Time heals all wounds, so people say. Quite who these myopically wise people are is never made clear, but in their pithy, not-quite-fully-formed view of the world, they assure anyone who will listen that given enough time that all the hurt, pain, sadness and grief of life will eventually pass Continue Reading
Books
Book review: Fin & Rye & Fireflies by Harry Cook
It will hardly come as a surprise to anyone that we live in an infamously intolerant world (except of course to the intolerant themselves who simply see themselves as upholding all manner of decency, truth etc etc). If you are an outlier of any kind to the scarily homogenous cisgender Continue Reading
Lost in a sea of beautiful words: My 25 favourite books of 2021
I have always found books to be the most perfect of escapes. When I was a kid and into my teenage years, they helped me to screen out the bullies, who were damn near omnipresent in life and escape to all kinds of magical, wonderful places, and as an adult Continue Reading
Book review: The Annual Migration of Clouds by Premee Mohamed
As the COVID pandemic sweeps across the world again and again and again, it’s all too easy to feel like this is the end of the world. It isn’t, of course, well not yet anyway (and we can only hope that science and the dedication of an expansive cohort of Continue Reading
#Christmas movie review: A Boy Called Christmas
As origin stories go, the one that belongs to Santa Claus is a doozy. Drawn from a host of different European traditions, embellished by one Charles Dickens in the nineteenth century and prettied up with fetching red and a convivial air courtesy of a soda maker in the 20th, Santa Continue Reading
Merry pop culture Christmas to all … and to all a goodnight!
Well, hello and goodbye to 2021, thank you very much! As I sat writing my brief thoughts for 2020 on last year’s Christmas Eve post, I thought we were free and clear of COVID; well, not completely obviously since an outbreak and partial city lockdown in Sydney meant we couldn’t Continue Reading
Hope sustains the season: The Christmas Eve Tree by Delia Huddy (illustrated by Emily Sutton)
Hope is such a powerful thing. Even in the very worst of circumstances, it empowers us to expect, no, believe, that terrible things can get better, that the irredeembale can find positive change and that the dispossessed and alone can find somewhere to belong. Just how transcendentally powerful it can Continue Reading
Book review: A Cross-Country Christmas by Courtney Walsh
Who doesn’t love a second chance? They’re what we live for, crave, want and need, and we endlessly romanticise them in countless ways and by numerous means, hoping against hope that the mistakes of our past can be fixed in some way by wise choices and some grace and forgiveness Continue Reading
On 10th day of Christmas … I read Merry and Bright by Debbie Macomber (book review)
What does Merry Smith want for Christmas? Well, she’ll take time with her gorgeous, close-knit family including quality time baking cookies with her 18-year-old brother Patrick (who has Down syndrome) and looking after Mum Robin who has multiple sclerosis, shopping for delicious treats in amongst the normal weekly grocery shop Continue Reading
Book review: Stringers by Chris Panatier
ARC courtesy Chris Panatier – release date 12 April 2022. Release the dung beetles of imagination my friends! Never heard of them? Well, that won’t be a problem once Chris Panatier is done with you via the mad, manic and hilariously affecting delights of his second novel, Stringers, which spends Continue Reading