Sony Reader Pocket Edition (loaned to LiteraryMinded for two weeks) Visit the Sony website to check out the Readers available. US readers, see Amazon. There are about three reasons I haven’t bought an e-reader yet (actually, let’s remove the hyphen and call it an ereader - remember ‘e-mail’?). The first reason is that they’re expensive, but … Continue reading Test-driving the Sony Reader Pocket Edition
Guest review: Alice Robinson on John Tesarsch’s The Philanthropist
Sleepers Publishing November 2010, 9781740669979 (Aus) reviewed by Alice Robinson John Tesarsch’s accomplished first novel The Philanthropist is a book about parents and children. It is about what we pass on, and what we inherit in turn. ‘The best thing a father can do, of course, is be there for his children. I wasn’t, because … Continue reading Guest review: Alice Robinson on John Tesarsch’s The Philanthropist
Review of Ali Alizadeh's Iran: My Grandfather up at Mascara
My review of Ali Alizadeh's wonderful book Iran: My Grandfather (Aus, US) has been published in Mascara Literary Review. You can read the review here. While you're there, have a look at the poems, reviews, stories, photographs and translations in this elegant bi-annual which focuses on the work of contemporary Asian, Australian and Indigenous writers
‘If only a nippleless bra could make it all work’: Gary Shteyngart’s Super Sad True Love Story
Granta, September 2010, through Allen & Unwin in Australia (Aus, US, UK) 9781847081032 Super. Here’s a too-easily-imaginable near-future world where everyone is attached to a device, books are obsolete, people walk around half-naked and rate each other’s bits, the American empire is failing, and it’s hard to make a true and lasting connection. Sad. The … Continue reading ‘If only a nippleless bra could make it all work’: Gary Shteyngart’s Super Sad True Love Story
Bite-sized book reviews
Here's the first batch of mini reviews I commissioned from some of my Twitter followers. They get a free book, I retweet the review to my followers and publish it here (slightly edited). It can be over two tweets. Enjoy! @toria_jayne: Boys of Summer by Peter Skrzynecki. Great coming of age story set in Sydney's … Continue reading Bite-sized book reviews
The Mary Smokes Boys by Patrick Holland
Transit Lounge August 2010 9780980571790 A version of this review originally appeared in the Byron Shire Echo. Grey North lives in the small town of Mary Smokes, outside of Brisbane. Grey’s mother dies giving birth to his little sister, Irene, and from this traumatic event the novel, and Grey’s character, emerges. On the night his … Continue reading The Mary Smokes Boys by Patrick Holland
Guest post by Jonathan Walker: Little Dorrit
In the Summer of 1989, I left my father’s home, which was never my home, not after my mother died. I couldn’t stand it there, in my father’s home, in the dark there, with the recessed windows and the ceilings, so low I used to bang my head on the doorjambs. The smell was what … Continue reading Guest post by Jonathan Walker: Little Dorrit
A dream-logic London squid riff: an interview with China Miéville (part two)
Read part one here. Angela Meyer: Just going back to what you were sort of talking about, the excessive nature of Kraken (Aus, US, UK) and chucking everything in – I’m really interested in your writing and I just find it so rich but at the same time I found I still was reading it … Continue reading A dream-logic London squid riff: an interview with China Miéville (part two)
A dream-logic London squid riff: an interview with China Miéville (part one)
China Miéville’s Kraken (Aus, US, UK) is savvy, exuberant, sci-fantastical fiction – a novel about a stolen giant squid and the ensuing adventures of museum curator Billy Harrow. It’s a super-fun read, set in a richly imaginative alternate London, filled with sassy, dirty, sweet, dangerous and apparitious characters. It was great to be able to have … Continue reading A dream-logic London squid riff: an interview with China Miéville (part one)
Guest review: Derek Motion on Tiggy Johnson’s First Taste
Page Seventeen, 2010 9780980813609 Reviewed by Derek Motion I often have to catch the bus out to the university, and from the stop near my house the journey takes around 15 minutes. This parcel of time is – if you get straight on to the task and don’t waste any time looking out the window … Continue reading Guest review: Derek Motion on Tiggy Johnson’s First Taste
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