Read Write Read
I read, I write and then I read some more. Repeat process.
My words have been heard on TV and seen in newspapers and magazines. My first novel will be published April 2014 by Random House Australia.
Lola Bensky
I've always been a fan of Lily Brett. Her writing is sharp, witty, moving and uncompromising. And Lola Bensky is all of this, yet it wasn't one of my favourites. I 'm not even sure why, but it didn't grab me. Most of her novels draw me in, even when I'm despairing at the cruelty of much she writes about. Maybe I just felt too much of this was territory she's already explored and I didn't gain any new insights.
If you haven't read Lily Brett, she is the daughter of Auswitchz survivors and the impact this has on them and her as a child of death camp survivors is ever present in her novels.
I'd encourage anyone to read Lily Brett because she is a formidable writer.
There's only one Gone With the Wind. And that's really the way it should stay. I had a love/hate relationship with this book - it's huge at over 500 pages & it could definitely have done with a solid pruning and it's not a great work of literature, but I still wanted to finish it & find out what happened to the characters, even though if you've read or seen Gone With The Wind it will come as no surprise. And unfortunately, Victoria and Joe just don't have the same charm or illicit the same sympathy as Scarlett and Rhett. But a great idea to set it in this place and time.
Burial Rites
Prose as crisp and stark as a Northern Winter landscape, but an engrossing story of relationships. Remarkable debut novel.
Salvage the Bones: A Novel
The characters in this book lived for me. I was frightened for them, by them and felt incredible pain for them. Extraordinary passages that build and build like the coming hurricane. Stayed up way to late reading it to the end.
Never Let Me Go (Vintage International)
This book haunted me whilst I was reading it. It drew me in & I wanted to finish it, but I didn't want it to end.
Rosie Project
I really, really really enjoyed this book. Amazed that such a potentially unsympathetic lead character makes such a wonderful romantic lead! Witty, clever - I smiled the whole way through>
The Sound of One Hand Clapping
Beautifully written, but incredibly sad & occasionally oppressive in it's bleakness.
Vanished Years
Sadder than his first memoir, but still wonderfully written. A book of love and loss.
Pasteur's Gambit
I enjoyed this fascinating history of rabbits, Louis Pasteur, his nephew,Henry Parkes & Sarah Bernhardt. I've realised that corruption, subterfuge & self- interest has a long history in NSW!
Nine Days
I haven't read a book this quickly for ages. I was completely caught up in the family's story - told with Toni Jordan's warmth, humour and wonderful storytelling. I did a workshop with her at the Writers' Festival & learnt so much from her. A very generous teacher/writer.
The Widow And Her Hero
This should have been so much better. A really interesting subject, but an incredibly dull read until about the last 20 pages.
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