The Betrayals and The Glass Bead Game

Never judge a book by its cover, so they say. But we do. For The Betrayals by Bridget Collins, it was the cover that captured my attention. It's hard to go past gold embossing on a dark cover. Especially an embossed gold antique clock surrounded by golden swirls and dark red flowers. It was just …

Gaia 2022: The Yield by Tara June Winch

Yield itself is a funny word - yield in English is the reaping, the things that man can take from the land, the thing he’s waited for and gets to claim. A wheat yield. In my language it’s the things you give to, the movement, the space between things. (The Yield - Tara June Winch) Profoundly …

Phosphorescence by Julia Baird

"How do we continue to glow when the lights turn out? All we can do really is keep placing one foot on the earth, then the other, to seek out ancient paths and forests, certain in the knowledge that others have endured before us. We must love. And we must look outwards and upwards at …

Dylan Alcott – Australian of the Year and Totally Able

Don’t worry if you have a disability. I don’t care that I’m in a wheelchair - in fact, I love it. Go to work with what you’ve got. I live the best life ever. Please get out there and enjoy life. Even though it’s a bit different, being different is definitely good. This week Dylan …

International Day of Education

“Education is a human right, a public good and a public responsibility” UNESCO Today the world is celebrating the fourth International Day of Education. Education has been a hot topic in Australian politics over the last few weeks as state governments debate delaying the start of the school year due to Covid concerns, but we …

Hemingway in Love: His Own Story

Scott said, step easy, I was walking on eggshells. He quoted an old piece of wisdom: ‘A man, torn between two women, will eventually lose ‘em both.’ I said yes I was torn but that I needed both of them and I intended to keep them, somehow. Scott said I was a sad son of …

Gaia Reading Challenge – Diary of a Young Naturalist

“I have the heart of a naturalist, the head of a would-be scientist, and bones of someone who is already wearied by the apathy and destruction wielded against the natural world.” Dara McAnulty,2020 From Goodreads... Diary of a Young Naturalist chronicles the turning of 15-year-old Dara McAnulty’s world. From spring and through a year in …

Up the Country – Miles Franklin

The winner of the Miles Franklin Literary Award for 2021 was announced just a few days ago with the prize going to Amanda Lohrey for her novel The Labyrinth. I haven’t actually read any of the books on the shortlist, which is quite normal for me, as I generally tend to catch up with recommended …

Australian Women’s History – Notorious Australian Women

A few months ago I started a short series on Australian Women’s History. After completing the first three parts, Come In Spinner, Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence, and the Memoirs of Tilly Aston, life kind of hit, and part four has been languishing on my to-do list ever since. My original idea was to explore women …

No Friend but the Mountains – Behrouz Boochani

In 2013, Kurdish journalist Behrouz Boochani was illegally detained on Manus Island…This book is the result. Laboriously tapped out on a mobile phone and translated from the Farsi. It is a voice of witness, an act of survival. A lyric first-hand account. A cry of resistance. A vivid portrait through five years of incarceration and …