Author Archives: LiteraryMinded

Kilts and wine breath: a conversation with my sister about meeting Diana Gabaldon

Some years ago when I was a bookstore girl, I became intrigued by this massive brick of a book called Cross Stitch, which many middle-aged women would get flustered over: ‘You haven’t read it?’ they’d ask.
I read it, and it was great fun – particularly the raunchy historical Scottish sex, and the time-travel element. I gave [...]

Guest review: Pamela Wilson on Frank Walker’s The Tiger Man of Vietnam

The Tiger Man of Vietnam
Frank Walker
Hachette Australia
October 2009
9780733623660
Reviewed by Pamela Wilson
When you’ve got a story full of intrigue, deception, torture and murder, you’ve got the makings of a good thriller. When that story is true, you have the makings of a great one. Because of this, I snapped up the chance to read and review The [...]

Goodbye Billie Jean

With a million things due and a million to organise (not to mention the inbox) I’m running away today to go for a walk in the mountains with some dear friends. I really, really need it. Yesterday I came back from a business trip to Sydney. It was great meeting people from some of the [...]

Review of George Dawes Green’s Ravens for ABC Radio National’s The Book Show

 
I recently reviewed the thriller Ravens, by George Dawes Green, for The Book Show on ABC Radio National. Have a listen, here.

In the end we all fade to black: a ‘responsive’ interview with Kathy Charles, author of Hollywood Ending

Kathy Charles’ debut novel Hollywood Ending was recently released by Text Publishing. In my review for the October issue of Australian Book Review I said: ‘Kathy Charles creates a world both familiar and strange … Despite being highly, if darkly, entertaining, the book hints at deeper issues, such as the extent of superficial distraction in contemporary [...]

Snapshot

Number of items on to-do list: Nine. Not too bad.
The next five books I’m planning to read in no particular order: Jasper Jones (Craig Silvey), Siren (Tara Moss), Parrot & Olivier in America (Peter Carey), The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe (J Randy Taraborrelli), The Year of the Flood (Margaret Atwood).
Time I got to bed [...]

This cumulative kind of effect when you stop: an interview with Emily Maguire on Smoke in the Room, part two

Part One of this interview can be found here.
Pictured: Emily Maguire and I before the Sleepers Salon in October.
I ask Maguire about the setting. Is it pertinent for this story to be set in Sydney? She says it probably could have been a few cities, but ‘western Sydney is – the cliché is ‘melting pot’, [...]

This cumulative kind of effect when you stop: an interview with Emily Maguire on Smoke in the Room, part one

In Smoke in the Room, three characters end up in a share house in Sydney. Katie works on instinct and is weighted by an overwhelming empathy. Adam, an American, is grieving and needs to save money to get home. Graeme, an aid worker, has rid himself of possessions and simplified his existence. In this novel, [...]

Moving house, check out Readings Monthly and diminishing attention spans

Lots of books are getting moved from one place to another this weekend (and categorised and alphabetised) so forgive me for being a bit quiet.
It’s not online yet, but my feature interview with Alex Miller, on his new novel Lovesong, has just come out in the November issue of Readings Monthly. Pick up a copy if [...]

Buying time: Liz Sinclair on asking for money to write her book

I was very curious when I heard about Liz Sinclair’s project ‘Help Me Write My Book’. Like many writers, Liz has to work to support herself, and of course, work takes time away from what she’s really wanting to do – write that book. My first reaction, honestly, was something along the lines of ‘why does she [...]