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6
Jan

#NonFiction Ray Bradbury

 

 

Finished: 06.01.2020
Genre: non-fiction
Rating: C
#ReadNonFictionYear


Conclusion:
Nolan warns the reader that many articles
on a single writer will contain a certain amount of
repetition. I enjoyed reading this book but gave it a
solid 3 score because I found the repetition irritating.

Nolan includes 8 stories by Bradbury in this book.
After taking the time to give us Nolan’s personal top 10
stories (see list) he does not include any of them in this book!

All in all….my interest is sparked.…I will read Bradbury
especially “The Martian Chronicles”
It is a series of stories about the people on Mars,
the coming of the earthmen and the loneliness and terror of space.

So I can say to Nolan “Mission Accomplished”.

Notes:

The best way to read a book that has been on your TBR for so long?
Read a reference book about the author first!

What is Bradbury’s mission?
Bradbury wants to show man his basic goodness, to dramatize his struggle up and away from this planet.

What does Bradbury write?
parables of the future
…imaginative literature of the very high order!

Why is science fiction so popular?
SF affords the writer the widest possible range
to write social commentary!! (GOOD THOUGHT)

What did I discover that I did not expect?
Bradbury wrote Children’s books: (classic)
(40 pg) Switch on the Dark (Just look at this wonderful cover!)
Bradbury wanted to teach his child
not to be afraid of the dark. I’m buying this one!

 

Trivia:
Bradbury ( great writer of SF…)
refused to drive a car or board a jet plane!

Trivia: Bradbury Top 10 stories:

Mars In Heaven
Dark Carnival
One Timeless Spring
Heavy-set
Homecoming
The Lake
I See You Never
The Veldt
The Pedestrian
There Will Come Soft Rains

24
Dec

Merry Christmas 2019

 

  1. The shopping is done….
  2. The cooking is done….
  3. Now all I have to do is
  4. …wait for Santa Claus]
  5. …and give him some Xmas cookies!
  6. Happy Christmas to all!
1
Dec

#AUSReadingMonth 2019 Wrap UP

 

#AUSReadingMonth 2019  kick-off  Q&A

 

  1. My heart broke when I heard that Louis
  2. …the koala who was saved
  3. by a very brave woman….had died.
  4. This #AUSReadingMonth 2019 will be overshadowed by
  5. some of the worst bushfires in Australian history.
  6. Help the climate…..#ShutDownAdani  coal mine!
  7. Many thanks to Brona for hosting…
  8. Link #AUSReadigMonth wrap-up @Bronasbooks
  9. I enjoyed all my books.
  10. Happy that I completed the BINGO CARD!

 

Books:

  1.  A Kindness Cup –Thea Astley
  2. The River in the Sky – Clive James (epic poem) RIP 1939-2019
  3. The Endsister – Penni Russon
  4. Sea People – C. Thompson – NSW 2019 History Award
  5. Boys Will Be Boys – Clementine Ford
  6. Dr Space Junk vs Universe: Archaeology the Future – A. Gorman
  7. The Phoenix Years – Madeleine O’Dea
  8. An Unconventional Wife – Mary Hoban
  9. Adani: Following Its Dirty Footsteps – L. Simpson
  10. It’s Raining in Mango – Thea Astley
  11. Troll Hunting – Ginger Gorman
  12. The Thinking Woman – Julienne van Loon
  13. Broken – M. A. Butler Victorian Literary Award  2016 (drama and literature)
  14. TILT – Kate Lilley  Victorian Literary Award Poetry 2019
  15. Tide of Stone – K. Warren 2018 Aurealis Award  Best Horror Novel

 

  1. NT – Broken – Mary Anne Butler (play)
  2. TAS – The Endsister – Penni Russon
  3. SA – Boys Will Be Boys – Clementine Ford
  4. VIC – Tide of Stone – Kaaron Warren
  5. FREE – The River in the Sky – Clive James
  6. WA – The Thinking Woman – Julienne van Loon
  7. QLD – The Kindness Cup – Thea Astley
  8. NSW – The Phoenix Years – Madeleine O’ Dea
  9. ACT – Troll Hunting – Ginger Gorman

 

 

 

 

30
Oct

#NonficNov: Week 1 Year in Non-Fiction

  • Week 1: (Oct 28 to Nov 01)
  • Hashtag: #NonficNov
  • Hosted by:  Julz of Julz Reads

 

  • Stats:  books read between  –>  01 November 2018 – 31 October 2019
  • Read 61 non-fiction books –> 29% of total books read
  • Most read:  (see list)
  • Favoriet non-fiction: –>   Everywhere I Look – H. Garner

Conclusion:

  1. This was a book I did not want to end.
  2. Garner’s insights for instance  about Russel Crowe’s filmography
  3. or an Australian Ballet company were mesmerizing.
  4. But my favorite essay was ‘The Insults of Age”.
  5. This will be recognizable for every 60+’er!
  6. Helen Garner’s writing is clean and crisp
  7. ..nothing is slick or shallow.
  8. It is “reading caviar” !

 

Reviews:

Memoirs/personal essays

  1. A Woman’s Experiences in the Great War – L. Mack
  2. Thick – Tessie Cottom
  3. Small Acts of Disappearance: Essays on Hunger  – F. Wright
  4. Can You Tolerate This? – A. Young –>   #HiddenGem  most recommended
  5. A Time of Gifts – Patrick Leigh Fermor
  6. The First Casualty – Peter Greste
  7. We Can Make a Life – C. Henry
  8. Le Lambeau – P. Lançon
  9. Aunts Up the Cross – R. Dalton
  10. Memoir: J McGahern
  11. Everywhere I Look – H. Garner
  12. Axiomatic – M. Tumarkin

 

Biography:

  1. In Extremis: War Correspondent Marie Colvin – L. Hilsum
  2. Sisters In Law (S. Day ‘O Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsberg) – L. Hirshman
  3. Pulitzer – J. McGrath Morris
  4. The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke – J.C. Stewart
  5. No Friend but the Mountains – B. Boochani
  6. Teacher – G. Stroud
  7. Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom – D. Blight
  8. Fouché – E. de Waresquiel
  9. Je suis fou de toi – D. Bona (Jeanne Voilier and lover poet Paul Valéry)
  10. Beyond Words: A Year with Kenneth Cook – J. Kent
  11. James Tiptree, jr. The Double Life Alice Sheldon – J. Phillips

 

Theatre

  1. Twenty-First Century American Playwrights – C. Bigsby
  2. 100 Essays I Don’t Have Time to Write – S. Ruhl
  3. August Wilson’s Pittsburgh Cycle: 13 critical essays – editor S. Shannon

 

Health

  1. All-Day Fat Burning Diet – Y. Elkaim (…I lost weight!)

 

History

  1. Deep Time Dreaming – B. Griffiths
  2. Age of Eisenhower – W. Hitchcock
  3. The Mueller Report – R. Mueller
  4. The Art of Time Travel – T. Griffiths
  5. Stamped From the Beginning – I.X. Kendi
  6. The History of the Church – Eusebius
  7. The Twelve Caesars – Suetonius
  8. The Billion Dollar Spy – D. Hoffman
  9. America’s War for the Greater Middle East – A. Bacevich
  10. These Truths – Jill Lepore
  11. Ghosts of the Tsunami – R. L. Parry

 

Social History

  1. Evicted: Poverty and Profit – M. Desmond
  2. The Rich Brew: How Cafés Created Modern Jewish Culture – S. Pinsker
  3. The Coddling of the American Mind – G. Lukianoff, J. Haidt –>   #MustRead  #Eye-opener!!

 

Literature

  1. Writers on Writers: Patrick White – Christos Tsiolkas
  2. Poemcrazy – S. Wooldridge
  3. On Poetry – Glyn Maxwell
  4. The British Short Story – A. Maunder
  5. The Cambridge Introduction to The American Short Story – M. Scofield
  6. Moby-Dick as Philosophy – M. Anderson
  7. Alice in Space: The Sideways Victorian World of Lewis Carroll – G. Beer
  8. Literary Brian Friel Companion – M. Snodgrass
  9. Essay: From Monaghan to the Grand Canal ( Dublin) – S. Heaney 
  10. The Afterlife of Edgar Allan Poe – S. Peeples
  11. George Eliot: Selected Essays, Poems and Other Writing
  12. The Complete Essays  – M. de  Montaigne

 

Indigenous (Aboriginal, Indonesian)

  1. The Tall Man – Chloe Hooper
  2. Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia – editor Anita Heiss
  3. Indonesia etc: Exploring the Improbable Nation – E. Pisani
  4. Not Just Black and White – Lesley and Tammy Williams

 

True Crime

  1. The Arsonist – C. Hooper
  2. Trace: who killed Maria James?
  3. The Tall Man: Death and Life on Palm Island – C. Hooper

Science

  1. The Best Australian Science Writing 2018 – editor J. Pickre

 

 

22
Oct

Amen !!

 

Can I get an amen!!
First shower after hip operation….speechless!

13
Oct

Short blogging break…

 

  1. Taking a short break from blogging while I recuperate
  2. from a hip operation.
  3. There are so many reviews you can find on the blog
  4. …see Monthly Planning and Archive.
  5. I’ll be back in 2 weeks….
  6. …ready to start #AUSReadingMonth2019 @ Bronasbooks!

 

HQ…for the next two weeks!

 

19
Sep

#Poetry Wislawa Szymborska

  • Author: Wislawa Szymborska (1923 – 2012)
  • Title: Sounds, Feelings, Thoughts: Seventy Poems by Wislawa Szymborska
  • Genre: poems
  • Published: 1981
  • Table of contents: 261 pages
  • Trivia: Wislawa Szymborskawas awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature 1996.
  • Trivia: I could stare at Szymborka’s photo for hours!
  • She looks like the cat that swallowed the canary.
  • A person who appears self-satisfied especially
  • …while concealing something  mischievous.

 

Thoughts:

  1. I saw an interview with Szymborska and
  2. …this is the still photo taken of it.
  3. She captured my heart with her ‘je m’en fiche’
  4. …( dont’ give a damn) attitude.
  5. With a cigarette in hand and swirling a glass of wine
  6. she commented on her life and poetry.
  7. When asked why she never published more than 350 poems?
  8. She answered:
  9. “I have a trash can in my home”.
  10. Her sense of humor and lack of pretentiousness,
  11. …that is what attracted me to her work.

 

Two Monkeys Brueghel

Subject: enslavement

  1. I am not very good at interpeting poetry yet
  2. …and needed to research this poem.
  3. Szymbroska links the ‘control’ of the two monkeys
  4. to her situation and that of Brueghel.
  5. Brueghel painted this in 1562 while Spain
  6. dominated the two provinces The Spanish Netherlands.
  7. North: William of Orange became
  8. …stadtholder of Holland, Utrecht and Zeeland.
  9. South: Count of Egmont took charge of Flanders and Artois.

Symbols:

  1. Monkeys in chains is a symbol of repression and the
  2. ….background of Antwerp’s harbor is a symbol of freedom.

 

Timeline:

  1. Szymborska wrote this poem in 1957 as a condemnation
  2. ….of the repressive atmosphere of the Stalinist period.

 

Tone: is somber almost hopeless.

Metaphor:

  1. “..beyond the window floats the sky and the sea splashes“
  2. …is a metaphor for freedom.

Imagery:

  1. Image of chained ‘animals’ looking out to the sea (freedom)
  2. …and not being able to free themselves.

Speaker:

  1. The speaker in the poem is taking a final exam in
  2. …“the History of Mankind” while the two monkeys look on.
  3. “One monkey stares and listens with mocking disdain,
  4. The other seems to be dreaming away–
  5. But when it is clear I don’t know what to say
  6. He prompts me with a gentle
  7. Clinking of his chain.”

Plot:

  1. Words like “jingling chains,” the speaker who
  2. ‘ stutters and flounders’ or the description of
  3. the monkey’s ‘ ironic smile or dozing off
  4. ‘creates sense that any resistance was useless.

 

Reaction:

  1. Szymborska made me feel emotional because
  2. these animals represent the people who have become
  3. unemotional and with no voice under political repression.
  4. I asked myself: ” What would it feel like… being bound in chains?

 

Poem:

Two Monkeys by Brueghel   (trans. from the Polish by Magnus Kryski)

 

  • I keep dreaming of my graduation exam:
  • in a window sit two chained monkeys,
  • beyond the window
  • floats the sky,
  • and the sea splashes.

 

  • I am taking an exam on the history of mankind:
  • I stammer and flounder.

 

  • One monkey, eyes fixed upon me, listens ironically,
  • the other seems to be dozing–
  • and when silence follows a question,
  • he prompts me
  • with a soft jingling of the chain.

 

Conclusion:

  1. It is said Szymborska is the ‘Mozart of poetry” .
  2. Her words are at times humorous yet powerful.
  3. By the 1950’s the political climate in Poland had changed considerably.
  4. Poetry was to become an extension of state propaganda and
  5. …a reinforcement of the official ideology.
  6. Nobel winner Szymborska (literature) did not include her
  7. …Stalinist poetry in her collected editions, she was too embarrassed.
  8. This was an excellent book and I would recommend it wholeheartedly.
  9. Coup de coeur!
  10. #MustRead

 

 

14
Sep

#AWW2019 Helen Garner

  • Author:  Helen Garner
  • Title: Everywhere I Look
  • Published: 2016
  • Genre: essays
  • Rating: A+++++
  • Trivia: 2017 Indie Book Awards WINNER non-fiction
  • Trivia: 2018 longlist Kibble Literary Award for an established author
  • Trivia: 2017 shortlist NSW Premier’s Literary Award
  • List of Challenges 2019
  • Monthly plan
  • #AWW2019
  • @AusWomenWriter

 

Introduction:

  1. I immediately felt an connection with Helen Garner when
  2. reading this book.
  3. The years are creeping up on both of us and she describes
  4. moments I have gone through.

 

My Notes:

Moving…

  1. 6 shoeboxes of old photographs
  2. that failed to make the cut for the album.
  3. and having to endure how young we looked
  4. I threw out all the photo’s and negatives
  5. ….just like Helen did!

 

Cleaning out closets…

  1. Storage room, drawers….just like Helen said
  2. “once you start you have to keep going til it’s done”.
  3. In July it took me 9 days to clean out my house from top to bottom.
  4. I hesitated when I had to throw
  5. out my favorite sweatshirt.
  6. It was 10 yrs old, fraying at the cuffs.
  7. It had to go but I still think about it!

 

House…

  1. A house can be domineering,
  2. ….you have to get into the driver’s seat.
  3. Bed…is mother
  4. ...and bed is the center of our personal universe.
  5. It is the safe point from which we let
  6. …ourselves down in to the shadows of sleep.
  7. In August I finally decided to get a new bed…after 40 years!
  8. It is deluxe and I feel the arms of mother embracing me every time
  9. I go to sleep.

 

Dear Mrs. Dunkley…

  1. We all have a teacher that was unforgettable
  2. Who was yours?

 

Part Three: Dreams of Her Real Self

  1. So impressive thoughts about Helen Garner’s
  2. grandchildren, daughter, mother, father….

 

Authors I met in the book:

Elizabeth Jolley -Novels

  1. Palomino (1980)
  2. The Newspaper of Claremont Street (1981)
  3. Miss Peabody’s Inheritance (1983)
  4. Mr Scobie’s Riddle (1983)
  5. Milk and Honey (1984)
  6. Foxybaby (1985)
  7. The Well (1986)
  8. The Sugar Mother (1988)
  9. My Father’s Moon (1989)
  10. Cabin Fever (1990)
  11. The Georges’ Wife (1993)
  12. The Orchard Thieves (1995) 
  13. Famous last line in this book:
  14. ‘The difference between a good haircut and a bad haircut is a week.’
  15. Lovesong (1997)
  16. An Accommodating Spouse (1999)
  17. An Innocent Gentleman (2001)

 

Janet Malcom (1934) 

  1. American writer,  journalist, staff writer The New Yorker
  2. Is the writer who influenced and taught
  3. Helen Garner more than any other!
  4. According to Garner, Janet Maclom draws on
  5. deep learning yet plain in its address.
  6. That is a perfect description of Garner’s writing as well!

 

Other writers:

  1. Jacob Rosenburg “Sunset West”
  2. Alex Miller – “Coal Creek”
  3. Raimond Gaita
  4. “Romulus, My Father” (Australian philosopher)
    It tells the story of Romulus, his beautiful wife, Christina, and their struggle in the face of great adversity to bring up their son, Raimond. It is a story of impossible love that ultimately celebrates the unbreakable bond between father and son.
    Best Film Australian Film Industry 2007
    ORDERED THE MOVIE !!

 

Conclusion:

  1. This was a book I did not want to end.
  2. Garner’s insights about Russel Crowe’s filmography
  3. and an Australian Ballet company were mesmerizing.
  4. But my favorite essay was ‘The Insults of Age”.
  5. This will be recognizable for every 60+’er!
  6. Helen Garner’s writing is clean and crisp
  7. ..nothing is slick or shallow.
  8. It is “reading caviar” !

 

27
Aug

Sam Shepard….his last book

 

Introduction:

  1. Final work from Pulitzer Prize winning writer S. Shepard.
  2. An unnamed narrator traces his memories of work
  3. adventure, travel, family and friends.
  4. This last work is a brilliant self-observation
  5. as Shepard struggles with his fatal disease.
  6. Sam Shepard started writing this in 2016 after diagnosis ALS.
  7. He wrote…
  8. …later when he was no longer able to hold a pen
  9. …he recorded and dictated the final editing just days before he died.
  10. Sam Shepard died on 27 July 2017.

 

What is it like to know the end is near
…and you write your last piece of prose?

  1. Shepard lets his mind roam where his body no longer can go.
  2. He frequently addresses his children to tell them some family history
  3. …and how he feels as a father.

 

What was the most moving  part of the book for me?   chapter 14

  1. “I’m not trying to prove that
  2. I was the father you believed me to be when you were very young.
  3. I’ve made some mistakes but
  4. I have no idea what they were.
  5. And I’ve never desired to start over again.
  6. I have no desire to eliminate parts of myself.
  7. I have no desire.”

 

Dedication:

  1. Shepard’s children decided to dedicate this book
  2. “In Memory of Sam”

 

Structure:

  1. To understand the book I first studied the structure.
  2. The chapters alternate between 2 people.
  3. 26 chapters POV unnamed narrator (…very sick man, Shepard)
  4. 11 chapters POV unnamed neighbor from across the street
  5. …who ‘spys’ on the sick man.  (…probably Shepard outside himself)
  6. Shephard is stepping away from himself for the last time
  7. ….and taking the long view.

 

Conclusion:

  1. This book may not be for everybody but
  2. I am a Sam Shepard fan
  3. …and my heartbreaks  reading his last words.
  4. It is a moving work of autobiographical fiction. (96 pages)
  5. It packs a punch.
  6. There are things Shepard wants to say
  7. …. and he knows it’s now or never.

 

17
Aug

#AWW 2019 Ashley Kalagian Blunt

 

 

Conclusion:

  1. Ashely Blunt is a young Australian author
  2. …but she writes like a seasoned pro!
  3. I was very impressed by her writing skills.
  4. Her writing is designed to draw the reader
  5. effortlessly from page to page
  6. windowpane prose, clear and quick.
  7. #Bravo

 

 

My notes:

POV: story from the POV of the less violent brother Verzh
to contrast him with is Armen (violent)

Strong point: The powerful theme of revenge shows
the destructive nature it has over people.
When a person becomes consumed with the desire for vengeance,
it ultimately destroys them.

Strong point:  fast paced, text is sharp and short…
I can rarely find an adverbs that would slow text down.
Actions are indicated by a carefully selected verb…that say it all.

Strong point: concentrates on the five senses
activities and smells of in the kitchen in the first few pages brings the story immediately to life
kitchen smelt gound lamb an onion
platters piled with roast eggplant, capsicum and lamb skewers
vine leaves stuffed with rice and lamb
dolma slick with olive oil
…You can see it..you can smell it in your imagination!

Strong point:   imply violence… in narrative instead of burdening
reader with blood and gore on the page.
Details are left to the reader’s imagination.

Strong point: let body revel the emotions” as the character works through problem he’s facing.

Body:

  • shoulders hunched,
  • thumbs squeezed inside fists,
  • thick shoulders, full head of coal black waves,
  • fingers tight around the gun handle,
  • wore aviators his eyes mirrored
  • voice low, steel running through it,
  • calves already cramping,
  • hamstring seized,
  • shoulders military square,
  • eyes bore through him like a x-ray,
  • pushed glasses up with index finger
  • smacked his fists to his thighs,
  • fists came up in frustration
  • arms tight against chest, shoulders hunched,
  • hands shoved under thighs,
  • raised one meaty hand,
  • knees shaking,
  • held had over her heart,
  • dropped his head into his hands,
  • felt ribs tighten
  • thrust chin out, clenched an unclenched his hands,
  • unsteady hand,
  • knees threatened to buckle
  • flinging his arms,
  • skeletal edges of his cheeks,
  • eyes stared at the ceiling,
  • withered muscles,

 

 

Strong point: pull the camera in close

Close-up:

  • sweat streaked his forehead
  • scar across left cheek
  • sweat patch on back of his shirt
  • sucked in a shaky breath
  • biting his lip
  • pain spread into his temple..his teeth
  • blood trickled…from his nose,
  • ground his jaw
  • two gold teeth glinted between Softie’s lips
  • raised an eyebrow
  • ran his tongue over his top front teeth
  • upper lip bulging
  • fingernails dug into his palms
  • narrowed eyes fixed on his brother
  • felt his cheek twitch
  • sharp nod
  • glasses slid along the sweat of his nose
  • eyeballs locking on him, cheeks burned,
  • forehead vein pulsing
  • dug toes into thick pile of the rug
  • mustache curled at one side, lifted by a half-smile
  • squeezed the heals of his hands against his temples
  • neck muscles taut like rope
  • running knife under his fingernails

 

Structure:

Present – assassination news spreads…Vrezh must know if brother is involved
Flashback – 10 years ago school after coming to Australia
Present – 1 month after assassination Vrezh secretly following brother
Present- interview Softie and Verzh (Sofite = describes father and brotherhood he belonged to)
Present – Verzh and brother drive back to Sydney
Flashback – 10 years agoVerzh called to school rector’s office
Present – 2 months after assassination – description Softie’s shearing shed and meetings for nest plans
Flashback – 10 years ago… school Anzac Day April 25 speech
Present – Verzh things about Softie’s order….learn about bombs
Present – verzh debating with himself if he can set off the bomb…Verzh has a plan
Present – Verzh has recording device
Present – Verzh visits Softie alone…and the shearing shed goes up in flames
Present – Verzh in hospital…six days later he is released
Present – Years later…..end

 

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