Elemental, by Amanda Curtin
Elemental is Amanda Curtin’s second novel and it is a huge work, richly researched and steeped in atmosphere. It takes the reader on a geographical and chronological journey – from the isolated fishing village of Roanhaven on the north-east coast of Scotland at the...
Career Advice: Medicine
Our elder daughter is in Year Twelve, approaching the final half of her last year of school. Consequently, there’s been much discussion about careers and universities around our dinner table. She’s considering Medicine, which is not so strange given both...
Fractured, by Dawn Barker
WARNING: Possible spoiler alert — I’ve tried not to divulge specific detail in this review, but found I couldn’t do it justice without hinting at some of the events. Dr Dawn Barker, who is also a child psychiatrist, has tackled a courageous topic in her debut...
Piano Lessons, by Anna Goldsworthy
I learned piano as a child and gave it up at fourteen, a decision I will regret for the rest of my days. My kids now learn music, all four of them. I’m quite, how should I put it, uncompromising, some say obsessed, about their music. Perhaps it’s because of my...
Whisky Charlie Foxtrot, by Annabel Smith
This is my second book review for the Australian Women Writers Challenge 2013. I recently finished Annabel Smith’s second novel, Whisky Charlie Foxtrot (Fremantle Press 2012). It is the story of two boys, identical twins, Charlie and...
How I learnt there were no lions in Tasmania
I had a few weird beliefs as a child. Some of the stranger ones were: that my grandmother was alive at the same time as Jesus; that the place where I lived constituted the whole world; and that there were about a hundred people in the world and I knew most of...
Medical School Memories
I’ve returned from my whirlwind trip to Tasmania and the Alzheimer’s Australia National Conference filled with nostalgia for the state that was my home for the first thirty-three years of my life: its beautiful people, its undulating countryside, and its lush...
Elsewhere in Success, by Iris Lavell
Okay, I’m late to the party, but I’ve signed up for the Australian Women Writers Challenge for 2013. This challenge is for anyone, as it says on their website, for ‘male, female, reader, writer, teacher, librarian, bookseller, publisher, Australian...
Alzheimers Australia National Conference, Hobart, 14-17 May 2013
Alzheimer’s Australia have invited me to Hobart next week for their national conference. I’ll be sitting on a panel discussing the use of antipsychotics in dementia. I’m excited nervous shitting myself, as it’s way out of my league. Luckily,...
A connection to country…
I read a post the other day by Sue at Whispering Gums about Place in Australian Literature and it got me thinking. I grew up in cold, rugged Tasmania, with hills on every horizon, very few sweeping plains, and very little sunburnt countryside. The Tassie...