The Natural Way of Things by Charlotte Wood

October 25, 2019 by Christina

Fiction – Kindle edition. Europa Editions, 2016. Originally published 2015. 208 pgs. Purchased. Yolanda and Verla awaken from a drugged sleep to find themselves in an unfamiliar room wearing “stupid Amish clothes” and under guard by two men in boiler suits. Neither woman knows how or why she ended up here; neither woman feels like they can really trust the other enough to ask. Perhaps, after all, they are on a demented version of ‘Survivor’ or ‘Big Brother’ where they […]

Categories: 2019 Reads, Awards and Prizes, Dystopia, Feminism, Fiction, Oceania, Stella Prize • Tags: Charlotte Wood

The Museum of Modern Love by Heather Rose

October 11, 2019 by Christina

Fiction – Kindle edition. Algonquin Books, 2018. Originally published 2016. 256 pgs. Purchased. What is art? How does it encourage people to form connections with others, to express their love towards those in their lives? These are the questions posed by Heather Rose in her fictional exploration of the very real Marina Abramović performance of The Artist is Present at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City. Over 75 days, Abramović sat largely immobile in the MoMA atrium […]

Categories: 2019 Reads, Art, Awards and Prizes, Fiction, New York, North America, Stella Prize, United States • Tags: Heather Rose

Offshore by Madeline Gleeson

June 28, 2018 by Christina

Nonfiction – Kindle edition. NewSouth, 2016. 352 pgs. Purchased. Subtitled “Behind the Wire on Manus and Nauru”, Gleeson’s book examines Australia’s policy of offshore processing for migrants and asylum seekers. Since 2012, Australia has taken the policy that any person who arrives via boat seeking refugee in Australia will be denied the right to settle. The policy is meant to stop risky travel by boat through the Banda and Timor Seas as well as cut into the profits of smugglers […]

Categories: 2018 Reads, Awards and Prizes, Nonfiction, Oceania, Stella Prize • Tags: Madeline Gleeson

The Media and the Massacre by Sonya Voumard

April 6, 2017 by Christina

Nonfiction — Kindle edition. Transit Lounge, 2016. 140 pgs. Purchased. On April 28, 1996, a twenty-eight-year-old from a suburb outside of Hobart, Tasmania murdered two individuals at a guest accommodation site that his father had wanted to purchase. The man then drove to Port Arthur, a tourist site and former convict prison colony, and murdered 33 people and wounded 23 before being captured by police the following day. The Port Arthur massacre was the deadliest mass shooting in Australian history and among the […]

Categories: 2017 Reads, Crime, Nonfiction, Oceania, Stella Prize • Tags: Sonya Voumard