Category: Fiction

For the most part. I am looking forward to meeting a lot of interesting writers in the coming months. The authors here will be of interest to Australian readers but I’d like to encourage readers in other states to attend author events.

There are always a lot of speakers one can go to but I find writers are the most interesting. The authors speak for 30 to 40 minutes with 15 or 20 minutes for questions. Fullers time keeping is impeccable and I appreciate that.

One day I might hear about Antarctica. Another day I might hear how another writer came up with the fantasy idea that is in his or her novel. Sometimes it’s political or environmental. Often times I have enjoyed an artistic conversation or seen some wonderful photography.

Writers encompass all subjects and thoughts and I often walk away from these events having learned something new to this old brain. Writers make me think. Sometimes I disagree with their points of view but I hear about the issue in a different way. Many times I am entertained such as hearing the music of the late Archie Roach.

There are author events in many cities around the world and if you are fortunate enough to live near these events I’d encourage you to attend, even if you aren’t familiar with the person. It is an inexpensive way to support your local book shop and have a different kind of an evening.

Australians will appreciate the agenda in Hobart this next month.

I am back and hope to be back again sooner this time. I had a great many things to catch up on in life and I gave films and books a complete miss for almost a month. I just put my head down and moved forward with a myriad of chores, new structures, health jobs and all that’s worth doing around here.

Now I look ahead to the rest of spring and summer with more spare time and a new reading area in our back “lockup”. Our lockup is a lanai type area behind our house and we enclosed it with lattice panels and laser light ceiling. It has a large passion fruit vine just cut back a bit as it was taking over. It is a lovely area for our cats to be outdoors as we don’t believe in letting cats roam outdoors, especially in Australia where so many native animals are small and cars are often driven by hoons.

So this post is pretty book free….but not entirely. I bought a small electric folding bike and I need to learn to ride it. Approaching age 73 next month, my balance is not great and although I work on it in the gym and at home, I think riding a bike will help. Waiting for a mirror to arrive as I hate being on roads around here without a mirror. I never understood why bicyclists don’t use mirrors like motorbikers.

I have done a bit of photography and magazine reading but no books. I have attended several book launches.

Today I received a lovely, short book by Sarah Bernhardt called In The Clouds from my Renard press subscription. I think I will ease back into reading with this 95 page novella published in 1878 to the utter dismay of Gustave Flaubert, when it replaced his.

I hope everyone has stayed well and has been enjoying hearing about the Booker Price announced today. The Sri Lankan book looks very interesting as were the other books it was up against. They were certainly different from each other. I would hate to be a judge.

Well that is me for the moment so I am happy to be online again.

This past week was really busy with all kinds of “catch up” appointments such as eyes, teeth, gym, events. I did manage to get a bit of reading tidied up.

What I finished reading this week:

I finished Sei Shōnagon’s The Pillow Book . It was written 1000 yrs ago from the perspective of a lady at the imperial court of Japan. It is described as a “crazy quilt of vignettes, opinions and anecdotes” of the times.

Our book group will discuss it on Wed night. It was a real eye opener to see many of the issues in that book were the same as the ones we deal with now.

There is also a lot of humour in the book. I laughed out loud at this quote:

Old fashioned people put on their gathered toursers in a very time consuming and awkward way. They pull the front panel up against the stomach and proceed first of all to tuck all the layers of robe in under it, leaving the back strings dangling till they’ve got the front completely straight and tidy, then they bend forward to reach for the back panel, gropping behind them with both hands. They look like monkeys with their arms tied behind their backs, standing there fumbling about with the strings like that. You can’t imagine how they could ever get dressed and out the door in time for any urgent appointment.

And

Infuriating things: A guest who arrives when you have something urgent to do, and stays talking for ages.

Or a very ordinary person, who beams inanely as she prattles on and on.

Or a dog that discovers a clandestine lover as he comes creeping in and barks or a baby who cries when you’re trying to hear something.

The entire books is made up of many observations of life.

Audible book finished this week.

How to End a Story: Diaries 1995 to 1998 by Helen Garner.

I enjoyed her narration of the book but she is in so much pain as she ends her third marriage and she doesn’t leave much out of this book of how she feels.  It continues how people can write about the extreme angst they might have in their life for the world to see.  It seems she’d want to keep it private but then who am I to know how others handle their grief. We’re all different. 

Bookish Event of the Week: 

My friend and I attended a book launch at Fullers this week. The book is:

Nine Lives For Our Planet:  Personal stories of nine inspiring women who cherish Earth by John Watts. It is described as “Here are nine personal stories of brave hearted women defying the greed and corruption smashing Australia’s environment, including its farmlands. 

John Watts introduced s to women who light up the darkness of the climate and extinction emergencies with their flair and stoic commonsense. Each has acted to take on the gas frackers, coal miners, native forest loggers, wildlife killers, water profiteers and their political agents.

(quote by Bob Brown, acclaimed author, photographer and life long activist).

The author was interviewed by Bob Brown and the discussion was very interesting. The women are not well known celebrities of any kind but those who work to make positive changes in their own quieter ways.

One of the women was Simone Marsh and she was also part of the three person panel.

There was a lot of head shaking and discomfort hearing what the big corporations and politicians have done to no advantage of the environment or people living on the land.

Penguin’s Choice:  Last week I announced the random draw of the week was the short story, Christmas in Stalingrad by Anthony Beevor. I began it but I just couldn’t face another story about war.  I have read and heard much about the atrocities of war in the past two years and I am over it.

I decided to pass it back to the box, maybe for another time and I spun the wheel again and a Roald Dahl book was chosen. It is A Taste of the Unexpected. I have no idea what it is about but it should be a bit cheerier than the war books.

Life as it happens

The coming week is not going to be as hectic as this past week was. A couple of weight classes at the gym, maybe a long walk, if the weather changes from cold rain to something more pleasant. I have the shared reading book Monday of the Kafka stories and Wednesday will be the book group discussing the Pillow Book.  I think there will be a big variety of opinions about this book. Thursday night there is a book launch that I’ll be attending. That should be enough to keep me socialising and exercising this week.

From the Photo Archive:

Here are two more photos of beach scenes from the south coast of NSW.  It was a lovely day to be out with a camera. Such a shame it seems like it was such a long time ago.

Stay well, until next time….keep moving, catch up with people and stretch your brains.