I saw this book months ago (between lockdowns), and bought it instantly. I hadn’t heard about it. I didn’t know anything about it. It had me at dictionary. And lost words. And when I got home and actually read the blurb, it had me all over again. Here is my review. The Dictionary of Lost Words / Pip Williams (Affirm Press, 2020) Motherless and irrepressibly curious, Esme spends her childhood in the Scriptorium, a garden shed in Oxford where her father and a team of lexicographers are gathering words for the very first Oxford English Dictionary. Esme’s place is beneath the sorting table, unsee ..read more

I seem to have developed a book review theme: books that make me jump up and down in excitement upon arrival. The latest was I Give My Marriage a Year. This time, it’s The Two Lost Mountains. (And, coming soon to a blog near you – this one, obviously – it’ll be The Dictionary of Lost Words.) I digress. Today, it’s all about Matthew Reilly and Jack West Jr. Let’s get started. The Two Lost Mountains / Matthew Reilly (Pan Macmillan Australia, 2020) Against all the odds, Jack West Jr found the Three Secret Cities but at a heartbreaking cost. His beloved daughter Lily, it appeared, was slaughtered ..read more

I jumped up and down when this book arrived. My husband took one look at the cover, arched an eyebrow, and asked, “Should I be worried?” No, he shouldn’t be. I’m planning to give my marriage a lifetime. But a new Holly Wainwright book? Yes, please. So, let’s dive in, shall we? I Give my Marriage a Year / Holly Wainwright (Pan Macmillan Australia, 2020) Lou and Josh have been together for 14 years. They share two kids, a mortgage, careers and plenty of history. Now, after a particularly fraught Christmas, Lou is ready to ask herself: is this marriage worth hanging on to? Every month, Lou sets ..read more

In February, my family reached a milestone. The kind you don’t want to reach. 25 years since my father died. I wrote some words back then, and you can read them all here. Those words included mention of a song I was writing for my dad, one that I was hoping to be able to sing for people other than myself one day. I have finished writing that song, and I have sung (sobbed) my way through it for the most important people in my life. I have spent the past few months practicing it, trying to get through it without sobbing. I get close, but I can’t get all the way through. And any time I try to re ..read more

The number 13. For some, it’s an unlucky number. For others, an ironic take-that-superstition lucky number. For me, it’s neither. But it’s an important one nonetheless. Through no fate or design, the number 13 and its components and multiples pop up in my life everywhere. Birthdays, anniversaries, celebrations. It’s our 13th wedding anniversary today. I’ve been reflecting on the day and the promises my husband and I made to each other at the ripe young ages of 24 and 26. I don’t actually have a copy of our wedding vows. I’m sure that, for the most part, they were representative of our lo ..read more

Today marks 25 years since my dad died. 25 years. As recently as four years ago, I wouldn’t have expected this day to hit me this hard. I knew it would hurt, and that I’d miss him. But, growing up, the big milestones and celebratory days were no more full of memories and pain as every other day. My biggest moments of grief typically popped up from nowhere, when I was least expecting it. Oh, you’re driving to netball training right now? SURPRISE! Here’s a powerful dad memory to kick you right in the gut so you start hyperventilating and have to pull over on the freeway! But the last few years ..read more

Every Father’s Day, my kids get their dad a book about how awesome he is. Sometimes it’s an interactive book, one to which they’ve added photos or drawings. Sometimes it’s a song. Sometimes it’s just a beautiful story, with beautiful illustrations to match. We have an entire shelf dedicated to such books about dad. And one or two books about mum. Until now. I got an early Mother’s Day present from the team at Macmillan. Two, in fact – one for each child to fill in. Three, in fact – because I’ve got a spare one to give away! Do you want an early Mother’s Day present too? Read on! — I Love My Mu ..read more

I read The Librarian of Auschwitz in January. Review spoiler alert: it’s incredible. It floored me. I immediately wrote this review, then immediately thought that it didn’t do justice to the book. So it (immediately) sat here in my drafts folder doing nothing, being (immediately) read by no-one. Which did far less justice to the book. So here, months later, is my non-immediate review for your reading pleasure. Enjoy. (The book. Which you should read. Immediately. Sorry. That’s another spoiler.) — The Librarian of Auschwitz / Antonio Iturbe, translated by Lilit Zekulin Thwaites (Pan M ..read more

Hello! And welcome to a new book review. One I was planning to publish last week, allowing you plenty of time to adjust your Christmas shopping and wish lists accordingly. Oops. Life is a tricky little thing sometimes, isn’t it? Oh well. I’m sure that some of you book lovers are yet to complete your Christmas shopping. Or yet to have lodged your wish lists with Santa Claus. This one’s for you. — The Lost Man / Jane Harper (Macmillan, 2018) The man lay still in the centre of a dusty grave under a monstrous sky. Two brothers meet at the border of their vast cattle properties under the unre ..read more

So, guess what? I’m currently doing a writing course! It’s long overdue; I wish I’d done it a long time ago. But I’m doing it now, and I love it, and it’s great, and I love it, and I wish it would never end, and I love it. I have always worked well to deadlines and prompts. Tell me I have a week to write anything about any topic I want, and I’ll tear my hair out. Tell me I have half an hour to write an article about toothbrushes, and I’ll have it researched, planned, written, edited and submitted to you ten minutes early. It’s no surprise then that I’m loving the in-class writing prompts. I us ..read more