Emily Paull

The Book of Strange New Things Michel Faber Canongate (I own a copy courtesy the publisher) 9781782114079 When reformed drug addict turned priest, Peter Leigh, embarks on a long journey to the new interplanetary colony known as Oasis to serve as a spiritual advisor for the native population, he expects he will be home in a few months.  He leaves behind his wife Beatrice, and his cat, Joshua, and travels via space ship to the USIC base that will serve as his home.  But USIC, a governmental body shrouded in mystery, is far more alien to Peter than his new congregation, and while the Oasans are willing to receive the word of God, Peter's mission grows harder as he learns of the terrible disintegration of life back on Earth. Most alarmingly, his relationship with Beatrice is not faring as well through the separation as he'd hoped. Told from the point of view of Peter, with several "Shoots" (a kind of email) from both Peter and Beatrice, this novel represents an int...

Euphoria Lily King Picador, 2014 (I own a copy courtesy the publisher) 9781473534991 In the deepest part of the rainforest, a lone anthropologist named Andrew Bankson decides that he can no longer go on living, and wades into the Kiona River with his pockets full of rocks.  Moments before he drowns, he is pulled from the river by a native man, who laughs and tells him he had better be careful and clear the rocks out of his pockets before he goes swimming, lest he should accidentally drown.  Thus Bankson is prevented from killing himself, and not long after, he is informed of the arrival of two more European anthropologists.  Desperately lonely, he goes to meet them, and everything changes. Partly inspired by the life of Margaret Mead, Euphoria is a book which uses anthropologists as characters in order not to study a foreign culture, but to study our own.  The book takes place in the 1930s, and in the shadow of the second world war, which seems imminent. ...

I've done it again, left another big stack of books for reviewing next to my workspace, and it's getting so that work in said space is actually becoming difficult.  A lot of these books I read while I was in Residence at the Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers Centre, so if you think I read a lot more than usual this time around (considering this post only actually covers about two weeks of reading) then you would be right! I love this time of year for reading: there's not a lot going on, so long as you've finished your Christmas shopping, and it's too hot to do anything much.  When I get home from work, I like to change into comfy clothes or pyjamas and curl up with a tea and a book.  Last year, my summer read of choice was Eleanor Catton's The Luminaries-- I spent Christmas day reading it in between visitors and meals, and finished it on Boxing Day when I was sent home early from work (due to lack of customers, not due to a hangover, thanks very much.)  This...

My toughest critic was not invited to participate in the Young Writer in Residence program at KSP Writers Centre, and so I left her at home. I tried to remind myself, daily, that I had been selected to be there.  I had been given permission to not do laundry or vacuum or cook nutritious meals, and was really, in fact, expected to be writing for a large portion of the time.  It wasn't all that hard to remember.  Katharine's Place is a hub of writerly enthusiasm, and through reading the guest book, I could see my place in a long literary chain of names I knew and names I didn't... people like Tracy Farr, Alice Pung, PA O'Reilly and Annabel Smith. For the first time, I looked at my novel with properly new eyes.  The pressure was gone.  No, it was not perfect, but it was not awful either, and every new word I put down on the page was a mark of progress and improvement.  The work that I did over the ten days I spent in Greenmount was some of the most i...

It seems like this time of year has come far too quickly, but already people are counting down their favourite books, albums and films of the year!  I've just finished one of my New Year's Resolutions, which was to read 110 books this year- 10 more than I planned to read last year.  It seemed pretty ambitious when I set the goal, but there are still a few weeks of the year left and I am very proud of having made it over the line... When I sat down to look at all the books I read over 2014, one thing struck me about five star books.  There are two kinds.  At the time you finish a book, and you rate it five stars, sometimes it feels like the best book you have ever read, but I wonder if it really deserves five stars if all that impact is gone when you think about it months later? All the books that made my shortlist this year were books which made me want to read more, write better, and left me with a lingering emotion, whether that be joy or anger (at the truth ...

Well, here I am at the Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers Centre in the Perth hills.  I am settled into Aldridge cottage, one of three self contained writing units modelled after Katharine's original studio, which still stands.  I have a large desk, a comfy writing chair, and a kettle; therefore I have everything that I need to write.  And writing I have been. After spending 24 + hours in the unit between yesterday and today, I felt it was time to venture out this afternoon, under the pretext of taking my rubbish out.  I armed myself with a small digital camera, and as the light was beginning to fade around the house, there was something magical about it.  I decided to explore. My work station, complete with Hello Kitty folder. What I can see, most of the day.  It's prettier in real life, I swear.  This is just my inept photography... See?  Told you the view was better!  This is it, later in the day, as I took in the magnific...

If you missed the first part of my research photos (some of which were taken by my mum) you can see it here . It's hard to believe that on the other side of these high, sandy cliffs there is a busy town.  But there is.  At the time these photos were taken, there were three wedding parties trying to take photographs in the middle of the street.  They have to move every time a car came.  In the apartment buildings across the street, a man with long hair was playing his guitar on the balcony.  There was a family of tourists taking photographs just above us, and busy artists studios winding down for the day.  Yet down below the cliffs, there was nothing but the sea and the scrub. Another view of the ball, which is dropped ceremonially at 1pm, a tribute to the old practise used to signal the time to passing navigators. The Bather's Bay (formerly Whaler's Bay) entrance to the Whaler's Tunnels.  Sometimes, if you look in here at night, there ...

Australian Love Stories (Anthology) Inkerman and Blunt, 2014 (I own a copy) 9780987540164 The Australian short story is in a class of its own these days, and there are a number of amazing journals and anthologies which showcase these if you're interested.  From the Sleeper's Almanac to Western Australia's own Westerly, competition is tight and while it can be hard to break into the scene, it's also incredibly gratifying to read what does  make the cut and have the writing take your breath away.  Such is the case with Inkerman and Blunt's recent anthology, Australian Love Stories , which was edited by award winning writer Cate Kennedy, whose collection Like a House on Fire  won the Steele Rudd award in 2012.  The anthology features twenty nine stories (if I have counted right), including four from Western Australia, and has been carefully curated to follow the arc of a romance itself; from attraction through to the hardships that test even the strongest relat...

Historical facade of the Fremantle Municipal Tramways, building now apartments and cafe. View down High Street to the Town Hall.  Note that the historical facades have largely been preserved. The Fremantle Round House is the oldest permanent building in Fremantle.  The design is that of a Panopticon, an idea attributed to Jeremy Bentham.  It was used as a prison for indigenous and colonial prisons up until 1886., when the Fremantle Prison opened, and as a police lock up until 1900, after which it became a residency for the Chief Constable and his family.  In 1936 it became a part of the Fremantle Heritage Trust, when they decided they wanted to make it a tourist location, but these plans were obviously interrupted by the war, and so when my book begins, it was not in use. It sits atop Arthur's Head, and overlooks Bather's Bay, once known as Whaler's Bay.  Today, it is a popular tourist attraction.  In the book I am writing, it is my protagonist...

Zac and Mia AJ Betts Text Publishing (I own a copy) After the phenomenal success of John Green's The Fault in Our Stars , you'd be forgiven for thinking there really was no other way to write about teens with cancer.  But for AJ Betts, writing about the C word is a complicated and often humorous process, where the road to universalising terminally ill young adults is not always about heartbreak and lost love.   Zac and Mia was the winner of the Text Prize, a competition which seeks out new and exciting work in the young adult genre, and has also published books such as The Minnow .  It is a novel which is suitable for younger readers but would also appeal to adults.  It is honest, clever and intelligent writing about a difficult subject, and I would argue a more enduring book than John Green's, despite the fuss. It begins with Zac, who is in hospital to have yet another round of chemo.  He's a veteran of the ward, despite begin only 17, and the younges...

Evergreen Falls Kimberley Freeman Hachette Books 9780733630033  (My copy courtesy the publisher) When I see a book that looks like this one, my heart goes pitter patter.  I know I'm in for a breathless, romantic, historical read.  That, or bitter disappointment.  Thankfully, this time it was the former. Evergreen Falls  is the story of Lauren, a thirty-something year old woman who moves to the Evergreen Falls development site after her older brother Adam loses his battle with a respiratory illness which had him bedridden for the last years of his life. Lauren's life has been put on hold while Adam was unwell (largely thanks to a modern-Mrs Bennett without the social climbing who calls herself Lauren's mother), and so she decides to move to the last place where Adam was happy, the Falls.  It was once the site of a health spa for the rich and famous, and it is being redeveloped by a team of architects for modern living.  Among them is Tomas, t...

South of Darkness John Marsden Macmillan Australia 9781743531563 The pre-teen bookworm in me rejoiced when a copy of John Marsden's first book for adults was pressed into my hands.   South of Darkness  tells the story of Barnaby Fletch, in his own words, as he recounts the experiences of his life: from starving orphan in "Hell", the downtown streets of London, to the convict settlements of New South Wales.  Barnaby's voice is warm, intelligent, and surprisingly literate for someone of his station, although the narrator continually hints at a rise in his position.  A modern take on the Dickensian world, this story is realistic, exciting and thoroughly compelling, and I enjoyed it immensely. It begins with Barnaby telling the reader of his first memories.  His parents are absent and he does not remember them, nor does he know precisely how old he is.  The dirtiest part of London, where he lives, is known to the inhabitants as 'Hell' and here he tea...

I've been a little tardy with my book reviewing this month, and a backlog has begun to accumulate on my desk of books waiting to be written up.  So in the spirit of clearing the desk, I thought I would post them all at once, and do a monthly-catch up! I managed to read seven books this month, which isn't actually a lot for me, but one of those books was Dragonfly in Amber , which is about 1000 pages long so naturally it took a little longer than usual.  These three books I have for review today were all read in the last week of October, and read quite quickly, and oddly enough all have red spines.  What a coincidence! A Place for Us by Harriet Evans A Place for Us is published by Headline books, an imprint of the Hachette book group.  It's about the Winter family, who own quite a large, memorable house in a small English town.  The house is known as Winterfold, which kept making me think of Game of Thrones (There will always be a Stark in Winterfell!)...

Dear Toughest Critic, I know I haven't been meeting your standards lately.  My desk is always messy and I am pretty much relying on caffeinated beverages to stay awake long enough to do any writing.  When I do write, I delete most of what I've done.  I think you want me to say sorry for this.  Or perhaps you think I need to make some excuses.  I have excuses, but I also know that sometimes it is really important to give myself a break. A few weeks ago, I wrote about the process that I use when I am rewriting.  I said that I manage 1000 words every day.  Almost the same day that I posted that, the process I had outlined fell apart in my hands like a soggy biscuit.  Sure, it's worked for me before, so it was natural to assume that it would work for me again.  But I'm reminded of a quote I once saw on another writer's blog: You are not a tap.  You cannot just turn it on and expect something to come out.  There was a point not so lo...

My favourite picture from the book- Dr McKenzie is reunited with his family as the HMAS Fremantle returns AIF and RAAF servicemen from Indonesia in December 1945 (Page 125) (Also, can I just mention that this is my 500th blog post... yippee!  Thanks for all the page views, I wish I had a cake.) On Sunday I was lucky enough to go along to the book launch for  When War Came to Fremantle , a collaborative history in pictures and text by Deborah Gare and Madison Lloyd-Jones.  This book is a gorgeous photographic and social history of the town of Fremantle and its interaction with different world conflicts, and I just know I am going to love toting this with me in my research bag when I go to KSP later in the year. When War Came to Fremantle is $45 dollars, and is published by Fremantle Press.