I've Moved!
Brona's Books
by Brona
3y ago
After 11 years of blogging at Blogger and many years recently, agonising about lost comments, it took losing three posts, to help me make the switch. A new year - a new me! Come and find me at my new Wordpress blog - The Reading Life - and feel free to leave a comment ..read more
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The 12 Days of Christmas, or the End!
Brona's Books
by Brona
3y ago
  It all started with a 12 days of Christmas book tag. Although, not really. However, it's as good a place as any to start. The lead up to Christmas is pretty hectic for me. I work right up until the last minute, in the busiest week, in the busiest month of my work year. If we go away to be with our extended families, it also involves lots of planning and food prep...at a time when I am feeling most pressured and exhausted to boot. But, it's what you do. It's not easy to also fit in a couple of scheduled blog posts to come due over the silly season. This year, I managed to organise ..read more
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The Tailor of Gloucester | Beatrix Potter #ALiteraryChristmas
Brona's Books
by Brona
3y ago
  Feeling very grateful, right now, that Tarissa @In the Bookcase is hosting A Literary Christmas this year. It made me search my shelves for something Christmassy that I hadn't read yet. It led me straight into the delightful and utterly charming arms of Beatrix Potter. I confess that I did not read any of the Peter Rabbit stories when I was a child. I had to wait until my early childhood teaching years to discover them. The first time I tried to read one aloud, I stumbled with the phrasing and pacing of Potter's writing. The story has plenty of drama and suspense, but it isn ..read more
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The Salt Path | Raynor Winn #UKNonFiction
Brona's Books
by Brona
3y ago
  It has taken me a while to finish The Salt Path by Raynor Winn, not because I wasn't enjoying it, but simply because it became my walking backpack book. It was the perfect choice. It was a slim paperback (i.e. lightweight). It was about going for a very long walk. It was non-fiction and therefore easy to pick up and put down without needing to remember complicated plot points or narrative arcs. And the gorgeous cover design by Angela Harding was a thing of beauty to savour as a drank my coffee, in my favourite coffee shop. at the end of my walk. The early pages are a tale of woe ..read more
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How We Live Now: Scenes from the Pandemic | Bill Hayes
Brona's Books
by Brona
3y ago
  I had no idea that Bill Hayes was working on another scenes of New York book that would focus on the March-April Covid-19 lockdown of 2020. If I'd known, I may have experienced fewer angsty days of my own, knowing that Bill was going to somehow make it all right! It’s a little like losing your life while still being alive, this experience. How We Live Now is presented in a very similar way to Insomniac City from three years ago. A lovely hardback edition, with black and white photographs scattered throughout. Photographs, or more precisely portraits, that Bill takes of strangers as he ..read more
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The Covid Chronicles #9
Brona's Books
by Brona
3y ago
I cannot believe the last time I sat down to write a Covid Chronicle was back in July. Melbourne was at the beginning of it's second wave, while the rest of the country held it's collective breath. Would the outbreak spread? Would we all have to go into another lockdown? Numbers steadily increased around the three hotspots in Sydney and by August most of the states had closed their borders to each other. Anyone coming or going from one state to the next, would have to self-isolate for two weeks. A very tricky situation for long haul truck drivers, in particular, to manage. Melburnians went in ..read more
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My Life in Books - the 2020 edition
Brona's Books
by Brona
3y ago
Annabookbel has posted her annual My Life in Books meme. It's a fun way to finish the reading year and a nice opportunity to look back over all the books read during 2020. The rules are simple: using only books you have read this year (2020), answer these prompts. Try not to repeat a book title. (Links in the titles will take you to my reviews where they exist.) In high school I was: Some Tame Gazelle People might be surprised by: Life After Truth I will never be: The Parisian My life in lockdown was like: One Hundred Years of Solitude My fantasy job is: Elizabeth ..read more
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Life After Truth | Ceridwen Dovey #AWW
Brona's Books
by Brona
3y ago
  I had the pleasure of hearing Ceridwen Dovey talk about her latest book, Life After Truth at a recent work event (the YouTube recording of the event can be found here). By the time she had finished speaking, I knew this would be my next read. I'm not sure why I've found it so hard to write up my review for this book though. I thoroughly enjoyed it and highly recommend it as a great holiday read. So instead of talking about my journey with the book, I will focus on what I learnt from the author talk, which then informed how I read the story. Ceridwen evoked a lovely reading memor ..read more
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The Living Sea of Waking Dreams | Richard Flanagan #AUSfiction
Brona's Books
by Brona
3y ago
  I know there is a lot of love for The Living Sea in Waking Dreams out there already.  It's not that I didn't love it, or even admire what Flanagan was trying to achieve, but it's not easy to read a book where you feel like you're being smashed over the head, not just with a hammer, but with the biggest, heaviest mallet that Flanagan could find, on every single page, at every single turn. With such a convoluted title, I was expecting more nuance and intellectual word play. Instead I got whack after whack of anger. Flanagan has a lot to be angry about. Last summer was ghastly for ..read more
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Stories & Shout Outs #35
Brona's Books
by Brona
3y ago
  My Week: An ordinary few days as my hayfever symptoms ramp up another notch. Enjoying our mini-wine bottle Advent calendar - a lot! Restacked my TBR piles into a semblance of order and jettisoned a few old ones I will never read now. I Am Reading: The Living Sea of Waking Dreams | Richard Flanagan | 65% done My Love Must Wait | Ernestine Hill | introduction read Dearly | Margaret Atwood | 41% done Throat | Ellen van Neervan | 75% done How We Live Now: Scenes from the Pandemic | Bill Hayes | 34% done The Salt Path | Raynor Winn | 46 % done War and Peace | Leo Tolstoy | 87% done&n ..read more
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