-
Upcoming events in June 2018
I am going to be rather tired this month. But that’s a good thing because you get to see me at several events during June. Check out the events page. Continuum Panels The very first one kicks off in two days time: So You Want To Be A Book Reviewer? This is an awesome panel at the Continuum Speculative Fiction Convention at the Jasper Hotel in Melbourne running from Friday 8 June to Monday 11 June. I am on it with Figgy and Elizabeth Fitzgerald and it starts at 5 pm on Friday. We will discuss how book reviewing changes depending on how you do it, what you need to…
-
Samantha Tidy's The Happiness Jar
There is a jar on one of my bookshelves. It smells vaguely of tomato sauce and in it are little twists of paper. The twists of paper hold words – reminders of things that have happened that made me happy – memories, experiences, ideas, facts. I got the idea from a blog post I came across while surfing the internet. A few days after I started it, I got a book in the mail: Samantha Tidy’s The Happiness Jar. It starts with a death, that of Rachel from cystic fibrosis. But Rachael leaves behind a happiness jar full of secrets and a two part will that baffles the daylights out…
-
Australian Women Writers Challenge 2014
Marisa Wikramanayake announces her intention to participate in the Australian Women Writers Challenge for 2014
-
Capering criminally with the challenge: what I read for Australian Women Writers 2013
In 2013, I joined the Australian Women Writers blog and project as the non-fiction contributing editor. This meant I also ended up taking the challenge of at least reading if not reviewing various books by female Australian authors. I read, I reviewed, I interviewed. Here's the round up of the books, the authors and the fun.
-
New project: Guys Read Gals
First off, I did not come up with the name. That was all Rob Kennedy‘s fault. Second, last I checked I am not a male member of the species so I am not actually an active participant – I am just there to make sure everything runs properly. And to carry a metaphorical whip so that the guys involved behave like the gentlemen that they are. So what is it? It’s a website. For men. To post reviews of the Australian female fiction authors they have read. And for women and men. To contribute insightful articles, interviews and opinion pieces on the topics of men reading  and/or Australian female fiction…
-
AWW 2013: Marion Halligan's Murder On The Apricot Coast
When I first found this book, I was thrilled. Crime fiction is the genre I love diving into and it always thrills me to find a potentially interesting, intriguing new crime fiction author I haven’t found before. And then I realised it was the sequel, not the first offering in the series. So I searched the shop in vain for another Halligan but there was none to be found. I didn’t want to miss something by reading them out of order. Eventually I walked out of the shop with Murder On The Apricot Coast in my hands. And I started reading. There is the promised murder of course but there also…
-
Real men do read – they just don't let the sexy, geek goddesses know.
Rob Kennedy, an Australian poet (and male for the purposes of this discussion) asked this question in a blog post recently: Do real men read books?* He had several issues with this question: What the hell constitutes a “real man” anyway? To which I nod my head furiously because yes, what the hell are we discussing when we talk about “real men”? What makes one man more “real” than the next, apart from the fact that maybe he isn’t some intangible figure in your brain…… moving on. The reason he asked the question in the first place was because he had found a lot of American based programs and websites…
-
AWW 2013: Marj McRae's Not A Man
“The hero is an eunuch.” said the author Marj McRae. “Wait, what?” was my reaction. She emailed me the link, I downloaded Not A Man in e-book form and dove in. An eunuch – I expected there to be a few descriptions of not so very nice things – violence and rape. I mean, it’s a young boy being castrated. And frankly, I was stunned by the level of research and detail. I now know a lot of very interesting things about castration and about Oxford. That’s right, Oxford. As in Oxford University. You see, Shuki, is not content with the fate of other eunuchs – lovable as along as…
-
Kerry Greenwood's Unnatural Habits
I discovered Greenwood quite by chance somewhere around 2007. And ever since I have eagerly awaited the next installment of a Phryne Fisher or Corrinna Chapman mystery. You can just imagine how thrilled I was when ABC started airing the TV series of Phryne Fisher last year. Accordingly I was excited to find a new offering – Phryne’s 19th outing Unnatural Habits. I bought it to read on my flight overseas at the end of the year and avoided it till I was in my plane seat. Phryne is much the same, the same devil may care attitude towards social conventions that don’t make any sense, the same thrill…
-
The Australian Women Writers Challenge 2013: Suggested Reading List
So I mentioned to a writing group that I am part of on Facebook that I am trying to do this challenge. And I asked them to suggest titles. Because otherwise I was going to be stuck. And they have come up trumps. Now I am only going to review certain books in certain genres so I can say now that I probably won’t get to review all these but YOU can. If you are part of the challenge, then off you go, pick one and get reviewing! If you suggest any titles I will keep updating this list. Author | Book | Genre | Comment if any Kathryn White…
