Breathing Just a Little

The next three books up in my Agatha Christie re-reading project are the third books in the Poirot and Miss Marple series, and the second in the Tommy and Tuppence Beresford series. The earliest of these is the Poirot short story collection, published in 1924, followed by the Tommy and Tuppence linked short stories in 1929, with the Miss Marple novel coming more than a decade later in 1942.  With these, two of them were pretty much as I remembered (and I rated them much the same as I would have done 40 years ago), but one of them was waaaay more yikes than I had clocked at the time, to the point of being uncomfortable to read now. This is the first time in the re-read project that I've concluded that yeah, probably not going to go there again. More information below! Next up will be one of Christie's acknowledged masterpieces, the Poirot novel The Murder of Roger Ackroyd; the Marple novel, The Moving Finger; and the 1961 stand-alone novel, The Pale Horse. I am genuinely excited...

I decided to have a tilt this year at the shortlist of Australia's Stella Prize, a literary award for books written by women in any genre. Past Stella shortlists have included some outstanding books that I never would have encountered but for the prize nomination, so it's clearly working as intended to elevate womens' writing. This year's shortlist is: Translations by Jumaana Abdu (Novel) Theory & Practice by Michelle de Kretser (Fictionalised Memoir) Cactus Pear for My Beloved: A Family Story from Gaza by Samah Sabawi (Memoir / Family History) Black Witness: The Power of Indigenous Media by Amy McQuire (Non-Fiction) The Burrow by Melanie Cheng (Novel) Black Convicts: How Slavery Shaped Australia by Santilla Chingaipe (History) I started with Melanie Cheng's novel, because the premise interested me. I'm going to tackle Theory and Practice next, and listen to the audiobook of Cactus Pear for My Beloved. I have also put paperbacks of both Black Witness and Tra...

I have just finished reading Sarah Wynn-Williams' book, Careless People, about her time working with the upper echelons of Facebook (2011-2017). I have more detailed thoughts (see below), but the summary version: it is a very readable and deeply troubling journey through a worsening landscape of dysfunction. I rate it 8.5/10. Caveats : First up, it's Wynn-Williams' memoir, and she paints herself in the best possible light - there isn't much taking accountability for the ways in which she also enabled, and in some cases actively engineered, some of the shadier stuff she talks about.  It's absolutely the case that she was the victim of a lot of truly execrable behaviour and decision-making, but one can be both a victim and a participant in the victimisation of others at the same time. Wynn-Williams was literally in "room where it happens", and her plaint that she thought she could do more good by staying and trying to influence people wears thin once things ...

I've read two extremely good crime / mystery fiction titles in the past week - one is a short story collection, and one is the third book in a great series. I would heartily recommend both, albeit for quite different reasons! Having previously only read Rendell's Inspector Wexford novels, which I enjoyed but didn't consider rave-worthy, I came to this short story collection with a solid respect for her craft as a writer but no very big expectations.  I was delighted to be, on the whole, surprised by the depth, power and complexity of many of these stories. Naturally, not every one is a hit (I've yet to read a collection with no variation in quality), but the best ones are incredible, and will stay with me a long time. Rendell combines mystery / puzzle staples with supernatural elements (in two, arguably three, stories), social commentary including a scathing take on misogyny and its many and various faces (in at least half of them) and psychological thriller-style tensi...

Easter is upon us at the end of the week - for me, it's always the dividing line between "early year" and "mid year". The first school term is done, the first work quarter is passed, and the year is turning, slowly, away from summer and towards the coming cold, but still lingering delightfully in my favourite of all seasons, autumn. Since I returned to work on 20 January, it has been a full and sometimes challenging time, but also plenty of good stuff in it. I've worked, of course, some weeks more than others, and I've travelled interstate for work. Health-wise, I've had the flu (awful); I've been diagnosed with gallbladder disease and have consequently needed to change my diet (annoying); I've had, and have resolved, bursitis in my dominant shoulder (thanks osteo!).  I've read 40 books, albeit 8 of them re-reads on my Agatha Christie project so they probably only count for 0.5 each given how fast I rip through them. I've worried prob...

April has roared in, and with it, autumn weather, comfort foods, and new books to read :-) At the end of the first full week, I've got three in the finished pile; here's my take on them all. (Note: I listened to the Doctor Who collection as an audiobook while cleaning, cooking and driving, otherwise I would definitely not be three down already). Scalzi, for me, is a writer whose work I very much enjoy, but who I think is at his best in novels with one clear protagonist who we follow through the story. This is because his work is, for want of a better phrase, light entertainment - SFF, yes, but usually either comedic or parodic in some way, and not the deliverer of either beautiful prose or heart-clenching truths - and I think that kind of blend needs a followable MC to ground it and give it shape. The reason I rate this book lower than his other recent novel, Starter Villain, is that unlike that book, this one did not have a clear protagonist, moving around between a vast cast ...

Sooooo. We all know about the tariff situation, right, unless we have been living under rocks (which, frankly, doesn't sound unappealing right about now). The Trump administration has imposed a wide swathe of tariffs are variable levels on trading partners both large and small, ranging from what seems to be the baseline (10%) up to much higher levels. Australia has been put on the baseline level, with a 10% across the board tariff imposed. Many people more economically versed than me have written about the tariffs and their possible broad impact on trade, markets and the global economy, so I am not going to try to reinvent that particular dreary wheel. Instead, I wanted to reflect on one significant impact that is already starting in Australia and is likely to get much worse quickly unless this situation is resolved - the absolute fire and destruction it is raining down on Australian superannuation investment. For the non-locals, superannuation is Australia's answer to self-fun...

The next three books up in my Agatha Christie re-reading project are the second books in the Poirot and Miss Marple series, and the first in the Tommy and Tuppence Beresford series. The earliest of these is the Tommy and Tuppence, published in 1922, followed quickly by the Poirot in 1923, with the Miss Marple coming almost a decade later in 1932. There is a very strong stylistic consistency between the two books from the early 20s, which I reflect on in the individual book notes. Next up will be books 3 for Poirot and Miss Marple respectively, and book 2 for Tommy and Tuppence. Given that I fit the re-reading project in around both life commitments and new book reading, it will probably take another 3 weeks for the next batch, even though these are super fast reads (usually they take me under 3 hrs to polish off). The Murder on the Links The second novel to feature Hercule Poirot, this book is very typical of early Christie style and theme. It is narrated by Poirot's "Dr Watso...

Back in January, I wrote a prose poem called 1985, which can be read here . Over the past few weeks, and accelerated by reading a wonderful piece written by a friend reflecting on her formative experiences of the late 1990s, I have been thinking about my own memories and experiences of that time, and I thought it would a good to try a companion piece. In time, I may do one for the very early 2010s, but nothing for any later than 2014 or so, which is about when my optimism for the world finally died beyond hope of revival. As for 2025, well. What could I even say? do you remember, she said, fingers idly moving across the screen of her phone, how it was back then, in 1999, when the century and the milennium were both waning, fading, and everyone was worried (or not worried) about the world ending or all the computers stopping at once or the second coming of whoever they were waiting for, wearing their low-ride jeans and boho shirts and pashminas, and I was 25, back then, in  1999, ne...