Travellin' Penguin

Jason Steger is a British-born Australian journalist and one of Australia’s best-known literary critics. He served as the books editor and literary editor of The Age in Melbourne for 25 years, becoming a respected voice on Australian and international literature through his book reviews, author interviews and commentary. Steger was also a regular panellist on the The Book Club on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, where he discussed classic and contemporary books with fellow critics and writers. Widely regarded for his thoughtful, accessible criticism, he has played a significant role in promoting Australian literature and reading culture.  

I receive a weekly newsletter from him every Friday called Booklist. He reviews new Australian books, talks about current literary festivals and asks readers questions about books. I enjoy reading his bookish discussions.

A couple of weeks ago he was asking readers what type of book ending do they like/dislike. Some endings wrap everything up. Some are ambiguous. Some just leave the ending completely open. A few books have several endings.

I’d be interested to know what are your favourite type of ending. I must say I enjoy closure. All things wrapped up. However having said that I find if an ending is ambiguous or not clear I tend to think about the story for a longer time.

What do you prefer?

Peanny loves watching animals on tv.

Having a quiet day today. Hobart has been very cold this past week. One of those days you just can’t shake the chill. I think I need to get to the pet store and get little moss Peanny a jumper. She keeps crawling under blankets as does our cat Pickles. But I think Pickles would hate wearing one.

(By the way for you North Americans- a jumper is a sweater here.)

I had some journal pages to catch up on so am doing that today. Updated the reading journal somewhat. Need to look up some publishing dates to fill in some blanks.

I enjoyed making up a page in my junk journal using a paper menu from the Cascade Brewery menu with some magazine pics and a few doll stickers. Lastly I saw a sketching exercise on Tik Tok of drawing heads and decorating them so I did that and found it quite relaxing.

In the end I did go ahead and finish the book Theo of Golden by Allen Levi. Overall I enjoyed it but I had to dip into it a half hour or so a day instead of reading it right through. It is somewhat repetitive and really so sentimental but I liked Theo very much. And I enjoyed the setting of Golden, Georgia.

I have several book launches coming up at Fullers book shop but will talk about them later.

Mr P is visiting family in Canada for a month so things have slowed right down here.

I did a 6+km walk the other day with a friend as we had sun if not warmth. It was bracing and we stopped at a local cafe on the way home for a hot Chai Latte.

Last night I spent an evening out at the cinema with a friend and her son. We saw The Sheep Detectives with Hugh Jackman. It was silly but I can’t go past a flock of sheep who all talk and have different personalities. The sheep do solve the murder. They are very clever. We followed that with a Vietnamese meal. A very enjoyable time. I haven’t been to the cinema in a long time.

Well that’s my week finished. Just to finalise it all I received Cousin Eddie’s ashes. (He was our old cat we said goodbye to last week.). The vet also sent some little papers with his foot prints, a vial with a hair clipping and a lovely card. I will put his ashes under our Japanese maple tree come summer and hang his bell. All of our past pets are there and they each have their own little bell. It sounds lovely when the wind comes through.

All the best for the week,

Don’t forget to answer the question about book endings.

LIFE:

It has been a sad week this week. We had to say goodbye to our old cat Cousin Eddie. He has been with us since he was 8 weeks old. He was never a robust boy. We rescued him from the Tasmanian Humane Society. But he really loved us and was smoochy right from the start. He sat with me every morning after his breakfast while I read the paper and checked emails. He used to ask Mr. P to be picked up and he would get on his shoulders and ride around the house.  He developed a cancerous tumour and went down pretty fast in the last few months.  It is so hard to lose a beloved pet. Grizzy and Pickles, our other two cats don’t seem to realise he’s gone but he was always more attached to us than the other cats. He did love the dogs and Peanut often washed his head a couple of times a day.

THIS WEEK’S BOOK:

This week I’ve been listening to an audio book. It is Theo of Golden by Allen Levi and beautifully narrated by David Morse. Published February 2026 by Fontana GB.  I’m a little over half way but I don’t know if I’ll continue it.

Theo of Golden by Allen Levi is a warm and uplifting novel about an elderly stranger named Theo who arrives in the small Southern town of Golden, Georgia. After discovering a collection of hand-drawn portraits hanging in a local coffee shop, he quietly buys them one by one and sets out to return each portrait to the person depicted. As Theo meets the townspeople, he listens to their stories, shares his wisdom and kindness, and helps them see themselves in a new light. Through these encounters, the novel explores themes of generosity, human connection, grief, hope, and the power of truly being seen. Beneath its gentle surface lies a deeper mystery about Theo’s own past and the reason he came to Golden in the first place.

This is the sort of quiet, compassionate novel more focused on character, community, and kindness than on plot twists.

I really like the writing in this book. I can see the locations as thought I’m there. 

Theo is such a gentleman, softly spoken with impeccable manners. The people of the town react to him in different ways. I do get a bit tired of the stories as many are predictable in their endings. Once I begin hearing the story I know exactly how it is going to end. It is a very saccharine book. Theo is like a grandfather Pollyanna. It is a very gentle, positive book and if one is feeling down I can see how the stories would lift a mood. I think, for myself I’d rather hear a story now and again and not just read through it in a few sittings. I’d be interested to know how others react to this book. 

I think I’ll start another book and maybe just listen to 30 minutes of this book at a time. I do like Theo’s character a lot and I am curious how the book might end. Theo’s mystery might continue to be quite interesting.

TASSIE TRAVEL:

As it’s been cold here and sometimes rainy I haven’t done much photography.

Five of us from the photo club did do a Twilight Tour the other day of the historical Hobart Penitentiary. It went for two hours. It is a very good representation of the convict era of Hobart during the 1800s. We went to the basement and saw the tiny cells. There was a film that was told in a chronological order. Tasmania’s history is very harsh and full of very cruel practises as it is based on the convicts, transported here from the UK in the 19th century. The Twilight tour is quite dark and we had to carry electric lantern as we went up and down spiral staircases, into the old Magistrates court and the chapel to name a few bits of it. The tour ends as visitors stand under the hanging rope over the trap door. More than 200 prisoners were hung in this place. 

(There is graffiti on these walls)

It is a wonderful museum of those times past and I would certainly recommend the tour to anyone who visits Tasmania and likes history. Very informative. It is listed on Trip Advisor if anyone wants more information.

(I didn’t stand too close the rope. I get it.)

I’ll stop at this as I’d like the length of this to not be so long. 

I have a couple of other events but I might give them separate space. 

QUESTION:   Do you have a specific historical place near where you live that you would suggest visitors go to? Do you read much history?  I might post up some of the photos of the items in the museum I photographed in a separate post. 

Have a good week everyone and we’ll be back next week.

Our neighbour across the street has a big tarp spread across the garden bed he hopes to begin when spring comes. We’ve had some rainy days recently and the water has pooled on top of the tarp. I am sitting here at my desk, looking out the window and watching the plovers (birds) give themselves a great big bath in the water. Plovers have lived in the lot across the street for decades but they never had a swimming pool. I am being quite entertained watching them. 

I’ve had a bit of a break from this blog but am back now. Sometimes you reach a point you just don’t feel like writing.

I’ve had a couple of disappointing reads lately. Our book club read Betty as I mentioned. I didn’t like it at all but many members in the group did like it. The writing was good but there was too much really serious trauma without anything good to balance it out. The child and animal cruelty was just too much. I am happy to have moved on.

I did finish the book Touching the Sky by Deborah LawrieThis is wonderful story of Australia’s first female commercial airline pilot and what it took to reach her goals. Talk about perseverance and tenacity, this woman has it in buckets. The first part of the book is about her training and qualifying and then trying to get hired in a very misogynistic 1970s. Ansett Airlines was an Australian airlineback then and Reg Ansett did everything in his power to sabotage every effort she made. The second half of the book was about her days of flying around the world and her 19 years of flying for an airline in the Netherlands. Her relationships really struggled as she had to put her whole heart and soul into her dream. I was really impressed about the massive amounts of training pilots go through. Very comforting.

A very inspiring book. I heard her interviewed one night on the ABC radio and I just fell in love with her.

Now I’m reading another book for our book group. It is called Trickery by Rosanna Pike. 1500s, Tudor era and more hardship for women.

Born a vagabond, Tibb Ingleby has never had a roof of her own. Her mother has taught her that if you’re not too bound by the Big Man’s rules, there are many ways a woman can find shelter in this world. But now her ma is gone.

As she journeys through the fields and forests of medieval England, Tibb discovers that there are people who will care for her, as well as those who mean her harm. And there are a great many others who are prepared to believe just about anything…

So, when the opportunity presents itself to escape the shackles society has placed on them, Tibb and her new friends conjure an audacious plan- her greatest trickerie yet. But before they know it, their hoax takes on a life of its own, drawing crowds – and vengeful enemies – to their door.

I’m finding it an okay plot but the repetition if the same dialogue throughout is just too much. It really needs much tighter editing, in my humble opinion. it’s kind of a non event for me.

Today I’m off to the eye surgeon to see what they can do to keep the vision in my right eye from descending into craziness from glaucoma. I’ve been on more eye drops and if this hasn’t lowered the pressure then the next step is laser and the third step is surgery. It worries me as my right eye is my “photo” eye and my left eye is all but useless.  I’m not driving at night as much as I was and this slow decline is really annoying. I can’t deal with the lights of oncoming eyes on two lane roads. Fortunately going into town to my Fullers book shop events the road is one way going and one way coming home. There are also street lamps but outside of the city limits is now a no go area. 

It’s always something.

However I do have some good photos to share with you of some lovely fungi and a small gum leaf hanging by one silver thread from a tree. I took these in the southwest of the state. I hope you enjoy them.

Beautiful Tasmania

I’ll be off now for another week. Hope your weekend has something you are looking forward to.

Follow up- eye appointment shows eye pressure is still too high. So now I have 2 kinds of drops a day for the next 6 weeks and if that doesn’t work we’re looking at laser or surgical treatment.

Until next time….