Emily Paull

We're back! I am still learning this podcasting thing, so tonight's recording chops around a little bit and the sound quality changes. I'm sorry about that. I am good with words, not with technology, but I am learning more and more with every episode I record.  This month, we were reading The Boat by Nam Le, a classic short story collection from 2008. I was surprised by this book, as it wasn't at all what I expected. I was joined at the Centre for Stories by local writer Yvette Diaz and we had a chat about the book and what we took away from it.  Enjoy!  Remember, you can subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts now-- Just search for The Short Story Book Club Podcast. If you like it, you can leave a review which will help other listeners find us.  

Marlborough Man Alan Carter Fremantle Press, 2017 (I own a copy, courtesy of the publisher) I don't usually read crime novels but I do love to support WA Authors, so when the opportunity arose for me to interview Alan Carter in November, I said yes please and hopped to the task of reading his latest book.  Alan Carter is originally from the UK, but now lives in Western Australia.  He is the author of the three Cato Kwong novels, Prime Cut, Getting Warmer   and Bad Seed  which examine the fictional seedy underbelly of Perth.  Marlborough Man  is described by Carter in his acknowledgements as a 'temporary conscious uncoupling with Cato'-- it follows Sergeant Nick Chester, originally from Sunderland in the UK but now living in the Marlborough Sounds in New Zealand, after an under cover job he did as part of SOCA (Serious Organised Crime Agency, I think...) put him in the cross hairs with a dangerous crime boss.  Nick lives in one of the most be...

The Last Act of Hattie Hoffman  Mindy Mejia Quercus, 2017  I own a copy courtesy of the publisher In a small town in America, a young woman named Hattie Hoffman is found dead in an abandoned barn.  The Sheriff on duty is Del Goodman-- a Vietnam veteran, and a friend of the Hoffman family.  Del is a good cop, but this case is personal, and his sanity may depend on whether or not he can get justice for Hattie. Told in three voices, The Last Act of Hattie Hoffman  is both a murder mystery and a coming of age novel. Hattie is a chameleon.  She changes her personality to fit in with the people around her, becoming whatever they want most.  The perfect daughter.  The devoted best friend.  The star pupil.  (In some other countries, the novel is titled Everything You Want Me to Be .)  She is a seventeen year old girl, bright but a bit of an introvert, except when it comes to acting.  The night of her murder, she has been on ...

We That are Left Lisa Bigelow Allen and Unwin, 2017 I own a copy courtesy of the publisher The sinking of the HMAS Sydney  was a sobering moment in Australian history.  Mystery and rumour surrounded the loss of the vessel and all 600 + souls on board until the mid-2000s when the wreckage was finally located.  In We That Are Left , the struggles of the loved ones left behind by some of those crew members lost in the tragedy are re-imagined. We That Are Left  is the story of two women.  There is Mae, who is looking forward to her naval engineer husband coming home to spend Christmas with his baby daughter when she hears that his ship, the Sydney  is missing.  The other woman, Grace, is a country girl who has come to Melbourne to becoming a reporter, just like her heroine, the movie character Torchy Blane.   She's in the newsroom when the rumour comes down the wire, and watches as the news media are gagged by the Armed Forces, desp...