What's with today, today?

 Well, once again that was a year. But the worse the years get, the more books I read, so here's what I read in 2021. 56 new books all up, almost back to pre-kid reading levels!  Longest book Caliban's War by James A. Corey part of an epic sci-fi series ('The Expanse' series). My friend recommended these and ended up buying me the first one so that I would read it- they are a lot of fun! And occasionally irritating. But mostly very fun. Shortest book And Still I Rise by Maya Angelou. Ironically I think this took me longer to read- I'm pretty sure I started it in 2020. But it's a poetry collection so I dipped in and out. I'm glad to have read it. Iconic. Oldest Book this is also And Still I Rise by Maya Angelou (1978). I read mostly pretty recent books this year. Newest book I think this goes to The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik, September 2021. The cliffhangers in this series are intense, it's a must read as soon as it comes out! Reading themes I we...

Well it's good to be finished with 2020 isn't it? I read a lot more again in 2020 (42 books)- it was a good year to get lost in a good book. On top of these new books, I also reread the Harriet Vane and Peter Wimsey mysteries by Dorothy Sayers, for comfort reading. Shortest book Little Witch Academia (176 pages) vs Longest Book The Mirror and the Light (883 pages). Oldest book if I counted rereads it would be Strong Poison by Dorothy Sayers (1930), other The Riddle-Master of Hed by Patricia McKillip (1976), while the newest book is close to a tie between A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik and Piranesi by Susanna Clark, both published in September 2020. Reading themes  In the middle of the year I read a couple of non-fiction books which I roughly categorised as about 'the North'- Names for the Sea by Sarah Moss (a British writer writing about Iceland) and Findings by Kathleen Jamie (a Scottish writer writing largely about Scotland). Other than that I found myself readi...

Happy new year one and all! Time to look back over the reading year that was 2019. This was the highest number of new books read of any year since I had my first baby, so that seems like a positive thing! 36 books- not huge but I did feel like I had some time to read this year. So what was 2019 like? Let's break it down: Longest book - Lethal White by Robert Galbraith vs shortest book - Why You Should Read Children's Books, Even Though You Are So Old and Wise by Katherine Rundell. Shortest book wins here- it was a charming and pithy essay extolling the virtues of children's literature. Lethal White was the latest installment in a detective series that seems to be losing its way, or rather the author has different opinions on where it should go than I do. Reading themes I feel like a large part of the year was dominated by Dodie Smith. It started when I read 'Guard Your Daughters' by Diana Tutton, a book which I'd seen compared to 'I Capture the Cast...

Here it is- the full list of books finished for the first time in 2018, with favourites starred: Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh *Mirror Sydney: An Atlas of Reflections by Vanessa Berry Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders Cider with Rosie by Laurie Lee Hollow City by Ransom Riggs *Paper Aeroplanes by Dawn O'Porter Rich People Problems by Kevin Kwan Awkward by Svetlana Chmakova Goose by Dawn O'Porter Autumn by Ali Smith Dash and Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan The Furthest Station by Ben Aaronovitch Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York by Luc Sante A Rare Book of Cunning Device by Ben Aaronovitch The Shepherd's Hut by Tim Winton *Nevermoor: The Tales of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend *My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout Snotgirl Vol. 1: Green Hair, Don't Care by Bryan Lee O'Malley *To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis *Doomsday Book by Connie Willis *Eleanor Oliphant is Completely F...

A very late write up of a year that I can see contained a lot of graphic novels/comics, some fantasy and only two non-fiction books ( A Burglar's Guide to the City and The Book that Made Me ). From a year or so on, the ones that I think were my favourites are The Tidal Zone by Sarah Moss and A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles. I loved Sarah Moss' Night Waking a few years ago and The Tidal Zone has many of the elements that I enjoyed- a somewhat wry narrative voice, an interest in the way we relate to the past from the present and the inclusion of history, as well as some interesting family dynamics.  The Tidal Zone  deals with the way people reconstruct life after a catastrophe, in the reconstruction of Coventry Cathedral and the recovery of the protagonist's daughter from a sudden collapse. A Gentleman in Moscow is a fairly gentle and charming book about a member of the Russian aristocracy who gets stuck living in a fancy hotel at the advent of the revolution. ...

It turns out that having a baby had a very large impact on my reading (and I didn't even manage to write up my annual booklist for 2015 until now!). Apparently I read 63 books in 2015, and 21 in 2016. As someone who thinks of herself as a reader, it was a disorienting year, and one in which I went for large periods of time without even a book on the go. I think not commuting was maybe as big a factor as the actual baby. Whatever the case, 2016 was a lean year for books, and one in which murder mysteries and graphic novels are strongly represented. It wasn't even a strong year in terms of the books themselves, but there were good ones as always. Snow by Orhan Pamuk was probably my favourite, it was refreshing to get stuck into it and be reminded of the power of books. It was also transporting and an interesting insight into Turkey and its religious tensions. Although I have to say that maybe three quarters of the way in it started to drag a bit, and lose some direction to my m...

The Bookshop Book- Jen Campbell Lila-  Marilynne Robinson The Wise Man's Fear- Patrick Rothfuss The Sleeper and the Spindle- Neil Gaiman The Strange Library- Haruki Murakami Atlas Shrugged- Ayn Rand The Hare with the Amber Eyes- Edmund de Waal The Age of Magic- Ben Okri Unmade- Sarah Rees Brennan Station Eleven- Emily St John Mandel The Girl who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of her own Making- Catherynne M. Valente Still Alice- Lisa Genova Sassafrass, Cypress and Indigo- Ntozake Shange The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam- Ann Marie Fleming A Month in the Country- J.L. Carr Lagoon- Nnedi Okorafor Connecting with Law- Michelle Sanson On Histories and Stories: Selected Essays- AS Byatt The Girl Who Was Saturday Night- Heather O'Neill The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There- Catherynne M. Valente Lucky Us- Amy Bloom At Home: A Short History of Private Life- Bill Bryson The Ape Who Guards the Balance- Elizabeth Peters Some Kind of Fair...

Just because my blog has been pretty quiet this year doesn't mean you won't get my annual list of books finished for the first time this year! All 78 of them. This year I think I read more non-fiction than usual (and later I might check the stats to see if that's true). There was an interesting selection, with everything from deciphering Linear B, the history of the crossword, pop music in the 20th century, memoirs of people who fled Nazi Germany and books about Sydney (personal and historical). The other theme is really recent books- so many books I read this year seem to have been written in 2013 or 2014. I think I might try to balance that with some older books next year. Other than that, my top picks of the year: Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, which I reviewed in detail earlier, but suffice to say it was one of the first books I read this year and still a favourite. In short: it's a great book about the way the world is today, and race and gender and glo...

No blog post at all for August is a pretty poor effort (and now September as well! eek!) but I have a good excuse, honest! I was away on holidays for a couple of weeks, and between planning and packing and traveling and unpacking I've been kept pretty busy. So what did I do on my holidays you ask? View from the Empire State Building Well, I travelled to North America for the first time, and I got to see New York, Vancouver and Whistler (as well as a friend who I rarely get to see- which was a treat). I stayed in New York with a couple of friends from uni, and met up with my school friend in Canada (where she now lives). On a mountain in Whistler It's a bit hard to sum up travel quickly, as I've discovered anew after getting back and trying to answer the inevitable question: "how was your trip?" It was great, New York was very big, Canada had lots of mountains, you know the deal. And in any case I feel like I've shared so many photos on social medi...

I've been on a bit of a kick lately of reading about pop music and number one singles. I've been finding it fascinating, so I'm sharing some links here here on the off-chance that you do, too. Down the internet rabbit-hole we go... It all started a few years ago when I stumbled across a music column in The Vine by Tim Byron, reviewing the latest Australian number one single. Usually, the column looks at what makes a song so popular- what are it's hooks? Themes? Cultural context? And what makes the song- it's influences and so on. Tim Byron is a music writer but also apparently a psychology lecturer, and he often seems to have interesting things to say about the singles, and treats them with a certain respect. Which is one of the reasons why I was so interested when he mentioned his new podcast... 90 percent hits  is a podcast (and blog- their tumblr is well worth checking out) about all the number one singles in Australia in the 1990s (the period that my gene...

Simon posted a fun meme over at Stuck-in-a-book the other day- he assigns a random letter and you have to pick some of your favourites that start with that letter. And my letter is N! Let's do this. Favourite book... number9dream - David Mitchell Image from Google Books This book made me really fall in love with the writing of David Mitchell- and still my favourite. Although Cloud Atlas is also amazing! And I can't believe it but it took me a while to think of it...   Favourite author... E. Nesbit Image from Wikipedia I grew up with Five Children and It , The Phoenix and the Carpet and so on, but most of all with The Railway Children. My siblings and I read the book, and watched the movie, multiple times. E. Nesbit will always have a special place in my heart! Favourite song...   No Light, No Light - Florence and the Machine Because I love Florence and the Machine! Though I have to say it was a toss up between this and No Aphrodi...

  Just stopped in to return some books to the library the other day, and ended up taking an armful home with me- I couldn't resist posting about them. I've added to the haul with a book from the library where I work (is it excessive being a member of 2 libraries? I don't even care). So here's what I've got lined up: The Cuckoo's Calling - Robert Galbraith Well, if I'm honest I've read this one already. I didn't blog straight away and it was just too good not too finish. Though I had no real desire to read J.K. Rowling's first book after Harry Potter, The Casual Vacancy, I'd heard good things about her pseudonymous foray into fiction. I really loved the set-up to this book- I feel like there aren't enough private detectives in modern mysteries and Cormoran Strike is a good one, complete with personal demons and dingy office. I also loved his secretary, Robin, and I think these characters really made the book. Though for some reas...

So this blog has been a bit neglected lately, much as I try to at least update it monthly, BUT this time I've written something elsewhere on the Internet. It's for Kate's blog Women on the Shelf , which is a blog about books written by women. There are a whole lot of different things by different contributors, and I've written a review of Luminaries by Eleanor Catton . Spoiler: I loved it.