Lisa Hill

@anzlitlovers.bsky.social

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'Ambassador' for Australian Literature (but reading from everywhere else as well). Not tolerant of tweets about sport.

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10 years ago I learned of the passing of award-winning Australian author Liam Davison. He and his wife Frankie died when Malaysia Airlines MH17 flight was shot down in 2014 over disputed territory in Ukraine. I read his novels in tribute to a fine writer: anzlitlovers.com/2024/07/17/l...

Liam Davison Tribute (1957 – 2014)anzlitlovers.com Ten years ago today I learned of the passing of award-winning Australian author Liam Davison. He and his wife Frankie died when Malaysia Airlines MH17 flight was shot down in 2014 over disputed terri...

In salute to the anniversary of the late Christopher Koch OA (b. 16th July 1932-23 September 2013), I re-read his breakout novel, The Year of Living Dangerously, published to great acclaim in 1978. anzlitlovers.com/2024/07/16/t...

The Year of Living Dangerously (1978), by Christpher Kochanzlitlovers.com In salute to the anniversary of the late Christopher Koch OA (b. 16th July 1932-23 September 2013), I re-read his breakout novel, The Year of Living Dangerously, published to great acclaim in 1978. Wi...

This month’s choice for #AYearofNZLit hosted by @AnzLitlovers & @TessSmithWrites is Leave Before You Go (1998), the debut of novel of New Zealand author Emily Perkins who won the major fiction prize in the 2024 Ockhams for Lioness: anzlitlovers.com/2024/07/13/l...

Leave Before You Go (1998), by Emily Perkinsanzlitlovers.com This month's choice for #AYearofNZLit is Leave Before You Go (1998), the debut of novel of New Zealand author Emily Perkins (b.1970). I haven't been able to source her short story collection Not Her ...

Here's Six in Six, the Australian edition: anzlitlovers.com/2024/07/12/s...

Six in Six 2024 (the Australian edition)anzlitlovers.com #Note to self: I am *not* going to add to the list on memes I do, this is going to be a one-off. Hopewell's Library of Life introduced me to Six in Six, which is hosted by Jo at The Book Jotter. You c...

My thoughts about Melanie Joosten's best-yet novel: Like Fire-hearted Suns: anzlitlovers.com/2024/07/11/l...

Like Fire-hearted Suns (2024), by Melanie Joostenanzlitlovers.com Once again Melbourne artist Sandy Cull has produced a pitch-perfect cover design: Melanie Joosten's third novel Like Fire-hearted Suns features the colours of the women's suffrage movement superimpos...

2024 National Biography Award features (yay! my favourite reading!!) three LitBios! anzlitlovers.com/2024/07/10/2...

2024 National Biography Shortlistanzlitlovers.com Well, now here's a remarkable thing... I always keep an eye on the National Biography Award in case there's a LitBio to take note of, but *drumroll* ...this year's shortlist is a festival of LitBios! ...

Rodney Hall has a new novel coming out soon so it was time to catch up on his Miles Franklin award winning The Grisly Wife from 1993 anzlitlovers.com/2024/07/08/t...

The Grisly Wife (1993, Yandilli Trilogy #2), by Rodney Hallanzlitlovers.com In some ways, The Grisly Wife is a difficult novel to write about, because it's No. #2 of a trilogy that was written in reverse order. As Peter Mathews (who numbers them in order of publication) advis...

It's been a while since I read a Booker winner: Prophet Song by Paul Lynch is harrowing reading. anzlitlovers.com/2024/07/07/p...

Prophet Song (2023), by Paul Lynchanzlitlovers.com Round about the time I started teaching in the library, there was a trickle of children's books on the same theme as Paul Lynch's Prophet Song. There was a conservative government in power, whose cat...

News from the Hazel Rowley Fellowship: Ann-Marie Priest wins Magarey Medal for Biography anzlitlovers.com/2024/07/06/n...

News from the Hazel Rowley Fellowship: Ann-Marie Priest wins Magarey Medal for Biographyanzlitlovers.com This news comes from a press release from the Hazel Rowley Literary Fellowship. Ann-Marie Priest wins Magarey Medal for Biography Huge congratulations to Ann-Marie Priest, our 2017 Fellow, who has won...

For #6Degrees this #NAIDOC2024 I used First Nations fiction to riff on the meaning of the word Kairos — which Google Translate tells me means ‘weather’, ‘the right time’, ‘season’, or ‘opportunity’. anzlitlovers.com/2024/07/06/s...

Six Degrees of Separation: from Kairos to …anzlitlovers.com This month's #6Degrees, hosted by Kate from Books are my Favourite and Best starts with Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck, translated by Michael Hofmann. This week is NAIDOC week, so I thought that I'd use Fi...

Hmm. This Other Eden by Paul Harding anzlitlovers.com/2024/07/05/t...

This Other Eden (2023) by Paul Hardinganzlitlovers.com Chez nous, acknowledgment of July 4th as American Independence Day is usually confined to cooking pumpkin pie or Brownies for dessert when our neighbour who hails from the US joins us for dinner that ...

Are you in the mood for a gentle book that breathes a quiet life? The Village is Quiet by Patrick Hartigan is a gem that almost slipped under my radar. anzlitlovers.com/2024/07/03/t...

The Bell of the World by Gregory Day, published by the ever brilliant @transitlounge2 has been shortlisted for the #MilesFranklin. anzlitlovers.com/2024/07/02/2...

So, in my year of tackling the LitBio TBR, I finally get round to reading Garry Kinnane's biography of George Johnson, author of the much-loved My Brother Jack: anzlitlovers.com/2024/06/30/g...

George Johnston, a Biography, by Garry Kinnaneanzlitlovers.com Once again I've been distracted from reading my assorted LitBios of Eleanor Dark because I have been busy close-reading Garry Kissane's award-winning biography of George Johnston (1912-1970) so that I...

This month's choice for #AYearofNZLit hosted by @anzlitlovers and @TessSmithWrites is The Fox Boy, the story of an abducted child, by Peter Walker anzlitlovers.com/2024/06/29/t...

The Fox Boy (2001) by Peter Walkeranzlitlovers.com This month's choice for #AYearofNZLit is an historical memoir from expat New Zealand author Peter Walker. I came across it over a decade ago when I read on Beattie's (now inactive) Book Blog that Wal...

Laced with dark humour , Onyi Nwabineli explores the the mummyblogger phenomenon from the child's PoV, anzlitlovers.com/2024/06/25/a...

Allow Me to Introduce Myself (2024) by Onyi Nwabinelianzlitlovers.com Allow Me to Introduce Myself is one of those books that has book group questions at the back, but to my mind there are only three questions they'd want to discuss: the first is, do parents have the ri...

Late for #RefugeeWeek Under a Starless Sky, A Family’s Escape from Iran (2008), by Banafsheh Serov, anzlitlovers.com/2024/06/23/u...

Under a Starless Sky, A Family’s Escape from Iran (2008), by Banafsheh Serovanzlitlovers.com Last week was Refugee Week but I was a bit slow to finish the book I'd chosen, so here we are, a little late. These days Iran is always in the news for all the wrong reasons, so it was interesting to ...

Chloé by Katrina Kell is an entertaining and interesting novel which is a welcome homage to one of Melbourne’s best-loved icons anzlitlovers.com/2024/06/21/c...

My review of Love Across Class by Rose Butler & Eve Vincent. I couldn't resist adding the classic Two Ronnies sketch... anzlitlovers.com/2024/06/20/l...

Love Across Class (2024) by Rose Butler and Eve Vincentanzlitlovers.com Anyone who is interested in social justice and equity, is interested in how class manifests itself in different societies, and whether there are opportunities for social mobility. Australia in the ea...

What a pleasure it was to read this deceptively whimsical first novel from the celebrated playwright Finegan Kruckemeyer! The End and Everything That Comes Before It is due for release from @text_publishing in July but you can pre-order now. anzlitlovers.com/2024/06/19/t...

The End and Everything Before It (2024) by Finegan Kruckemeyeranzlitlovers.com What a pleasure it was to read this deceptively whimsical first novel from the celebrated playwright Finegan Kruckemeyer! It begins on a sombre note, as you can see from the book description: Emma wat...

The latest in #AYearofNZLit hosted by @ANZLitLovers and @TessSmithWrites The Desert Knows Her Name by Lia Hills anzlitlovers.com/2024/06/15/t...

The Desert Knows Her Name (2024), by Lia Hillsanzlitlovers.com This is a novel where silence takes centre stage and informs the entire novel. The Desert Knows Her Name is Lia Hills' second novel, coming after The Crying Place (2017) was longlisted for the Miles F...

A Cinderella story where a girl has *agency* — I like it! Water Baby by @Chiomatic reminds us that it's not good enough for one or two people to escape from squalor and poverty, leaving others behind. anzlitlovers.com/2024/06/14/w...

Water Baby (2024) by Chioma Okerekeanzlitlovers.com Born in Nigeria but now resident in London, Lagos and rural France, Chioma Okereke is a performance poet, short story writer, and novelist, and Water Baby is her second novel. Her debut novel, Bitter...

My second Banville for #JohnBanville2024! anzlitlovers.com/2024/06/13/d...

Doctor Copernicus (1976, The Revolutions Trilogy #1), by John Banvilleanzlitlovers.com My copy of John Banville's Doctor Copernicus is a beautiful first American edition, which I bought for the princely sum of $25 back in 2014. I decided to read it for A Year with John Banville co-host...

My not-very-good effort at joining in a meme: anzlitlovers.com/2024/06/12/2...

2024 Reading the Meow, (an attempt at creating) a reading listanzlitlovers.com On the same day, Chris Lovegrove at Calmgrove and Karen from Kaggsy's Bookish Ramblings have alerted me to a meme I haven't encountered before... For Reading the Meow 2024, Chris has reviewed the chil...

My awestruck thoughts about Patrick Holland's thought-provoking new novel Oblivion, published by @transitlounge2 anzlitlovers.com/2024/06/11/o...

Oblivion (2024) by Patrick Hollandanzlitlovers.com My travel experience of Asian mega cities is doing touristy things in just two: multiple stopovers in Singapore, and in 2007, two days in Ho Chi Minh City a.k.a. Saigon (which is what the locals calle...

Manipulative mothers in Colm Toibin's Long Island... anzlitlovers.com/2024/06/10/l...

Long Island (2024) by Colm Tóibínanzlitlovers.com Readers of Colm Tóibín's 2009 novel Brooklyn will remember the Fiorelli family's plans for their five adjacent plots of land on Long Island... In this sequel it turns out to have been a fateful decisi...

2024 WA Premier's Book Award winners + a surprising reveal: anzlitlovers.com/2024/06/09/2...

2024 WA Premier’s Book Awards winners (and a surprising reveal)anzlitlovers.com This is an updated edition of my previous post about the WA Premier's awards. I have highlighted the winners in bold. #BigReveal What I did not know when I wrote the first sentence below was that my f...

Sensational Snippets from Patrick Holland's brilliant new novel Oblivion: anzlitlovers.com/2024/06/08/s...

Sensational Snippets: Oblivion (2024) by Patrick Hollandanzlitlovers.com I am reading Patrick Holland's riveting new novel Oblivion and came to this excerpt that shines a different light on the title. The story is narrated by a man who makes a living out of making deals in...

Spell the Month in Books featuring chocolate (and history): anzlitlovers.com/2024/06/08/s...

Spell the Month in Books June 2024anzlitlovers.com Spell the Month in Books is a linkup hosted on Reviews From the Stacks on the first Saturday of each month, but that's the day for #6Degrees, so here we are, a week later instead. This month, the them...

The 2024 Melbourne Prize is open for entries: