IN BRIEF:
A tenderly humorous account of two square pegs, trying to worm their way into the round hole we call ‘life’. British eccentricity at its best.
IN BRIEF:
Harrowing but hilarious autobiography, with a healthy dose of self-help for the selfie generation
This is a little story of mine that was awarded third place in the Trudy Graham-Julie Lewis Literary Award for Prose, run by the Peter Cowan Writers Centre in WA.
It was inspired by a dramatic event I witnessed in Sydney’s Centennial Park. But the characters are entirely fictional.
They say books find you when you need them. When ‘Confessions of a Once Fashionable Mum’ found me, I was in desperate need of a laugh – and that’s what this book delivered. Author, Georgia Madden, takes us deep into the cringe-worthy and difficult moments of new motherhood, via the ‘once fashionable’, Ally Bloom. Ally’s first year of motherhood is…
So – why have I called this one ‘the seesaw edition’? Well, basically because I’m going to start on a bit of grim (reading) note, but end firmly on a high (writing) note.
Here goes..
Claire Varley is that rare bird whose manuscript made it off the slush pile and into publication. And what a manuscript it is! ‘The Bit in Between‘ is laugh-out-loud funny (seriously, there were chuckles of audible volume) but also slightly whimsical and romantic as we watch our two gen y-ers, Alison and Oliver, fall in love. (Read more of my…
In Brief:
There are laughs, there is whimsy, there is romance, there is death and a hilarious American called ‘Rick’. Pigeonhole this book at your own risk.
Short Reads: Oh my goodness! This week, I found this quite extraordinary article from Jo Case, pondering whether her memoir ‘Boomer and Me‘ killed her marriage. Recently, I wrote a small memoir piece about a 40th birthday weekend away, which I showed to my husband to read. Let’s just say that he was left wondering if he had attended the…
When I first heard about Sunni Overend, I knew I had to know more, for two reasons 1) Her book ‘March’ sounded like so much fun 2) Since self-publishing, Sunni has gone on to secure a two-book publishing deal with Harper Collins. ‘March’ is the story of Apple March, an aspiring fashion designer whose career ambitions have come unstuck due…
I do not believe in ghosts or fairies or aliens. But I do believe there’s a type of magic around reading and writing. Perhaps ‘fate’ is a better word for it. How else to describe the way books find you when you need them most? Or how you can write a story where later you discover connections, or establish truths,…