Emily Paull

It's been all quiet on the blogging front from me lately, and for the most part I haven't been writing much of anything else either. I usually love this time of year.  I love setting goals, I love smashing those goals out of the park.  But I haven't quite learned when to cut myself some slack and I think that perhaps that's a good place to start with goals for 2016.  Right this moment, even though it's New Year's Eve, it just feels like a regular old Thursday. One of the goals I didn't manage to complete in 2015 was to read 110 books, which was 10 more than the 100 I managed last year.  There are a few excuses I could give, one of which being that I started studying online, on top of continuing to work four days a week.  But at the beginning of December, I was pretty determined that I was going to make it.  I worked out that I needed to read about thirty books in thirty days to make it, which seemed do-able until I realised that one of those books was J...

I'm often reminded how lucky I am to have grown up a reader in a country like Australia, where there are so many writers publishing complex and diverse books particularly for young people.  Some would argue that on the diversity front, we aren't quite there yet, but through important discussions I see happening every day on social media and at conferences in the non-virtual world, I believe that the YA genre will probably be the first to get there.  Far from being navel-gazing stories which would only interest teenagers, novels in the YA genre deal with issues which affect people of all ages, but look at them through the eyes of teen protagonists, who are often observers to difficult situations but don't always get a chance to make their voices heard. Clancy of the Undertow  by Brisbane writer and bookseller Christopher Currie is a shining example of the power of Young Adult literature.  Whilst reading it, I was reminded of many other great YA novels; those of ...

The days are getting longer and the nights are warm and perfect for reading.  In November, I read a lot of different books, a few of which I probably never would have selected for myself if I were left to my own devices.  There were fewer reviews than normal, but I am slowly getting my mojo back in that area of my life.  Writers block may or may not be an actual condition, or it may just be a convenient excuse to not do any work because I'm scared to fail in my current project, but regardless, November was an abysmal month for writing.  Coincidentally it was #Nanowrimo for many writers and to those of you who participated, congratulations to you for giving it a go.  The book I am working on at the moment began its life as a Nanowrimo project in 2009 and it's getting a restructure now. But enough about books written.  Onto books read. The Dressmaker by Rosalie Ham This is the novel on which the Australian film of the same name is based.  It is ...

2015 is not yet over, but there are people out there desperate for good Christmas reading material!  This list comes early to serve that good cause. I read very widely in 2015, trying out some new authors and genres, as well as getting excited to read new books by some of my favourite writers.  This list reflects those pleasant surprises I found along the way, and the omissions from it either reflect disappointments, lapses in memory or a busy schedule that hasn't allowed me to read as many books as I would have liked! Please note that it's too hard to rank these as they're quite different and I love them all for different reasons.  So in no particular order: 1. The Neapolitan Quartet by Elena Ferrante Picking a four book series is not cheating, okay?? 2. In the Quiet by Eliza Henry Jones 3. The Natural Way of Things by Charlotte Wood 4. Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert 5. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr 6. The Lake House b...

Gold Fame Citrus Claire Vaye Watkins Quercus 2015 (I own a copy courtesy the publisher) I have to admit, the first thing that drew me to this book is the amazing cover.  I am such a sucker for a beautiful book. The second thing that drew me in was hearing that the writer is the child of two members of the Manson family.  I don't know why that was enticing though, so don't ask... Claire Vaye Watkins is the award winning writer of short story collection Battleborn , which aside from sharing its name with an album by The Killers I know nothing about... but now that I have read Gold Fame Citrus I will definitely be checking it out.  Gold Fame Citrus is the story of Luz (pronounced Looz as far as I can tell) and Ray, who have stayed behind in California after most of the residents of that state have been evacuated due to vast environmental disaster.  There is a shortage of water, one which has caused a massive 'dune sea' to form, and those who survive out there ...

I read six books during October, and for once I have no excuse for not reaching ten, although the first three books were rather large as you will see in a moment.  After a month of rather dark reading material in September, I decided to start with something light, so I went to my favourite cheer-up author, Marian Keyes.  This month I also got to read a new book from one of my all time favourite writers (Kate Morton), and I read my very first Sarah Waters book.  It won't be my last. Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married by Marian Keyes Funny, cheeky and peopled with interesting sorts, Marian Keyes was the perfect remedy to my dark month of reading in September. The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters In the years between the wars, Frances and her mother are forced to take in paying guests in order to keep their family home.  The couple who move in are from a different class, and their presence introduces a new chaos to Frances's life. Sarah Waters was longlisted for...

Pretty Is Maggie Mitchell Orion 2015 (I own a copy courtesy of my mother's TBR pile... thanks Mummy!) I picked out Pretty Is as a gift for my mother, who is a voracious reader of crime and mystery novels, and has impeccable taste in these types of things... so it can be hard to find new authors for her to enjoy!   Pretty Is has been billeted as perfect for readers who enjoyed The Girl on the Train (which in turn was deemed perfect for fans of Gone Girl) but I think to compare this novel to either of those books, and in fact to compare them to each other is a mistake.  First of all, doing so ignores the fact that all three books are challenging the very genre of the crime/ thriller by questioning the very assumptions that it is built on.   Pretty Is  does this, first of all, by making the action take place more than 15 years after the crime is committed.  The story begins when Lois and Carly May, once victims of a bizarre kidnapping, are brought back toge...

Today I found out that I have been shortlisted for the 2015 John Marsden/ Hachette Australia Prize for Short Fiction in the age category of 18-24 years. It's been hard to keep myself from breaking into bad renditions of the Snoopy Dance all day. I won't say much about the award, but you can read about it here and also see the names of the other young writers who have been shortlisted for their short stories and poetry.  I'm sure they're all as elated as I am. John Marsden is something of a hero of mine, and I remember reading his Tomorrow  series as being a significant moment in my reading history.  Perhaps part of my desire to write even comes from that time in my life.  To be shortlisted in this award is a big deal    and I want to say a heartfelt thanks to all of my friends and family who have been congratulating me and saying nice things about me today.  You all make me feel special.

The Lake House Kate Morton Published October 2015 by Allen and Unwin (I own a copy courtesy of the publisher) It's not a secret that I am a huge Kate Morton fan.  I discovered her many moons ago when I picked up a copy of The Shifting Fog  at my local bookshop based almost solely on how gorgeous its cover was.  The story inside was the perfect mix of mystery and history and magic, and I was soon engrossed in the tale of two sisters and a poet, and the tragedy that linked them all.  I declared myseld an avid fan, and was even lucky enough to get a reply to an email I sent to Kate full of encouraging words for my fledgling writing career.  (Which remains fledgling to this day.)  In 2010 when The Distant Hours was first published, I bought myself a copy of it in hardback because I simply could not wait for the inordinate amount of time it was going to take for the book to come down in format, and later that same month I toddled off to a literary luncheon w...

September was Ferrante month.  I'll try to write a longer post about my love for the writing of Elena Ferrante but I feel that words will probably fail me.  All through this last four weeks, I've been obsessed with her; this enigmatic, reclusive Italian writer who was the greatest novelist I had never heard of.  I read four of her books, out of a total possible seven, and this was no small feat considering that in total I read six books this month. Those books which were not Ferrantes shared things in common with her work, so I guess she was guiding my choices a fair bit; I read a novel set in Russia during the war and a young adult novel in which a young girl has her hands cut off, so they were both fairly bleak.  But it's important to remember that bleak novels can also be some of the most insightful and most life-affirming.  It's through reading about the misfortunes that did and do still take place in the world that we can expand our worldviews, gain persp...

The Natural Way of Things Charlotte Wood Allen and Unwin 2015 Some reviews are incredibly hard to write not because you don't know what to say but because there's too much to say, and the sheer skill of the book itself makes you feel inarticulate by comparison.  This was my experience of The Natural Way of Things , the new novel by Charlotte Wood which will be released at the end of this month.  Don't let the beautiful cover fool you: this is not a happy hop, skip and jump through nature. But more on this cover later!!! The Natural Way of Things  begins when two women wake to find themselves prisoners in an abandoned rural property, guarded by a strange, mismatched trio of guards.  There are a number of other women imprisoned with them, but the points of view from which we enter the story belong to Yolanda and Verla, with Verla's voice in particular being the one that helps the reader make the most sense of what is going on.   Something has made all of...

Double Madness Caroline de Costa Margaret River Press, 2015 My mother, Megan, is an avid reader of crime novels, so when a new one gets sent my way, I defer to her higher knowledge of the genre... here's what she has to say about the new crime novel published this year by local mavericks, Margaret River Press Caroline de Costa’s first crime novel takes place in and around Cairns in Far North Queensland in the aftermath of Yasi, a category five cyclone which made news around the world due to its level of destruction.  Dr Tim Ingram and his wife discover the partially decomposed body of a woman in the aftermath of the cyclone, a woman who was not a cyclone casualty.  A missing husband, an abandoned car, a fortress home where the impeccable garden has not been cleaned up after the cyclone, and a bevy of doctors and specialists associated with the local hospital provide mystery and intrigue.  Local Detective Senior Constable Cass Diamond, recently relocated t...

This month was a busy one-- there's just something about the middle of the year!  I am back studying for another semester (or trimester as they have at Deakin) and this time around I am doing two units instead of one.  Interestingly, this week one of my units is focussing on reviewing!  I still managed to get through a few books in August, and some of them were pretty amazing!  Without any further ado, here are the books I devoured in the last four weeks... My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante There is a lot of buzz around Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan series, which wraps up in September with a fourth instalment.  Ferrante is an Italian literary sensation, and very few people have actually met her or know her true identity.  Notoriously private, she never grants repeat interviews to any publication, choosing to maintain her private life, and allowing people to interpret what they will about her from her books, which seem to be highly autobiographical...

The Bit in Between  by Claire Varley is published by Macmillan (RRP$29.99) A review of this book was published on August 14th. Over to Claire! I buy more books than I can afford and will no doubt end up in the poor house because of it. Online bookstores are my drug of choice and oftentimes books arrive at my door that I have completely forgotten I ordered, thus is the extent of my problem. Every book is special to me – I get upset when people want to borrow books and become anxious they won’t give them back. I share books like a four-year-old only child – begrudgingly and only after being promised sweeties. Because of this addiction, I have taken to calling my bedside table my BOOKside table (chuckles to self). I am aware that it is actually a chair. We repurpose things in this house because I spend all the actual money on books. Also repurposed are the books propping up my bedroom mirror because there’s no more room on the bookshelves and we aren’t going...

Feet to the Stars (and other stories) Susan Midalia UWA Press, 2015 Susan Midalia's third collection of stunning short stories takes its title from a poem by Sylvia Plath-- a poem, which she stressed at the launch of her book, was not about death, but about childhood, and a joyful sense of enjoyment which we seem to lose or forget as we age. Clownlike, happiest on your hands, Feet to the stars, and moonskulled (From 'You're' by Sylvia Plath) This seems to me an apt metaphor for life, and a moment in time so keenly felt it demands to be captured.  In a sense, this is what a short story is, a moment in time or an intense feeling or a fleeting glimpse of a happening.  Midalia's characters range in ages and are from various backgrounds.  They are female, male, gay, straight, happy, sad, confident, confused, heartbroken and bereft, and it is the variety of this chorus of voices which makes this collection a joy to read.  Combined with the writer'...

The Bit in Between Claire Varley Macmillan,  (RRP $29.99) August 2015 'Writing a love story is a lot easier than living one.'  So reads the tag line on the cover of The Bit in Between , a novel that sits somewhere on the spectrum of modern romantic comedies.  Like 2013's phenomenal breakaway bestseller The Rosie Project , The Bit in Between is an insightful exploration of the ups and downs of the modern relationship, and follows two twenty-somethings just trying to find their way.  The writer referred to is Oliver, a Greek-Australian whose first novel was published to critical acclaim but with an ending he felt lacked literary integrity.  After a trip to Greece to visit family and work on his second novel takes a tragi-comic turn, he returns home.  In the airport in Malaysia, he meets Alison, herself returning from a failed romantic experiment in China with a dreamy but self-absorbed poet.  Their meet-cute is anything but; as they wait for the...