Summary In 1788, a young gentlewoman raised in the vicarage of an English village married a handsome, haughty and penniless army officer. In any Jane Austen novel that would be the end of the story, but for the real-life woman who would play an integral part in establishing Australia’s wool industry, it was just the […]

An extraordinarily powerful and personal meditation on race, culture and national identity. In July 2015, as the debate over Adam Goodes being booed at AFL games raged and got ever more heated and ugly, Stan Grant wrote a short but powerful piece for The Guardian that went viral, not only in Australia but right around […]

The Blogging from A to Z April Challenge is for bloggers who wish to participate by publishing a blog post every day in April except for Sundays. Each blog post will focus on a letter of the alphabet. For example April 1 will be A, April 2 will be B and on it goes. By the end […]

This year, for the second time, I have been participating in the 52 Bookclub Challenge. The Challenge is to read one book each week to a particular prompt. The thing I most enjoy about this challenge, apart from reading the books, is matching books to the prompts. Its a fun thing to do, and I […]

Summary An online bookclub has been meeting for over ten years, but they have never met face to face. Until now… Adele invites members of her book club to the Blue Mountains, where she is house sitting. Each member has been asked to bring a book that will teach the other members more about her. […]

The Blogging April A to Z Challenge has now ended. As 2023 is my eighth year of participating in this challenge, I’ve become quite used to April being a very busy month. For me, the key to completing the challenge successfully is planning and organisation. My theme this year was book reviews, so there were […]

The Blogging from A to Z April Challenge  is for bloggers who wish to participate, by publishing a blog post every day in April, except for Sundays. Each blog post will focus on a letter of the alphabet. For example April 1 will be A, April 2 will be B, and on it goes. By the end […]

“Thirty years ago, Wilde was found as a boy, after having lived alone in the woods, for many years, with no memory of his past. Now an adult, he still doesn’t know where he comes from, and another child has gone missing. No one seems to take Naomi Pine’s disappearance seriously, not even her father-with […]

Summary This story about a family in crisis, is set in Alaska in 1974. A former Vietnam veteran and POW comes home from the war very damaged by his experiences. He is now very volatile, with a bad temper and a very short fuse. He makes a surprise announcement that with no preparation or planning […]

The story of Bleak House follows the legal case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce, where the Jarndyce inheritance is gradually eaten away by legal costs. And then there is Esther Summerson, and the mystery of where she came from. This is one of the first English novels to feature a detective. As usual for a Charles […]

Blogging from A to Z April Challenge  is for bloggers who wish to participate by publishing a blog post every day in April except for Sundays. Each blog post will focus on a letter of the alphabet. For example April 1 will be A, April 2 will be B and on it goes. By the […]

The Blogging from A to Z April Challenge  is for bloggers who wish to participate by publishing a blog post every day in April except for Sundays. Each blog post will focus on a letter of the alphabet. For example April 1 will be A, April 2 will be B and on it goes. By […]

The blogging from A to Z April Challenge is for bloggers who wish to participate by publishing a blog post every day in April except for Sundays. Each blog post will focus on a letter of the alphabet. For example April 1 will be A, April 2 will be B and on it goes. By […]

The blogging from A to Z April Challenge is for bloggers who wish to participate by publishing a blog post every day in April except for Sundays. Each blog post will focus on a letter of the alphabet. For example April 1 will be A, April 2 will be B and on it goes. By […]