Category: Australian
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Book Review: Eggshell Skull, by Bri Lee
I remember seeing this book doing the rounds several years ago when I was living in Melbourne, but the cover design had me convinced it was a romance novel, and I looked no further. But after reading and loving Seed (Bri Lee’s latest novel), I was compelled to go back and take another look. It…
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Book Review: Wild Dark Shore, by Charlotte McConaghy
What a stunning read. I read this book right on the heels of Bri Lee’s Seed, and was struck by the similarities in subject matter (Antarctic or quasi-Antarctic seed vaults on the brink of abandonment; two narrators who believe it is immoral to bring children into the world; two incredibly lonely men who feel that…
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Book Review: Soft Serve, by George Kemp
Love a bit of Aussie climate fiction and this book had everything — down-to-earth setting, complex characters, a broader sense of unease and hopelessness that hangs over many Aussie towns today. I loved the idea of four broken characters, bound by tragedy, stuck in a McDonald’s while the world burns down. While it occasionally went…
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Book Review: Flesh Wounds, by Richard Glover
Another masterpiece by a national treasure. This book is Richard Glover’s memoir about his bizarre childhood and later quest to find out who his parents were and why they did such a spectacularly crappy job at parenting. Glover is, in my opinion, one of the funniest writers of all time, so you will find yourself…
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Book Review: Seed, by Bri Lee
I didn’t want to be another person just turning away from it. Another person keeping a dog but eating a lamb. Another person with a recycling bin and a brand-new car. Another person creating another person to look just like them when so many were already alive and starving. A quick review for a quick…
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Book Review: How They Get You, by Chris Kohler
I found Chris Kohler on one of the identical algorithmic short-form video platforms (Facebook, maybe?) and fell in love with his videos. He was highlighting the very absurdities of corporate power and government inadequacy that I was reading about in many of my books, but with a humour and a subtlety of facial expression that…
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Book Review: Econobabble, by Richard Denniss
A short review — I will read anything Richard Denniss writes, if only because he is one of the few voices in Australia that actually makes any sense. This book is basically just a leftist’s funny and logical attack on contemporary conservative talking points, yet it also brings real insight and clarity to topics that…