28 books, 28 authors, 28 countries... and one year by Kent MacCarter Why am I embarking this reading project? I was two weeks shy of age eighteen before I read my first novel, fuelled by my own motivation. I’ll start this post, cathartically, with that embarrassing, stale, shrivelled yet undeniable fact. It was Fitzgerald’s The … Continue reading Guest post: Around the world in 28 novels, by Kent MacCarter (part one)
Month: March 2011
A mini-diary of Perth Writers Festival 2011
Thursday On the flight over I read Jonah Lehrer, watch Animal Planet and listen to Philip Glass and Emily Haines. Nathan Scolaro picks me up at the airport and on the drive we discuss some of the festival authors. Nathan asks if I've read Armistead Maupin and I say, unfortunately, no. He loves Tales Of … Continue reading A mini-diary of Perth Writers Festival 2011
Bookslut review of Wild Unrest
I've just done my first review for popular American online literary magazine Bookslut. The review is of Wild Unrest: Charlotte Perkins Gilman and the Making of 'The Yellow Wallpaper' by Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz (Aus, US, UK). I say: 'Wild Unrest is refreshingly non-reductive, in that its author allows Gilman to be complex, to have a nature that … Continue reading Bookslut review of Wild Unrest
Celebrity Book Auction for literacy
One thing that was brought to my attention while I was in WA was The Great Celebrity Book Auction. Well-known people from Australia and beyond have donated books that have influenced their lives, to raise money for literacy programs at Kyilla Primary School, a small Government school of 200 students in North Perth. The children … Continue reading Celebrity Book Auction for literacy
Perth Writers Festival 2011: The A-Z of Publishing
Yesterday I chaired the 'A-Z of Publishing' day at Perth Writers Festival. Two-hundred people were in attendance. They heard Vintage/Knopf (Random House) publisher Meredith Curnow, senior editor at Text Publishing Mandy Brett and Fremantle Press Publisher Clive Newman speak on the topic 'Where on Earth Do You Start?' Then manuscript assessor John Harman and literary agent Lyn Tranter … Continue reading Perth Writers Festival 2011: The A-Z of Publishing
Renowned biographer Hazel Rowley dies
I recently had the pleasure of reading Hazel Rowley's wonderful biography of the Roosevelts, Franklin and Eleanor, in preparation for our panel in Perth this weekend. Last week I was notified that Rowley was ill, and that she wouldn't be able to attend the festival. I hoped that it wasn't serious and that she would pull … Continue reading Renowned biographer Hazel Rowley dies
20 classics in 2011 #3: Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
I’m reading 20 classic, modern-classic or cult books in 2011. Read more about this project here. Why did I want to read it? Yarrrr, I was in the mood for some adventure! And so much legend exists because of this one book: one-legged pirates, parrots, treasure maps marked with an X and more. When was it published? It was originally … Continue reading 20 classics in 2011 #3: Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
Guest review: ‘It doesn’t have to be fun to be fun’, Alice Robinson on 127 Hours: Between a Rock and a Hard Place by Aron Ralston
Simon & Schuster 9781849833905 (Aus, US, UK) Reviewed by Alice Robinson Aron Ralston is starving, dehydrated and on the brink of death when, six days after being pinned beneath an 800-pound boulder, stranded alone in a remote Utah canyon, he snaps his own wrist; the blade of the $15 multi-tool in his pack just won’t … Continue reading Guest review: ‘It doesn’t have to be fun to be fun’, Alice Robinson on 127 Hours: Between a Rock and a Hard Place by Aron Ralston
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