Nuclear Disaster By Lucy Birmingham & David McNeill (drop in)

Read But Not Reviewed:

• Mika & Max by Laura Bloom

Goodreads Reviews of Kids Books:

• So She Did: The Story of May Wirth by Simi Genziuk
• Baby Business by Jasmine Seymour
• When Billy Was a Dog by Kirsty Murray

My Week:

Despite the shorter long weekend Monday week, this week still felt like a full working week (i.e. trying to squeeze too many things into too short a time!)
However one of the nice things that got squeezed in on Wednesday night was a harbour cruise around the Vivid Sydney lights.

On My Radar:

• Paris in July (yippee! I have a couple of Maigret's, some more Guy de Maupassant short stories & a memoir by Herve le Tellier called All Happy Families to look forward to this July).
• Summer Winter Reverse Readathon (8pm Friday 2nd August to 3rd August at 8pm, Eastern Standard Time - which means I will be reading in Sydney from 10am Saturday 3rd August until 10am Sunday 4th August)
• Moby Dick Readalong (August+)

Keeping An Eye On:

• Chernobyl - we've started recording it as our next series to get into now that Game of Thrones is done and dusted. The hard part will be making time to, you know, actually watch it!
• The weather - we have a lunchtime beachside wedding to attend tomorrow - how many layers will I need to feel warm enough and still look glamorous!?

Strange, But True:

• In Sydney people think it's a grand idea to have a beachside wedding in winter!

New To The Pile:

• Figuring by Maria Popova
• Ordinary People by Diana Evans
• Frankissstein by Jeanette Winterson
• The Heavens by Sandra Newman
• The Electric Hotel by Dominic Smith
• We Must Be Brave by Frances Liardet
• No Friend But the Mountain by Behrouz Boochani
• Gun Island by Amitav Ghosh
• Imperium by Robert Harris
• The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey

Shout Outs:

• FanFiction has taken a wander around her TBR pile and created a post that is inspiring other bloggers to do the same (I suspect I will soon join the ranks!)
• The copycats so far:
• Books Please 
• Booker Talk
• NancyElin

Stories & Shout Outs #23

I knew that May was going to be a busy reading month, so I tried to prepare myself as much as possible in April.

• I read my May book club choice in April (Bel Canto). 
• I read my CC Spin book straight away (Jamaica Inn which I finished last weekend. It will also allow me to join in Heavenali's #DDMreadingweek from the 13th - 19th May, as long as I make the time to write my review!)
• I finished two non-fiction titles that had been lingering on my table for a couple of months (A Vindication/Accidental Feminists).
• I looked at my Moby Dick stuff again & created a timeline for the August readalong.

I've also been busy with other bookish stuff:

Reading Kids Books:

• Cloud Boy by Marcia Williams
• Miss Mink: Life Lessons For a Cat Countess by Janet Hill
• Horatio Squeak by Karen Foxlee
• Song of the River by Joy Cowley
• Beverly, Right Here by Kate DiCamillo
• The Legend of Sally Jones by Jakob Wegelius
• Songbird by Ingrid Laguna

Trying to Find Some Calm:

• Create Calm by Kate James
• First week of alcohol and chocolate free month was rough, especially on Friday night, when we really wanted a beer with our pizza. We resisted, and felt better for it. 
• This week has been harder with the chocolate part, but I've had a few sweet biscuit treats instead. 
• A 3 hr walk (& coffee stop) on Saturday.
• A 2 hr walk (& coffee stop) on Wednesday.
• Eva Cassidy CD on high rotation.
• 2 bubble baths.
• And a new pair of shoes.

Strange, But True:

Yesterday, I had cause to google my blog name.
I discovered that many of my book reviews and catchy quotes therein have been added to a surprisingly large number of author websites. All Australian that I can see so far  - from Kate Forsyth, Matt Ottley, Sandy Fussel, Sulari Gentil, Judy Horacek to Aaron Blabey. I feel honoured and rather chuffed.

May Readalongs:

Nick @One Catholic Life is about to start off a new chapter-a-day adventure with The Count of Monte Cristo. This will be my third chapter-a-day readalong with Nick. Les Mis last year was hugely successful (for me) while my more recent foray into Don Quixote was less so.

I've had The Count on my TBR pile for 5-6 years now. It's another one of my lovely Coralie Bickford-Smith designed hardback Penguin editions.

Translated by Robin Buss, it is 117 chapters long.
The readalong starts Thursday 9th May and finishes on the 2nd September. It's not too late to join in.

Nick plans to post a quote a day on twitter and facebook using #montecristoreadalong
I hope to post most days :-)

May is also my next Iris Murdoch book, The Sea, The Sea with Liz @Adventures in Reading.

I've been very nervous about reading this book. It has been on my TBR pile for a number of years as a part of my plan to read as many Booker Prize books as possible, but I've been told by several people that it is a difficult read. I joined in Liz's readalong in the hope that reading some of Murdoch's earlier books, in the company of someone who so obviously loves and appreciates her work, would help me achieve success with The Sea, The Sea. I've now just been waiting to get the first few chapters of The Count under my belt before starting The Sea this weekend.
#IMreadalong

New To The Pile:

• Woman Rowing North by Mary Piper
• A Room Of One's Own by Virginia Woolf (I first read this years ago but lost/gave away my copy during one of my moves. Keen for a reread given my recent reading).
• Waverley by Walter Scott
• Circe by Madeline Miller
• Australia Day by Stan Grant
• Croatia - Lonely Planet (fingers crossed)

Stories & Shout Outs #22

Read But Not Reviewed:

• Machines Like Me by Ian McEwan - like most McEwan's I'm left wondering if it's a hit or a miss - more mulling time required before I write. Also waiting to discuss it with Mr Books, who has just started it.
• Maisie Dobbs #14 To Die But Once by Jacqueline Winspear (well, just a little review on Goodreads) - a couple of weeks ago I was feeling a little frazzled and decided I needed an old friend to comfort me. Maisie did the trick, as always.
• Bel Canto by Ann Patchett - my latest book club read - how on earth have I not read this gem of a story before?

Short Stories:

• Boodjar ngan djoorla: Country, my bones by Claire G. Coleman in Griffith Review 63: Writing the Country - not sure how I can adequately describe this one. It disturbed me and moved me and made me curious about reading Coleman's Terra Nullius sooner rather than later.
• Jokes For the Gunmen by Mazen Maarouf in his book of short stories by the same name. Not sure what to make of this. Somewhat disjointed & jumpy but compelling nonetheless.

New to the Pile:

• All Happy Families by Hervé le Tellier - love dysfunctional family memoirs!
• City of Trees by Sophie Cunningham - essays on life, death and the need for a forest - enough said!
• The Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories - cannot wait to dive into these, but suspect they will sit on my TBR pile until my next trip to Japan!
• Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker - having recently finished The Song of Achilles, I'm keen to read more now Homer adaptations. That's how I roll.

Latest Find:

• Unsplash for amazing pics to post on my blogs. All they ask is for you to credit the artist whenever you use one of their images.

Photo by Jordan Whitt on Unsplash

What I'm Struggling With:

• Tiredness & a couldn't-be-bothered attitude.

May To-Do List:

• The Sea, The Sea by Iris Murdoch - readalong.
• Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier - my CC #20 spin book.
• The Count of Monte Cristo - readalong.
• Write my (August) Moby Dick Readalong introduction post.

Scary, But True:

• Mr Books & I are an alcohol & chocolate free zone until the end of May.

On My Radar:

• Endless Game of Thrones speculation and conspiracy theories! None of our thoughts about what would happen in the Battle of Winterfell came to pass - except we did predict the majority of the regulars that died. Needless to say, the Night King was not on that list! Didn't see that coming, but all hale Arya.

Cover Lover:

• Which cover of Kate Morton's The Clockmaker's Daughter do you prefer?

• The Australian cover (top left) catches my eye every time I see it on the shelf at work, but I also like the cover bottom right (from the US I think). I'm fascinated by the choices that publishers and editors make when choosing the different covers for each country. Teal green is certainly the colour of the moment in Australia!
• Sadly none of these lovely covers were enough to make me actually read the book.