Category Archives: just links

Discussing dark crime

Posted on by

This week Jennifer Byrne, host of Australia’s monthly TV book club, hosted a half-hour discussion about the state of modern crime fiction. Joining her were Jo Nesbo, Malla Nunn, Leigh Redhead and Michael Robotham and they touched on a wide range of topics including what makes a good detective character, the ‘Scandi’ trend, the crossover between TV and novel writing and how much darkness is too dark.

I didn’t agree with everything said but the discussion is a good one as it prompted some possible future blog posts to start bubbling away in my brain and I would recommend it to fans of the genre.

For Aussies the show is available for 2 weeks via iVIew but I believe people the world over can watch from the First Tuesday Book Club’s website (the official name of the show is Jennifer Byrne Presents Dark Places). As far as I can tell the episode should be available from there forever (or until the ABC pulls the website down).

Dabbling in writing by Australian women #2

Posted on by

In trying to involve myself in the community component of the Australian Women Writers Challenge (not just the reading and reviewing) I’m doing a semi regular round-up of reviews and other discussion posts that have caught my eye.

Elizabeth Lhuede asked What’s All the Fuss about Geraldine Brooks’ CALEB’S CROSSING, and even though it was one of my favourite books of last year I didn’t take umbrage at Elizabeth’s critique of the book :) (see I can be polite mum). Indeed the post posed some very interesting questions about what makes a book Australian and what things we should expect to see from our Australian writers and what books are deserving of awards for their Australian-ness. I’m still pondering my thoughts on some of these topics.

Jenny Schwartz reviewed NOTORIOUS AUSTRALIAN WOMEN by Kay Saunders and discovered why she prefers autobiographies to biographies. I found this fascinating because I prefer the reverse. I also note that Jenny is a steampunk author so I will pay close attention and maybe I will learn what the term actually means one day.

At The Australian Bookshelf Jayne Fordham bills  SHARP TURN by Marianne Delacourt as Australia’s answer to Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum and is exciting, funny and slightly outrageous.

Meanwhile at Bookstore off Euclid Avenue we’re reminded of one of the classics of Australian fiction, Miles Franklin’s MY BRILLIANT CAREER, the semi-autobiographical tale of a woman whose full name was Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin. In the review the book’s heroine, Sybylla is described as “a cocky teenage girl, all slang and rebellion. She is stubborn, intelligent, and uncompromising”. Given that definition is spot-on I guess it’s not surprising that I can still remember my teachers’ grimaces when I listed Sybylla as my all-time favourite literary character in an essay-writing contest when I was 13 :) The review also reminds us of Franklin’s consummate skill at describing our unique physical environment.

The review of Alice Pung’s memoir UNPOLISHED GEM at a blog called Wallaby has inspired me to add the book to my own wishlist. It deals with Pung’s life as the child of immigrants, straddling the cultures, inheriting the memories of her ancestors.

Meanwhile at Tony’s Reading List I discovered a book called EVERYMAN’S RULES FOR SCIENTIFIC LIVING by Carrie Tiffany which I had never heard of but am now very keen to read. Set in rural Australia of the 1930′s Tony describes it as a book about two people who fall in love, decide to start a farm based on scientific principles but struggle through the Depression and the two cope with their failures differently. Tony says the book isn’t perfect but is compelling and for some reason I really like the sound of it.

It’s not all reviews though, why not check out Tara Moss in conversation with Kerry Greenwood? Two of Australia’s most successful contemporary women writers spend a bit over ten minutes discussing writing, female heroes, being shocked by your own characters and the adaptation of Kerry’s most famous creation, Phryne Fisher, for television.

This is just the tip of the iceberg of reviews and other posts that have been written in the first weeks of the Australian Women Writers challenge 2012; to date 164 reviews are linked at the challenge’s website. It’s not too late for you to join in, or if you can’t do that at least head on over to the challenge website and check out some of the review links. You’re bound to find a recommendation for some great writing by Australian women.

Dabbling in writing by Australian women #1

Posted on by

Because I’ve only signed up for one reading challenge this year I feel I have enough time to check out what other participants are reading and saying about their challenge experience which is something I’ve been pretty slack about in my reading challenges in other years. Part of my reason for diligently checking out as many posts as I can is that I challenged myself to dabble in a few genres for the challenge so I’m actively looking for recommendations for non-fiction plus historical, literary and contemporary fiction that I might like. But I’m also just curious to investigate the breadth of writing by Australian women and I thought I’d occasionally share the posts that interest me most over the course of the year.

One of the challenge’s main champions, Shelleyrae from Book’d Out hosted a visit from contemporary fiction author Lisa Heidke who talked about her horror at seeing her first book cover (which she had no control over). It must so painful for an author to know their work is going to be judged by lots of people based on some aspect that the author has had no say in themselves.

At Whispering Gums I found a review of Francesca Rendle-Short’s BITE YOUR TONGUE, a fictionalised memoir from the daughter of a woman who was an anti-smut campaigner. Starting life so unwillingly absorbed in someone else’s agenda always seems to me to be a tough break and it’s interesting to see how this plays out.

Marg from Adventures of an Intrepid Reader wrote a lengthy review of Anna Funder’s ALL THAT I AM, a historical fiction novel set in Germany in 1930′s as Hitler came to power. The book is one that you see everywhere in book stores here and I must have had it in my hands a half-dozen times but I’ve never walked out of the shop with it, despite the accolades it has received. Marg’s review is not ultra negative but it does take a critical look at the book and I think I’m convinced to try something else instead.

Coleen Kwan assured us all that Jessica Rudd’s CAMPAIGN RUBY isn’t full of political backstabbing and I can’t be the only one who breathed a sigh of relief. For overseas readers Jessica Rudd is the daughter of our most recent ex-prime minister and therefore it was not unreasonable to wonder if the tawdry mess that was his deposing got written into the book but apparently not. Even for a politics junkie like me this would not have been interesting as we all lived through it once :)

Maree from Like the World reviewed Favel Parrett’s PAST THE SHALLOWS which is one of the books I was thinking about when I decided to dabble in genres other than my usual crime fiction for this challenge. It’s literary fiction set in Tasmania and is the story of three brothers who live with their embittered father. The book is by a young Australian woman and everyone was talking about the book last year. Maree has made it very tempting saying “it completely immerses you as family secrets unravel and the boys’ lives are revealed with quiet urgency. This is the kind of book you read in one greedy sitting”

This is just the tip of the iceberg of reviews and other discussion posts that have been written in the first weeks of the Australian Women Writers challenge 2012. It’s not too late for you to join in, or if you can’t do that at least head on over to the challenge website and check out some of the other links. You’re bound to find a recommendation for some great writing by Australian women.

Finally a book-ish podcast to enjoy

Posted on by

I’ve been listening to podcasts for years now but have struggled to find ones I like about books. Sure there are the podcasts of various book-ish radio shows (Australia’s own Book Show and similar offerings from the BBC and NPR) but though I subscribe to these I often delete the shows without listening right through (most of these shows seem to take a fairly dim view of ‘genre readers’).

But two English book bloggers have recently started a podcast called The Readers and  I have enjoyed it very much so far (they’ve aired 10 episodes so far). Gavin from Gav Reads and Simon from Savidge Reads have joined forces to discuss reading and books in all their glory, The Readers podcast has tackled a wide variety of issues including Sherlock Holmes, culling one’s books (where they were helped out by Kim from Reading Matters who has this down to an art form due to her space restrictions) and the ‘is Margaret Atwood a literary author or a speculative fiction author’ debate in an intelligent but conversational style. The guys have eclectic reading tastes which run from literary to sci-fi to crime to just about anything else but their enthusiasm for books in general is the main thing I enjoy about the show.

So, if you like listening to podcasts and you like books I’d recommend The Readers. It’s a weekly(ish) show of about an hour in length and you can subscribe via all the usual methods, Right now there is added incentive to listen in and vote in the International Readers Book Awards for 2011 (I’ve already voted).

Creative Commons Licence
This work by
http://reactionstoreading.com
 is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Audiobook Week: Resources

Posted on by

Jen of Devourer of Books has asked participants to talk about the resources we audiobook lovers have to share as the final discussion topic for this week of celebrating audiobooks. Here are three websites my life would be poorer without and I share a little love for my listening device.

I’ve mentioned audible before and will undoubtedly do so again. They don’t pay me to spruik for them but I love their service. The site has a huge catalogue (around 80,000 titles and growing rapidly as it was 50,000 when I first joined in 2008), the cost is reasonable (my 2-book-per-month membership costs $22.95 US a month versus the $50-$60 it generally costs for a single audiobook on CD), the website is easy to use and the customer service is terrific. One of the things I love most is that when you buy a book from them it is available to you forever from the website so if you change computers or get a new listening device you can simply re-download it. The only thing I don’t like about audible is that I get stung by geographical restrictions but as that’s not audible’s fault I won’t hold it against them.

For those interested in learning about the process of audiobook creation I’d direct you to a relatively new blog called Audio Book Narrators. The blog is hosted by Paul Alan Ruben who is a Grammy award winning producer and director of audio books and his thoughtful posts give real insight into the process of creating great audio books. It’s a low traffic blog but the somewhat rare posts are always worth a read.

I’m always on the lookout for good audiobook reviews and probably the best single source for them these days is a site called Audiobook Jukebox which is a place where all audiobook reviewers can link to their reviews of audiobooks (actually writing this post reminds me I have been forgetting to link to my own reviews of late). You can access reviews by genre and the new site has a helpful list of all the book blogs and other websites that have provided reviews to the site. What a great introduction to fellow audiobook lovers.

The only other thing that’s a must have for audiobook listening is a device. As I mentioned earlier in the week most of my audiobook listening is done while I’m on the move so I never listen at a computer and it’s been many years since I’ve had a portable CD player. I’ve been using an iPod for years and last year switched to the newest nano – a tiny little thing that holds hundreds of hours worth of content, weighs virtually nothing and comes with a convenient clip so I don’t need a bag, or even a pocket to carry it in. To finish the perfect listening experience I ditch the awful Apple headphones (how can they be so great at making devices and so crap at making headphones?) and always use a pair of decent quality in-ear noise cancelling headphones. I’ve had a couple of pairs over the years (they usually last about 3 years unless I drive the car over them) and I’m currently using a set of Sennheiser CX500′s with an inline volume control on the cable. They don’t cancel out all noise (alas) but do get rid of a fair amount of the ambient noise you find on buses, airplanes etc. and they allow you the option of pretending you haven’t heard whatever it is that some commuter/colleague you don’t like/crazy homeless person has said to you while you’re wearing them :)

BBAW Treasure #1 – Favourite Blog Discovered This Year

Posted on by

First up, a confession. I am not the world’s biggest fan of BBAW (that’s Book Bloggers Appreciation Week for the uninitiated). Of course I don’t object to the intention that underpins it which is “to recognize the hard work and contribution of book bloggers to the promotion and preservation of a literate culture actively engaged in discussing books, authors, and a lifestyle of reading”. How could I not support that ideal?

But I do find the intense week of having my google reader account bombarded by 5-10 times the normal number of posts overwhelming. With a couple of hundred book blog subscriptions that’s a lot of extra posts. Last year I read the first couple of days’ worth of posts then hid offline for a week and quietly hit “mark all as read”. I suspect I’ll be doing much the same again this year, and have decided in advance not to feel guilty about it.

Let me be totally clear though I am not calling for the end of BBAW or suggesting that other people’s celebrations of it or participation in it should in any way diminish. If you have the necessary combination of time, energy, persistence and cheerfulness to post daily, visit all the blogs, interview other bloggers, comment madly and sign up for the giveaways I tip my hat to you. Just please don’t be cross with me if I go hide in my offline corner again ’til all the fuss dies down and don’t take it personally if I don’t visit all your BBAW posts this week.

All of that out of the way, I did have a look at the five daily post topics and thought I’d pick out the one that’s most important to me for a single post about BBAW. That’s about all I can manage on the participation front I’m afraid.

Today’s question asks us to highlight a great book blog we’ve discovered this year.

I am highlighting two (yes I know that’s not in the rules) and readers of this blog won’t be surprised to find they are both crime fiction blogs:

The Game’s Afoot is the blog of Jose Ignacio Escribano who lives in Spain and blogs (in English) (he’d have to as I’m woefully monolingual) about his crime fiction finds as well as providing snippets of life in sunny Spain (at least I always assume it is sunny when I am reading a post by Jose Ignacio, this has been particularly enjoyable during the recent deluge we have experienced in my part of the world). He writes great reviews and often teases us about books that have been published in Spanish that those of us who are linguistically challenged might get to read in translation one day.

Yet Another Crime Fiction Blog is hosted by Keishon (pronounced KEY-shon) who lives (I think) in the US and though it has been around since May I only discovered it in the last few weeks but it is already a firm favourite. Keishon seems to have the same attitude to blogging and reading as I do and from what I have seen we also share a similar sense of humour. Keishon writes thoughtful reviews that clearly set out the pros and cons of a book without being nasty or mean in any way (yes I could learn a thing or two about politeness) (but we all know I won’t).

I heartily recommend both of these to everyone, especially crime fiction fans.

Anyway, that’s it for me for BBAW, I do hope everyone gets to participate as much (or as little) as they want to and also remembers to appreciate their favourite book bloggers during the other 51 weeks of the year :)

Audibook Jukebox

Posted on by

If, like me, you like to listen to books you’re probably in the market for reviews specifically about audiobooks. While on the one hand audio books are just a different format and don’t require special reviews, it is always good to be able to access information that is specific to the format (such as the style and competence of the narrator). There is a new resource on the web that delivers audio book reviews in abundance.

Audiobook Jukebox is an ever-growing database of reviews of audio books written by book bloggers reading all manner of genres. The site offers a place for anyone who has published a review of an audio book somewhere online to have that review incorporated into the Audiobook Jukebox database. Readers/Listeners then access the database for reviews of books they’re interested in. You can either search for specific titles, authors or narrators or browse through the sites genre or publisher categories to find reviews of audio books. Of course you can also subscribe to the blog and learn immediately when new reviews have been added to the database

Before you ask, this is not a paid advertisement. The site is the brainchild of two well known book bloggers and audio book experts (Audiobook DJ and Beth Fish Reads) and is quickly turning into one of my favourite online resources that I want everyone to know about.

If you review audio books why not make it a practice to notify Audiobook Jukebox (via the monthly Mr Linky post specifically for the purpose) to help the database grow? I have provided links to most of my audio book reviews (which you can always access via the separate page for audio book reviews on this site) and will be regularly adding links to any new audiobook reviews I write from now on.

If you’re a listener looking for reviews of audio books I suggest you add Audiobook Jukebox to your RSS reader or favourites list so you can check in regularly for new reviews of audio books.

Link of the Week – e-book drinking game

Posted on by

Sick of reading about e-books? Pro or con? Rant or Rave? Here’s a drinking game that might make those articles more palatable (or you’ll soon forget you read them anyway).

I’ve been guilty of a single post on the subject of e-readers but that’s my limit. Promise. You can start your drinking game there if you like though :)

Link of the Week – Mysterious Puzzles

Posted on by

Given the number of times I have hit my head and killed brain cells (I am both clumsy and tall) I figure I need to do all I can to keep my brain active. One of the ways I like to do that is the occasional logic puzzle, crossword or Sudoku. I have recently come across a couple of sites that offer mystery-related puzzles. For free!

  • The editors of Hidden Staircase Mystery Books release a Godoku puzzle each week (like Sudoku but with letters and a mystery-related clue). Go to the Mystery Godoku Puzzle site and print off a puzzle or two (the solutions are there for you too, just in case).
  • Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine makes a mystery-related crossword available on its website though I can’t find an archive so this is a link to the printable (PDF) of the latest puzzle (and if you’re using Google Chrome as your browser you won’t be able to open it for some unfathomable reason but it works fine in IE or Firefox).

Happy puzzle solving to all.

Link of the Week – Australian Book Bloggers Directory

Posted on by

In response to all the blogosphere buzz about Book Expo America Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader has started a new online resource called the Australian Book Bloggers Directory. The purpose of the Directory is to help Australian book bloggers find each other both virtually and, hopefully, at future meetups. Another aim of the site is to enable us to provide a resource for local publishers who may wish to start working with blogs for promotion and other activities.

So, if you’re an Aussie who blogs at least some of the time about books then do register with the Directory, and if you’re not please visit the site and check out some other Australian book blogs.